First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
This week’s First Lines Friday book is a recent 2021 release, and a great read for Pride month!
First Lines
“In the court of the imperial mahal, the pyre was being built. The fragrance of the gardens drifted in through the high windows – sweet roses, and even sweeter imperial needle-flower, pale and fragile, growing in such thick profusion that it poured in through the lattice, its white petals unfurled against the sandstone walls.“
And the book is…….
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
Goodreads Synopsis: 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.
I was lucky enough to get a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley! I love a good fantasy trilogy, and if it features vengeful princesses and forbidden magic then all the better! I’m very excited to start reading this new book by Tasha Suri.
Have you already read ‘The Jasmine Throne’? Let me know in the comments!