Six Days in Bombay is the newest novel by Alka Joshi, the bestselling author of The Jaipur Trilogy. This one takes us in a slightly earlier era than her other novels. In this novel, we get to follow Sona on her journey to help famous painter Mira Novak fulfill her last wishes in the 1930s.

Overall, this book, set in pre-Independence India, felt like both an exploration of the country and its complexities under colonial rule but also a visit abroad touring through different cities in Europe and showcasing the beauty of each city. Throughout, it is clear that Joshi visited the cities she wrote about and truly created a picturesque description that makes those who have never visited feel like they're there.

Although I love Joshi's writing, at most times I felt it difficult to connect with the main character, often feeling frustrated in the way her struggles were depicted and motivations for going on this long journey. Sona felt a bit one dimensional and some choices that she made were never explained fully and seemed to be more out of circumstance than by a deliberate choice. It also felt like there were a few different storylines that were presented but never followed through which left me wondering about what wasn't said.

This was a mostly quick read but not my favorite from Joshi; I gave it 3.75/5 stars. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA, and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I have read previous books by this author and have always been impressed with her writing style which is very descriptive and her focus on India. This book which initially takes place in Bombay in 1937 focuses on a young nurse Sona who becomes smitten with one of her patient’s life and troubles, who is a painter by the name of Mira. I do not want to devolve into too much of this story, suffice to say this is a coming of age story which focuses of racism, sexism, some adventure, romance , but ultimately a coming of age story which is a learning experience for Sona. I enjoyed this story, it was a bit slow in the beginning, I had difficulty trying to understand the plot and where it was headed. I believe that Sona’s infatuation with Mira was both a blessing and a curse for her. I enjoyed this book, although in my opinion this was not as good as her previous books.

I absolutely adore Alka Joshi's The Henna Artist trilogy so I was very excited for Six Days in Bombay. This book started off promising, but about 1/2 way through I just lost interest. I hate to compare, but this seemed to lack the lush details and character development I was used to in her previous books. Sona's story seemed repetitive and it took a long time to take off. Joshi is a beautiful writer and I am sure this book will find it's place.

An enjoyable read, following our heroine around the globe as she searches for the intended owners of the paintings.

I would definitely recommend Six Days in Bombay to anyone who is a Joshi fan. But for me, it is not my favorite of her books. I just found it a bit harder to get invested in Sona's storyline. It fell a little flat for me.

When a well known artist dies under the care of nurse Sona, Sona completes a quest to deliver paintings to former friends of the artist. Sona travels from her sheltered life in Bombay to Istanbul, Prague, Florence and Paris, discovering more about her artist friend and herself as well As in her previous books, Alka Joshi brings the sights, sounds and smells to life with her descriptive writing.

After a renowned painter dies mysteriously, leaving behind four paintings and cryptic clues, her nurse Sona must journey across Europe to clear her name and uncover the truth about the artist’s hidden life.

This is a beautifully written novel with rich settings and compelling characters. It’s woven through with Sona’s experiences as a biracial/bicultural woman in an environment where she experiences both privilege and discrimination. I enjoyed the historical details that anchored the story in the world of 1937.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

“But if we don’t try to help, what good is our privilege?”

🪷 Genre: Histirical Fiction
🪷 Steamy rating: Warm mild
🪷 Profanity: Low

Six Days in Bombay is yet another captivating story by Alka Joshi. I loved immersing myself in 1930s India, just before World War II, and experiencing the rich historical setting through her storytelling.

Sona, a nurse of mixed English and Indian heritage, has lived a sheltered life in Bombay. Her world begins to expand when she meets Mira, a famous painter who becomes her patient. Their quick friendship introduces Sona to a life beyond her job and the small apartment she shares with her mother.

While I appreciated the depth of Sona and Mira’s friendship, I wasn’t entirely convinced by Mira’s character. Certain traits of hers frustrated me, making it hard to believe Sona would be so drawn to her.

Overall, I found this story to be both beautiful and painstakingly slow. While I enjoyed it, it took me much longer to finish than I expected.

Triggers: Racism, domestic violence, drug overdose, infidelity, death of a friend, death of a parent, and abandonment

Thank you @harlequinbooks for the gifted advanced copy of this beautiful story.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and the author for the eARC.

Alka Joshi delivers again! Her "Jaipur Trilogy" was beautifully written, and this book follows the same vein with a delightful cast of characters and a riveting storyline.

The first half of the story follows our nurse Sona in Bombay, while the second half sees her off to three cities in Europe. Joshi does justice wonderfully to these three beautiful cities through her thoughtful details and descriptions of each. The characters leave you wanting to know more of their lives.

Overall, a really lovely story with mystery, romance, a little bit of sadness, and a whole lot of hope. Sona's character development and Joshi's descriptive writing make for another beautiful story.
Can't wait to see what else she has in store for readers!

I've loved Joshi since The Henna Artist! Six Days in Bombay is in essence two stories: one at home and one abroad. The main character, a nurse, feels compelled to carry out a mission entrusted to her by an unforgettable patient. Every aspect of the story feels full: the characters, the conflict, the description of the places, and the relationships. This may be my favorite of hers yet. Thanks to MIRA/Harlequin Trade Publishing & NetGalley for the ARC!

Six Days in Bombay takes you on a journey through pre-WW2 India and on to Prague, Florence, Paris, and London. The main character Sona deals with racism and sexism while working as a nurse in Bombay. She experiences 6 days of caring for a patient in the hospital that will go on to change the trajectory of her life. Sona goes on a journey of self-discovery that addresses finding love and accepting one's heritage while fulfilling the request of her patient. A beautiful coming of age story that transports you around the globe and highlights some real and difficult struggles.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Another stunner from Alka Joshi! She's one of my favorite writers. So descriptive and such great characters. I enjoyed the new characters after three books in the henna artist series.

I’m so grateful to NetGalley for the ARC or Alka Joshi’s new novel, Six Days in Bombay. Sona is a young and innocent nurse who is befriended by Mira, a colorful patient who suffered a miscarriage. Mira’s unexpected and suspicious death closes one door for Sona but opens so many more.

During their brief but meaningful friendship, Mira had encouraged Sona to explore the world. After her death, Sona discovers that she has been tasked with delivering some of Mira’s paintings to people who had impacted her life. As Sona’s travels take her from country to country, she discovers secrets from Mira’s past that both shock and inspire her.

Experiencing Sona’s journey is an unforgettable treasure, and Alka Joshi has shown time and again that she is one of the most powerful writers of our time.

Set in India pre-WWII and pre-independence, this story of a young woman making her way as a nurse and an Anglo-Indian provides a window into a world that many of us might not read about before. The racism Sona experiences (not to mention the sexism) may surprise some readers, and it's particularly well presented. So is the medical side, with not only the primitive methods but the racism from the British doctors towards the Indian doctors (even if they're UK educated).

Where the story loses focus (for me) is when Sona starts her journey to fulfill Mira's wishes of leaving paintings to people she knew, loved and disappointed in Europe. There's a ton of filler with Sona spending time on trains and exploring cities, and far too much info dumping in the Paris section about the artistic scene. Tighter in those sections and more about Sona and her self-discovery would have made for a better book.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

This is a slow paced coming of age novel. I was transported by the beautiful details and numerous settings. The main character Sona was at times frustrating in her thoughts and choices. Then I would remind myself of her circumstances and the world she lived in. Learning about pre WWII India was enlightening.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Collins Publishing for an early copy of Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi


Young nurse Sona experiences six days caring for a patient in a Bombay (Mumbai) hospital that will change her life, putting her on a trek through Europe in order to fulfill the patient's wishes. The year is 1937 and world events are leading to fear and unrest. Yet, Sona fights her own fears and insecurities and takes on the life-changing journey.

Six Days in Bombay features strong characters in India and Europe. While artist/patient Mira Novak is based loosely on real-life female artist Amrita Sher-Gil, author Alka Joshi has created a complex and emotional situation through Novak's influence on Sona. Because Sona is nothing like the artist in personality or temperament, Sona must look outside herself in order to experience the growth that Novak envisions for her.

Finding love, dealing with cultural differences and accepting her heritage are all part of Sona's journey that will take readers to the forefront of Europe in crisis.

One negative aspect of Six Days in Bombay is Novak's pregnancies that in both instances were only for financial gain. This is a sad commentary on the parent/child bond and casts the artist in an unfavorable light.

One of my favorite books of 2025 so far! 4.5/5 Stars!
There’s so much to love about Alka Joshi's Six Days in Bombay.
The novel immerses you in two distinct worlds: one in Bombay, where we meet Sona, a young woman born to a British father and an Indian mother during British rule in the 1930s. Sona works as a night nurse and crosses paths with Mira Novak, an artist who arrives at the hospital after a miscarriage. As the story unfolds, we learn that although Sona shares a joyful life with her mother, she's still struggling to make ends meet. The magnetic Mira and Sona quickly form a bond.
The second part of the story takes Sona on a journey across Europe, including Paris, Florence, Prague, and Istanbul. I’ll refrain from giving away the reasons for her travels because the story is rich in depth and full of surprises. Alka Joshi's writing is so vivid that I truly felt transported to these places. Her descriptions are lush, capturing each setting with such detail that you can almost feel the world around Sona. At just 23, Sona has so much to discover and navigate, and the story keeps you hooked from beginning to end.
The book is about the struggle of identity – Sona, caught between her British and Indian heritage, grapples with confusion over who she truly is. As she meets new people along the way, some struggle to pinpoint her nationality, and Sona wrestles with her sense of belonging. Yet, her heart remains firmly in Bombay. Along the way, she encounters memorable characters, each of whom teaches Sona something, while she too imparts lessons of her own.
I learned a great deal about Bombay during this period, and the book beautifully transported me to the streets of Florence and Paris in the 1930s. Set just before WWII, the looming threat of Hitler is palpable throughout the story.
I didn’t want it to end. The details are so vivid, the characters unforgettable, and I found myself rooting for Sona every step of the way.
Overall, I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait for more people to experience it!

A wonderful coming-of-age historical fiction novel! I loved spending time with these lovable, well drawn characters. I felt like I wanted to take the main character under my wing as she navigated her early twenties.

Sona encounters a painter while working as a nurse in a hospital in Bombay. She is enraptured by Mira and her carefree lifestyle. When Mira suddenly dies, Sona finds a note instructing her to deliver three paintings to three people from Mira's past. She travels to Prague, Paris, and Florence following Mira's wishes and discovering a lot about herself along the way.

Thoughts 💭
I was completely engrossed in Sona's journey of self-discovery. The lessons she learns, the people she meets, and the places she travels all come together in a beautifully told story. The author visited all these places to make things feel more authentic, and it really came through! The characters themselves are complex with interesting backstories. Mira was inspired by Amrita Sher-Gil, who was a talented painter who also died young. "People aren't always what they seem," was a reoccurring theme that was well done. This time period immerses you in the struggles of Anglo-Indians at a time when tensions between Britain and India were high. We also get a glimpse of the beginnings of WWII through Sona's travels. I think this resonated with me so strongly because Sona could be any of us, going through the motions of everyday life and struggling to fit in (albeit differently than Sona). Sometimes, we just need a little push to challenge ourselves. I'm predicting now that this will be one of the top historical fiction reads of the year!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

My appreciation goes to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review. I am a huge fan of Ms. Joshi’s The Henna Artist and The Perfumist of Paris and was really excited to read this one. (Although I didn’t think the middle of that trilogy, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, was as good, I chalked it up to my feeling that the author excels in writing women more than men. This book centering around female characters gave me hope for another wonderful read.)

I am thus sad to say that I found this book quite lacking. It didn’t have the artistry, magical-ness, rich sensory descriptions, flow, depth and grace of the other two books. Although all three books center female characters who develop strength through circumstance, in this one it almost seems by accident, and I didn’t get much at all of a feeling for Sona. Although she is portrayed as growing and evolving by her travel, by taking sexual initiative, by speaking up and taking chances, I felt her as passive, nonetheless. The experiences were about going along with the circumstances, sometimes being forced into these situations, rather than her being clever or full of grace and initiative as the other Joshi heroines.

Taking I this book on its own however—with no comparison to earlier books is the fairer way to go. So here I shall:

The plot, centered around a nurse in 1930’s Bombay (Sona) who is not worldly, not well-to-do, and not good at asserting herself, meets up with a wealthy artist female patient whose energetic, out of the box presence changes her life. The patient is modeled after real-life Amrita Sher-Gil: an artist of whom Ms. Joshi in her afterward says is the inspiration for this novel.

There are worthy elements emphasized, such as the fact that Sona is a “half-half”—parentage half British & half Indian, a real difficulty in those years of India’s burgeoning independence movement. The prejudices against her are woven into the story and illuminating. Additionally, how the British controlled India was subtly yet convincingly threaded in. There are also several nods to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini in those times. All of this, along scenes from Sona’s eventual travels out of India to places in Europe, makes this a historical fiction which is well-researched.

There is also in the first part a clear & very upsetting picture of domestic abuse and the ways in which interceding on behalf of the abused is cause for more abuse in that place and time. A very difficult, to say the least, situation; for many such women did (& still do) not want to leave their children behind—and in that patriarchal system, the man would get the kids. (Probably much of this is still true today in many places,; possibly even there).

The attempt to address and weave in these various issues is worthy. Classism, racism, life on the cusp of WW2 in India and Europe, identity and belonging all are fitted into this story. The problems with the book however, lie in many aspects of the plot, as well as quite often a choppiness or abruptness in the scene changes and dialogue. The closeness developed in the six days between patient and nurse, the trio of three tragedies befalling Sona all at once, the unlikelihood of Sona being left with the paintings to distribute and the unlikeliness of her finding the 3 recipients…all this stretched my believability beyond anything that made for good fiction. Additionally, I found her journeys often abrupt and even confusing at times.

In terms of enjoyable aspects, there was a theme of forgiveness (or whether not to) & it was an interesting side, shoring up a warm relationship between Sona and an elderly doctor (Stoddard). I admit I did enjoy the unusually nurturing nature of both of the Stoddard men, and their care for Sona (though, again, somehow timing and money comes more than once, just in the very nick of time for her, via the doctor).

I did also enjoy the new family ending and it felt fluid enough.

Overall I did not, though, enjoy the reading of this book as I found it choppy, unrealistic, and unsatisfying. I am truly sad to say this, as a big fan of the author.

Thank you again to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley.