Really well done. This was sold to me as "morally gray lesbians that want to burn the world down" and I feel pretty satisfied with that description.

The world-building is definitely standout here. Tasha Suri did such a great job building a lush world that pulls from Indian mythology and history. The Indian inspiration played really well with the themes of the book as well, which focus on misogyny, colonization, and religion, and the different ways people resist empire and oppression. I like that we spent time in the world, not just learning about it. There were a couple times the exposition was a bit heavy-handed but definitely still better than a lot of other authors could manage.

I loved the characters and their complexity, especially the complicated relationships between siblings, friends, and wary allies. I wasn't the biggest fan of the romance but it wasn't the worst I've read, either. I do like the exploration of trauma between the two main interests - both are scared to love and trust for different reasons. Actually, my favorite character ended up being one of the "side" characters who becomes a larger player later in the book. The cast, though, is full of badass women who are powerful in different ways. I seriously appreciate that the author wasn't afraid to show the complexity of femininity in all of its forms, and she wasn't afraid to show her heroes as strong but vulnerable, good but vengeful, manipulative but sincere. I also appreciated the fact that more violent forms of resistance weren't villified; even if characters morally didn't agree with each other, there was a sense of understanding that comes from being mutually oppressed. Tasha Suri painted a picture of resistance that was incredibly realistic and empathetic.

The plot starts off really slow; it doesn't pick up until around 50% in, but once it picks up, it's impossible to put down. Usually this is pretty annoying for me but I found the pacing enjoyable and it made sense for the world that was built. It was really important for us to spend that first half of the book really understanding the characters and the world, and I appreciated that the author chose to start off slow so we could spend time with the characters and form our own opinions about their motives and personalities. The time spent building up is worth it for the journey that happens in the last half of the book. It could have been super sloppy and rushed and a lesser author would have turned it into an info-dump fest so I was really satisfied with the pacing. 

The one thing I wish was different would be to spend more time in the characters' heads. The third-person perspective made it hard for me to connect deeply with the characters, though it's still impressive how complex Tasha Suri's character work was despite the chosen perspective. The POV switching was great and helped to sell the world and the complicated dynamics between characters, but Tasha Suri is a talented enough writer that she could have made the POVs stand out even more with unique voices. Although the narration was omniscient, I still felt a bit removed from the characters, and because of this, the dialogue between characters sometimes came across as stilted and characters sometimes blended together as they had no unique voice or narration style. This is mostly just personal preference and 100% shouldn't deter you from giving this a try.