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A review by ezwolf
The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
adventurous
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
5.0
I know I'm a day late but here is my review!
I absolutely loved The Jasmine Throne and was so excited to read The Oleander Sword. Both Malini and Priya are such interesting characters and the supporting cast also adds so much to the story. I'm not usually a fan of alternating POV books, but I personally really love Bhumika and Rao and so getting to read their POV was fun!
The way that women play a part in the book and series as a whole is amazing. The way that there's an entire religion based on women sacrificing themselves willingly, but also the same people who worship that religion looking down on the real women in their lives. The way that Malini created an entire entourage of women of guards and maids and even though her army was made up of men, the most important people to her are women and the same of Priya as well.
Tasha Suri has an incredible way with words and specially in this book there were a lot of lines and passages that stood out to me. In particular the scene where Malini reminisces about how she would make Priya her wife if she could, what it means to be a sacrifice/give a sacrifice without knowing the price, and finally when Rao is thinking back on Aditya's words "What is a star, but a distant fire, reaching for you across worlds?"
I did not see the way the story was going to take the turn for at all and the build up at the end was fantastic and I now eagerly await the third installment of The Burning Kingdoms series!
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
I absolutely loved The Jasmine Throne and was so excited to read The Oleander Sword. Both Malini and Priya are such interesting characters and the supporting cast also adds so much to the story. I'm not usually a fan of alternating POV books, but I personally really love Bhumika and Rao and so getting to read their POV was fun!
The way that women play a part in the book and series as a whole is amazing. The way that there's an entire religion based on women sacrificing themselves willingly, but also the same people who worship that religion looking down on the real women in their lives. The way that Malini created an entire entourage of women of guards and maids and even though her army was made up of men, the most important people to her are women and the same of Priya as well.
Tasha Suri has an incredible way with words and specially in this book there were a lot of lines and passages that stood out to me. In particular the scene where Malini reminisces about how she would make Priya her wife if she could, what it means to be a sacrifice/give a sacrifice without knowing the price, and finally when Rao is thinking back on Aditya's words "What is a star, but a distant fire, reaching for you across worlds?"
I did not see the way the story was going to take the turn for at all and the build up at the end was fantastic and I now eagerly await the third installment of The Burning Kingdoms series!
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, War, Grief, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Torture, and Vomit