Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran

Rebel Queen Reviews

• 
  jessica

  i think we can agree that the methods of historical colonisation are pretty terrible (an understatement) and this book is proof of that. but wow, it sure does provide some fascinating stories.
  
  i will say the title and synopsis are misleading. this is predominately about sita and the majority of the book is about her journey to become one of the queen guards and how she settles into the position - the conflict with the british is at the end, with the queen getting very little page time. but i actually found sita to be a more interesting character than the queen. i enjoyed her growth as an individual and valued her point of view regarding india, the queen, and the british.
  
  on a side note, while this book does feel deeply researched with regard to the historical events, i cant say how accurate this is from a cultural perspective. being that the author is a white american, i would be interested in hearing someone from indias point of view on how correctly the culture is represented.
  
  but overall, a very captivating story about a moment in history and a fierce group of women i would have not known about otherwise.
  
  ↠ 4 stars
• 
  Reeda Booke

  This is the story of Rani Lakshmi the queen of Jhansi told through the eyes of one of her warrior guard-women, Sita. Rani ruled the kingdom of Jhansi until the British East India Company annexed its territories in 1853 after a brutal and bloody war.
  
  
  
  I do not know much about India's history, and know little about their customs and culture except for what you see on TV or the tidbits you read about in other books, so I was instantly drawn into this tale about one of the country's most important females and her role in history. I loved learning about their culture and way of life though I have to say the caste system is a harsh subject to read about and one of the customs called "purdah", or the seclusion of women from public viewing, I found extremely sad.
  
  The story is told through Sita, who lives in a small village with her father, sister and cruel grandmother. As one of two girls in the family with no dowry to offer a prospective husband, the grandmother almost sells Sita to a prostitute temple but is saved by her father who decides to train her to become a Durgavasi, a member of an elite group of females who guard and protect the rani, of which there are only ten at any one time. From here, you will have to read the book to find out what happens because I do not want to give too much away.
  
  Suffice it to say, I found the book hard to put down and would definitely recommend it, especially for all historical fiction fans.
• 
  Bookaholic (reads every mortal thing)

  I'm curious but Non-Indians (and even some Indians) always somehow manage to monumentally fuck up Indian mythology and history (and I always know, considering I took 4 years of Indian history)
  
  I'm scared.
• 
  Kavita

  Rebel Queen is purportedly about Rani Laxmibai, Queen of Jhansi. But the queen doesn't get much screen presence at all. In fact, the queen doesn't even show up for the first six chapters! Instead, the story centres around one of her female guards, Sita. If Moran just wanted to write about a fictional character, she should have done so and not dragged Jhansi ki Rani into this pathetic mess.
  
  Sita comes from a small village where women practice purdah. Her grandmother hates her and wants to sell her off to temple prostitution but her father wants her to train for the queen's security guard. Sita ultimately gets selected and moves to Jhansi to live with the queen and the other female guards. While I did enjoy Sita's story in her village, it rapidly went downhill once she moves to Jhansi.
  
  Once in Jhansi, she picks up a childish high-school girl spat with another guard, Kahini. This is where the quality of the story goes down. The spats between the two are laughable and Kahini is the villain without reason. She randomly targets Sita for no reason and nothing she does has any long-lasting consequences. Even a five year old can think of better plots that would actually work!
  
  Sita is dumb as a doorbell and so is Rani Laxmibai. The queen has no personality whatsoever to speak of and it's criminal how bland she is portrayed. I am most upset at this colourless and false depiction of Jhansi ki Rani. There were so many opportunities to show her courage and intelligence. Instead, she dumbly trusts the very visible villains of the story and doesn't even know how to keep order in her court or her chambers. Seriously?!
  
  The story has obviously been written for white people who don't want to do any research. The cringe-worthy explanations of everything Indian really got on my nerves. It would have been much better if these explanations were made as footnotes rather than as part of the narrative. I kept coming out of the story and was kept reminded throughout that this author is not writing for me. Thanks very much, Moran! This is the worst type of exoticising.
  
  It also annoyed me intensely that the characters were all so taken up with Shakespeare and Homer. Fuck off, Moran! YOU are obsessed with Western literature. Sita spouts Shakespearean nonsense at random intervals, which I found ridiculous. This is another blatant attempt to connect with Western people instead of telling a proper Indian story. Just pick a bloody European character next time, then!
  
  The characters were bland and none of them felt true to form. Anu is the best character of them all and I would have preferred a better end for her. Everyone else, including the queen of Jhansi, were simply insipid. You would have thought that the development of Sita's relationship with the queen would be more detailed. Instead, this suffers from another case of 'telling rather than showing'.
  
  Now, I have been venting but the writing is not bad. There are some parts of the book that are decently researched and others that are riddled with ridiculous mistakes. There aren't many fictional books about Rani Laxmibai but this one is so bad and also, it's not really about the queen, so one might as well skip reading this. I don't recommend it at any rate.
• 
  Olivia B.

  I am so very excited for this book. Michelle Moran is by far my favorite author. Her detail and choice of words flow beautifully and put together wonderful stories.
• 
  PorshaJo

  Rating 4.5
  
  I don't remember when I put this in my TBR pile but I do know it's another that sat there. Recently, I started adding it in my library queue, then some new book I've been on hold forever would come in and I'd push it aside. Finally I started it, was immediately drawn in and again said....aarrgghhh why did I wait so long to read it. (This is generally my book life.)
  
  The Last Queen of India (also known as The Rebel Queen) tells the story of in 1850s India how the British began their takeover. At this time, India is bunch of kingdoms and the focus is on the Kingdom of Jhansi, ruled by Queen Lakshmi. The queen has built her army of guards, where she has male guards, but her closest are her female guards, the Durgavasi. The story is told from the point of view of one of her guards, Sita. You start when Sita is very young and her mother has just died in childbirth. Her wicked grandmother, feeling that they can't afford another female child, makes plans to give Sita to a brothel. Her father has other ideas and trains her to become part of the Durgavasi. You follow along as she trains, becomes a guard, and then watch the ultimate crumble of the Kingdom of Jhansi and their Rebel Queen to the hands of the British.
  
  I went with the audio and loved it, a narrator I've heard before. I loved the story, historical fiction based on a true story, real person (Queen Lakshmi) with some added details/story. Afterwards, I did some research and found this history fascinating. While a great read, it also has heartbreak - hearing more about the castes of India, how women are treated, some of the culture from so long ago, and how you could clearly see as plain as day what was happening but the Queen could not until it was too late. Why only 4.5? I thought it was a bit long in certain places and then the ending felt rushed to me. Overall so glad I've read this one and now looking at others from this author.
• 
  Ashley Marie

  4.5 stars
  
  I really enjoy Michelle Moran's books -- so far the only one I haven't read is The Second Empress. I was extremely intrigued by this one because I know next to nothing about India's history (besides the fact that it was colonized by Britain), and I love it when historical fiction can teach you something while it simultaneously tells a great story. Sita was a great MC, and everyone else seemed to be fleshed out very well-- her family and neighbors, the other women of the Durga Dal, the rani, the raja. REALLY good book, and I'm amazed it only took me two days to read it!
  
  
  
  Now I want Stephanie Thornton's Tiger Queens.
• 
  Tania

  "Some people are so impoverished all they have is gold. We, however, have pride.

  
  This was a quick, easy read about(yet another)piece of history mostly unknown to me. As part of the story the author included information on things like the caste system and the hindu religion. These explanations where brilliant: short, but extremely clear and for the first time I would be able to quickly explain these concepts to my children. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and couldn't put the book down, I kept saying just one more chapter, okay... just another chapter. I will be adding Michelle Moran's other titles to my TBR list, as I think she makes history extremely accesible, very similar to Philippa Gregory.
  
  The Story: Though the title belongs to Rani Lakshmi, queen of the kingdom of Jhansi, it is Sita Bhopal, her most trusted confidante, who narrates the tale. Too poor to marry, Sita faces life as a temple prostitute unless she earns a spot in the Durga Dal, the queen’s elite group of female guards.
• 
  Iset

  
  I liked Rebel Queen.
  
  This may be surprising, coming from a reader who disliked Michelle Moran’s trio of Egyptian novels and who felt that her French Revolution duo were so-so. Simply put, the Egyptian set didn’t feel to me like they captured the zeitgeist of the times at all, or that Moran understood the people. This was combined with what I felt was overly simplistic plot and a degree of stock characterisation that felt really unpolished and lacking in skill. That said, I noticed a slight upwards trend in my ratings that continued into the author’s French Revolution novels; these I found passably entertaining, although at times that simplistic plot showed up again with a couple of absurd incidents that just stretched my believability too far. I found myself questioning the ratings I gave those two in the run up to reading Rebel Queen, wondering whether I simply enjoyed Moran’s French Revolution novels more because she’d moved on to an era where I was by comparison relatively ignorant. But I decided not to revise my ratings; I had written a personal review of my reaction to those books which was just as valid as any other. Maybe it was because I’m not a French Revolution specialist, but I did feel that Moran was gradually improving as an author, the breadth of language seeming to expand, the dropping or lessening of juvenile elements such as stock characterisations and info dumps. With each book she seemed to wring one extra rating point. But I really enjoyed Rebel Queen, and in a solid, definite way too, not just in the lukewarm way I mildly enjoyed her French Revolution novels. And it may surprise some, but I’m glad. I didn’t pick up Moran’s Egypt novels a few years back and think “I hope I don’t enjoy them”. I was excited that a new writer was writing about ancient Egypt, and hoping that I’d stumbled across something fantastic. Moran’s Egypt novels didn’t quite turn out that way for me, but am I happy that Moran’s slowly turned it around and that Rebel Queen is a book I truly enjoyed? You bet I am!
  
  So, what were the magic ingredients in Rebel Queen? First, Moran made an excellent decision to make her main character entirely fictional. Moran is totally free to create Sita Bhosale out of wholesale cloth and she spends a great deal of time weaving a background for her that feels plausible. Not only that but Moran’s attention to detail and skill at language has improved so much so that Sita’s fictional life came across as evocative and authentic. In the same breath, Moran is able to slip this character seamlessly into historical events because of the huge gaps in the historical record in this era, and Sita still comes off believable and doesn’t take over the story (a la Mary Sue original characters in historical fiction). Likewise, the Kahini subplot. Based on what survives from the historical record, Kahini and her plot would seem to be entirely fictional, yet, because the story still ultimately holds to historical events and there are gaps in the record, Moran can afford to slip in this twist and get away with it. It would seem that Moran is beginning to learn the historical fiction writer’s craft of subtly altering the history or making use of the gaps without warping or distorting the actual history itself. Of course, I may end up with egg on my face; I know several acquaintances who are specialists in Indian history are quite nervously awaiting this book since they say that Indian history is often badly misrepresented in historical fiction. But to me, as a non-specialist on this topic, I have to say it felt largely authentic; not just the making use of gaps and good adherence to the historical record, but the attention to detail and evocativeness, as I said. This time round it really felt like Moran had a decent understanding of the social attitudes and inner thoughts of the historical figures.
  
  The one big deviation Moran does make is including the Circular Memorandum in the events of the book – an event which actually took place in 1886. Moran acknowledges this in her notes, but doesn’t explain why she transposed the event. Did she want to offend the readers’ sensibilities and stoke their resentment? Because I have to say the horrific brutalities of the time committed by both sides were more than adequate at stirring my empathy. My historian’s sense of fairness and objectivity is protesting a little at that being laid at the door of 1855 instead of the real perpetrators of 1886. Whilst I’m on the subject of niggles, sometimes Moran seemed to use “English” and “England” when what she meant was “British” or “Britain”. Also, I have to agree with a friend who said the blurb was misleading. The blurb gave me the impression that Rani Lakshmibai would be a perspective character and dominate the story, or at least share it equally with Sita, but really it’s Sita’s story throughout. The promised raising of armies and riding into battles actually doesn’t happen until about 90% of the way through the book, and in fact the line about raising one army of women and another of men – I never saw that mentioned once in the novel. From the blurb I had thought that war preparations would gear up by at least the halfway point, if not a little earlier, and the heart of the story would focus on the rani’s battles – a pretty exciting prospect to read about. Instead it comes late on and feels a little too glossed over and confused – I would’ve appreciated more time lingering on these events. What we get instead is a compelling story of Sita’s life struggles, which in its own way made for a good read – it just wasn’t what the blurb led me to expect I’d be getting. If I had a wishlist for this book it would be that it had been 500 pages instead of the actual 348 – that way the build-up of Sita’s story could still have been told, and then the military action could have formed the core and heart of the tale with all the lavish page space it deserves.
  
  Some of Moran’s old bad writing habits remain, but the good news is she’s learnt how to disguise them now, and do it well. I used to cringe at the clumsy info dumping in Cleopatra’s Daughter. There is info dumping here – Sita on several occasions outright explains points about Indian culture and history direct to the reader – but Moran gets away with it completely because she’s framed the whole story with Sita being persuaded to write her memoirs. At one point I did feel that the stock characterisation comes up again, when Sita is introduced to the other members of the Durga Dal, but over the course of the rest of the book further information about these characters is revealed, and since the book is told entirely from Sita’s perspective it makes sense that some characters are more thinly sketched than others. Speaking of the book being written from first person perspective, I’ve often observed that this is an awkward choice for historical fiction since grand events often have to be conveyed at which the narrator was not completely present. However, for a memoir framework around a historical novel, it works perfectly. It flowed smoothly and didn’t jar or write itself into any awkward corners at all, part of that being due to the historical gaps allowing Moran to place Sita ideally in the tale, at the rani’s right hand. The only niggle I can think of with writing style was that I knew what would come of Sita’s decision about the letter courier the instant it was first mentioned, saw that one coming from a mile off.
  
  Whilst I had a couple of niggles here and there, and I definitely wished we’d spent more time with the rani and on the actual battles, I found this book enjoyable, engrossing, and a solid read. Rebel Queen definitely continues Moran’s upwards trend. I can honestly say I would be happy to recommend to others.
  
  7 out of 10
• 
  Libby

  'Rebel Queen,' by Michelle Moran is a historical fiction novel about Queen Lakshmi, who fought against the British in the mid 1800's. The narrator is one of the Queens elite female guards, a Durgavasi named Sita Bhosale. As readers, we are able to follow Sita from the moment of her mother's death after the delivery of Sita's baby sister, Anu, (when Sita is only nine years old) to the aftermath of the British invasion. The novel actually opens when Sita is eighty-five, looking over her old diaries. Sita is a fascinating narrator, offering an intriguing look into this period of India's history, when the British East India Company was beginning to wrest power away from the Maharajas and Maharanis. Colonization is a prominent theme and Moran begins her novel with this epigraph:
  
  "Every Englishman is born with a certain miraculous power that makes him master of the world. When he wants a thing, he never tells himself that he wants it. He waits patiently until there comes into his mind, no one knows how, a burning conviction that it is his moral and religious duty to conquer those who have got the thing he wants."
  --George Bernard Shaw, 1897
  
  Although this epigraph foreshadows the story which follows, there is much more here than just a tale of colonization. The reader is able to explore family dynamics in Indian culture. gender roles, court betrayals, courage, loyalty, sacrifice, love and loss. I enjoyed Sita as a character. She exemplifies giving oneself to a higher purpose, honor, and integrity. Yes, she is a flawed character. That only makes her more c0mpelling! As a child, she is frequently berated by her grandmother, who thinks only boy children are worthwhile. This is part of Indian culture, as an Indian family has to save for years to give a dowry fortune with their girl children in marriage. Yet, Sita's deaf father never seems unhappy that he has daughters instead of sons. Sita's aim is to join the Rani's Durga Daal, and be able to save money for her sister's dowry. That is the only way her sister will be eligible for marriage. Sita was not eligible for marriage because there was no dowry. Grandmother's plan was to sell Sita to Annapurna's temple, where she would have lived a life of prostitution. When Sita's father hears of this, he starts training her to be a Durgavasi, along with help from his friend and neighbor, Shivaji. Sita and most women in India are raised in purdah (where women are confined to their homes and can only go outside when veiled). When Sita joins the Rani's guard, it is a new and thrilling experience, just to be outside and not be veiled. Purdah is not followed in Jhansi, the Queen's city, to which Sita is traveling.
  
  "But I had only left the confines of my courtyard very few times in my life, and for me everything was exhilarating: the variety of flowers that grew alongside the roads, the spice markets, the temples.... No woman in my family had seen these things for hundreds of years."
  
  It's difficult to imagine this way of life, but Moran brings it to life.
  
  One of the questions the readers discussion guide asks at the end of the book is, "Is it possible to forgive oneself for the misfortunes of those we love?" This is a difficult question that resonates within the 'Rebel Queen.'
  
  I would have liked more detail in the battle sequences. They were difficult to visualize. The secondary characters were very vividly drawn, but at the end, I would have liked more detail about what happened to them. I agree with the criticism that the blurb on the book jacket is inaccurate. Queen Lakshmi's all female army is her ten Durga Dals, hardly an army. The blurb also maintains that Sita is her most trusted warrior. While the Rani and Sita become very close and she does listen to Sita's counsel, the relationship is not depicted as very trusting. Surrounded by those who would betray her, the Rani, is at times distrustful of Sita, as she is of many others.
  
  I very much enjoyed this novel and was captivated by the protagonist, Sita and her story.
• 
  Erin

  How pleasant it was to kick back on Sunday evening with this 2015 historical fiction. Set in 19th century India and told from the perspective of Sita, a trusted soldier in the all female army of Rani Lakshmi, Michelle Moran details the final years before India was swallowed up by the British Empire.
  
  Michelle Moran is one of my favorite authors and what I love about her books is the way in which she breathes life again into people(specifically women) whom history tends to have either forgotten or whose historical roles have often been dismissed by their enemies.
  
  It might have lingered on my TBR for 4 years but it definitely was a book that held my attention and is among my favorites of 2019
  
  Goodreads review 10/06/19
• 
  Caroline

  "Rebel Queen" tells the story of Rani Lakshmibai, an Indian queen famous for her rebellion against the British regime. That's a fairly straightforward summary--except for the fact that Lakshmi's story is told through the eyes of Sita, one of her elite female bodyguards. (Note: I didn't know about the existence of these women-soldiers, the Durgavasi, until reading this book. Another note: they are amazingly cool.)
  
  This is a difficult book to review. Although I knew of Lakshmibai for years before picking up "Rebel Queen" and have always been interested in Indian history, I know few solid facts about her and her era. Thus, I can't speak to the accuracy of the novel. (I'm not even sure if Sita Bhosale existed by that name, or if Moran made an amalgmation of the Durgavasi women and slapped that name on her. In the historical note at the book's name, she mentions one of the women by name as a real historical figure, so I'm assuming Sita existed as well.) I also hesitate to speak much on its cultural accuracy because frankly, it's a white woman's telling of Indian history from an Indian woman's perspective. Moran is married to an Indian man--and has a couple children with him; from what I can tell on her blog she seems set on them being in touch with that side of their heritage and kudos there, girl--and did a lot of research for this book in India. I tend to think that she probably knows more about the Indian culture than most white American women; but she's still a white American woman and you have to take this all with a grain of salt. Mistakes can be made when you're writing about a culture so unlike your own.
  
  All of that being said, I really liked "Rebel Queen". But you should know: this is not Rani Lakshmibai's story. I have to admit, I'm not often fond of "stories about famous women told from the perspective of their less significant friends" subgenre of historical fiction. I just don't see the point. And I will say this--as much as I enjoyed "Rebel Queen", I think it would have been even better if we'd read it from the rani's perspective. Still, the world of the Durgavasi is fascinated, and Sita is a compelling character with an interesting backstory. In truth, the rani is little more than a supporting character. I didn't feel like I knew her at all by the book's end. But I did know Sita and her world of women.
  
  That's the core of the book: the relationships between women. (I wasn't such a fan of the intense, almost unprovoked rivalry between Sita and her fellow guard, Kahini, but it made sense by the end.) The Durgavasi are more than the rani's guards. They are her confidants and friends, her entertainers and consultants. And of course, with limited contact with men, they come to rely upon each other a great deal. This I found more compelling than the rebellion, which seemed rather rushed and shoved into the background. We're told of the destruction the rebellion brings, but don't get to see it up close very much.
  
  What we do see is the devoted and heartbreaking relationship between Sita and her younger sister Anuja. This is the backbone of the novel. Sita enters the rani's service to support Anu; her world virtually revolves around the girl until she leaves home, and becomes torn between her loyalty to the rani and her loyalty to her family and Anu. Frankly, I feel like this could have been stretched even further, it was so interesting.
  
  Perhaps--partially--because of this, Sita's love interest is forgettable. The romance in "Rebel Queen" is minor and completely unnecessary. It felt inserted into the story out of obligation, and even if it is a part of the real? Sita's story, I felt it could have been included in an author's note rather than the actual plot. I just didn't care about that at all.
  
  For all its flaws, "Rebel Queen" is worth the read. I feel like it's important to support books with a strong emphasis on female relationships, and though it could have taken that element further, this is one of those books. Again, I can't say much about the cultural/historical accuracy of the novel. But I appreciate Moran's efforts to bring an often-overlooked tragedy--that of the British atrocities against India--to the forefront of historical fiction.
• 
  Erin (Historical Fiction Reader)

  Find this and other reviews at:
  http://flashlightcommentary.blogspot....
  
  I knew nothing about Queen Lakshmi or the Indian Rebellion of 1857 when I picked up Michelle Moran’s Rebel Queen. My eye was drawn to the unusual locale and an eagerness to experience a story that was both foreign and entirely unfamiliar. I’d enjoyed Moran’s work in the past and was optimistic of my prospects, but looking back I can’t help feeling the reality fell short of my expectations.
  
  In theory, Sita was a well-positioned narrator, but I don’t feel Moran’s treatment of the character lived up to the jacket description. Sita spends relatively little one-on-one time with Queen Lakshmi and much like Varvara in Eva Stachniak’s The Winter Palace, is wholly removed from the queen during the most exciting and important events of the narrative. The emotional and at times physical distance between Moran’s heroine and her headliner is substantial and I felt that fact limited the author’s ability to convincingly develop the queen’s complexities and personal views.
  
  I was further frustrated by the pacing and tone of the narrative. I truly appreciated the cultural insight Moran offered throughout the text, but I spent most of my reading waiting for something to happen. Eighty percent of the novel focuses on some form of sisterhood and that’s great, but I personally found the quiet intimacy of those relationships tedious and dull. I crave movement, action, political tension and urgency, but such moments didn’t arrive till the eleventh hour and felt exceeding awkward tacked on in final moments of Sita’s story.
  
  At the end of the day, I learned a lot from Rebel Queen, but I can’t help wondering if my personal tastes would be better satisfied by the work of John Masters or Christopher Nicole. I don’t regret the time I spent with this book, but I don’t think it Moran’s strongest release and would have reservations recommending it forward.
• 
  Ena u zemlji knjiga

  Radnja romana smještena je u Indiju u XIX stoljeće, za vrijeme vladavine kraljice Lakšmi Bai. Nisam čitala ostale prevedene romane Michelle Moran, iako je jako hvaljena i ima odlične ocjene. Ova me privukla zahvaljujući Pričama za laku noć za djevojčice buntovnice u kojoj sam čitala o kraljici čiji je period vladavine je opisan u ovom romanu.
  
  U središtu romana je Sito, djevojka koja iz siromašnog sela dolazi na dvor biti pripadnica Durga Dala, skupine djevojaka obučenih nizom vještina, a čiji je glavni zadatak hrabro štiti kraljicu i, ukoliko je to potrebno, za nju dati život. Kroz njene oči pratimo život na dvoru - prijateljstva i neprijateljstva, spletke, historijska dešavanja u Indiji koja je tada bila pod britanskom vlašću, te sam način života i običaje. Preporučujem :)
• 
  Justine Gower

  God, what a downer. Everything just falls apart at the end. I guess it's realistic given the subject matter but pretty depressing.
  
  I feel that this book is one of Moran's weaker novels. The real point of the story, the revolution, is overshadowed by her coverage of the main character's training and journey to become a warrior. The events of the revolution are then told in a blow-by-blow fashion (this happened, then this, then this...), so that it all happens very quickly and at the end of the book. When the title of the book is "Rebel Queen," you sort of expect that the queen's act of rebellion will be the centerpiece of the story.
  
  Another reviewer pointed out that for all the focus on Sita's training to be a bodyguard to the queen, we really don't get to see her in action. It's true! She's supposed to be very skilled with different weapons, but because of the way Moran glosses over the revolution, there's really no opportunity for us to watch Sita fight. She shoots an arrow at someone and hits him in the arm. That's it.
  
  The voyage to England felt pointless. I didn't do any research, so I don't know if it really happened, but either way it wasn't an interesting or integral part of the novel.
  
  Kahini's treachery could've been fleshed out a bit more. That had potential but it always seemed to be off on the sidelines until BAM! It's important and relevant!
  
  The way things ended up with Sita's family was a total bummer. I don't have anything particularly negative to say about it other than I just didn't like it. I expected things to turn out differently because of the close relationship Sita shares with her father and sister. The reality was a massive letdown. It felt like Sita couldn't catch a break, and I generally don't like stories that go in that direction. She did get a moderately happy ending, which helped.
  
  Overall, I believe it was a mistake to use Sita as the narrator. Moran wants to tell the story of the rebel queen, but we're stuck in Sita's head. That's not a bad thing, but it means that this isn't really the queen's story. I think the author had a hard time deciding where she wanted to go with this, and unfortunately, it shows.
  
  I liked this book okay. I kept reading it, which is better than not wanting to come back to it night after night. Ah well, on to the next!
• 
  Cortney - The Bookworm Myrtle Beach

  I enjoyed Rebel Queen, as I always enjoy Michelle Moran's books. The war that was talked about in the blurb and the two armies didn't really happen until the very end and felt like a pretty minor story line, and it was hard to keep track of who each character was, just because of the fact that I'm not familiar with Indian names, but other than that, I liked it.
  
  I hope she writes more books soon!
• 
  Adite

  This is the second historical fiction book I have read which is about Indian history but written by a non-Indian. It also is about a one of a kind historical personality--Rani Lakshmibai--who is unfortunately not much talked about outside of India. So when I came across Michelle Moran's book I simply had to read it. So, did I like it? Yes, but much as I wanted to, I didn't love it. My rating would be 3.5 stars. Kudos to the author for doing her homework/research really well. She has a total grasp on concepts such as sati, the caste system and the complicated Indian milieu of the 1850s, which would challenge most non-Indians. But Michelle does it with a surprising compassion and understanding.
  But--and this is a big 'but'--the problem with the book (in my opinion) is that Rani Lakshmibai is only a secondary character in the book. If it were a movie it could be called a 'guest appearance'. The blurb gives you the impression that this is the Queen's story. But actually, the Queen really comes into her own in the last 25% of the book. Sita is the real protagonist of the story, who is a member of the Queen's elite all-female army. For three quarters of the book, the story revolves around how this young woman from a modest background in a remote village makes it to the inner circle of the Queen's court, some amount of court politics, a budding romance with a guardsman. The book really explodes into action in the last quarter--and tries to justify the premise of the story as per its back cover blurb--and that's where it really comes into its own. Moran's writing is visceral and the human drama of a queen leading her ragtag bunch of soldiers against a powerful foreign army is heart wrenching.
  Surprisingly enough, even though the author devotes such a large number of pages to Sita's relationship with her own family (and her sister Anuja) the dramatic moment when the two sisters meet after a catastrophic event that occurs is kind of flat and one-dimensional. I also had an issue with one of the dramatic scenes--where Anuja turns to her husband for help, screaming his name--as implausible. (In 1850s India, no woman would speak her husband's name no matter how horrid the situation. Moreover, given women's lowly status in the family they had no rights to challenge men's decisions). I guess the problem was that in the overall tragedy of the story, the smaller tragedy of Sita's family was lost (specially as all the dramatic events happen in quick succession leading to the finale).
  Even so, the book makes for a compelling read and is a great contribution to the pathetically inadequate body of work on Indian history. Going by the large number of reviews the book has garnered, it does show that there are enough readers who are curious about other countries and their histories. Though it does makes me wonder if Western readers would respond with such enthusiasm if the book were to be penned by an Indian rather than a Westerner. For those of you who are interested in this period in Indian history, I would highly recommend "In the City of Gold and Silver:The story of Begum Hazrat Mahal" by Kenize Mourad.
• 
  Sonja Arlow

  Any fan of historical fiction has their favourite time period or culture and for me it has always been World War 2 and the mid to late 19th century. I have never really been drawn to Indian history so it was with some reluctance I started this book. But I was pleasantly surprised once I started reading.
  
  Boys are prized much higher than girls and more often than not little girls just “disappear” directly after being born. The ones that do survive this are married at the age of 10. If a wife’s husband dies it’s considered the honourable thing for a widow to commit Sati by walking into the funeral pyre of her late husband, but really it’s just to get rid of another unwanted woman.
  
  The mid-19th century was also the time when the British were slowly chipping away at the various kingdoms within India with the view to dominate all of them.
  
  Against this backdrop the story of Queen Lakshimi unfolds.
  
  As the story is told from the perspective of one of the elite female guards to the Queen, we don’t actually get to know the Queen as intimately as the book blurb alludes to but we do get an in-depth feel of this time period of India, the caste system and specifically Indian culture and traditions as it relates to women.
  
  The rivalry between the women of the Durgavasi (female guards) reminded me of the women in the harem in
  Esther. There is the same back stabbing, jealousy and greed but with more weapons and less sex :-)
  
  This was an easy read that is not recommended if you want a more rigorous account of this piece of history. If you normally shy away from historical fiction because you worry that it will be to boring or heavy then this is for you.
  
  I am looking forward to the release of this author’s a book about Mata Hari later this year.
• 
  Stephanie Thornton

  India's Sepoy Rebellion is a critical turning point in both Indian and British history, but this is the first time I've seen the event fictionalized, so I was thrilled to see Michelle Moran hit Queen Lakshmi's story out of the park. (So much so, in fact, that I plan to recommend this as an extra credit book for my students!)
  
  What I've read about 19th century India has been mostly confined to textbooks, to it was a treat to experience life in the rani's Panch Mahal through the eyes of Sita, one of Queen Lakshmi's female guards. Sita's story has a little bit of everything: romance, betrayal, ambition, and a twist at the end that's simply heartrending. India truly comes to life with its fragrant spices and colorful festivals, celebrations and unique culture that Moran has painstakingly recreated.
  
  I've been an avid fan of Moran's novels about history's forgotten women since Nefertiti hit the shelves, but Rebel Queen is now my favorite of her books. Highly recommended!
• 
  Annette

  The book weaves a story of an Indian Queen, who ‘rebelled’ against British regime in the 19th century. The story is conveyed through the eyes of the Queen’s closest confidante and most trusted soldier in her female army. The author shines a light on a time and place rarely explored in historical fiction.
  
  The main voice of Queen’s confidante brings an interesting story of turbulent time of India and its conflict with the British Empire. It is a conflict imposed by the British and not a rebellion coming from the Queen. The only rebellion there is it comes from the rebels. And the Queen is a secondary character in this story.
  
  The Queen’s confidante is the main character and the book starts with her childhood and the relationship with her abusive grandmother. Therefore, the title is misleading. I think the original title of Heretic Queen would have been more appropriate as she was seen by some as heretic.
  
  The story is told in a vivid manner with many aspects of Indian culture well and colorfully presented. It is well-written and it is a page-turner from the beginning to the very end.
  
  For me Michelle Moran is one of a few very consistent authors. Whatever she writes is interesting and well-written. This story is excellent. Nevertheless, my favorite book by her remains to be Madame Tussaud.
  
  @FB/BestHistoricalFiction
  @
  https://bestinhistoricalfiction.blogs...
• 
  Bria

  The book summary on the dust jacket was the most interesting aspect this book had to offer. After reading the summary I was expecting a valiant, overwhelming and powerful personality in the Queen, lots of action and a wealth of emotion because the British are trying to rip away a country’s heritage, land and way of life.
  
  What I got was random passages written in simplistic history book form to keep the reader informed of the events (because the writing was not adept enough for this), and constant reminders about how the Indian culture is different than Western culture through snide little comment like, “in case you didn’t know” or my personal favorite “everything you knew about _____ is wrong”. I would have been able to forgive these faults because they are prevalent in young adult fiction, if this novel wasn’t void of any emotion. Sita, the main character, is rescued from the life of prostitute by training to become part of the Queen’s elite bodyguard. She trains vigorously for years, but the author choose not to describe this training and said, Sita knew it was her destiny and just took it and accepted it.
  Now there is no person on this green Earth who can wake up early everyday, do manual labor, train and become a complete loner in thier society and not have a single complaint or opinion about it! It was so painstakingly obvious that that author had no experience with what she was writing about. This level of training requires focus and dedication and is a constant internal battle. Where was this in her description?! Sita was supposed to be going through an insane training routine that changed her physically and mentally and yet her only descriptions of it are, “well I’ve just got to do this” or “Hey I’m saving my sister”. Where was her drive, her pain? There is an ENTIRE genre written about athletes and martial artists and competitors that describe the grueling training that they endured and here Sita is like, “I don’t know what the big deal is, I just wake up, do amazingly well at my training and then go bed as the years magically pass me by”. You have got to be kidding me.
  It turns out the author uses this same escape route whenever she is faced with a situation she does not know how to describe.
  Later on while describing the massacre of British women and children Sita says “I will tell you that I have never read an account that accurately describes the horror”. Are you serious?! This is your chance as an author to connect with the reader, to describe the pain of the Indian populace and how this pain transformed into something twisted, something dark. This is a time to highlight your skills at description and make the reader fall hard for your character’s plea and a time to showcase! A time to CREATE! I read because I want to be transported by the author’s words and fall captive to their spell, and this is the kind of cheap cop-out Moran takes?! That is just insulting and disappointing.
  Don’t worry folks! I hope you weren’t looking forward to action or battle scenes where Sita actually uses her skills. Moran does her cop-out routine again during the climatic battle between the Queen and the British. Here Sita is going to fight, she is going to use her training to protect this Queen she has pledged her life to, I was waiting and waiting for it and we get one sentence. ONE SENTENCE. “ I won’t describe for you the bloodshed and cruelty I saw that day, I don’t wish to remember it and I don’t like to admit that I am capable of the acts that I committed”. WTF. If this was the true Sita, she would have ben doing her duty and protected her beloved Queen, country and family. Where is this hard-core girl that trained for hours? The writing should be raw, and moving when describing this battle. Stories from veterans always carry that sense of sadness mixed with a feeling of necessity for the acts committed. At least they FELT something. Here Sita doesn’t share any emotion or any description. At least point I am convinced Sita it a robot. A boring robot that wears a sari.
  Also I felt absolutely no feeling towards the romantic interest, Arjun. Their whole courting ritual was only a couple sentences here and there and I didn’t really get what the attraction was, besides the fact that they had similar jobs. Or maybe it was because Sita is an unfeeling robot and incapable of loving or dating or courtship.
  That’s probably it.
  The only character that had emotion was Sita’s sister Anu and her grandma. Their reactions and personalities made sense and were deeper than robot Sita. Anu was the only character I actually had any feeling towards (besides my hatred of Sita’s grandma’s behavior) and her life was so sad, but realistic for a country in war.
  
  Basically Sita, you are an awful main character and I could have replaced your name with America, June or Tris or a thousand other young adult character names and you would have made the same cookie cutter decisions.
  
• 
  Ivana Oltovska

  I loved it nice book
• 
  Ivka

  Je to taký malý skrytý poklad (napriek menu autorky). Deväťročná Sita bude o pár mesiacov zrelá na vydaj, ale potom matka privedie na svet ďalšiu dcéru, pri pôrode zomrie a chudobná dedinská rodina má zrazu Problém. Panovačná stará matka sa rozhodne Situ predať na prostitúciu, ale milovaný otec to na poslednú chvíľu zarazí a oznámi že hahá, ja ju naučím bojovať a stane sa z nej osobná strážkyňa kráľovnej.
  
  Takže Sita sa po nejakom čase dostáva na kráľovský dvor, kde je ako dedinčanka úplný outsider, nemá ani poňatia o etikete, žiadne peniaze na nové šaty, a keď ju začne jedna z jej kolegýň šikanovať, nemá sa ani komu posťažovať, lebo kolegyňa je kráľovnina príbuzná. Okolo toho všetkého funguje magická India, zaujímavé zvyky, pekný kapitán (a keďže strážkyne žijú v celibáte, pekný iba zdiaľky) a na posledných stranách aj trochu tej vojny a rebélie z názvu. V podstate také indické Pamäti gejše. Odkedy stále dookola čítam iba historickú fikciu o Európe, ma táto kultúrna zmena nadchla, a autorka si narozdiel od poslednej knihy mohla dovoliť viac vymýšľať, takže sa to nemusí tak kŕčovito držať známych vecí a číta sa to viac ako príbeh. Odporúčam, je to super. 8/10
• 
  Kayla Edwards

  Once again, Michelle Moran has completely captivated her audience with glimmers of the past. Her storytelling weaves a tale from pieces of history, broken hearts, betrayal, love, and sacrifice to breathe life into the Rebel Queen and those dear to her. It was an emotional roller coaster, but one I would not have wanted to miss.
  
  This book will appeal to anyone interested in history, India, remarkable women, court intrigue, international politics, family drama, or who just wants a good, 'ole-fashioned story about a poor girl working her way up in the world with nothing more than her own determination and honesty. I would quickly recommend it to anyone in the mood for a wonderfully powerful story.
  
  I received this ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Luthien

  2.5/5
  
  Also on my blog,
  Luthien Reviews.
  
  After all the praise I’ve heard about Michelle Moran, this book was an enormous let-down.
  
  For one thing, its title–and blurb–are misleading in the extreme. Rebel Queen (or, in the UK, The Last Queen of India) is told from the POV of someone else, a character the blurb calls Lakshmi’s “closest confidant” (which Sita really isn’t). The queen in question is a significant supporting character, but nothing more.
  
  The worst part of Rebel Queen is its juvenile, somewhat condescending tone. It’s told in first-person by Sita, who is supposedly writing it as an account for British readers many years later. It reads like YA–maybe even middle-grade in some places–and Moran (or her editors, or both of them, I don’t know) decided to approach the whole thing as if her readers knew nothing about Indian culture or history and needed their hands held. Perhaps this assumption is fair, but it ruins the story. I’ll be the first to admit that India is a bit of an enigma to me, even though I do have some background knowledge. So many different regions, traditions, gods–of course, any reader might feel in over their heads! However, Sita constantly interrupts the narrative to info-dump about this or that, phrasing her lessons in a way that set my teeth on edge. “If you don’t know,…” “I know Western readers struggle to understand…” “Think of it this way, maybe that will help.” “If you have ever seen [X] then you will understand that [Y].” “The only thing most foreigners know about India is…”
  
  She constantly defines words in the middle of the narrative, too, and sometimes switches between two of them (i.e., “rani” vs. “queen”), so imagine my shock when I discovered that there’s a full glossary in the back! If you provide a glossary and context clues, slowing the story down for the sake of definitions isn’t necessary.
  
  All this hand-holding also makes Sita seem like a bit of a hypocrite when, later in the novel, she is baffled and overwhelmed by the English traditions she must learn. (Forks and knives and spoons, oh my!) It’s almost as if she experiences Western culture in the same way that Westerners experience hers. Who’d’ve thought?! Was there any need for the author to condescend one way or the other?
  
  Apart from the tone, the writing is just not very complex; even if Sita did not talk down to readers, it would probably still read like YA. Clumsy, heavy-handed similes–“if you have ever had the opportunity to visit a zoo and seen them feeding the lions, then you will recognize the way that [X] looked in that moment…”–and repeated telling-not-showing squashes any lyricism and beauty trying to escape from the prose.
  
  (There are some very plainly incorrect passages that any editor should’ve caught, too, such as when Sita describes the tree-lined coast of England as being thick and green like “jagged emeralds”–in December. But I digress.)
  
  The pacing is way off as well. Some things are rushed in the extreme (at one point, an entire year passes in the space of maybe thirty pages) while others drag. There’s no consistency. And despite how action-packed the last section of the book is, it takes up less space in the book than the rani’s pregnancy. Moran even cops out of narrating almost the entire rebellion, saying instead that:

  I won’t describe for you the bloodshed and cruelty I saw that day. I don’t wish to remember it, and I don’t like to accept that I am capable of the acts I committed. (339)

  What?! No. Bad author. Why are you even writing the book, then?
  
  Sita never, ever proves her prowess as a warrior except in a few scenes where she accurately hits targets with an arrow. And when she finally has an opportunity to prove her skills…that happens. It’s beyond disappointing. It’s lazy writing and characterization coming from an acclaimed author.
  
  Maybe the fact that there is way too much stuff in way too little space has something to do with the pacing issues as well. It tries to focus on everything and instead focuses effectively on nothing. The initial conflict/plot deals with Sita’s family and her abusive grandmother; the next conflict deals with mean girl drama between Sita and another Burgavasi; the final, larger conflict is of course that between the British Empire and Jhansi. There’s also a romance thrown in for good measure. And this book is only 340 pages long!
  
  That brings me, at last, to the characters.
  
  Sita isis about as interesting as dry white toast. There were a select few moments when I really felt for her, but I never thought I knew her. She comes across as a bit of a Mary Sue: beautiful, intelligent, well-read, strong, brave, loyal, selfless, even skilled in all kinds of weaponry, and a quick favorite of the rani…but as I mentioned above, her martial skills are rarely demonstrated. The same goes for her supposed intelligence and bravery. She never learns from her mistakes; as one of the other Durgavasi tells her, “You may be the quickest girl the Durga Dal has seen in quite some time, but you can’t follow even the simplest warning.” She feels like the same kind of empty, unoriginal heroines that populate dozens of books: a book-lover, supposedly smart, and beautiful by default. Boring.
  
  Rani Lakshmibai herself seems like a genuinely fascinating historical figure–but she, too, was dull in this tale except in a few places where she displayed great passion. I didn’t care about her one way or the other.
  
  Neither Sita’s love interest and best friend have any memorable qualities. They were both just names on the page to me. Her feelings for the two of them never jump out at me or feel particularly significant, and so I felt nothing for them, either.
  
  The villains, meanwhile, are ridiculous, exaggerated, and over-the-top in every way. The first, Sita’s grandmother, tries to sell her into prostitution when she’s just nine. She also belittles and beats Sita and her much-younger sister for every tiny transgression they make. The other is another Durgavasi called Kahini; she begins as a typical Mean Girl, but as the story progresses, she becomes truly diabolical. Moran gives her (fictional) actions far too much historical weight. Between them, they spoiled a good portion of the novel for me–though at least they have personalities.
  
  And then there is the rani’s husband, the raja, Gangadhar Rao. Moran portrays him as an outrageously effeminate man fond of theatre and luxury…and quite obviously also fond of men. Sita has this ridiculous conversation with her friend one night:

  “Some men simply have no interest in women.”
  
  “But is this only in Jhansi?”
  
  […] “Sita don’t tell me you think this is unique to Jhansi. This has existed since the beginning of time. The raja was born this way, the same way you were born with an interest in men.” (195)

  I don’t know the general Indian attitude towards homosexuality, then or now, but I doubt girls raised in conservative families like Sita and her friend would be so understanding and even quote Lady Gaga throw around modern phases like “oh, he was just born this way”!
  
  But that’s almost beside the point, because when I looked up Gangadhar Rao, what little I found describes him…a bit differently. Instead of a spendthrift who left the real political and economic decisions to his wife, he was “an able administrator [who] improved the financial condition of Jhansi,” “possessed wisdom, diplomacy, and was a lover of art and culture,” and “the British were impressed by his statesmanlike qualities.” [
  x] While his taste “was quiet extravagant,” he also held “extremely old fashioned and repressive” personal views. [
  x] While my “sources” aren’t a lot to go on (they’re the best I could find), they certainly seem to contradict Moran’s portrait in which the raja enjoys playing the part of women on stage and dresses so that, behind his back, the British supposedly call him the queen and his wife, the true raja. Nothing gets my goat in historical fiction worse than this: deliberately twisting the personality of a real historical figure.
  
  Dishonor on you, Ms. Moran. Dishonor on your cow!
  
  I did enjoy seeing Queen Victoria portrayed, correctly, as a rather silly woman far more concerned with court etiquette than foreign political affairs (her husband Prince Albert was the mover and shaker in their marriage). It’s even speculated that she demanded the title “Empress of India” out of jealousy. Her eldest daughter, Vicky, married the heir to the German Kaiser, meaning that someday Vicky would outrank her mother as the German Empress.
  
  The total dismissal of Parliament, though, I really didn’t like. Sita may be Indian, but she’s supposed to be intelligent and well-read. Instead, she grumbles about how Queen Victoria just sits on her fat arse and lets Parliament tell her what to do without considering that it might good for a monarch to be unable to dictate things at the drop of a hat.
  
  Before this review totally gets away from me, I will say that Rebel Queen has definitely inspired me to learn more about Rani Lakshmibai, and it seems to have had the same effect on many readers. Even here, she had some inspiring and inspired moments, such as when she spoke up against sati, the practice of widows self-immolating on their husbands’ funeral pyres:

  [W]hat woman has ever changed her husband’s fate by joining him on his pyre? And what woman has ever built a stronger kingdom by disappearing from it? Our ancestors believed that committing sati was an act of courage. I say that with the exception of the goddess Sati, who after all, is immortal, it is an act of cowardice! Who will raise her children, or care for her parents, or tend her garden? No. If I die, it will be by the sword, not by the flame! (214)

  If only her character had been that badass throughout the novel. sigh
  
  To be fair, there are a few truly lovely passages scattered throughout the narrative, and here and there the world of Jhansi and of northern India really comes alive in all its colorful, musical glory. In certain parts of the book, I also experienced real fury and disgust, not only towards the British and the villains of the novel, but towards the regressive, cruel attitudes concerning women expressed by many the characters.
  
  Rebel Queen is not a good book. At no point did it convince me that Michelle Moran is the author so many have claimed she is. It feels rushed and lazy, a spur-of-the-moment idea Moran didn’t really have her heart in. It feels like the editors and publishers knew they could make money off of Moran’s name, and thus didn’t bother to help her improve what could have been a decent story.
• 
  Marcela (BookaholicCat)

  4 ½ Stars
  
  For years I heard great things about Michelle Moran’s books, but for one reason or another I didn’t read any of them… until September last year… when finally, thanks to Thor, Loki and Batman I picked up Nefertiti… And OMG! It was amazing! Historical fiction at its best. I loved it so much I read The Heretic Queen right afterwards and OMG! I loved it too! What else to do than to read Cleopatra’s Daughter next… and OMG! Moran can’t do wrong… I loved it too! By them I knew I was addicted to her books and what else I could do than to read Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution, the only problem was I knew there was only one book left to read and then I had to wait until March 2015 to the release of Rebel Queen. I tried to postpone reading The Second Empress: A Novel of Napoleon's Court, but I couldn’t. My intentions only lasted couple of days until I “had to” read it. My addiction to her books was out of hand, I knew it, but there was nothing I could do. I tried reading historical fiction by other authors but it was not the same, none compared to Moran’s books. I craved them. To say I was dying to get my hands on an early copy of Rebel Queen is the understatement of the year… Luckily I received that longed copy… I wanted to read it immediately, but at the same time I didn’t want to read it, because what I was going to do next? I was also afraid because lately I’m preferring audiobooks to books, but I shouldn’t have… After the first page – yes, only one page - I was completely invested in the story… Michelle Moran is that good.
  
  Rebel Queen is set in the XIX century in India during the British invasion and it’s the story of Queen Lakshmi of Jhansi, who is historically known as the Rebel Queen. The story is told from Sita Bhosale’s point of view.
  
  Read the rest of my review at
  The Bookaholic Cat
• 
  Meg - A Bookish Affair

  4.5 stars. This is one of those books that I feel like I have been anxiously awaiting for a very long time (according to Goodreads, it looks like maybe I added it to my TBR way back in 2013! The book is just coming out now so it has been a long (but very worthwhile) wait. I haven't read nearly enough of Moran's books (I must fix this!) but this book is definitely in the vein of some of the things that I loved about her other books between a memorable story, great characters, and rich historical detail.
  
  In "Rebel Queen," we meet the last queen of India, Queen Lakshmi. I did not know much about her at all before reading this book but was very drawn to the character for her strength and her part in the history of India. We get to know Queen Lakshmi through one of her confidantes and her female guards, Sita. Queen Lakshmi is obviously the marquee character her but Sita is fascinating in her own right. I really loved this character! Through a lot of hard work, she makes her way into the elite guard forces (a process which I loved reading about). She is committed to her family and works very hard to provide a dowry for her beloved younger sister. Moran creates a really well-rounded, real feeling main character that I loved to follow.
  
  The historical detail in this book is a treat! I love reading about India but I feel like a lot of the fiction that I have read that is set there is mostly set in the 20th century so Sita's world was brand new to me. Moran paints a rich picture of court life and the struggles between the Indians and the Brits. All the detail made the story feel incredibly rich and pulled me in right from the start! Overall, this is a great story that historical fiction lovers will eat right up!
• 
  Olivermagnus

  Queen Lakshmi of Jhansi is a hero in India but little is known of her in most of the rest of the world. In Rebel Queen, her story of resistance to the English takeover of her kingdom is told from the viewpoint of Sita, a member of Lakshmi’s elite female guards, the Dhurga Dal. We begin with an introduction to Sita as a young girl. She, like other women in her caste, live in purdah and cannot be seen by any man outside her own family. Her family doesn't have any money for her dowry so she and her father decide to have her train her to become a Durgavasi. There is a competition to get into the Durga Dal when one of the Durgavasi retires. It is years before there is an opening but Sita eventually wins a chance to compete.
  
  In 1857 the British Empire decides to annex Jhansi and doesn't expect any challenge to its powerful army. Because India is divided into independent kingdoms, each with their own individuals armies, the British are surprised to get to Jhansi and discover that Queen Lakshmi is riding at the head of her army, determined to protect her people.
  
  I felt immersed in the place, the time and the Indian culture. This was a story of family, love, and betrayal, and Sita was the perfect narrator. Some of the atrocities committed by both sides will disturb you, but the novel provides a context that histories sometimes lack. This was an amazing story, and a piece of history I was completely unaware of. I have to say I am not disappointed in this novel at all.
• 
  Aliza

  My first Moran book was
  Nefertiti and I liked it so much that I told myself I'd read more of her works. I learned so much from this book, which is what I usually expect after reading a historical fiction book but may not always happen. This novel introduced me to something called the Durga Dal, which is the name for the queen of India's (rani) elite all-female personal guard. I was absolutely floored by this. I hope to learn more about it through other books and articles. As for the actual plot, the narrator is Sita, a woman who is part of the Durga Dal, and she serves as the reader's eyes and ears and, what's more, heart. Through her my own frustration and even intense dislike of the British as they unfairly took over India and used the ranito suit their own purposes when it was convenient for them grew. I doubt anyone who reads this book will come to the end and still maintain an intense fondness for the British monarchy. What I most enjoyed, however, was how the book is full of multidimensional characters, multidimensional women in a place of high position, not saying, "Look at me, I am a strong female figure," but rather simply saying, "I am."
• 
  Kamalia

  I took so long to read this book because i got so busy but i really enjoyed it! 4.4 stars! I love how historically accurate it is(and that the author made an effort to explain what's fiction and what's not), and i love how honest and real it felt. Like, it didn't get unnecessarily dramatic with the romance or deaths. The buildup was really great, but i had a problem with the last third of the book because i feel like the author kind of rushed through it. The wars and stuff was briefly described, and that didn't really make a big emotional impact, at least for me. But i guess that kinda shows that the author wanted to focus more on the buildup and the relationship between Sita and the other characters. The writing was wonderful. This book makes me want to read more historical fiction.