Lush, exotic account of 17th century India...a love story based on fact. This would count as the best kind of historical fiction.

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Very, very enjoyable read about the palace hierarchy and a woman's struggle for meaning within it.

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tells the captivating story of one of India's most controversial empresses - a woman whose brilliance,determination and love shaped the course of the Mughal Empire.

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A wonderful historical novel about an ancient Indian empress - the woman who was so loved by an emperor that he constructed the Taj Mahal in her honor.

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I personally did not like this story. In my opinion, the man she wanted had no redeeming qualities whatsoever: he drank excessively, enjoyed the company of his concubines, couldn't carry on much of a conversation, and seemed to like the main character simply for her beauty.

Yuck!! This was one of my least favorite stories.

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Take a step back in time to a world most of us could never imagine. Great read and interesting bit of history and setting.

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Great narrative and interesting historical/cultural perspectives are illuminated in this book, which is, however, counterbalanced by some pretty overt feminine subservience masked in a story that is supposed to be about an independent, powerful woman.

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I greatly enjoyed the first 1/3 of this book, but then felt it lost its voice. It picked up again towards the end but I felt it never regained the strong characters created in the beginning. An interesting story, nonetheless, and worth reading just for the different setting.

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