Today’s review is of what was probably our single most anticipated release of 2021. If, for whatever reason, you haven’t already heard about The Jasmine Throne, let this be your moment of epiphany. And, if you trust only one of our recs this whole year, let it be this one. The Jasmine Throne is probably one of the best books to be released this year, if not all time. It’s a book that will leave you hollowed out and unable to even think of picking anything else up for the foreseeable future.
But enough of that here. Read our reviews and you’ll find out just how much we adore this book. Before you do, though, don’t forget to follow Tasha on twitter.
And remember, there’s a music mix at the end of this post!
Author of Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess’s traitor brother.
Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin.
Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.
But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.
The Jasmine Throne
Tasha Suri
Rep: Indian-coded cast, lesbian mcs
CWs: violence, gore, homophobia, execution by burning, forced drug use
Release: 10th June 2021
Charlotte’s Review
The Jasmine Throne was easily my most anticipated release of 2021. I know that sounds like an exaggeration (how, exactly, can I choose a single most anticipated book, when I can’t choose one book most of the time every other time?), but it truly was. I had adored both of Tasha Suri’s other books, so I was always going to be desperate to read this, her third. And even more so, after finding out that it’s sapphic.
And, oh my god, but it doesn’t disappoint.
The first note I made about my review for this book was simply “aaaaah AAAAAAH”, which is, I think, a succinct enough summary for how I feel about it overall. It’s the kind of book that leaves you so full of feelings you don’t actually know how to put them into words. It’s times like this I almost wish I had continued studying English Lit just to know how to use words.
The Jasmine Throne follows a few different POVs, chief among which are Malini and Priya, but there’s also Bhumika (the love of my life), Ashok, Rao and Vikram (okay so this sounds a lot of POVs, but it’s primarily Malini and Priya, with occasional chapters from the others). Malini is exiled by her brother, isolated in the Hirana, an ancient temple and the source of the deathless waters. Priya’s job is to come every night and clean. But an altercation between Priya and another maidservant reveals her true nature to Malini and ties them together in a bid to escape. Meanwhile, Malini’s brother is trying to tighten his grip on the region, with burnings and raids, which are fought against bitterly by rebels.
Much like Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash, the world of The Jasmine Throne is lush and richly described. As cliche as it sounds to say, you can imagine the whole thing, imagine yourself there clear as day. It’s a world that sucks you in and you don’t want to leave. You’ll pick the book up and not want to pick it up for one moment, it’s so compelling.
And it’s not just the world that causes this; the characters are just as much behind it (with the exception, perhaps, of the men. Only two men in this book have rights, the rest should just sit down and let the women get on with it). It’s a book about the spaces for power that women carve out for themselves in a world that hates them. You see it in Bhumika, who cultivates power, married to Vikram, the regent, and who ultimately understands it more than he. You see it in Malini, who parallels her brother, Aditya — where Aditya has the privilege of being able to remain soft and not face up to the horrors of the world, Malini is forced to make herself “monstrous” to build an armour against it.
It’s a book that will leave you thinking for hours, days, even weeks, after you finish it. You’ll want to pick it back up straight away, to reread it with the knowledge of how it’s going to play out.
It is, then, the best kind of book.
Anna’s Review
The Jasmine Throne is one of those books where even weeks and months after you’ve read it, you don’t stop thinking about it. But all that time also doesn’t make it easier to put into words all the reasons why the book leaves such an impression, why you’re so full of wonder over it. I can try, but alas.
Despite me recommending this book to everyone as lesbian fantasy, the best part about it is probably the worldbuilding. It’s inspired by Indian cultures, and you can clearly feel all the love the author put into creating the world, into research. It’s in the main plot arcs and it’s in the tiniest details; it’s in how one part of the empire is made to be homophobic after an invasion and in every description of the food the characters eat.
Most importantly, though, none of it is a crude info-dumping. Suri is a very talented author, knows where and when, and how to let the reader glimpse the world she created, so that the reader is fascinated and hungry for more, but never, ever bored. All the bits she puts forth create a rich world, a real world, with power dynamics that make sense, with problems but also miracles, with layers upon layers of details which add up to create something great, something monumental.
And the characters move through that world effortlessly, which is to say all of them seem an integral part of it but they also fight for their place in it. Especially the women. It’s not a black-and-white scenario where women are good and men are bad, but something is to be said about the men being power-hungry for the sake of wielding said power, and about women trying to find a path to more than the men allow them to have. Again, it’s a very real situation, even with all the magic and the plants growing out of people’s bodies.
Yes, it’s a lesbian fantasy romance, but before that it’s a novel about women. All of them beautiful, all of them starving for what the world denies them, be it power, choices, independence. And they fight for it. Openly or in secret, physically or with words, the exact way they think will work best to achieve their goals, not how someone else advises them to do it. They know better. And they’re willing to reshape the empire to get what they want.
Then finally, there’s the romance. The intensity of it is unlike anything else. It’s central to the story in a way that it at times it pushes the plot forward, without ever making it seem as if either Priya or Malini make decisions solely based on their love for the other. That love is undeniable and it shines through everything that happens, but it’s not the only propelling force of those women. It’s treated as something precious, both by Priya & Malini, and by the novel itself.
The Jasmine Throne is the kind of book that grips you from the start and doesn’t let go until the very last page. And even then, when you’re left alone with no more words, you’re still thinking about it all, about the pain, the hunger, the love. It’s the kind of book that carves out a piece of your heart it can live in forever, just like its characters strive to carve out a piece of the world for themselves.
So, have we convinced you that you want to read this book?
