The City of Brass

 I could hardly put down S.A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass (#920) once I started reading it.  The first book in her Daevan fantasy trilogy, it whisks the reader off across burning sands and magical kingdoms like the flying carpet in the Arabian Nights stories.  

Nahri is just a young healer and con woman barely eking out a living in the slums of Cairo while Napoleon's soldiers roam the streets.  Targeting wealthy marks is her main strategy, but it's not enough, so she's turned to performing zars to cast out demons.  When she accidentally summons a djinni in a ceremony, everything she believes in is turned on its head while she struggles to survive the army of ghouls now pursuing her.  They're just stories - the djinns and the ghouls and demons - so how can this be happening to her?  The djinni reluctantly comes to Nahri's aid, but they must escape Cairo, and so the adventure begins...

Enchantments, princes, and concealed identities all play a role as Nahri must walk a fine line in Daeva, The City of Brass.  Nothing is as it seems and danger is a constant companion.

The characters are well-developed and the action is non-stop as personal and political complications unfold.  The exotic locales and creatures are enthralling.  If you are looking for an escape from your humdrum existence, try The City of Brass.  I cannot wait to get started on volume two, The Kingdom of Copper!