I’ve always wanted to read Tanaz Bhathena’s work, but didn’t want to commit to a series. I’m not patient enough to invest time in them, but when I noticed she had a book available, I jumped at the chance to get it. And devour I did. If you’ve been following me on social media, you know I have had a hard time reading fantasy lately, yet I read this cover to cover in two working days.
This is a YA high fantasy book inspired by medieval Indian badlands. It features Roshan Chaya, a leader of farmers-turned-bandits, and Prince Navin, a royal born in scandalous circumstances. When Roshan’s gang captures Navin during a raid, they hope to exchange it to get their ancestral lands back. As they fight for their right against the corrupt government, the growing sense of attraction and affection between the prince and the leader complicates things.
As an own voices reader, it’s always exciting to discover a promising book that draws from my culture. What’s better, is a book that doesn’t function as a tour guide to global audiences, and unapologetically uses honorifics and other phrases that make the experience immersive, and that’s just what this book does. The author uses Indian and Persian influences to give the world a familiar and lived-in feel, but not in a way that would be daunting to new readers of South Asian inspired fiction.
The pacing is quite on point, and the alternating chapters told from both the characters’ perspectives complement each other well as Navin discovers there’s more to the administration of the kingdom than he thought, and his experiences are pitted against the grit and determination of his clan. Roshan’s situation has her grasping for power and feeling certain that her authority would never be accepted, and it’s interesting to see the dynamics between her and different members of the clan.
We all know how the enemies-to-lovers story goes, and I am of the opinion that though it brings nothing revolutionary to the genre, it does what it sets out to, well. Young adult books that have opposites attracting and influencing each other to converge in the middle are ten-a-penny, and this book does stumble and get quite predictable at times, and might not be the most original thing you’ve read if you frequently read the genre. But it is definitely worth a read.
Shazzie is a book eater and weightlifter. She grew up being encouraged to read and has been overdoing it since then. She reads almost all kinds of fiction, and has a particular fondness for mythology, particularly Indian. She’s almost never found without her Kindle, and often combines stretching with reading. Find her as reader_at_work on most platforms, as well as on her blog (https://readeratworkblog.wordpress.com/)
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