A review by thebookishbrief
Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by Rati Mehrotra

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was my first experience reading a South Asian inspired fantasy novel and I enjoyed it very much. We follow the story of Katyani who is a young warrior in the kingdom of Chandela. She is blood sworn to the queen through a magical bond and serves as her bodyguard, The queen orders Katyani to accompany the princes of the kingdom to a special military school called the Gurukul to receive training. On the way to the Gurukul we meet a variety of creatures all inspired by Hindu mythology. There have been a string of assassination attempts so we also get to see a bit of court politics and political intrigue. It's a very fast paced story and, except for a couple of predictable plot points, I was engaged from beginning to end. My one critique is about the characterization of Katyani. We are led to believe that she is one of the most skilled warriors in the kingdom yet we rarely see her employ any of that skill. In fact, on the few occasions where she is fighting she comes off as naive and inexperienced. I would have loved a little more exploration of the magic system and how it is used as well as some backstory about Acharaya Mahavir and the formation of the Gurukul. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will defintely check out more of Rati Mehrotra's work. 
 
eARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review 
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