The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi

 

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

By Alka Joshi

Reviewed by Jessica Colleran

Sometimes when you pick a book to read, you go out on a whim. My sister introduced me to this trilogy by Alka Joshi last year (the third installment is set to release later this year). The first book is titled, The Henna Artist, and was featured as a Reese Witherspoon book club pick. I was blown away by the rich imagery and cultural depth of The Henna Artist, that I knew I would have to read the second book in this series as well. The Secret Keeper of Jaipur has all of the same characters as the first book but is told from several different perspectives. I appreciate that the author took the time to make a detailed character list in the front of the book and also an extensive glossary of Indian terms with definitions in the back of the book. Alka Joshi does an amazing job of painting what living in Jaipur and Shimla would look like; I was transported to these places throughout the entire book!

Summary

This story takes place twelve years after the first book and is told by three characters: Lakshmi, Malik, and Nimmi. Lakshmi now lives in Shimla with her husband, Dr. Jay, and works at a wellness center with him tending to her healing garden and the people in the surrounding villages. Malik used to work for Lakshmi, and she practically raised him as her own son since he was orphaned at a very young age. Now as a young man, Lakshmi has arranged for him to live in Jaipur as an apprentice for a gentleman named, Manu. In Jaipur, Malik is to learn the trade of management, architecture, and bookkeeping. He appreciates Lakshmi's attempt to get him a well-paying job, but his heart lies back in Shimla where he has met a young local girl named, Nimmi. Nimmi is a widow with two young children and is surprised by her deep feelings for Malik. She misses him greatly and wants nothing more than for him to return to Shimla. Lakshmi and Nimmi bump heads quite a bit as they both have different dreams for what the future should look like for Malik. In Jaipur, Malik misses home but he is also starting to suspect something suspicious is going on with the current building project he is working on, a glorious movie theater. His suspicions are confirmed when part of the theater collapses on opening night. He is determined to find who or what is behind the collapse to save his mentor, Manu, from losing his job. 

What I Liked/Didn't Like

All the characters in this story were extremely well described, and I found myself connecting with all of them in different ways. Each chapter I was eager to find out what was happening next in their lives. That being said, the one character that I didn't connect with AS much as the others was Malik. I liked the chapters from Lakshmi and Nimmi's perspectives the best. Malik's chapters were all surrounded around the collapse of the theater, and I personally just found that storyline to be a bit boring. Yes, I was interested to find out why it collapsed, but it just seemed to drag on for too long. That was really my only complaint about this book. The author does a great job of introducing Indian culture by using native words to describe situations. For that reason, it did make the book more of a challenge to read because I had to keep flipping to the back of the book to reference many words in the glossary, but I didn't mind!

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

This book was such a wonderful read. I am very excited for the final installment to come out on March 28th of this year titled, The Perfumist of Paris. If you enjoy reading books about other cultures that take place in other parts of the world, then this is the book for you! Alka Joshi does a wonderful job of making the reader feel like they are walking the streets in Jaipur and Shimla. I learned so much about other cultures and thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! I highly recommend checking out the first book, The Henna Artist, and then picking up this second installment to add to your library!