Irinya is an orphan. Her mother was a flower hunter and was lost to the desert. Now she dreams of the same glory, but what will it cost her? She and her best friend come upon a rare flower and he begs her not to pick it. She goes back on her promise hoping to save their community from poverty and the country from the onslaught of the Portuguese. But, her trust is misplaced and she wants more than anything to make things right. She goes on a dangerous quest across India on her own to right the wrongs.

This was one of those fantasies where I was immersed from page one. I could see the harsh desert, feel the community of Irinya’s caravan and the intensity of desire for these magical flowers. Mehrotra’s world building was perfect - readers are balanced between 16th century India under the siege of the Portuguese and this magical world where finding one flower can change it all. I loved Irinya’s pure heart and ethical innocence. She learned a lot about the politics of the real world as she risked everything she loved to save the fate of India.

If you pick up one fantasy this year, it should be this one! I can’t wait to have a copy on my shelves! Check this one out if you enjoyed The Spice Road or The Daevabad Trilogy.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

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.

In Flower and Thorn, we follow Irinya, a flower hunter in a world where flowers grown in a specific region of India have buds with magical properties and poisonous thorns. I really liked this unique magic system and the associated world building. The idea of magical flowers that are now super rare because humans destroyed the ecosystem limiting their growth was a nice tie in for the impact humans have on the climate. I thought it was a nice piece of reality in the fantasy world.

With the great world-building and magic system, I was disappointed with the rest of the book. I found the plot to be a little all over the place and disjointed. It felt like it wasn’t fully outlined and the author just kept adding pieces on and throwing “twists” the change it up. This left me feeling like the book was dragging on because it was difficult to get fully invested. Plus I had questions that I felt were never fully answered. Like why could Irinya hear the flowers and the camel? And why could the flowers predict the future?

In terms of the characters, I found Irinya difficult to root for. She made a lot of, in my opinion, dumb decisions and seemed to contradict each other. She makes a promise one day, then breaks the promise the next because someone shares a sad story about his parents dying. She then goes to retrieve the flower and seems to trust everyone, despite recognizing she should not trust anyone. She didn’t seem to make better decisions as the book went on, either. So there was not a lot of character development. I will say, I liked her realization that she had feelings for her best friend all along and how she had difficulty pinpointing when those feelings started. There was something that seemed really genuine about their relationship.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this read and felt like it could have been so much more. 2 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Flower and Thorn by Rati Mehrotra is an amazing action packed story.

The author does a stellar job creating such a compelling story and the world building is so creative while also keeping the plot forward moving.
I enjoyed how unpredictable the plot was.
It was so intriguing and kept me gripped all the way through the pacing was good and I thought the entire building of the story was absolutely fantastic.
Flower and Thorn was super intriguing and had me invested in the characters so quickly.
Irinya is a strong main character, the development of her journey was really well thought out.
The setting is unique and fairly well-developed. It's so detailed and lovingly rendered.

There's magic, court politics, conspiracy, interesting monsters/spirits, unlikely alliances. I love Katyani who's so fierce and loyal

I can’t wait to read more from this author

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Wednesday Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This book, this cover. The story was great, this is my first Rati Mehrotra book, but it is certainly not my last. I thouroughly enjoyed this book the characters and their journey was great.

Enjoyed this book very much. The world building characters were my favorite, the plot was good and engaging. And the historical and magic aspect was superb! A well done stand alone fantasy that you'll devour.

An intense, gripping read. The world-building was vivid, and in turns marvellous and ominous; as for the plot, it was just familiar enough to carry me along, but unpredictable enough that the suspense was maintained to the end.

Thematically-speaking, I loved that the novel focused on a struggling, oppressed community, and that it took time to reflect on the economic structures of oppression, on the kind of solutions available, and on their difficulties. As for the plot, it had an excellent antagonist, a character who felt deeply flawed, but convincing at the same time; human, but without excuses. It made for a complex relationship with the heroine, one that kept me wondering to the end how it would all finish.

It usually bothers me a little when fantasy characters seem to come up with modern systems of thought all by themselves in a mediaeval setting. However, in this case, although the protagonist seems to reason and react very much like a modern, feminist young woman, it didn't feel out of place: instead, her convictions seem to have sprung naturally from her personal experience and circumstances, as a woman forced into gruelling labour in order to help her community survive. This reinforced the sympathy I felt for her. I also really liked the fact that her struggles were real: she screws up more than once in the novel, with dire consequences, for herself and others; and for all her cleverness, she never sounds like she understands more about the world than everybody else's.

A great read on the whole.

Flower and Thorn is a young adult fantasy staged in India where the right flower might win a throne. Irinya is a flower hunter where rare magical flowers can heal, force obedience, or win victories for those who consume them. Irinya‘S people are nomads indebted to moneylenders that force quotas on the flower harvest. When a stranger shows up promising enough wealth to save her people, Irinya breaks a promise to her best friend and gives him one of the rarest of flowers to save India from invaders. Disguising herself as a man, Irinya sets up to find why promises were broken and gets a round to saving her country in wild, exciting adventure full of danger and the hint of romance. Flower and Thorn is an entertaining, magical tale where the heroine saves the day. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

Flower and Thorn adds magic to the historical context of India during the time of its invasion by the Portugese in the 1500s. Irinya is part of a nomadic group that travels the grasslands on the edge of a large salt flat called the Rann. Irinya and other young people in her kul go into the Rann to hunt for magical flowers, each of which possess unique properties. When one of the flower hunters finds an especially rare flower that grants considerable power, it sets in motion of chain of events which sends Irinya far from her home to try to save her kul and all of India.

I enjoyed this book, not just because it is an engaging story, but also because I learned more about a time and place I was not very familiar with. There is a fun cast of characters and a well-paced plot. This was my second Rati Mehrotra book and I look forward to reading more!

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. I absolutely adored being immersed in Irinya's adventure, it was so unique and colorful, and I was invested the whole time. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for more books from Ms. Mehrotra! A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

4.5 stars

If Rati Mehrotra writes it, I'm definitely going to be reading it, so here I am—and I absolutely loved this book! The lore of magical flowers to court intrigue to Irinya and Fardan's moments, this was everything you could ask for. Full review to come soon!

Thank you to Publisher for reaching out via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

While the author’s world building is unique and stands out, the rest of the book is decidedly lackluster in comparison, with a barely fleshed out romance, a main character who was hard for me to root for, and an ambling plot that never seemed to know where it was going.


Let’s break it down:

1. The romance: I’m not one for insta-love and find love is a journey, however this story disappointed me. The main character’s love interest is someone who isn’t present for 90% of the book, and it becomes very superficial. While I was glad the main character didn’t go for the obvious choice of who to love, I was disappointed to see it so one-sided for most of the book.

2. The main character: While the main character has many faults and flaws, it was difficult to root for her as she made every bad choice possible. I don’t know how many times I smacked my head or facepalmed while reading. Now, this point is something that I know I don’t have as much patience with as other readers. I don’t expect a Mary Sue-I-Can-Do-Everything-Right, but I do expect some character development that allows the main character to learn and evolve from their mistakes. For me, it felt like she just continuously made worse and worse decisions.

3. Ambling plot: The journey throughout the entire book drags on as if the author just thought up another leg of the trip. There were some interesting twists, but for me it was hard to see the end goal from the halfway mark of the book. I would’ve appreciated if there was more of an end goal shown at that point.


I’m disappointed because the world is so unique and captivated me from the first page, but so many other details brought it down that I could only rate it 2/5.

I would like to start off by thanking the author for letting this be a standalone book. There are so many authors who push books into series when they can just act as a standalone and for that I am appreciative of this author. Another thing about this book is the magic. It was truly wonderful especially when you have characters that capture your attention as well as adventures that keep you on your toes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy

Flower and Thorn
by Rati Mehrotra
Pub Date: 17 Oct 2023

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, in Rati Mehrotra's Flower and Thorn.

One girl. One boy.
A promise broken.
A magic stolen.

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 an entire army--Irinya knows this is their chance for a better life.

Until Irinya is tricked by an attractive imposter.

Irinya's fight to recover the priceless flower and to 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 found it very easy to get swept up in this book. The world building was done extremely well as it produced a very particular picture in my head. I enjoyed how the characters grew and their journey.This book would be great for those who like standalone young adult fantasy.

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press & Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimers first: the author and I are part of the same writers' forum, and I received a copy via Netgalley for review; the publicist emailed me offering a copy because I had previously reviewed another of the author's books, <i>Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove</i>.

I'll also confess upfront that it took me more than two weeks to read, and I took time out during that period to read several other books, in part because <i>Night of the Raven</i> had turned more tragic than I was prepared for partway through, and this one looked like doing the same. The protagonist is an initially naïve young woman from a nomadic group in medieval India who supplement their herding income by hunting for magical flowers in a salt desert, which they supply to a predatory and exploitative moneylender to service their debt. An attractive young man from outside the community offers her a chance to get her group free from the moneylender, and all she needs to do is break a solemn promise to her best friend and let him have one of the most valuable flowers, in order to save the sultanate from the Portuguese invaders. She makes the first of a series of bad decisions that seemed like a good idea at the time, and we're off.

She does get more canny in the course of the book, and is certainly principled, determined, courageous and resourceful. She is just a little bit of a Chosen One; the magical flowers speak to her and help her out as they don't with anyone else, but she still has to act, and she does so without hesitation. Her decisions (and those of others) do lead to several deaths, which are treated as the tragedies they are, but overall the story is hopeful and positive.

The magic system is relatively simple but fresh, with each type of flower having a special power, and we get to see all of them in action over the course of the book. The powers range from finding things and healing through speaking at a distance to teleporting, being victorious in battle (the mechanism of that one isn't gone into), and even controlling time. Each of them also has a drawback or cost, like all the best magic.

I did feel that the characters sometimes felt more 21st-century than medieval, but that was subtle, and could be easily overlooked. The editing was excellent, apart from the common error of using "may" instead of "might" in past tense narration, and a couple of minor vocab glitches, which will probably be fixed by publication time. All in all, it's a solid fantasy adventure with an innovative magic system, a capable female protagonist, and a strong sense of place.

The highlight of this novel is the revisionist history that imagines how 16th century India could have been different with magic. And I love it! With interesting characters, adventurous travels, and high-stakes missions, this was highly enjoyable and a lot of fun to read.

And I will ALWAYS credit an author who can create a fulfilling standalone. I admire RM for not feeling the need to create a series, but can fully develop a world and satisfyingly wrap up a plot in just one book.

So I am very much looking forward to seeing what RM comes up with next, because I know it won't disappoint!