The story is about Indian historical culture and what was happening when India still have maharajas and maharanis. The Main focus of this book is Jaya, a princess from Balmer a small kingdom in india. Jaya’s life was not easy, her parents were doted to her brother and afterward she was married to prince pratap from another kingdom who had been westernized and forced her to westernized herself while she was educated with traditional lessons. Her twisted fate was miserable when she became maharani (queen) and bore a son, but with her husband’s sudden death whom she had not in love in with Jaya became a ruler in her son’s empire. However at that time India belonged to British and any occasions have to had permit from British government until reformists happened all over India. Can Jaya follow the modern thing that happen while secure the throne for her son? She allso fall with a british guy her childhood friend james osborne and a lawyer arun roy, can she survive the ordeal one more time between power and desire to be loved and falling in love?
My comment for this book is not very positive. I admit it was very interesting to read the first book of "RAJ" , however the longer I read I found that actually it’s quite boring. Gita Mehta brought the historical moments briefly and her writing skill to draw the situation of India is very clear so the reader can get the real picture of it. Still Her biggest mistake is she didn’t really show the real feeling of the characters of the book while assuming that the readers can understand her characters’ feeling.
Gita was too hard tried to explain the whole situation of the country makes the characters of her story just look like accessories not the main focus of the story. Too many things that she had included in the book until the real relationship that I can feel is just Jaya’s feeling for her son but nothing else not even about Jaya’s love relationship with the lawyer and the british guy. I feel disappointed of this book because of that point. I hope Gita will improve on that point and not to feeling confuse anymore for making this such a great story.
For the readers if you like historical things you may read the book but do not hope to find suspend or romance in this book.