Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran
Available In-House and on in Ebook from Library2Go
Synopsis from Goodreads:
When the British Empire sets its sights on India in the
1850s, it expects a quick and easy conquest. After all, India is not even a
country, but a collection of kingdoms on the subcontinent. But when the British
arrive in the Kingdom of Jhansi, expecting its queen to forfeit her crown, they
are met with a surprise. Instead of surrendering, Queen Lakshmi raises two
armies—one male, one female—and rides into battle like Joan of Arc. Although
her soldiers are little match against superior British weaponry and training,
Lakshmi fights against an empire determined to take away the land she loves.
Told from the perspective of Sita, one of the guards in
Lakshmi's all-female army and the queen’s most trusted warrior, The Last Queen
of India traces the astonishing tale of a fearless ruler making her way in a
world dominated by men.
My Review:
Wow Michelle Moran does it again. Such an amazing story
about a time and place I really knew nothing about and am now completely
mesmerized with. I want to read anything else I can find about this time
period, even though they probably won’t compare to how this is written.
These were absolutely amazing women and as always with
Moran's books it made do more research the first thing I searched was images of
the clothing how gorgeous they must have been. The way they dressed was amazing
and seeing the pictures even made it more real. The freedom these women had in
Jhansi was extraordinary especially compared to the village women who could
never leave the house, which is how Sita grew up plus she had an overbearing
grandmother to add to the stresses of daily life. Having a girl child in India
in the 1800’s was not a happy occasion if it was not a son then it just didn’t
matter, girls were sometimes killed, given away to who knows where and kind of
horrible circumstance they would end up in. (prostitution, slavery, nunnery
etc.) But Sita was lucky her father loved her even after her mother dies her
father never thinks of getting rid of her in one of these horrible ways, though
his mother has other ideas (she is an awful person!), so to keep his mother
from doing anything bad to Sita he decides she should become a Durga Dal for
Queen Lakshmi or the Rani as she is called. The Durga’s are women soldiers and
guards of the Rani who dress in beautiful silks but fight better than most men.
This is such a fascinating chunk of history that I knew nothing about and if
you love books with strong female characters look no further than this one.
Every character in this book is drawn to perfection, there
are no one dimensional characters to be found, everyone has a distinct personality
and background. There are some great characters in this book even the ones you
don’t like; you will find you are still fascinated by their actions. Sita is
the person telling the story of what happened during those fateful times when
the British decided to just take over India and India and their culture and
traditions be damned they just wanted it. The end of the book is heartbreaking,
well, so are a few parts in the middle!
I of course had to love that Sita loved to read and because
in her Village women didn’t leave the house very rarely going outside this is
called purdah, but Sita lived many lives through books she read as she says,
“Even prisoners can escape if they have books.”
I was completely and thoroughly enthralled with this story,
I learned so much and felt completely immersed in the sights, sounds and
clothing of this time. Michelle Moran always writes so beautifully that you
feel like you are there with the characters and this book is no exception.
5 Stars
