This is a rather interesting historical fiction book that I came to like recently. Because of my exams screwing up my schedule and my laziness in general, I read this book a lot more slowly than other ones. In some ways that helped and in certain ways it didn't.
I think it is an interesting idea to write a story about the issues going on in the world today, rather than about something that happened a hundred years ago. I feel that it made this book seem a lot more real because we have experience and knowledge about these events and they are in our recent history. It could be related to by many people and it showed how hard things are in places of unrest.
The cover-
Laila grew up believing she was a princess. Her father was a king, her mother a queen and her brother a prince. And that was how it seemed until the day her father was shot and killed in a riot and her family was forced to flee their country and hide in the United States where they could stay until it was safe to return.
Watching her family in this unfamiliar situation, Laila is horrified by the sudden changes her mother and younger brother go through. Their mother starts working for a shady man who promises that they can help her and has cast off all ties to her life back in the Middle East. The only thing that Laila can do is let go too and make the best of their unfortunate situation. But not if there is something for her to learn out of all of this and make sense of the lies that she had been fed for so long.
My thoughts-
As I was reading this book, I was constantly thinking about the types of stories I have heard on the news regarding the issues in the Middle East. This book is kind of a deeper insight into the things that we hear about and about what is actually going on.
I really found it interesting the way the book was opened. It kind of began the way an old fairy tale would. Laila's father was a king. As was his father and his father and his father. Her mother was a queen. Her brother was a prince and when their father died, he would assume the throne. And this made her a princess. But her life was far from a fairytale. It was a nightmare.
This book has a very dark and serious feeling to it, but there was some comedy to give a break from constantly reading about the horrible things that Laila's family was going through, especially their mother. That was the job of Ian, a reporter for the school newspaper who has a habit of following Laila around and bothering her. I will give away a spoiler that she does fall in love with him, but it is a little limited.
The way Laila acts around him constantly makes me think of fanfictions that I've read for various series where the female love interest just cannot get their act together because they're so confused about what they feel for the male character. That's basically what Laila goes through. One minute she can't let go of Ian and the next she's running away from him every time he approaches her. She knows she wants to love him, but there are certain things that she has to sort out first.
There could've been a possible love triangle with this boy named Amir who is from Laila's home country, but never met her until she came to the United States. She meets him because he lives with the man that her mother is working for. He makes her understand about the truth of her father's regime. He is a man who ruled many others through fear and threats. In fact, in the middle of the school day, Amir's school was bombed. Many of his friends died that day and his sister suffered horrible aftereffects of the poison gas and being stuck in the ruins for so long.
I originally wanted there to be a sort of love triangle between Laila, Ian and Amir, but once I got to the halfway point of the book where it started to make sense why Laila was so drawn to Amir, I realized that it was not a good idea. This book is not a love book to begin with. It is politics from the eyes of a teenager. Laila needed Amir to give her the answers to the questions she had never asked anyone and tell her everything that was hidden from her when she was in her home country. After all, his cold and unforgiving nature will not allow him to love anyone, at least the way the story goes.
This book was a real eye opener for me and I think I now have a much better understanding of the things going on in the Middle East after reading this book. I really do hope that there is a sequel to this book where everything is settled and Laila can go back to her home country. But then again one of the things that Laila repeats over and over throughout the course of the book is that life is not a fairy tale. There is no magical spell that can suddenly make everything better. Happily ever after does not exist in the real world and there is no way to make it exist.
((This review has been pending since the end of June. I for some reason just had no energy to do it until today. I recently bought a book that I am very excited to read! I love big cats, tigers in particular, so I decided to read The Adventures of Jim Corbett- Man Eating Tigers of Kumaon. Jim Corbett was a British hunter who spent many years in India and tells his experiences with tigers. Looks like my (second) non-fiction review! Happy Reading!))
I think it is an interesting idea to write a story about the issues going on in the world today, rather than about something that happened a hundred years ago. I feel that it made this book seem a lot more real because we have experience and knowledge about these events and they are in our recent history. It could be related to by many people and it showed how hard things are in places of unrest.
The cover-
Laila grew up believing she was a princess. Her father was a king, her mother a queen and her brother a prince. And that was how it seemed until the day her father was shot and killed in a riot and her family was forced to flee their country and hide in the United States where they could stay until it was safe to return.
Watching her family in this unfamiliar situation, Laila is horrified by the sudden changes her mother and younger brother go through. Their mother starts working for a shady man who promises that they can help her and has cast off all ties to her life back in the Middle East. The only thing that Laila can do is let go too and make the best of their unfortunate situation. But not if there is something for her to learn out of all of this and make sense of the lies that she had been fed for so long.
My thoughts-
As I was reading this book, I was constantly thinking about the types of stories I have heard on the news regarding the issues in the Middle East. This book is kind of a deeper insight into the things that we hear about and about what is actually going on.
I really found it interesting the way the book was opened. It kind of began the way an old fairy tale would. Laila's father was a king. As was his father and his father and his father. Her mother was a queen. Her brother was a prince and when their father died, he would assume the throne. And this made her a princess. But her life was far from a fairytale. It was a nightmare.
This book has a very dark and serious feeling to it, but there was some comedy to give a break from constantly reading about the horrible things that Laila's family was going through, especially their mother. That was the job of Ian, a reporter for the school newspaper who has a habit of following Laila around and bothering her. I will give away a spoiler that she does fall in love with him, but it is a little limited.
The way Laila acts around him constantly makes me think of fanfictions that I've read for various series where the female love interest just cannot get their act together because they're so confused about what they feel for the male character. That's basically what Laila goes through. One minute she can't let go of Ian and the next she's running away from him every time he approaches her. She knows she wants to love him, but there are certain things that she has to sort out first.
There could've been a possible love triangle with this boy named Amir who is from Laila's home country, but never met her until she came to the United States. She meets him because he lives with the man that her mother is working for. He makes her understand about the truth of her father's regime. He is a man who ruled many others through fear and threats. In fact, in the middle of the school day, Amir's school was bombed. Many of his friends died that day and his sister suffered horrible aftereffects of the poison gas and being stuck in the ruins for so long.
I originally wanted there to be a sort of love triangle between Laila, Ian and Amir, but once I got to the halfway point of the book where it started to make sense why Laila was so drawn to Amir, I realized that it was not a good idea. This book is not a love book to begin with. It is politics from the eyes of a teenager. Laila needed Amir to give her the answers to the questions she had never asked anyone and tell her everything that was hidden from her when she was in her home country. After all, his cold and unforgiving nature will not allow him to love anyone, at least the way the story goes.
This book was a real eye opener for me and I think I now have a much better understanding of the things going on in the Middle East after reading this book. I really do hope that there is a sequel to this book where everything is settled and Laila can go back to her home country. But then again one of the things that Laila repeats over and over throughout the course of the book is that life is not a fairy tale. There is no magical spell that can suddenly make everything better. Happily ever after does not exist in the real world and there is no way to make it exist.
((This review has been pending since the end of June. I for some reason just had no energy to do it until today. I recently bought a book that I am very excited to read! I love big cats, tigers in particular, so I decided to read The Adventures of Jim Corbett- Man Eating Tigers of Kumaon. Jim Corbett was a British hunter who spent many years in India and tells his experiences with tigers. Looks like my (second) non-fiction review! Happy Reading!))
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