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The Fire Wish: Jinni Wars    by Amber Lough Amazon.com order for
Fire Wish
by Amber Lough
Order:  USA  Can
Random House, 2014 (2014)
Hardcover, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Two young women unhappy with their lot - one a human, the other a jinni - and their peoples at war. That's the premise of Amber Lough's YA novel, The Fire Wish, first in her Jinni Wars series.

The jinni girl is Najwa, in training for the Corps to spy on humans. Her close friend Atish is in training for the Shaitan, to war on humans. Najwa accidentally discovers that she can wish herself into the palace in Baghdad, something no other jinni can do. There she watches prince Kamal experimenting with selenite, which is poisonous to jinni. The Corps accepts Najwa as one of them and sends her back to gather more information.

Zayele is a human tomboy, being sent by her uncle Hashim, the Vizier (who had not returned to their village since the murder of Zayele's uncle and aunt by jinni), to wed a prince of Baghdad. It's a fate that she dreads. She worries about her younger brother Yashar, blinded in a sandstorm, for which she blames herself. But Zayele is sent by camel and barge, accompanied by her older cousin Rahela.

When Najwa spies on Zayele, the latter grabs her arm (recognizing a jinni) and wishes herself home. Oddly the two girls look exactly alike. But the wish goes awry. Najwa is left on the barge, where Rahela helps her to pose as Zayele, while the latter finds herself in the jinni realm and pretends to be Najwa. Each young woman falls for a young man of the race her people are at war with - how will this end?

Of course they work it out after various exciting adventures, but not before treachery strikes and they learn why they look so similar and what started the war between two peoples who used to be at peace.

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