The Jasmine Throne - GlaucaWyrm

hardcover, 512 pages

English language

Published June 7, 2021 by Orbit.

ISBN:: 9780759554160

(1 review)

Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne begins the powerful Burning Kingdoms trilogy, in which two women—a long-imprisoned princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic—come together to rewrite the fate of an empire.

Exiled by her despotic brother when he claimed their father's kingdom, Malini spends her days trapped in the Hirana: an ancient, cliffside temple that was once the source of the magical deathless waters, but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

A servant in the regent's household, Priya makes the treacherous climb to the Hirana every night to clean Malini's chambers. She is happy to play the role of a drudge so long as it keeps anyone from discovering her ties to the temple and the dark secret of her past. But when Malini bears witness to Priya's true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to steal a throne. The …

Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne begins the powerful Burning Kingdoms trilogy, in which two women—a long-imprisoned princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic—come together to rewrite the fate of an empire.

Exiled by her despotic brother when he claimed their father's kingdom, Malini spends her days trapped in the Hirana: an ancient, cliffside temple that was once the source of the magical deathless waters, but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

A servant in the regent's household, Priya makes the treacherous climb to the Hirana every night to clean Malini's chambers. She is happy to play the role of a drudge so long as it keeps anyone from discovering her ties to the temple and the dark secret of her past. But when Malini bears witness to Priya's true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to steal a throne. The other is a powerful priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will set an empire ablaze.

5 editions

Guan reviewed The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

When Malini said no

4 stars

When the kind-hearted Aditya abdicated the throne to his brother Chandra, the future of Parijatdvipa became written in fire and blood. To realise his vision for the world, emperor Chandra decrees women to be burned on pyres. His sister Malini rejects his bidding and is exiled to Hirana, an ancient cliffside temple in the southern Ahiranya. Poisoned and delirious, her fateful encounter with Priya, a maidservant keeping a tight lid on her previous life as magical temple child, causes the first ripples of revolt against Chandra's despotic reign.

In this first entry of the ongoing Burning Kingdoms trilogy, author Tasha Suri spins a relentless feminist tale of politics, magic and love. I really liked the complexities in the protagonists' relationship and the rich world-building of Parijatdvipa through quite a bit of POVs. The majority of the story alternates between Priya's and Malini's perspectives, but in-between are the stories of others …

When the kind-hearted Aditya abdicated the throne to his brother Chandra, the future of Parijatdvipa became written in fire and blood. To realise his vision for the world, emperor Chandra decrees women to be burned on pyres. His sister Malini rejects his bidding and is exiled to Hirana, an ancient cliffside temple in the southern Ahiranya. Poisoned and delirious, her fateful encounter with Priya, a maidservant keeping a tight lid on her previous life as magical temple child, causes the first ripples of revolt against Chandra's despotic reign.

In this first entry of the ongoing Burning Kingdoms trilogy, author Tasha Suri spins a relentless feminist tale of politics, magic and love. I really liked the complexities in the protagonists' relationship and the rich world-building of Parijatdvipa through quite a bit of POVs. The majority of the story alternates between Priya's and Malini's perspectives, but in-between are the stories of others - some major characters, some die the chapter they're introduced in - to flesh out the world.

The Jasmine Throne is a really solid, well-paced start for a promising series, one that will be finished this year both by publisher and by me.