You know how you feel after a really good meal? That feeling of satisfaction? Everything was perfect, or near to. Yeah, that’s how I felt after reading Rati Mehrotra’s new YA novel, Flower and Thorn.

Now in order to understand the depth of that reaction, it’s also important to know I’m a really hard-to-please reader. I’m forever questioning research, analyzing character, world and plot development. In other words, I find it hard to shut off the editor. Mehrotra silenced that editor almost from the outset.

So, what is Flower and Thorn about? The marketing blurb runs thus:

A young flower hunter gets embroiled in the succession politics of the Sultanate when she must retrieve the rarest and most powerful magical flower after giving it to the wrong hands.

Irinya has wanted to be a flower hunter ever since her mother disappeared into the mysterious mist of the Rann salt flats one night. Now seventeen, Irinya uses her knowledge of magical flowers to help her caravan survive in the harsh desert. When her handsome hunting partner and childhood friend finds a priceless silver spider lily―said to be able to tear down kingdoms and defeat entire armies―Irinya knows this is their chance for a better life.

Until Irinya is tricked by an attractive impostor.

Irinya’s fight to recover the priceless flower and fix what she’s done takes her on a dangerous journey, one she’s not sure she’ll survive. She has no choice but to endure it if she hopes to return home and mend the broken heart of the boy she’s left behind.

I do have to say that marketing blurb would not have won me over. The novel sounds more like a YA romance, and I feel about romance of any kind the way I feel about skydiving. A big hard no.

But while Mehrotra does unfold a romance, it’s really a backstory to the very compelling political and economic narrative she creates in a credible India under Portuguese conquest and control during the 16th century. The environmental descriptions are deftly entwined in character viewpoint, and the characters developed so vividly they are real and whisper in your waking moments to return to their world and walk their journey. Woven into that very rich history and environment, Mehrotra drops in rare, magical flowers which can only be found in the salt marsh/desert of the Rann, an area of 26,000 kilometres in the Gujarati region of northwest India.

And as with so many human stories, the flower-hunters of the Rann are essentially indentured slaves to the wholesalers who have a monopoly on their trade, wholesalers who reap all the profits. I was very much minded of the 18th century fishing outports of Newfoundland.

There is also Mehrotra’s handling of magic, in that it’s not easy, and it is rare. Everything has a cost. That appeals to me personally, because the caveats and difficulties around magic render the story more compelling. If you have to work hard for something, and then once you have it you’re aware this thing may cost your life, or the life or well-being of someone you love, that literary device then adds another layer of crisis to the plot and world-building. It creates a tension that’s strung to a high pitch throughout the story and keeps you reading.

As to Mehrotra’s writing style, it’s very approachable, very much in the voice of a storyteller, with evocative description, tight character point of view, and great tension. There is no exposition in her work. Every phrase, every paragraph fits together in a very skillfully-crafted package.

All things considered, I’d have to say Mehrotra’s Flower and Thorn is an excellent, escapist read, not unlike Naomi Novik’s many immersive stories. Rati Mehrotra has won me over. I’ll be looking for more of her work. ( )

A very satisfying blend of world building, magic, and intrigue. Irina is a skilled flower hunter, part of a nomadic group that moves periodically along the edge of a beautiful, but treacherous salt flat desert known as the Rann. Her mother, a mystery unto herself, walked into it one night when Irina was a young child and never returned. The girl, now a young woman, still hopes Mom will reappear from the Rann, but while she waits, she and others, most notably Fardan, a terrible musician, but gifted artist who is her friend (although it's clear he longs for more) risk their lives by entering the Rann to find flowers with magical properties. When Fardan finds an extremely rare silver spider lily, it sets in motion a series of events that soon have both of them in over their heads. It starts when Irina discovers, after a long and dangerous trek to a city, that the man who took the rare flower, promising them great wealth for it, was an imposter. Add in a man intent upon becoming the next sultan, coupled with his aunt who is being kept a semi-captive after having been named the true heir, and a growing threat to all of India by the Portuguese, and you have plenty of grist for a dandy adventure with mystical elements and romance. I found it an extremely enjoyable read, and the way each of the flowers' magical powers are woven into the story is extremely well done. ( )

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

Mehrota’s latest book reimagines India with flower magic in this cozy read that refreshingly twists many old tropes. Indirya is a flower hunter as her mother was before her, braving the dangerous desert to find the magical flowers to pay toward the kul’s debt to cruel middlemen. The arrival of a charming court denizen inspires her to betray a friend’s confidence and give away an especially rare flower, setting off a cascade of consequences that endangers the whole tribe. She takes responsibility and sets off to make things right.

I really enjoyed how the book surprised me throughout, especially with how the romance delivered. The use of Indian history was fantastic—we need more of this! The flower magic was fun, too, though I would have liked an even deeper dive into that. ( )