A review by jazzeeazz
The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

one thing that frustrated me was that i could tell that the romance between ali and nahri was going to be pushed. i could tell the first chapter, whereas it was more ambiguous in kingdom of copper. that romance just really didn’t feel impactful and i think it actually lessened the impact of other relationships. there were so many other relationships to be explored. it never made sense why jamshid disliked ali, or how muntadhir acted to ali in kingdom of copper (especially after reading river of silver). ali and nahri were fascinating because despite being so different they were forced into similar positions and their friendship was natural, but as romance was pushed onto that it just made other characters lose impact. dara’s ending was dulled by that romance, as was muntadhir’s relationships with nahri and his brother. jamshid had so much more to give to the story yet his weird and unfounded hostility towards ali replaced any interesting facet of his character.