The Jasmine Throne

On the positive side, there is some great world-building, taking inspiration for a non-typical (in my experience) culture.

On the negative side, at several points while listening to the audiobook I would get distracted by some external event only to realise, upon returning my attention to the book, that I had missed nothing; I had no need to rewind. There were large swathes of this book that appeared to be there simply to fill the space between largely predictable events. Also, I did not buy the relationship between the two main characters in the slightest; they both seemed to have their own motives and used each other as necessary. At no point did there appear to any basis for their love (other than maybe in a Stockholm Syndrome sense).

This is obviously setup as a prequel, but unfortunately I have no interest to see what happens next.

So, a 3 start review for an ultimately meh book, with maybe an additional half a star for the world building.