"A Thousand Nights" by E.K. Johnston is another retelling based on the famous "Arabian Nights".  I was attracted to the cover from the get go - a beautiful design which poetically works with the storyline.   As I read through this book, I realize there are no names. The only name we know for certain is Lo Melkhim.  We read through the mind of the heroine, and every other character is a relation to Lo Melkhim or herself.  That in itself is interesting enough from a reader's standpoint.  If you don't dwell on that point, it reads smoothly, but if you start wondering and focusing on it, it will takes time getting use to.  I did enjoy "A Thousand Nights". It almost has a mystical and mythical quality to it from the beginning - a sense of lost. When you're in the mind of the heroine, you feel love, a sense of curiosity, and finally courage to be more - to defy the typical.  Give this book a try. If you like fantasy, this one combines old tales with new for a story that can last another thousand nights.







NOTE: I received a complimentary e-copy of this book from the publisher, Disney Hyperion through NetGalley for an honest review.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    

About the book:

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

To Purchase a copy: Amazon, IndieBound