Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Where the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow, by Rashi Rohatgi {2 winners, ends 4/9}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

I run down the stairs, only the tips of my toes gracing the smooth, hard floors, and slip through the gate, pretending to latch it behind me, hoping the moon will discourage thieves or rapscallions from testing its truth. The sweet moo of the cow nestled into the space between our house and the alley makes me smile, and I know that though this is not how Mumma might have imagined it, this is how I will become a woman.

The streets are not empty; a city of Chandrapur’s size and honor bustles whilst most of its citizens are abed. Any other year, my white nightgown would have the street sweepers, the deliverymen with bicycle-wagons full of fish and fowl and fruit, the mouse eaters gape; instead, I float as though in a sea of ghosts.

“Are you all right, miss?” asks a woman with pan-reddened teeth and a village accent so thick I lean in to make sense of it even as I recoil from the scent of rotting jasmine that surrounds her. An opium-eater! Perhaps. But when I nod and rush forward, she does not follow.

I feel like I’m learning a bit more about Indian culture and traditions with each book of Indian fiction I read. Every author has made it sound so beautiful – I think it’s not just the authors appreciating the beauty, but the value the culture places on its beauty.

Official synopsis:

It's 1905, and the Japanese victory over the Russians has shocked the British and their imperial subjects. Sixteen-year-old Leela and her younger sister, Maya, are spurred on to wear homespun to show the British that the Indians won't be oppressed for much longer, either, but when Leela's betrothed, Nash, asks her to circulate a petition amongst her classmates to desegregate the girls' school in Chandrapur, she's wary. She needs to remind Maya that the old ways are not all bad, for soon Maya will have to join her own betrothed and his family in their quiet village. When she discovers that Maya has embarked on a forbidden romance, Leela's response shocks her family, her town, and her country firmly into the new century.
The author’s conversational style made me feel like I was hanging out with Leela, Maya and their friends and family. Oddly enough, while I felt like we were nearly in the same room, I forgot that the story was taking place in 1905. Since I have a limited knowledge of world politics, the background wasn’t obvious to me, and I sometimes didn’t understand what was really going on.

I felt the conversational style, while very readable, never lent what maybe should have been a sense of urgency to the sisters and their motivations. The emotion of the characters felt about the same through everything in the book, to me.

Overall, I’d give this book 3 out of 5 stars. I may have enjoyed it a bit more on my Kindle, as there were some words I didn’t understand initially.

{click here to purchase}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother. She enjoys reading and shopping online. Find out about more of her bookish adventures at SweetlyBSquared.com.

GIVEAWAY:

Two of my lucky readers will win a copy of Where the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Thursday, April 9th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be notified by email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner(s) will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Where The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow, by Rashi Rohatgi