By: Renita D’Silva
Many thanks to Bookouture for the ARC of this book and the stop on the book tour!
ABOUT THE BOOK
1939, India. Gently kissing her child, Bindu reaches into her pot of powder and touches her finger to the baby’s forehead. She tries to hide her tears behind her sari as she hands her daughter into a stranger’s arms, wondering if she will ever see her again…
Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Bindu is desperately lonely. Before her wedding, she was a highly sought-after cook and although she is not allowed into the kitchen in her new house, she can still taste chilli on her tongue and remember the feel of ground turmeric on her fingers. She finds solace in writing recipes and creating new spice mixes, hoping to pass them down to her unborn child. But when her jealous husband finds out, he confines Bindu to her room alone. As she goes into labour, Bindu is trapped and desperately afraid for her child’s life. Even a recipe cannot rescue her this time. Will she and her baby find a way to survive?
1990, London. Eve’s most treasured gift from her beloved adopted father was a hand-written Indian recipe book. Grieving his death, she begins to grind and mix the spices penned so carefully in the recipes. Do the crumbling pages hold the key to uncovering the secrets of her past?
Her father never spoke of her birth mother, finding it too painful to talk about his time in India. But now he’s gone, Eve is desperate to understand where she comes from. Will finding her birth family, lost for so long, help Eve to find her place in the world, or will it tear her apart?
MY REVIEW
This was such a beautiful book with a lot of love and some sadness. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book.
I don’t know much about India, never mind India in the 1930s. And while the author did say that she some liberties, I had zero idea of what life was like there; I still have zero idea of what life is like there. I learned so much from this book. From the way that the villagers lived, to the hardships, the camaraderie, and even the suffering. How the landlord could single handedly control life for them. I also had and have no idea what it means to be in an Indian marriage. While I suspect now things may be slightly different in than in the 1930s, I would have felt as trapped as Bindu did. I really felt for her and I was hoping that she’d have a happy ending.
The Eve chapters were shorter and interspersed with the Bindu chapters, and at first I didn’t make the connection. I didn’t make the connection until the author wanted me to make the connection. I wish we had a little bit more from Eve. But the ending with Eve was absolutely beautiful. I loved the way that she connected with India.
There, of course, is also a lot of food and recipes in this book. I learned a lot about how spices can be made and used! It was really interesting.
I would highly recommend this book. It’s out now and on Kindle Unlimited. You can get it here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Renita grew up in a picturesque coastal village in the South of India, the oldest of three children. Her father got her first story books when she was six and she fell in love with the world of stories. Even now she prefers that world, by far, to this.
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