This is the tale of Queen Lakshmi and her all-female guard, and the trusted friendship she develops with her most skilled of soldiers Sita. Sita was a motherless child raised in poverty. Seeking a way out for her family and being the protector of her little sister, Sita trains to be a warrior, in hopes of being selected to join the Queen's army. And this is exactly what she does, going on to become a friend and confident to the Queen.

This story has a little of everything. Full of adventure, adversity and even a little romance, Sita is a heroine for today. The author always writes an engaging and easy-to-read story. While I enjoyed this story, it wasn't quite as good as her earlier novel Madame Tussaud. Nevertheless I would recommend this one. ( )

This felt more like a coming-of-age story than an exciting and immersive historical fiction. Moran takes the reader through the protagonist Sita's life from beginning to end. Sita starts out as an unwanted but clever girl who's afraid of her grandmother to a soldier for the queen.
Moran included lots of rich details about Sita's life during her early years, but all I could think was "when are we going to meet the queen?" When she finally made it, I was disappointed with how mundane her life became. In fact, the first 2/3 of the book just plods along. You meet an interesting character here and there, but nothing really happens until the last third of the book. Until then, all I knew was that everything was very expensive.
During this time, Sita receives quite a few lectures about behavior, which are boring. Moran often creates the same type of heroine who's clever but naive. She's always surprised to find out she's made enemies. Really? You live at court, and you're surprised people don't like you? Everyone knows courts are full of schemers, everyone except the country bumpkin heroine. This is my least favorite historical fiction trope, but it seems to be Moran's favorite.
The last third of the book goes from 0-60 real quick. While it's interesting and fast-paced, it's not enough to make up for the slow pace of the beginning of the book. Part of this was because of the queen, Lakshmibai. While I get Sita's role is to relay events as she sees them, I was annoyed at how the queen was portrayed as fairly passive in her role. Moran talks about having to separate fact from legend when she did her research, but I feel like she should've used some of those legends to flesh out the Rani's character. It's historical fiction, after all. It doesn't have to be completely accurate.
In general, this book was lackluster compared to Moran's other works. That said, this was still a fantastic foray into a landscape and era that's often excluded from narratives. Just don't expect an earth-shattering read.
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Very enjoyable historical fiction about Queen Lakshmi. ( )

Interesting book, in a setting not often found in English literature. ( )

An extraordinarily compelling dip into British Colonial history -- extraordinary in that it's not from the British viewpoint, and compelling due to excellent writing. There are more than a few horrifying things that happen in this account of the Queen of Jhansi, ruler of a small kingdom in present day India during East India Company annexation. But it's a also a portrait of extraordinary people: Rani, Raja and the women who guard the Queen, the ordinary peasants, too -- life in India in the 1850s in a small village. Widows, widowers, a deaf father and life for young women in purdah.

There are many things about the ordinary home life of Sita (the heroine and guard) growing up that I find degrading and appalling -- the matter of fact attitudes towards Purdah and Sati. The denigration of widows and women in general. But the things I really appreciate about this book is that it made me appreciate the greater ancient culture as well, and painted the astonishing possibilities for the few women who did rise out of traditional strictures. All of that before we even get to the horrifying behavior of the British, who were so clearly in the wrong, so clearly greedy and exploitative.

Heartbreaking, stirring, tragic and most of all a vibrant portrait. Not exactly what I thought I was going to read, but beautifully done. ( )