I am speechless. This was so, so good. The Jasmine Throne was my favorite release last year and I was looking forward to this so much. It did not disappoint at all and I loved this one more than the first!

The balance of action, politics, and character development is perfect. I loved the main characters. I am so intrigued to see where the end of this trilogy takes them.

I felt every emotion during this book and that ending has me dying.

Priya’s journey is so interesting. Malini is absolutely brilliant. Bhumika is wondrous. I enjoyed seeing the other characters and what became of them as well. Secondary relationships with minor characters really bloomed here.

I can’t wait to get my physical copy in August so I can annotate it. I can’t wait for the third book in this trilogy. This series is so good!!!

My theory is that Tasha Suri is trying to gently break us all with these books, and I for one done know if I am strong enough to withstand it.

I cannot go into many details without spoilers, but she writes such delicate character relationships, of all kinds, that pull you in and make you *feel something* and then she will break those characters (and you by consequence) down in the next chapter.

In comparison to Jasmine Throne, this is a more ambitious book, but it is also more intimate. The world expands and yet our focus on the characters becomes more direct, more finely tuned. It reminds me of the Daevabad and Green Bone Saga books in this way, which is high praise from me.

The worldbuilding is even stronger in this book, with a larger understanding of the various religious and political conflicts from the first book, which were somewhat diluted given that book’s more narrow focus.

For me, and I think this has to be largely personal, Suri’s writing style is a comfort. It’s achingly romantic at times, clear and incisive at others. She blends showing and telling well, which is a delicate balance. Sure maybe there are a lot of Malini inner and outer monologues but I love Malini, so I love them all.

Finally. Bhumika and Rao. For being the slightly secondary MCs from the first book, they sure took up space in my brain in this book, and really surpassed my expectations.

Overall I am both excited and afraid for Book 3, and is that not the appropriate reaction to a final trilogy book?

The Oleander Sword is the much anticipated follow-up to Tasha Suri’s 2021 release The Jasmine Throne. I probably should have reread The Jasmine Throne before starting The Oleander Sword, but I was too excited to jump in, so I picked up the sequel as soon as I had the time. Unfortunately, there was no recap of the previous entry in the series and I found myself regretting this decision almost immediately.

There is a large cast of characters in The Oleander Sword, and all with different motivations, alliances, and religious affiliations. Though at first I was a bit overwhelmed with trying to remember everyone, I soon was able to just focus on the key players of the story that I cared about, which, for me, were Priya, Malini, and Bhumika. In fact, I found that I thought a few of the new characters’ perspectives were even a bit unnecessary to the story at large. For instance, the brother of the new wife of Emperor Chandra offers his own perspective, but I found myself wishing that the novel had focused on his sister, the actual one marrying the tyrant. Not only would this have been more interesting to me, but also surely it would make more sense to focus on the woman marrying a monster in a novel that markets itself as feminist.

Luckily, three other women in The Oleander Sword are in positions of power. Bhumika and Priya now lead their newly freed country of Ahiranya as Temple Elders, and Malini, as Empress, struggles to wrest her rightful kingdom of Parijatdvipa from her tyrannical brother. Just as in the The Jasmine Throne, I really enjoyed reading from both Bhumika and Malini’s perspectives. Both women are master strategists and it’s amazing to watch them work. I especially felt attached to Bhumika in The Oleander Sword, as she feels the more caring of these two ruling women.

“‘The Parijati worship the mothers and their fire,’ Bhumika said. ‘A person who controls that fire is, surely, the rightful ruler of the empire. And if it is not Empress Malini, then she will not cling to that title of empress for long.'”

Priya’s characterization once again felt like a walking conundrum to me, and even to herself, as she struggles with her love for Malini, and how it is often in contrast to what she must do for her own country and belief system. This time around, I found the romantic relationship between Malini and Priya to be less forced. Author Suri does a great job showing the complexity of their leadership roles and the impossibility of their desires in the face of the former.

By far my favorite parts of The Oleander Sword involved the world of Ahiranya. As the magical rot continues to spread and the yaksa walk the earth again, the stakes are higher than ever in this entry of The Burning Kingdom. Suri does an absolutely phenomenal job capturing the otherworldliness of these spooky beings and honestly reading the author’s descriptions of the yaksa made me wish she would also write a horror series. The Oleander Sword effortlessly poses the question of what could be more horrific than encountering one’s own formerly dead gods?

“You know what I know. You know our ancient enemy comes. That is the war that lies upon the horizon…..The yaksa will return. The rot heralded them. They will come, and there will be war again.”

Despite things ramping up both supernaturally and politically in The Oleander Sword, I found I just didn’t care for this sequel as much as I did The Jasmine Throne. I don’t know if I am to blame for this, for not rereading the previous entry and allowing myself to fully remember all of the characters and their arcs, or if the novelty of the world and its magic systems had just worn off by this entry, but I just wasn’t as compelled to read The Oleander Sword. I found that this novel just didn’t have the same tension and heightened suspense of The Jasmine Throne, where Priya and Malini were trapped together in the Hirana, temple of the Yaksa, and forced to form an uneasy alliance to escape the control of Malini’s brother Emperor Chandra, while Priya struggled with her developing magical powers.


Though The Oleander Sword tries to mimic the moral dilemma of Priya in The Jasmine Throne when she is forced to choose between the ideologies of Malini, her sister Bhumika, who is playing the long con of being loyal to Parijatdvipa, and her brother Ahsok, the leader of the rebellion of Ahiranya, the quandaries of The Oleander Sword never quite reach the same level of urgency and desperation. Instead, Priya once again stumbles along after Malini, figuring things out as she goes, with very little of her own agency, and I found myself taking much the same attitude as this protagonist—”whatever happens, happens.” I simply wasn’t able to get as invested in The Oleander Sword, despite the many tragedies brewing in the series.

“Does a sacrifice have the same power if you don’t know what you are sacrificing? If you cut out your heart so flowers could grow, so magic could wind its roots in your yielding lungs, without understanding that you would end up here, kneeling before a thorn-mouthed god, being told you must kill what you love? Surely not. Surely the way of things couldn’t be this cruel."


It also didn’t help matters much that The Oleander Sword felt like mere setup for the third and final entry of the series. The large confrontation for the Parijatdvipa throne doesn’t happen until the end of novel, meaning much of The Oleander Sword is spent with characters sitting around in tents arguing strategies, scheming, and politically challenging those already in positions of powers. Though it was entertaining at times watching Malini plan to keep her followers loyal to her, it grew tedious for me rather quickly. Though Bhumika’s storyline creates tension, which helps to break up some of this monotony, these breaks were too brief to maintain the mounting feel of suspense and of foreboding.

I certainly hope that next entry in the series regains some of its momentum. Though The Oleander Sword leaves off on a cliffhanger, I sadly don’t feel any desperation to read the next entry in the trilogy as soon as possible. I can easily wait for the final entry of the trilogy to release to find out what happens to all of the characters and their embattled kingdoms, which is probably not what was intended. However, I can say with certainty that I want to see how this series comes to a close and I will be reading the conclusion.

I am in absolute goddamn *awe*. Thank you to NetGalley and to Orbit, I don't what I can give anymore, but take anything you so desire.

I was fully expecting to get rejected, and was somehow blessed with this glorious pain instead. I am in absolute awe. Tasha Suri mentioned she was commissioning art for a spoilery scene and I can think of about eighty it could be. Bhumika, my love, my life, my queen???? where do i do to worship and follow you? Malini? our empress? cruel and always playing the game, three steps ahead, and full of longing??? Priya, continuing through on the work she does to be kind, when it is far easier to be cruel?

They and their arcs, have once more, possessed my whole heart. Tasha Suri weaves love, longing, pain, betrayal, fear, complacency, and rebellion into a gorgeous, stunning *and painful* epic. This did not read like the second book of a trilogy, but felt just as full, just as lush, and just as painstaking as her earlier work.

Thank you so much! All the stars that can ever be rewarded.

I loved the Jasmine Throne. I was super happy when I got this arc accepted, then I downloaded it and saw it was 1191 pages on my phone and went oh no. It's actually like 500 pages, and this book didn't even feel long. I ended up reading it in about seven hours. This starts off with our two favorite sapphics writing letters back and forth to each other, if you've read This is How You Lose The Time War, you're going to love it. Despite the politics making barely any sense to me in the first book, it actually made sense for the most part in this book. I was surprised by how much I remembered. I loved seeing the relationship between Malini and Priya develop, the trust they had in each other, what they sacrificed for each other, yet I'm screaming over the ending in the best way possible. I'm so excited for book three and feel like this book set us up for some of my favorite tropes.

Even though I am suffering severe emotional damage at the hands of this book I am in absolute awe at how perfect this series is. Give me book three now!!

Tasha, how dare you do this to me? How absolutely dare you give me a glimmer of happiness only to come back and tell me to sit back down because the story isn’t over yet?

The Oleander Sword truly lives up to its name as the successor to The Jasmine Throne, it is unflinching and unrelenting in its campaign to make you fall in love with these rich complex characters only to have them ripped apart by the weight of morality and the cost of changing the world.

I’m just angry I have to wait another year for the third book.