Growing up in India, Tara loses her sense of self when her parents and younger brother move away. She is left with her grandparents and a schizophrenic uncle to wait for her parent's return. She later marries an Indian who lives in America, but doesn't join him until three years later. It is a disastrous marriage with physical and verbal abuse. She then sets out on her own in order to come to terms with her past and her present.

The writing is engaging and the story is hopeful. Purple Lotus gives readers a typical view of India--arranged marriages, family dishonor, the status of male and female children. I highly recommend it if you enjoy reading about Indian life.

Tara, whose name means Star in English, is an Indian woman caught between the confines and expectations of family and society and her desire to find her own happiness in the world.. After marrying a man who was a suitable match, and moving to US, she finds only loneliness and isolation. Her married life mirrors a childhood full of feeling abandoned and unloved. Her journey of self-discovery and independence is compelling and engaging. I felt for her along this journey. It's fascinating to learn about Indian culture and see how it conflicts with the American lifestyle and values. One can see why a woman from India would be torn between the two worlds.

Thank you to NetGalley and She Writes Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Please note this is a 4.5.

"We're going to bed tonight early, Esther," I say to myself as I open my ARC of this book before I go to bed. "Just going to read about 50 pages to get off to sleep and I'll be done."

This was a lie.

It is not a frequent lie I tell myself, but it's not often that I enjoy a book as much as I enjoyed this one. A sweeping story examining the power of family, love, and the way that a life can be broken and rewoven, there is so much here to put together and take in. The overarching love story, of both Cyrus and Tara and Tara to herself, is wonderful. The themes of domestic violence and the pervasiveness of PTSD are really important themes, and I loved the relationship that Tara finds with her eventual friends even in the strange world of America.

I am so glad that the book ended the way it did- there was so much beauty in here, and I really, really wanted a happy ending. I think my heart would have shattered if the book had ended any other way, but this book left me feeling full. And I won't even begrudge it keeping me up until 2 in the morning to finish it off.