I didn’t hate ‘Daughter of the Salt King’ but the love was not completely there.

The author could have easily cut this down to 300 pages. There were many scenes that were redundant and it only allowed the story to drag on. Page by page, I keep wondering, "Okay, soooo was something supposed to happen by now? Where is the excitement? Where is the built up for an epic conclusion?" Sadly, nothing really significant happened besides the fairly decent world building.

It was a fine read and a promising start for this debut author don’t get me wrong but was I the only one that felt like this was missing something? That certain flare to make this a knockout? I can't put it into words, but that spark wasn't there. I had enjoyed this for the most part though 2/4 through the excitement I once had started to fizzle—I wasn't completely wow'd. I wish the author included an unexpected twist or turn to help fully engross me. The plot was thin to say the least and there was no character development (I am looking at you Emel!). I don’t know... I just felt stuck and in my opinion, a whole lot of nothing was happening.

Now with the romantic aspect of this fantasy novel—I didn’t buy into it. The (instant) romance and chemistry between Emel and Saalim was meh. I just didn’t see the connection between them at all and honestly, I probably would have liked them better if their relationship was more platonic. They were boring. My goodness they were boring. Firoz (and his boo Rashid) and Sabra were far more interesting, and they were the side characters.

When all's said and done, was I impressed with this read? No. I thought there would be more action, more adventure, more growth with the characters (especially with the main) but it didn't entirely work for me. The premise was there and unfortunately, it was not fully executed by the author.

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I received an ARC of this book to read through Edelweiss+. All opinions are my own. Daughter of the Salt King by A.S. Thornton is the first book in an exciting new fantasy series Salt Chasers. The daughters of the Salt King are kept in isolation, only allowed out of their tents when their father wishes them to seduce visiting noblemen into marriage to create strong alliances. Emel wishes for more than this caged existence, and she bribes the guards to allow her to spend time in the village, where she seeks out travelling caravans to learn their stories and find out more about the world. She yearns for freedom, to be able to explore the world, and when she discovers that her father's wealth and strength comes from a Jinni named Saalim, that becomes a possibility if only she can choose the right wish because wishes, of course, come with consequences. I enjoyed this story very much, watching the relationship between Emel and Saalim develop and can’t wait to read the next book in this series. Steam Level: Medium Publishing Date: February 2, 2021 #DaughterOfTheSaltKing #ASThorntion #FantasySeries #RomanticFantasy #CamCatBooks #FantasyNovel #bookstagram #bookstagramer ( )

The theme of the review is: "I really liked this book, but I wanted more from the world that the author, A. S. Thornton, created."

There were a lot of things I liked about this book:

-I liked the world in which the story was set. The setting in the desert! The magic and the jinni! The slight hints at mythology of the world!
-I liked the relationship between Emel and Saalim.
-I liked Emel's character. She was spirited and learned to be independent; she loved her sisters, even if she didn't get along with all of them; and she tried to be herself, despite all of the times she was beaten down by her father, the Salt King, and society as a whole.
-Not a spoiler, but I liked the ending. It was open-ended but also concluded enough. I see that this book is now part of a series called Salt Chasers, so I'm hoping the author writes a sequel so we can learn more about these characters! I definitely look forward to reading more about this world.

However, I wanted more:

-The plot, world-building, and characters were all interesting, but ultimately felt a little flat. The characters, too, I wanted more from. I wanted more tension between Emel and Saalim. I wanted more about the relationship between Emel and her sisters, Emel and her mother; I wanted more about the world and why it was how it was; I wanted more about the textures of the clothing they wore, more about the servants, more about a lot of things. Everything felt too *linear*, with hardly any side stories or intricacy. The plot itself held a little bit of tension, and I honestly did not know what was going to happen from one page to the next, which is good, but I also felt that there weren't enough snippets dropped throughout to hint at any grand reveal, which made it feel not too much like any sort of climax.

If I had to say the one thing I didn't like this book, it was that it felt that, despite Emel being the main protagonist, the men in her life drove the action. Though it's a weak criticism, because in the world A.S. Thornton created, the men are the ones in power. It was still hard to see Emel look at her worth through the eyes of her father, through Omar, and the other men in her life, rather than through the eyes of Firoz, Aashiq, and Saalim. It almost felt like "only through men did I realize my value as a woman" -- both the bad and good.

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and CamCam Books for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )