Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin.
Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.
But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.
⤖ My Review ⬻
This was one of my most-anticipated fantasy releases of 2021! I didn’t anticipate liking the world building, magic system, and history of the world in The Jasmine Throne more than the characters though! I will often get attached to characters or character-related or relationship-driven plots. In this case however, there weren’t any characters that I really became attached to or even relationships (or budding relationships) that I latched on to and rooted for.
By the time I reached the halfway point in The Jasmine Throne, I had realized that I was there for the overarching plot as well as the atmosphere, the world, and magic system. This isn’t the first time where the characters weren’t my favourite part of a book though, and since this is a series, there’s a chance that the characters could still grow on me while reading the rest of the series.
I was a bit disappointed in a particular romantic relationship that didn’t quite do it for me, but again this might change in the next book/s, so I’m not too worried about it at this point as I would be if this had been a standalone. Maybe I had certain expectations since when reading one of Tasha Suri’s other novels, Empire of Sand, I didn’t have the same experience.
Having read Tasha Suri’s writing before, I was happy to find that I still enjoyed her writing style and way of storytelling while reading The Jasmine Throne, her more recent work. I’m very curious to see where the overarching plot will take things and how things will develop for the different character groups as well. Also, I don’t normally leave this for last, but isn’t that cover just gorgeous?!
⤖ About the Author ⬻
Tasha Suri is the award-winning author of The Books of Ambha duology (Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash) and the epic fantasy The Jasmine Throne. Her upcoming novels include The Oleander Sword, sequel to The Jasmine Throne, and What Souls Are Made Of, a YA remix of Wuthering Heights. She is a writing tutor, an occasional librarian and cat owner. She has won the Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds) Award from the British Fantasy Society and has been nominated for the Astounding Award and Locus Award for Best First Novel. Her debut novel Empire of Sand was named one of the 100 best fantasy books of all time by TIME magazine. When she isn’t writing, Tasha likes to cry over TV shows, buy too many notebooks, and indulge her geeky passion for reading about South Asian history. She lives with her family in a mildly haunted house in London.
⤖ Places to Purchase the Book ⬻
⤖ Let's Chat ⬻
Thank you for reading my review! Have you read this book? What did you think? And if you haven’t read it yet, do you plan to? Let me know in the comments!
