Mirage

A stunning and lushly imagined young adult debut about a girl who is kidnapped and forced to become A stunning and lushly imagined young adult debut about a girl who is kidnapped and forced to become the body double for the princess of a ruthless empire. Perfect for fans of An Ember in the Ashes and Cinder.

The crown of Dihya had been stripped from me, my face changed, my body broken.
But I was not a slave and I was not a spare.
I was my mother's daughter, and I would survive and endure. I would find my way back home.

In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation and receiving a sign that one day, she, too, will have adventures, and travel beyond her isolated moon.

But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects. She is kidnapped by the government and taken in secret to the royal palace. There, she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double to appear in public, ready to die in her place.

As Amani is forced into her new role, she can't help but enjoy the palace's beauty - and her time with the princess' fiance, Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear, and she soon realises that one wrong move could lead to her death

About the Author

Somaiya Daud was born in a Midwestern city, and spent a large part of her childhood and adolescence moving around. Like most writers, she started when she was young and never really stopped. Her love of all things books propelled her to get a degree in English literature (specializing in the medieval and early modern), and while she worked on her Master's degree she doubled as a bookseller at Politics and Prose in their children's department. Determined to remain in school for as long as possible, she packed her bags in 2014 and moved to the west coast to pursue a doctoral degree in English literature. Now she's writing a dissertation on Victorians, rocks, race, and the environment.