The origin of Desert Reigns

Desert Reigns - Book One of the Reign Series

Everyone is pretty familiar with the tale of Aladdin and Arabian Nights. It’s no secret that literally every brown girl’s favourite princess is Jasmine. I remember how I would religiously watch Aladdin on the VHS player we had when I was younger and I still do, because it’s definitely a Disney classic. No doubt.

1001 nights, however, wasn’t that familiar to me. I grew up reading the tales of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the original Aladdin in a children’s book that I used to have. So I kinda assumed that Arabian Nights was a collection of stories, however, the story of Scheherazade and Shahryar only became known to me once I got a little older and needless to say, I was absolutely blown away by the actual story.

The thought for the series came to me after I had read up more on Scheherazade’s tale. There were also a large number of re-tellings of the original tale that I had stumbled across, however, I wanted to put my own twist on the story. Hence, I created the Reigns Series.

Book One, Desert Reigns, is heavily inspired by my all time favourite: Disney’s Aladdin. Except, I would say that Liyah is Aladdin and Jasmine combined into one character. The story entails the three main characters (Liyah, Rayan and Farrah) searching for a certain, magical cave. I found inspiration from the Cave of Wonders and then turned it into a whole dramatic, intense plot.

Book Two, Palace Reigns, focuses more on the original tale of 1001 nights as well as Scheherazade and Shahryar’s connection, so if you wanted to read something along those lines, I suggest you stick around and wait for the ‘sequel’ of Desert Reigns.

Love always, 
saharastardust