We Hunt The Flame is a “save the world” journey. Zafira is trying to bring magic back to save her caliphate from the Arz. The Arz is a magic forest of death and anyone who enters is lost forever, except Zafira. There’s something different about her (chosen one status).

The secondary protagonist is a Hashashin (assassin) named Nasir who is the son of a tyrannical Sultan. He does his father’s bidding because of trauma, and is tasked with killing Zafira.

The Silver Witch, a mysterious magic woman, sparks Zafira and Nasir to go to Shaar for different reasons. Shaar is the island in the middle of the nation that has been blocked off by the Arz for years. It seems like she wants to help, but her motives are shrouded in mystery. We do eventually see the reasoning behind her actions however they are convoluted at best and are not the best way to handle the situation.

These two meet, don’t kill each other immediately and end up working together to find a book to restore magic to the world. The book has something to do with the Six Sisters who used their magic for the benefit of the entire world. Too bad they’re all dead.

There are some secondary characters that join the party and a couple have their moments, but it’s mostly about Zafira and Nasir and their struggles internally. Will Nasir finally be able to make his own choices? Will Zafira be able to restore magic to the lands?

The character interactions as a whole feel strange. Further revelations cause you to look at these through another lens and this does little to explain why they interact the way they do. No character is exempt except the ones that die.

There’s a lot of lore and it does get a little confusing. There are many “revelations” throughout the story that are pretty easy to see coming and the book ends on a cliffhanger that does not feel earned. The characters are relatively shallow and trope heavy and the romance feels very forced.

Despite these critiques I did enjoy the book. There were some good moments and the world is very interesting. It feels like the publisher told the author to make this a duology at the last moment so she tried to find a stopping point and create cliffhangers where there were not meant to be any. I’m very mixed on this to be honest, but I hope the next book gives the full picture with an actual end to Zafira’s journey.