The Golden Scarab of Balihar

Magic made her wish come true. Now she’ll need magic to undo it. 

In a kingdom surrounded by the ever-flowing sands of ancient Persia, sixteen-year-old Zahra dreams of attending the sultan’s lavish events rather than serving at them. Until she crashes headlong into the mysterious prince. Then she just dreams of the prince. Too bad she has no poise, position, or charm to catch his eye. To win his affection would take a miracle. Or magic… 

When Zahra interrupts a love spell meant for the vizier’s daughter, the prince falls for her instead. Zahra gets her wish but incurs the wrath of the vizier, and now he wants her head. Fleeing for her life, Zahra seeks the mythical Golden Scarab of Balihar, desperately hoping the power of the jinni within can shield her from his vengeance. But when she learns the extent of his plan, she’ll have to decide whether to save herself, her prince, or the entire kingdom. 

Readers will be instantly captivated by Zahra, who dreams of becoming a princess. However, when a love spell makes Prince Amir fall in love with her, instead of taking advantage of the situation, Zahra is determined to reverse the spell. Readers will relate to Zahra’s desire “to have something. To experience something. To be a part of something. To belong somewhere.” Despite this, her honesty and integrity won’t allow her to marry the prince unless he genuinely loves her. Zahra’s honesty is admirable and her compassion for others makes her an incredibly likable character who leads readers on an exciting adventure. 

As Zahra flees the kingdom, she acquires a diverse group of friends who help her along the way. Included in the group is the love-stricken Prince Amir who refuses to leave her side, a young servant boy, and an older gentleman who was attacked by thieves and lost everything. Instead of just being stock characters, each person is unique and has some surprising qualities that make them likable. When the group finds the Golden Scarab of Balihar and the jinni, the jinni is full of quirky characteristics that make him unique; the jinni adds an unexpected element of humor to the story. 

Anyone who fell in love with Aladdin as a child will find The Golden Scarab of Balihar enjoyable. After helping save the kingdom, the sultan tells Zahra, “You have also shown yourself to be loyal. More than that—brave, clever, and noble of spirit—worthy of my family, more so than any princess I’ve invited to meet my son. If you so desire, you may wed my son, and a princess you will be as well.” Even though Zahra dreamed about marrying the prince, she realizes that she “didn’t need the life of a princess to be happy.” Zahra’s happy ever after doesn’t include being a princess, but being true to herself. This is an essential message for everyone, and The Golden Scarab of Balihar relays the message with delightful characters and a fun adventure.  

Sexual Content  

• After Prince Amir saves Zahra from a perilous situation, Amir kisses her. “She lost herself in his firm embrace and in the feel of his lips on hers. She had imagined this more than once . . . For a long moment, she forgot he was under a [love] spell. She seized hold of him and kissed him back. . .” Their kiss is interrupted.  
• The vizier uses reverses the first love spell and makes a new one that makes Prince Amir fall in love with the vizier’s daughter, Maliha. After they are married and then the marriage is annulled, Maliha sees Hani, the man she truly loves. “She grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him to her. ‘I love you.’ She kissed him softly on the lips.”  

Violence  

• A young slave, Rafi, picks dates and eats one before giving them to his master. His master “slapped Rafi hard across his face, knocking the date from the boy’s mouth and causing a trickle of blood to drip down his lower lip. The man grabbed Rafi by the ear and hauled him away, thumping him on the head with the other hand.” 
• Zahra befriends Rafi and a man named Josef. As they leave an oasis, the king’s vizier sends guards to look for her. While in the desert, a “man blew a long, deep note, and then a second guard joined him using a horn of his own.” The notes summon a dust demon. “Zahra watched in horror as the older man was yanked from his feet and lifted high into the air.” The book implies that Josef died. However, he reappears uninjured.  
• Zahra, Rafi, and Prince Amir enter a magical underground cave. Vines cover a passageway. “As soon as Amir grabbed hold of the first vine, it snapped out and twisted around his arm, pulling him forward. . . his feet slid along the cave floor as he was dragged into the other tendrils. Rafi was likewise caught in their grip.” Zahra tries to pull Rafi free, but the vines also capture her.  
• As Zahra tries to escape the plants, “The coiling plants pulled her tight. . . Again she could hardly breathe, not from being strangled, but from having her face covered in creepers. . . Her arms were constricted against her chest.” The three companions free themselves. The scene is described over three pages. 
• A snake guards the Golden Scarab of Balihar. “Zahra lashed out and wrapped her fingers around the snake’s neck. . . The thing hissed at her, and its body pulled up off the dial to coil around her arm. . . She tried to pull it off her arm with her other hand, but it was wrapped too tightly. . . It opened its mouth and hissed sharply as [Amir] got close, so Zahra pressed down on the top of its head with her thumb to close its mouth.” Then the snake transformed into a “piece of jewelry that wrapped around her forearm.” When Zahra touches its head, it regains “its slithery living form.”  
• The magical cave that holds the Golden Scarab of Balihar has a huge, living eye on one wall. Zahra “balled her hand into a fist, and pressed it directly into the squishy part of the eye. There was a great roar of wind through the cave, the eye’s lids snapped shut with a wet thwack, and the chamber was plunged into darkness.” 
• When Zahra and her companions leave the cave, they face a giant scorpion. Amir throws a giant fruit at the scorpion, and “it approached again, claws extended, snapping at both him and Rafi. They each dove aside. . .” When the scorpion tries to strike Rafi, Zahra grabs its tail. 
• The scorpion tries to “shake” Zahra loose. “Amir ran at the scorpion from the side and jumped onto its back, Rafi following his example from the other. . .” They run back into the magical cave, and the scorpion follows. 
• While in the magical cave, “The monster slashed out with a claw aimed straight at Rafi’s neck. Amir threw his hands up to catch the pincher. He deflected the strike sufficiently to save Rafi.” Amir falls to the ground and the scorpion’s “pincher snapped shut and lopped off Amir’s pinkie finger.” 
• When the scorpion goes into a passageway full of stalactite, “The scorpion’s wide body brushed against several of the cave protrusions. Crack!—Snap!—Squish!—Snicks!—Splash! Spike after spike slammed up and down and into and through the carapace of the scorpion.” Blood and gore splattered the prince and Zahra. The scorpion attack is described over four pages. 
• After Amir lost his finger, Nadim, the jinni, was tired of listening to Amir “screaming like a baby crying for its mother.” So, “Nadim held up a hand, manifested a sharp knife, and sliced off his own pinkie finger. Blood sputtered out and started pouring down his hand.” The jinni offers to heal Amir’s finger, but only if Zahra uses a wish. She does not. 
• The vizier and his men capture Amir, whom they tie up and gag. Then the vizier “flicked a powder into Amir’s face and he couldn’t avoid breathing it in. ‘Forget,’ the guard said.” Zahra, Rafi, and the jinni Nadim are left without food, water, or horses in the desert. 
• Zahra and her friends find Amir and try to save him. Zahra falls, and the vizier “stepped on her back to hold her in place, his weight pressing her hard into the earth . . . She saw him draw forth a curved dagger. He was going to kill her! She thrashed, trying to escape. . .” The prince comes to her rescue. 
• Zahra and Amir were able to escape. As they ride off, “Zahra risked a glance back and saw the vizier wave his hands and throw something to the ground. . . The sands formed into columns and then into the shape of men.” The vizier commands the sand soldiers to capture the prince and kill Zahra and her friends. 
• When escaping the sand soldiers, Zahra and Amir find a group of brigands threatening Rafi. Zahra tricks the brigands into fighting the sand soldiers. “The brigands yelled again and slashed and hacked at the sand warriors, managing to chop off arms and legs and even a couple of heads, but the warriors absorbed sand from beneath them and regrew their bodies. . . The battle was quick; in a short time, three dead brigands lay sprawled in the dirt.” Later, Amir finds a way to dissolve the sand warriors. 
• When Maliha, the vizier’s daughter, marries Prince Amir, the demon Ghazi demands to be set free. Maliha refuses the request. “The moment she uttered the last syllable of her defiance, [her father] Yaseen gasped, and his eyes bulged. He fell to his knees. His hands came to this throat—he was struggling to breathe. . .” To save her father, Maliha sets Ghazi free. Ghazi tells Maliha, “You and your father will watch as I tear this so-called Palace of Light to pieces around you. . .”  
• In a multi-chapter battle, Ghazi attacks the city. “The palace shook again, and more sculptures toppled over and shattered. Braziers fell clanging to the floor . . . The palace residents and guests alike screamed and fled in terror.” 
• Zahra, Amir, and Rafi go to find the sultan. When they reach his chambers, “the doors lay splintered in pieces in the hallway. Two of the king’s guardsmen lay dead at the entrance, and in the sultan’s expansive inner room, more guards were strewn about, some lying motionless and others writhing in pain.”  
• The demon Ghazi creates a storm. “A twisting funnel descended and whirled toward the city, raging through the outer wall. Stones and humans alike were swept like debris into the air.” 
• Ghazi punishes Zahra. “Zahra felt something tightening around her throat. She tried to pull it away, but there was nothing there. . . She couldn’t breathe. Her eyes locked with Rafi’s, and she saw his terror. . . Nadim’s leg arched past her, his foot slamming into the ifrit and sending the demon flying through the wall of the sultan’s anteroom and into the chamber of the Eternal Flame.” Zahra is freed. 
• Amir jumps into the battle. “He lifted a mirror shard and held it up to the Eternal Flame. An intense beam of light reflected off the mirror, and he aimed it directly into the demon’s eyes. . . the sheer brilliance of it overwhelmed him, and he threw up his arms to cover his eyes.”
• To save the city, Zahra feeds the Golden Scarab of Balihar to a magical serpent. “The smoke around Nadim and Ghazi had turned to an inky black. It twirled and spun and was sucked inward, shrinking. Zahra heard Nadim’s voice call out one more time.” Nadim gave her “a blood-soaked dagger” so they could release Amir from the love spell.

Drugs and Alcohol  

• After her marriage, Maliha “poured herself a glass of wine.”

Language  

• None 

Supernatural 

• The king’s vizier uses a spell to summon an ifrit, a demon. The ifrit “had flame-colored skin covered in tattoos of swirling lines and glyphs. Twin spiral horns protruded from its skull above large, tapered ears.” The ifrit can change his appearance “with ease.”  
• The vizier makes a love spell out of “a jar of frankincense, one of kohl, and a vial of cobra venom.” The spell also required acid from the darkling beetle. The ifrit tells the vizier, “Simply have your daughter present the flower to the prince, see that he smells it, and when his gaze meets her face, he will fall instantly in love.” This spell is used multiple times.  
• Zahra goes on a journey looking for the Golden Scarab of Balihar. “It was said the Scarab contained a powerful jinni, and everyone knew a jinni would grant wishes to those who freed them from confinement.”  
• Zahra and her companions find the Golden Scarab of Balihar. When she pulls the wings, “The Scarab once again burst into motion. It thrummed and flew from her hand, up into the air in the middle of the cave, sparks and flashes of golden light trailing behind it. . . A burst of smoke filled the cavern, swirling and raining down glittering powder. . . Finally the air cleared, revealing a figure standing before them.” 
• The jinni first appears in human form. Then, “he snapped his fingers and golden smoke swirled around until it completely obscured him. The smoke expanded, and from it his teeth and four arms, each wielding a shining scimitar.”  

Spiritual Content  

• None