We Free the Stars

Sands of Arawiya, Book 2

By: Hafsah Faizal

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Steve West

The second audiobook in the Sands of Arawiya duology by the masterful Hafsah Faizal - the follow-up to the smash New York Times best-selling novel We Hunt the Flame.

Darkness surged in his veins. Power bled from her bones.

The battle on Sharr is over. The Arz has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep, determined to finish the plan Altair set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, finally bringing magic to all of Arawiya. But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return.

As the zumra plots to overthrow Arawiya’s darkest threat, Nasir fights to command the magic in his blood. He must learn to hone his power, to wield it against not only the Lion but his father as well, trapped under the Lion’s control. Zafira battles a very different darkness festering in her through her bond with the Jawarat - it hums with voices, pushing her to the brink of sanity and to the edge of a chaos she dares not unleash. In spite of everything, Zafira and Nasir find themselves falling into a love they can’t stand to lose.... But time is running out, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made.

Lush and striking, hopeful and devastating, We Free the Stars is the masterful conclusion to the Sands of Arawiya duology by New York Times best-selling author Hafsah Faizal.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

©2020 Hafsah Faizal (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Absolutely wonderful

I loved both books, the story is great, world building stupendous. Strong female leads and strong male leads. I really enjoyed it

wish there were more. even better than the first.

i loved the narrators so much. some folks said they mispronounced the arabic, which is unfortunate, but they did a good job nonetheless, zafira's narrator, especially has such a calming and emotive voice.

the story slows down very nicely, giving plenty of time to enjoy the characterization and relationships. some may not like that, but i love when an author allows the characters to just be together. i enjoyed the first book, but i loved this one even more.

i'll miss the characters and story terribly! i'm sorry the book ended . . .

Don’t Skip This Book!

Oh my gosh. The second was even better than the first. Faizal writes so beautifully. The world building was just enough, the relationships were so deep and complex, and each character was so vivid. A true enemies to lovers with an incredible redemption arc, strong female leads, and a trope or two. ❤️ I can’t say enough good things about it!

I loved these books!

I loved this one even more than the first one I just wish there was another one.

Strong ending to wonderful duology

The Lion of the Night has the Jarawat and a heart from the Sisters of Old. He also has Altair, and Nasir will not leave his brother in the hands of a monster. But Zafira is bound to the Jarawat, and she’s hearing whispers that could corrupt her pure heart, and the four other hearts are dying outside of their assigned designations. All Zafira wants, however, is to go home. She’s completed her quest. She went to Sharr and retrieved the Jarawat, but magic hasn’t been returned to Arawiya--her true quest. She must put the four hearts in their towers, then find the Lion and retrieve the fifth--and rescue Altair. Meanwhile, Altair is imprisoned by his own father, kept chained and shackled while the Lion uses him to gain magic. He waits for his zumra, his family, to come to his rescue, but he’s never one to lay idle, so he begins his own plan of earning the Lion’s trust. They may have hunted the flame in Sharr, but the stars are still held captive. Zafira’s, Nasir’s, and Altair’s work is far from done.

Zafira wrestling with the Jarawat was quite interesting; she is constantly trying to separate herself from the chaos of the book and hold onto her pure heart. Nasir is trying to distance himself from the monster his father had been, while trying to hold onto the hope that he could save his father, while Altair struggles to hope that his brother will save him. There’s a lot of struggling in this book, basically. And one almost death that happens halfway through that is a bit of a tell as to they’re not being really dead. There was one death that had a large fanfare, and that was Misk’s death, which I thought was strange. He was barely a character in book 1, and really only had a few lines in book 2, essentially serving as the thing that started the rift between Yazmine and Zafira. Then, he and Yazmine fight and make up just in time to die, and half the chapter is dedicated to it, and I just… Didn’t care. Especially since Kifah kept hinting that Yazmine and Altair should be a thing, so it felt like Misk needed to be swept aside to make way for THAT pairing. His death felt manipulative, basically, and I just didn’t care. But it was otherwise a very good end to a wonderful duology.

Thrilling and descriptive

The performance is good and the story is great. I love the way Hafah Faizal describes this thrilling adventure full of twists and turns and the way she describes the setting in perfect detail. For those who haven’t heard this book, BUY IT NOW. You’ll never regret it. At least, I didn’t.

Soooo good!!

This was a fantastic sequel. It really rounded out the character development and the plot, with still a few more plot twists. I loved it!

Swept me away. Twice.

I would be fine to read and listen to a thousand sagas of Arawiya. If only Hafsah would write them. And these two voices read them. Thank you so much for your art, Hafsah. Thank you so much for your beautiful world, your characters’ lives, and your well written lessons on how to live and feel.

YA as expected

could have done with some editing but it fits the genre without too many surprises

Great Sequel

A really good sequel to the first book. At first I wasn't sure about the romance, but I came to like it in this book. The characters a fleshed out more in this one, and I like seeing how their relationships grow.
The voice actors do well, but I would've liked ones that could speak the language. Sometimes it's hard to tell which character is speaking because the voice either doesn't change enough or because the actor uses the same voice for multiple characters. Overall they do well.