The Forbidden Wish (The Forbidden Wish, #1) in Random Readalongs

Mar 27, 2016 Abigail rated it really liked it

4.5 stars!
This was really great!

If you do not know, "Aladdin" is my favorite Disney animated movie. So, when I heard there was an Aladdin retelling, I had to read it immediately. This book did not disappoint.
I adored the adventure, the romance, and the humor. They were all placed perfectly. Khoury's writing was magical (get it?) and I was completely addicted to this book. I had to know what was going to happen.

The main reason this is not a five star book (and believe me it was going to be a 4.5 stars!
This was really great!

If you do not know, "Aladdin" is my favorite Disney animated movie. So, when I heard there was an Aladdin retelling, I had to read it immediately. This book did not disappoint.
I adored the adventure, the romance, and the humor. They were all placed perfectly. Khoury's writing was magical (get it?) and I was completely addicted to this book. I had to know what was going to happen.

The main reason this is not a five star book (and believe me it was going to be a 5 star book) is because of the villain and also because of the ending. It wasn't a bad ending, I don't know I just wanted a better, more complex ending than a fight/battle. I mean you have jinni's in this book! The fight was cool, but I just didn't think it belonged in this book. I also didn't understand how (view spoiler). Also, there were about five villains of the story. We only see one of their deaths, I wanted Zahra to argue/fight/battle them and not just hear about their deaths/banishment. One villain they look over and he is dead. One villain is banished. One villian just disappears completely. I don't think he died but I have no idea where he went. I feel like this book should've been longer to properly make a great ending and one that makes sense.

Another thing that bothered me was the pacing. In the beginning of the book, the main characters are running around, constantly moving. In second half of the book, we are pretty much just sitting around. Passing weeks by without doing anything. (view spoiler) Then in the ending, we are again moving fast - so fast it's almost confusing - and all the villains are dead within a few pages of each other.

Back to the positives, the romance was absolutely adorable and I figured that (view spoiler) would end up together but I wasn't positive the whole time. The ending kind of surprised me as well. I liked that this book wasn't THAT predictable.

Also, I loved the mystery behind Zahra's character. She is a morally gray character, I didn't know if I should be rooting for her or not, I didn't know if she was going to betray Aladdin, and I absolutely loved not knowing. I love reading characters who are morally gray/the villains of their own story.
Caspida and the other female assassins were a wonderful touch but I wanted more. I wanted them to become better friends with our main characters. I wish we had gotten more of them.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book. Especially if you love "Aladdin" as much as I do. The characters, romance, humor, writing, and adventure of it all makes this book completely worth your time. ...more

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Apr 23, 2016 Emma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: quick-read, books-for-teens, best-protagonists, book-wishlist, all-the-emotions, fantasy, couldn-t-put-it-down, cover-love, should-be-on-tv, girl-power

The Forbidden Wish, is an Aladdin Retelling, from the point of view of the Jinni -- a girl named Zahra who has been trapped in this lamp for thousands of years. She is found by a young thief named Aladdin, and that's where things start to get good...

I read this in about five hours. I loved it so much, that I just couldn't put it down. The main character, Zahra, was so cool and I actually really loved her as a protagonist. She was rather fiery and had a head on her shoulders. She did have an inte
The Forbidden Wish, is an Aladdin Retelling, from the point of view of the Jinni -- a girl named Zahra who has been trapped in this lamp for thousands of years. She is found by a young thief named Aladdin, and that's where things start to get good...

I read this in about five hours. I loved it so much, that I just couldn't put it down. The main character, Zahra, was so cool and I actually really loved her as a protagonist. She was rather fiery and had a head on her shoulders. She did have an internal struggle though, as long ago, she had made a mistake that she deeply regrets. This causes her to shield her heart from any sort of love, whether that be platonic or romantic.

I also loved Aladdin, he was so great and reminded me a lot of the Disney Version but also... different. He had a tragic past, but was still a good guy, which is something that I always miss in YA.

Another character I loved was Caspida, who was our Jasmine character of the book. She had a bunch of "Watchmaidens" who were amazing and kickbutt, and just basically were all around awesome.

This would make such a great movie, and I wish it were a movie so I could experience it all over again! So great!

The worldbuilding was also superb, since there were Jinni that roamed everywhere, and different sorts of Jinni as well - Zahra was one of the last Shaitans, the ones who grant wishes and are super powerful.

The city of Parathenia felt so real, even though I knew it wasn't, this is Fantasy after all. But I was really rooting for the people of this town, and just so many people, and the suspense was killing me the entire time. (view spoiler)

I love the fact that this is a standalone, and everything got wrapped up very nicely, but at the same time, I hate it because it means there isn't anymore which makes me so sad. I feel so head over heels with these characters, with this world, with this story, that I'm sitting here sad that I won't get any new stories about these people I fell in love with.

The Forbidden Wish was such a great book, and if you're an Aladdin fan, then you're more than likely going to be a fan of this book. ...more

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Mar 01, 2016 Raul rated it it was amazing

This book was amazing!!! I read it as part of a read along and honestly would have never picked it up on my own if it wasn't for that. It's a re telling of Aladdin through the genies perspective, but she's female and slowly begins to fall for Aladdin. That's all I'm going to say. There is SO much more to this book though. Political intrigue and some of the most beautiful writing I've ever experienced. The world was vibrant and beautiful and the author did an amazing job with pacing. It felt so s ...more

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Jul 13, 2016 Lilibeth Teixeira rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite

Lately I've been rewatching all the Disney movies, so I found this book based on the story of Aladdin and wondered: why not?
I could not have read this at a better time.
I went to this book without any expectations and I was totally surprised. Certainly one of my favorites this year, so far.

In this book we have some similarities of the original story but the main character is the jinni of the lamp and it is a girl.
I love Zahra so much and also Aladdin. We have a powerful group of girls that I re ...more

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Apr 21, 2016 natalie chunmin fong rated it really liked it

4.5 stars (´∀｀)♡

Definitely did not expect to like this as much as I do & am very convinced I will be picking up more retellings. This book reminded me, above all, that love and freedom are quite the opposite of being mutually exclusive & that wishes have price tags we sometimes take for granted. It's very illuminating to dance through the metaphors and the compelling glittery imagery that is so very enticing and satisfying in terms of run-on beauty and hyperbolic dramatic lines on love, lightne ...more

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