Becoming Jinn: By Lori Goldstein

BECOMING JINN

SUMMARY

Azra has just turned sixteen, and overnight her body lengthens, her olive skin deepens, and her eyes glisten gold thanks to the brand-new silver bangle that locks around her wrist. As she always knew it would, her Jinn ancestry brings not just magical powers but the reality of a life of servitude, as her wish granting is controlled by a remote ruling class of Jinn known as the Afrit.

To the humans she lives among, she's just the girl working at the snack bar at the beach, navigating the fryer and her first crush. But behind closed doors, she's learning how to harness her powers and fulfill the obligations of her destiny. Mentored by her mother and her Zar "sisters,"

Azra discovers she may not be quite like the rest of her circle of female Jinn . . . and that her powers could endanger them all.

REVIEW

First off, the premise of Becoming Jinn is quite fascinating. The lives and tribulations of a jinn. The world of the jinn is incredibly fractured, with the males living in a different plane and the females and their daughters living on earth to grant wishes and fulfill their obligations to maintain their powers. 

The mysteries surrounding this background turmoil as well as the secrets that Azra's mother has kept/continues to keep from Azra unfold throughout the book leading readers to a number of shocking reveals.

That said, while I liked Becoming Jinn but I don't know if the copy I was reading was defective but the ending just did not add up. It felt more like the end of a chapter as opposed to the end of a book, and it leaves readers waiting for the other shoe to drop. Unlike other authors who use cliffhangers to elicit further interest in a series, (Rachel Caine comes to mind) when she utilizes a cliffhanger much of the book's conflict has been resolved that remains is the lead up to the next book or the larger story arc. And while you could claim that this was a build up to the larger story arc, it felt like readers had just discovered what was happening and did not have time to process it before the story ends. It was as if it the tension build and builds and then there is no release.

All in all, readers will enjoy the magic, the romantic intrigue/triangle between Azra and Nate and Henry, and many of the characters (I personally didn't love many of the Zar sisters but I think tat was primarily because they were relatively two dimensional), readers will also be a little disappointed with the ending. That said with the problem with the ending being that things were not resolved that obviously means I was engaged in the story overall for that to bother me. Taking that into account I enjoyed Becoming Jinn and will give the next book in the series a shot and hopefully it continues right where the last book left off, giving readers the thematic release they are waiting for.

INFO

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Published: April 21, 2015

Price: $17.99

Link to Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Jinn-Lori-Goldstein-ebook/dp/B00SEO83WQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432791456&sr=1-1&keywords=becoming+jinn