The Digital Renaissance: Review: The Oleander Sword

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Review: The Oleander Sword

The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book two of the Burning Kingdoms trilogy and continues the story of the two main protagonist from The Jasmine Throne: Priya and Malini as the later moves to claim the Imperial throne from her brother while the former takes her place as a temple elder trying to save her people from a magical pandemic (called the rot).

There is not as much world building in this sequel (with more focus on relationships that were beautifully choreographed); but the prior world building is brought into better focus as the respective deities move toward more active involvement in what appears to be an approaching magic war (which is actually the continuation a previous conflict between the mothers and nature spirits) … and those deities are absolutely terrifying. It is a bit of a slow start with Priya and Malini pining for each other while recognizing that the difference in station and ethnicity making any future together problematic … but hey, it could be so much worse right (let’s put a pin in that for now).

About half way through the story arcs once again come together and it almost appears that there is a happy ever after in there someplace (except we know there is at least of more book coming). By the end of the book, I was not so sure. Despite that, the interactions between all of the characters were so well developed on so many levels that the story felt amazing real to me. I can barely wait for the next installment.

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheOleanderSword #BurningKingdoms #NetGalley.

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My Ratings Explained ...

[ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
[ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
[ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
[ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
[ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.