i thoroughly enjoyed the book, even though it did take me a while to get through. The prose was well-written (if a bit repetitive at times) and the characters continued to grow into themselves - more fleshed and three-dimensional - from what we saw in the first book of the series. in particular, i loved bhumika's story arc and i'm excited to see what the next book has in store for her!

the portrayal and writing of malini and priya's relationship greatly improved in this book from the jasmine throne. there is a tragic beauty in desperation to be with each other and make things work between them, despite championing fundamentally different people and having necessarily divergent paths/futures. however, the ending of this book disappointed me and felt either out of place or unsatisfying. understandably, it is setting up events for the last book in the trilogy (as most middle books of trilogies do); however, i still have to lower my personal rating for the novel as a result.