Full review can also be found on: Paein and Ms4Tune's Book Blog 
 "For a prisoner can never be a Calipha. 
 But a Calipha is only a prisoner if she chooses to be." 
 - page 309 
 THIS!!!! 
 This is how to write a love triangle and a separation, if indeed you need to write one at all. This is also how to write a love story! 
 I don't want to give too much away, but if you've read a review or two of mine, you'll know how I feel about love triangles and separations and what I think really should happen instead. ( 1.Dislike, 2. Dislike, 2. Stick together and help each other.) While I've recently found myself enjoying such painful series as The Greatcoats by Sebastien De Castell and The Winners' Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski, this is the kind of thing I've been looking for. 
 I think the person who has the least growth within this storyline is perhaps Shahrzad. She was more of a catalyst and it really works. I'm not even annoyed that she sort of spent time hanging around waiting to be rescued. She was in pretty hopeless situations and she's from a culture and a time when women were basically just pretty. She was also, by all accounts a pretty tiny young woman and if she had been able to take down swaths of soldiers it would have been silly. Especially with little training. It's perhaps because of her attitude while waiting around that contributed to my feelings about this. ( see my chosen quote above) 
 Khalid was certainly my favourite character, he goes through so much and yet he doesn't follow in the personality footsteps of his father or his uncle. In believing he doesn't deserve what he has, he deserves it all the more. His reactions in all the situations that could have gone so wrong were so perfect. Tariq grew on me too, when he grew up and faced the truth. The fact that he actually did was a big step and it was only a little too late, but I think that's part of why he changed so much. Some love needs to go to Shari too though, for when she was told of a promise made, she did not sulk about it, but honoured it and that sounds like nothing, but I've read stories where that sort of thing was scorned and pouted about and, though I know it's possible, I just don't understand how people can be that way. 
 Now, I have to admit, as soon as I picked the book up I checked the end, so any curves or shocks didn't really work on me, in fact I didn't really consider them until I was sent a warning! (Which I received after I actually finished reading the book and I logged on to start this review.) Generally I try not to do this, but this series seemed to be shaping up pretty fantastically, so I had to make sure things were going to work well to the end. While the ending may not be to everyone's liking, it's how they got there that I loved the most. 
 Though it has little relation, I've found this series has called to mind the Tricksters series by Tamora Pierce (or as it seems to be on Goodreads "Daughter of the Lioness duology) and I'm not completely sure why. The setting is different, the characters are different, even the setting is different! But I'd recommend those books too. 
 I could have stood for a little more at the end of the story. How was their return received? Were the letters ever sent? Explanations given? What? Also more of Omar and his wife please. Or, just this world in general.... 
 I certainly loved this series and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys - for a want of a better name - oriental romances and fairytale retellings. 
 (Of course The Star-touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi turned up as I was reading this series...But I can't read it right after! They'd be too similar - a discovery I've found while reading high fantasy)