These infinite threads Paperback – July 29, 2023

First impression.These Infinite Threads picks up right where This Woven Kingdom left off – With Alizeh falling from the back of a dragon. And the action keeps right on going. The reader is dumped right in the middle of the after affects of betrayal, machinations, and surprise revelations.What kept me reading (or didn’t).I truly, truly hated Cyrus for most of the book, and didn’t want to like him or feel sorry for him, but by the end, just like Alizeh, I couldn’t help it. He stole my heart, or rather broke it.Alizeh grew leaps and bounds when the realization she is NOT alone, and that there are thousands of Jinn looking for and waiting for her. The moment she realized this was powerful, and fortified her in the face of all the revelations about Cyrus. (Curse him! Literally….) At times the strength of her resistance to pressure for Iblees (albeit indirectly) felt unusual, I am glad she resisted.While Kamran – whom I fell even more in love with! – is wading through the devastation left behind by Cyrus’ sudden appearance and subsequent disappearance, also grows hugely as he learns just how sheltered and coddled he was. Frustratingly, he jumps to conclusions – rightfully and understandably so – and those conclusions put him at odds with a powerful and completely surprising ally.There is one character in particular I can’t wait to learn more about – and I hope desperately he gets more page time in the next books: HAZAN!After taste.Twists and turns. Two, maybe three, swoony males, a strong female, and an invisible enemy pulling the strings makes this series a great read. The imagery is grand without being over done, and while the emotions of the characters is, at times, over written, the series is one I will probably read again.Final Thoughts and RecommendationsThis is a fantastically written young adult series I would recommend to middle teens and above. There is some cursing and a few moments of sexual tension, but nothing descriptive. The audio by Kate Reading is fantastic.

I devoured this books quickly. I love Taherehs writing and I absolutely adore Cyrus. I need more of him ASAP please. Despite loving the characters, and her writing, I feel like nothing really happened in this book. I swear it only covered the span of like one or two days max which is wild. Part of that comes from splitting the perspectives. Which part of me thinks we could honestly do without. It’s hard for me to care about Kamran or what happens to him. He gets in my nerves and even he himself seems to realize how flawed he is which is albeit refreshing but only if he improves upon it in the next book. So far he’s annoying naive, easily manipulated, wishy-washy and self-righteous. Despite that I think there’s hope for him. Maybe. I do love the little ragtag crew assembled around him by the end of it. I am very much ready for the next book and hope it gives a little more plot wise other wise I think we’re in for a long series of its only going to move days forward at a time.

Tahereh Mafi is such an incredible author. Her books are always written so poetically, with characters who feel real. I couldn’t put this book down.

Where do I even start? I LOVE Cyrus and have been rooting for him since he first appeared in book one. Absolutely amazing, nothing bad to say about this book, it is the pinnacle of fantasy, and the writing is exquisite. Carve out a few hours before you start this masterpiece.

I'd like to preface this review by saying perhaps I am just not a big fan of this author, and that's okay. I read her Shatter Me series and though I felt it was a little better than okay, I enjoyed it enough to start this series. From the other reviews I've read, Tahereh Mafi fans really enjoyed this book, so if you've enjoyed her work before, I'm sure you'll love this.That being said, it's too wordy. This was my main issue with the first book, and it's been dialed up to 11 it seems. The author has a beautiful prose that's easy to read, but I'm being given a thorough description and explanation of every thought and action taken by our main characters, to the point where this 400+ page book literally only covers the events of one day. That's it.To me, it felt like a filler novel, like the entire story should've been two books, but the author wanted to stretch it to three or more. By the time I got to the last few chapters I started skimming through paragraphs until I found dialog between the characters or actions being taken.I don't know, I just feel like I'm in the minority here since so many other readers loved this book, and again, that's okay. I have nothing bad to say about the author or the story, it's just not for me.There are three main characters, Alizeh, Kamran, and Cyrus. Alizeh and Kamran have no real character development, because again, this entire book only describes one day. It's not a lot of time to see a character grow and change. We do get a glimpse into Cyrus' real personality and feelings, but by the end of this book, I was left with more questions than answers.**LIGHT SPOILER** (I honestly don't even know if this qualifies as a light or heavy spoiler, but I'm being extremely generic here to not reveal details.)The synopsis of this book tells you exactly what's going to happen at the end. About Kamran it reads:"... he must go to Tulan to avenge his grandfather. He can only hope that Alizeh will be waiting for him there—and that she hasn’t yet become the queen of Tulan."That's the whole book. In the course of one day, we follow Kamran as he decides, plans, and then leaves, along with some others, for Tulan. Kamran wants to avenge his grandfather by killing Cyrus. He has mixed feelings about Alizeh. The actual journey and arrival to Tulan, I'm assuming, will be in book three.There is no tease to this synopsis. It summarizes every major plot point, for each main character BTW, not just Kamran.**END OF LIGHT SPOILER**The premise of the series is still interesting to me and I'd like to know how the story ends, but I'm dampening my expectations for the next book since I personally don't enjoy this writing style.

So, I enjoyed this sequel, however, there were a few instances I thought it seemed a bit wordy, like the paragraph could have been summed up in a sentence or two. However, it wasn't enough to take away from the plot.I like that Cyrus is becoming a more complex character. There are definitely times where you question who is an antagonist, besides Iblees of course. And is he truly? Hate the waiting game though, excited to see how this plays out.