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costcomuffin154's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
Absolutely incredible book. Beautiful writing, character development, and world building. The relationships between characters are intense and compelling. There is unique magic and characters finding their identities after dark pasts. The female characters in this book are especially incredible - they run the whole gamut of different personalities and yet are still developed in-depth. Just such a good book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Grief and Misogyny
Minor: Physical abuse and Torture
crazyrandom_music's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, and Misogyny
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia
kkulhannie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Confinement, Colonisation, and Blood
Moderate: Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Body shaming, Addiction, and Vomit
aardwyrm's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
5.0
Lovely and brutal, an examination of empire, power, and loyalties with more twists in its road than anyone could predict (and does a nice job balancing the hints and foreshadowing without beating you over the head). Scads of viewpoint characters used to good effect and strong worldbuilding.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, Sexism, Misogyny, Grief, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Child death, and Colonisation
Moderate: Homophobia and Pregnancy
freya's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Child death and Confinement
anovelbeauty's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Book TW: child abuse, assault, child murder, homophobia, sexism, body horror, human sacrifice, religious extremism
Note: I received an eARC of this book to provide an honest review.
The Jasmine Throne is a really solid intro to a fantasy series. The worldbuilding is /really/ well done and had me fascinated (and sometimes horrified) the entire time. Now, I will say that as a person who doesn’t tolerate body horror well, yikes! Please prepare yourself because hooo boy is there some freaky ish at various points of this book. Did I ever think I’d be afraid of flowers and petals? Nah. But here we are.
The character work was also really good, especially considering how many characters there are to balance in this multiPOV work. Bhumika is by FAR my favorite character. I love her quiet type of strength throughout the story and how she always patiently awaits the right moments to make her move. The characters you are supposed to hate are A+ hateable. The one part of the story I wasn’t as keen on was unfortunately the romance. While I liked Priya and Malini as characters and I usually love slow burn romance… it just felt like there was something lacking when they finally did get together. I think perhaps there was just so much other stuff going on that it really just felt like a side note but you could tell it was /supposed/ to feel really pivotal. And given how the arcs progress, I’m not sure how it will develop in the coming books.
That being said, everything else was really enjoyable and I thought there were quite a few clever and interesting plot moments. I am absolutely happy I read it and I am definitely interested in picking up the sequel to see what happens next! I would say this story rides the line between YA and Adult Fantasy fairly well and the worlds based off Indian cultures and mythos are really well developed. If all of this sounds interesting to you, give it a go! It’s well written and paced to keep you engaged from beginning to end.
Note: I received an eARC of this book to provide an honest review.
The Jasmine Throne is a really solid intro to a fantasy series. The worldbuilding is /really/ well done and had me fascinated (and sometimes horrified) the entire time. Now, I will say that as a person who doesn’t tolerate body horror well, yikes! Please prepare yourself because hooo boy is there some freaky ish at various points of this book. Did I ever think I’d be afraid of flowers and petals? Nah. But here we are.
The character work was also really good, especially considering how many characters there are to balance in this multiPOV work. Bhumika is by FAR my favorite character. I love her quiet type of strength throughout the story and how she always patiently awaits the right moments to make her move. The characters you are supposed to hate are A+ hateable. The one part of the story I wasn’t as keen on was unfortunately the romance. While I liked Priya and Malini as characters and I usually love slow burn romance… it just felt like there was something lacking when they finally did get together. I think perhaps there was just so much other stuff going on that it really just felt like a side note but you could tell it was /supposed/ to feel really pivotal. And given how the arcs progress, I’m not sure how it will develop in the coming books.
That being said, everything else was really enjoyable and I thought there were quite a few clever and interesting plot moments. I am absolutely happy I read it and I am definitely interested in picking up the sequel to see what happens next! I would say this story rides the line between YA and Adult Fantasy fairly well and the worlds based off Indian cultures and mythos are really well developed. If all of this sounds interesting to you, give it a go! It’s well written and paced to keep you engaged from beginning to end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Genocide, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Body horror, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting
Minor: Grief
jamieleepilk's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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? It's complicated
4.5
Thank - you so much to Orbit/Little Brown for sending me a proof of this book for review.
UK Release - 10/6/21
"Malini wanted to explain that being monstrous wasn't inherent as Priya seemed to believe it to be. It was something placed upon: a chain or a poison, bled into you by unkind hands."
This has been on my radar for a while and I was thrilled to receive a proof! I'm finishing this book as we return to work and I can't wait to shout about it to customers, I will be recommending this book left right and centre when it's released in the summer!
This books world building is nothing short of incredible, every little detail is well thought out and plotted through. The characters are brilliant and well written, each of them has their own hearts and motivations. It is told through multiple characters POVs but mainly through the point of view of Priya a maidservant with a hidden, dark magical past and Malini a Princess in exile, it was so wonderful to have those two characters chapters overlap with one another the more the story progressed.
This world is dark, ruthless and intriguing. I utterly loved the mixture of magic and politics.
The world building in this book is heavy going which is to be expected in the first of an epic new fantasy series of this nature and at first it does feel slightly daunting but the more it gets into your brain you'll be engaged in no time at all. This book hooked me straight away but I felt I couldn't read fast because I was constantly worried that I would miss details that were important!
I adored this book so much, if you like fantasy with dark magic, political and religious themes, queer protagonists and beautifully lyrical writing DO NOT MISS THIS in the summer. I can't wait for the next book in this series and see where Tasha takes this story and these characters!
📚 For Fans of/If You Liked 📚
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
UK Release - 10/6/21
"Malini wanted to explain that being monstrous wasn't inherent as Priya seemed to believe it to be. It was something placed upon: a chain or a poison, bled into you by unkind hands."
This has been on my radar for a while and I was thrilled to receive a proof! I'm finishing this book as we return to work and I can't wait to shout about it to customers, I will be recommending this book left right and centre when it's released in the summer!
This books world building is nothing short of incredible, every little detail is well thought out and plotted through. The characters are brilliant and well written, each of them has their own hearts and motivations. It is told through multiple characters POVs but mainly through the point of view of Priya a maidservant with a hidden, dark magical past and Malini a Princess in exile, it was so wonderful to have those two characters chapters overlap with one another the more the story progressed.
This world is dark, ruthless and intriguing. I utterly loved the mixture of magic and politics.
The world building in this book is heavy going which is to be expected in the first of an epic new fantasy series of this nature and at first it does feel slightly daunting but the more it gets into your brain you'll be engaged in no time at all. This book hooked me straight away but I felt I couldn't read fast because I was constantly worried that I would miss details that were important!
I adored this book so much, if you like fantasy with dark magic, political and religious themes, queer protagonists and beautifully lyrical writing DO NOT MISS THIS in the summer. I can't wait for the next book in this series and see where Tasha takes this story and these characters!
📚 For Fans of/If You Liked 📚
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia and Chronic illness
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