“…I hope that you will never need this letter…”
Reading this line stabs at Yara’s heart, because the letter was only to be read if something happened to her mother…. Now, alone and in foster care, Yara is going through her mother’s things in their home for the last time. The letter was in her mother’s top drawer. Waiting. Just in case.
But it hardly makes sense. It tells Yara she must make a journey to somewhere she has never heard of – the city of Zehaira. She must say words out loud and then seek out a sorceress called Leyla. Who is Leyla, and how can she possibly be a sorceress? Despite the strange letter, Yara and her mother had been close, and she trusts the last words on those pages. She must go, follow the instructions and find Leyla.
Yara’s mother has helped her become a confident, trusting and brave child, and so she sets off on her quest to find the mysterious Leyla. On the way she meets people both good and bad, sails strange oceans and finds a city full of golden spires and domes. Its ruler committed terrible things thirteen years before in the search for complete control and the desire for gold. Alchemists now have the power over many and the sorcerers are banished or dead.
How will Yara find this elusive Leyla? Why didn’t her mother tell her about Zehaira when she was alive? Yara still has far to travel to find who she needs, with no guarantee they are alive or will know anything about why she is there.
There are fiendish guards to avoid, and magic to be found. With a rescued jinn (genie) at her side, Yara ventures deeper into Zehaira to discover her true destiny and her mother’s reasons for sending her into the Kingdom Over the Sea.
Yara is a likeable character, if not a little stroppy at times. But this grit is required for her quest far from home, without her mother by her side, into a land ruled by fear and control. Magic once ruled here, but now magic only exists far from its true home in the golden spired city of Zehaira. Yara has put all her faith in her dead mother’s instructions but she is by no means convinced she is doing the right thing.
Her character development is engaging as she becomes not only her own saviour but a force to be reckoned with in order to save her new friends and their lands. Being different is a common trope in books, and the magical folk of Zehaira have been banished from normal life. Their fight to be recognised and be allowed to return to normal Zehaira society is an entertaining, and very dangerous one.
There is a sequel in the making and I am definitely keen to follow Yara’s adventures further.
An enjoyable read of spells, poetry, magic carpets, new friendships and finding and being allowed to be your true self.
Author – Zohra Nabi
Illustrator – Tom Clohosy Cole
Age – 8+
(2023, Simon & Schuster, Magical land, Magic, Kingdom, Alchemists, Greed, Danger, Dungeons, Sorceress, Sorcerers, Hiding in plain sight, Friendships, Poetry, Spells, Jinn, Genie, Being yourself, Finding home, Series, Identity, Truth, Control, Poison, Trust, Flying Carpet, Murder, Fantasy, Courage, Mystery, Growing up, Adventure, Kingdom)