Good old fashioned story telling and a wonderful plot with terrific characters make this a must read. Priya's return to India in 2000 is the tent pole for the story of two women which begins in 1928- Sita and Mary- from very different circumstances who became the best of friends and then.....Sita becomes royalty as a result of her marriage but things are not that simple. Mary isn't so simple either. There are secrets, there are lies, there's all sorts of things I don't want to spoil. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Mary is an British girl who lives with her loving parents in India during the colonial period. She becomes life-long friends with Sita and Amin, two young Indian locals that are major characters throughout the book. After the tragic death of her parents, Mary lives in England with family until she decides to go back to India to discover the hidden past of her childhood. What started out rather slowly, ended up consuming me as I couldn't put down this emotional and heartfelt novel! The story has love, heartache, tragedy and deception swirling in it's core that makes it one of the best stories that I've read this year! This is a fabulous addition to historical fiction.

Beneath an Indian Sky by Renita D'Silva is available from Bookouture. An egalley of this book was made available from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

I really enjoyed the strong sense of place in this book, as well as the characters, even if the story was, at times, a little slow. The setting is so wonderfully rendered, I really felt as if I were there. The writing is elegant and the plot easy to follow, as we learned of Sita and Mary and the way their lives were different and yet, in some ways, alike in 1928 India. Recommended!

If you love books with a strong sense of location then you have to put Renita on your list of authors not to miss

This time, she transports you to the opulent palaces on India and the Royal Court but as the saying goes, a gilded cage is still a cage. Sita and Mary and great well developed characters who are both captivating in their own ways and their divergent paths in life are fascinating to read about. When Sita is told she’s not allowed books, well, I was immediately on her side! On a serious note however it was interesting to see how the poor girl and the rich girl met in the middle and how what you wish for might not always be what yo u want and need.

Their story weaves it magic and I was immersed in this fascinating story. The backdrop of India’s independence was particularly interesting and it was a treat to feel so close to the action that you actually step inside one of the palaces and see life before Independence took place.

Renita has written some wonderful books and this one is right up there with the best of them!

Thanks Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this book. A lovely story about two friends growing up in India. They're from very different backgrounds and have very different upbringing. It's not my usual choice of book but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

I have a fascination with the British Raj, so I was looking forward to this story of a young Indian woman in 1928 and her granddaughter in 2000. We see the good (?), the bad and the ugly side of British rule over India when Sita longs to find a life for herself outside the expected role of wife and mother in 1928. Her wanderings put her in close contact with the Crown Prince of India, and she and her family soon find themselves living a life they could only have ever dreamed of. But is all the luxury worth turning her back on the person who matters most to her? Seventy years later, her granddaughter, Priya, goes home to India after her marriage collapses and spends her days getting to know her proud grandmother, slowly learning the truth about Sita and her mysterious past. As always, D’Silva does an amazing job of placing her readers inside her story, where they can feel the heat and humidity and hear the clamor of an exotic world