I just wasn’t pulled into the story as much as I felt I should have been. It was also super confusing and I kept reading hoping to get more understanding and I just couldn’t. I also found the main character a bit unlikable and didn’t want to read what I assumed was her slowly falling in love with the Caliph? I was going to keep reading but when I found out it had a sequel I had no interest in dragging on the story. It’s not bad it’s just not my cup of tea. The writing was beautiful though, I might try to read some other books by author.