Reviews - The Lotus Empire

1.34k reviews for:

The Lotus Empire

Tasha Suri

4.43 AVERAGE

rthpr's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rayavol6's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

onlessdev's review against another edition

5.0

A wonderful conclusion to the series - it felt powerful and epic. We followed the two main characters Malini and Priya as Malini has solidified her positon, but other threats come to a head. Their romantic and magical connection presents surprising complications. The yaksa are scarier than ever but also some of them are more sympathetic than I ever expected. The rot is still a big issue.

The conflict is solved in a satisfying way and the relationship also reaches a truly pleasing dynamic. My favorite romantic scenes were in chapter 61 and chapter 66.

This ties for Priory of the Orange Tree as my favorite sapphic epic fantasy!

casketteeth's review against another edition

4.0

Three and a half stars.
The first quarter and past of the book feels a little unmoored and wandering in terms of plot. Around the 60% mark things kick in properly, and it's lovely. Then it unmoors again toward the last quarter, and the final threat just kind of...appears. It makes sense narratively, but the pacing feels off somehow.

In the previous book I was a little sad at the lack of Priya, but in this one there's almost...too much (in the aforementioned pre-60% part)? Or rather, Priya is very Priya, and feels like she's not been changed as much as she should have by everything that's happened. She's almost not traumatized enough? She doesn't take herself as seriously as it feels like she should, and because of that (and reading through her pov) it feels like it breaks the mystique of the Yaksa, and how powerful and scary they are. At least until her visions, and later on in the book. Idk. It's a weird complaint, but I couldn't stop thinking about it and it wouldn't stop bothering me while I was reading. Especially because it led to weird tonal shifts between Priya and the rest of the book, when it felt like Priya should have had the darkest and most serious pov out of all of them. With some exceptions of course, because Priya is Priya, but less than there are as is.

Spoiler

it's highlighted especially when Bhumika and Rao battle the Yaksa. It's a fantastic, scary and tense scene. Cosmic horror, fae-like terror, etc etc. Reading it makes me think "damn, everything with Priya should have been like this".

A weird instance where the middle of the book is the best part. In the end (pun intended), it's a good ending for the series. Not out of this world amazing, but good and for the most part, satisfying.