Henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protege, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace. It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shirmla. Malik has finished his private school education. At twenty, he has just met a young widow with two small children when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace.
Malik finds little has changed. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class. When the balcony collapses, Malik suspects something caused it. ( )

Alka Joshi is masterful in drawing the reader into not only time but place. Her ease with character and setting make this a vibrant and enthralling look at how secrets grow for both those who’ve kept them as well as those who’ve secrets are kept. There’s something here for every reader; love, betrayal, mystery.

The second in her series of books, the Secret Keeper of Jaipur, keeps us following the lives characters from her first book, The Henna Artist. ( )

This sounded promising and I was excited to get it and read it, but then discovered it was book 2 after The Henna Artist and I was a little lost when I read it since I hadn't read the first book.
I could figure out enough of what was going on and enjoy it some, but it would have been better if I had read The Henna Artist and had more information and backstory to the characters and everything first. It talks about family and happiness and follows up on the characters from The Henna Artist.
I would recommend this especially if you've already read The Henna Artist. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Harlequin for letting me read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

The second volume in this series was as engaging as the first. Set 12 years after the events of the first novel, Lakshmi is settled in Shimla, married to Dr Jay Kumar. Malik has been to an elite school courtesy of Samir Singh (who is nursing some kind of guilty conscience regarding Lakshmi and his role in imploding her world in Jaipur), but rather than settling down with some upper class girl, he becomes enamored of Nimmi, a tribeswoman from the hills. But, he agrees to go back to Jaipur to apprentice with Lakshmi's old friend Manu at the palace, learning the building trade. The novel is told in three voices: Lakshmi, Malik, and Nimmi. While Malik is in Jaipur, a terrible tragedy occurs, and he is suspicious of the circumstances. Manu is implicated, but Malik is convinced he is innocent, and the corruption lies further up the food chain. This is tricky business, however, involving all kinds of caste politics and the local royalty, so Malik and Lakshmi (who comes to Jaipur to help him sort it out) must tread carefully. Meanwhile Nimmi thinks Lakshmi is trying to keep Malik away from her, and she accidentally becomes involved in some nasty business herself. The narrative is smooth, the perspectives distinctive, the storylines believable, with some tension and intrigue but very little menace. Exactly the tone I enjoy, and I hope there will be more in this series. ( )

The Henna Artist was a book that sticks with me even now. I recommend it ALL the time at the library. And somehow, I was only recently made aware of Alka Joshi writing a sequel to her NY Times Best Seller. I must say, I loved it almost as much as The Henna Artist.

The Secret Keeper of Jaiper follows Malik, who when we last saw him was eight years old. Now he is twenty and learning accounting. When the Royal Theater collapses and a family friend is accused of fudging the numbers, Malik wants to get to the bottom of it. However, it involves the Singh family--the same Singhs his "auntie boss" Lakshmi used to do henna for. The same Singh family who hid their son's impregnating Lakshmi's teenager sister. The same Singh family who is heavily involved the Indian royalty....but so is Lakshmi.

As someone who enjoyed the origin stories of Lakshmi and Malik, I was thrilled to see where Alka took the characters next. Oh my goodness, the beauty with which these books are written. I am taken to India. I can smell the Indian food. I can picture the henna. I can visualize the flowers and spices and saris. The subplot of gold smuggling and the end result with how it ties together with the theater collapse....QUITE good!!!

I highly recommend this book as well. ( )