Daughter of the Salt King

Written by A. S. Thornton

Narrated by Vaneh Assadourian

As a daughter of the Salt King, Emel ought to be among the most powerful women in the desert. Instead, she and her sisters have less freedom than even her father's slaves ... for the Salt King uses his own daughters to seduce visiting noblemen into becoming powerful allies by marriage.

Escape from her father’s court seems impossible, and Emel dreams of a life where she can choose her fate. When members of a secret rebellion attack, Emel stumbles upon an alluring escape route: her father’s best-kept secret—a wish-granting jinni, Saalim.

But in the land of the Salt King, wishes are never what they seem. Saalim’s magic is volatile. Emel could lose everything with a wish for her freedom as the rebellion intensifies around her. She soon finds herself playing a dangerous game that pits dreams against responsibility and love against the promise of freedom. As she finds herself drawn to the jinni for more than his magic, captivated by both him and the world he shows her outside her desert village, she has to decide if freedom is worth the loss of her family, her home and Saalim, the only man she’s ever loved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CamCat Publishing
• Release date: Feb 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9780744300512

Reviews for Daughter of the Salt King

[ayoshina-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[allison_krajewski-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.