Laia is a Scholar and Elias is a Martial. Long time ago, the Scholars fell under the Martial's power and empire. Now they're slaves, their life always on the edge of death, the future is a promise of darkness. 
 But soon, Laila's life is completely changed by the arrival of a Mask and some dangerous decision of her brother. That's how her and Elias' paths will meet eachother. 
 First of all, I want to talk about the worldbuilding. Tahir's world was really fascinating and beatiful. The atmosphere is really desertic and refelcts Laila and Elias' type and style of life: harsh and bloody. 
 What really needed of a bigger explenation are the parts that concern the magic creatures - jin, wraiths, efrith... 
 The roman empire's inspirations are really interesting and concer the figure of the Augurs, of the Martial with a part of their militar sistem, names and families... even if it's clear that Tahir doens't really know the roman empire background or that she just choosed some basic facts and arrenged them in the way she thinked was the best for her story and book. 
 So, what I think is that calling this book as inspired by the roman empire is partially wrong, since there also a lot of arabic like - not entiraly sure about that, but they are definitely not roman -mythic creatures. 
 Now, even I don't usually ship characters, I can say that I'm a great fan of Laila-Elias pairing insted of Kenaan- Laila and Helene- Elias. 
 First of all, Kenaan isn't exactly what I would call as an helping hand to Laila, especially when it comes to her borther and her almost newborn dream of a better life, a better chance for the Scholars. 
 Helene... I really loved her at first, but in the end I kinda hated her. Everytime, she blame men for the way the act around female. She's against rape, prostitution and other things that can arm a woman... but she didn't give a damn fuck when Laila is almost killed, raped and everything else. She actually doesn't do something to stop what she hates! And if she does something good, she does it for Elias and not for something that she fells from the bottom of her heart. 
 That's way I don't think that her and Elias are a real good match. Helene doesn't dream of something better, since she is blind by the Martial's empire. 
 It's only with Laila, that Elias has a possibility to see and create a better future. 
 Few and last things about the characters. Laila was really stupid for the major part of the book. Everytime she has the occasion to find important information for the Resistance, she just drop it, like: omg, there's nobody here but I have to act like a sheep and run away for the terribile nothing.. 
 Her major fear is the Commandt... she isn't the big terrible villian that I excpected. Well, she's a sadic, whith a past full of shadows but there's more to see. 
 This book was a bit rushed and at the same time is like a big introduction for a larger story with a lot to shows. 
 Actually, I don't understand why people are so crazy over this book. After reading it, I felt normal - even if it surerely gave me a big impression - and I read better books. Anyway, I will read the sequel because I'm really curious about what will come next. I'm quite sad that Tahir didn't give the bookish chill that I was waiting for.