Full review available on my blog on July 5th: https://inkandplasma.com/2021/07/05/the-jasmine-throne/

Thanks to Orbit for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.

Content Warnings: violence, gore/blood, murder, poisoning, public execution, nonconsensual drug use, homophobia, suicidal thoughts, self-mutilation, abuse.

This is a slow paced fantasy, especially to start with. If you’re expecting a fast past battle packed fantasy, you’ll be disappointed. Which would be a shame, because THE JASMINE THRONE is a fantastic start to a series that will no doubt ruin me emotionally. The first few chapters of the book do take some time to get into, there’s a lot of worldbuilding being introduced where the political and religious influences are introduced in turn. However, that worldbuilding is so, so interesting and I enjoyed learning each and every facet of this Indian inspired fantasy world. There are varied gods and spirits, and I really enjoyed the way they were threaded throughout the story. If you like conflicted family relationships, twisted backstories and slow burn love full of mistrust, THE JASMINE THRONE is the perfect read. The prose is supremely readable, and I absolutely stormed through this book despite the length. Tasha Suri’s writing is beautiful and descriptive, and I felt completely immersed in each of the settings. The magic system is really interesting, with the magical deathless waters. It’s unusual, and I don’t want to delve too much into what happens later on in the book as I liked the way it all unfolded, but it kept me really curious about what was going on under the surface. There’s also the rot, a disease that’s spreading with frightening speed and strange symptoms, and that had me hooked from the first chapter.

Every character in this book has secrets upon secrets upon secrets. Especially our main characters, Priya and Malini, who have complex and messy backstories that they keep to themselves for good reasons and bad. It made their relationship a glorious slow burning simmer, as they flutter back and forth between their attraction and trust, mistrust and (rightful) paranoia. It was gorgeous, and I loved watching them draw closer and closer together. And the wonderful moments of dagger-to-the-ribs and kissing-under-waterfalls made me fall in love with them even more. I can’t wait to read more from this series and find out what happens next. I honestly feel like this is the kind of book that when I inevitably reread it, I’ll find even more hidden depths to this politically steeped fantasy.

I really struggled with this review, because there were lots of things I adored about this book but there was something I couldn’t quite identify that didn’t work for me. Eventually I worked out that it was the pacing that didn’t work for me. Usually I love a novella, but I just really, really wanted this to be longer because it was so good that I wanted to luxuriate in the setting and the worldbuilding and didn’t really get the chance. The travel through the underworld is so interesting. It’s split into ‘regions’ of a sort that each have different threats and problems to solve. Unfortunately each of those areas was over in a few pages so it never felt truly threatening to me, and feeling the danger of journeying through the underworld. Because of the rapid pace I do feel like I missed out on some aspects of the story and as a result it felt a little shallow in places. There was at least one very important plot point that I didn’t even notice happening until it was pointed out because everything happened so quickly.

I do absolutely recommend this read, it was a beautiful retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice – a myth that I adore – and the beautiful sapphic relationship warmed my heart. I loved that it was an established relationship and that we got to see little snippets of their life together before they crossed the bone way. It made their love feel real and fleshed out their reasons for doing something so dangerous.