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    Under the Jeweled Sky
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    Under the Jeweled Sky
    Unavailable
    Under the Jeweled Sky
    Ebook443 pages9 hours

    Under the Jeweled Sky

    By Alison McQueen

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "Beautiful and brave and bittersweet—a moving story of how love in all its forms binds us together and endures, in spite of everything."—Susanna Kearsley, New York Times bestselling author of The Firebird and The Winter Sea

    Breathtaking historical fiction by Alison McQueen that illuminates forbidden love and devastating consequences.

    New Delhi, 1957. The moment Sophie steps onto India's burning soil, she realizes her return was inevitable. But this is not the India she fell in love with ten years before in a maharaja's palace. This is not the India that ripped her heart out as Partition tore the country in two. That India, a place of tigers, scorpions, and shimmering beauty, is long gone, and Sophie's new marriage only highlights the world she has lost.

    Drawing on her own family's heritage, acclaimed novelist Alison McQueen beautifully portrays the heart of a woman who must confront the mistakes of her past in order to fight for her future.

    In Under the Jeweled Sky, McQueen deftly explores the loss of innocence, the urgency of forbidden love, and how far we'll go to find our hearts.

    "Bursting with the evocative glow of long-forgotten India...lures you into a beautiful story of scandal, hope, and the kind of love that marks us forever."—Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of The Kitchen House

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateJan 21, 2014
    ISBN9781402288777
    Unavailable
    Under the Jeweled Sky
    Author

    Alison McQueen

    Born in the sixties to an Indian mother and an English jazz musician father, Alison McQueen grew up in London and worked in advertising for twenty years before retiring to write full time. She lives in a quiet English village with her husband and two daughters.

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    Reviews for Under the Jeweled Sky

    4/5

    25 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great love story!
    • 2/5
      I will preface my review by stating that historical romance is not my preferred genre. When I requested this title, I found it classified under literary fiction.Sophie Grainger arrives in India in 1957 with her diplomat husband. This is not her first time in the subcontinent since she lived there ten years earlier when her father was a maharaja’s physician. During her first stay in India, she had an unconventional relationship with Jag, the son of an Indian servant, and the repercussions of that relationship follow her during her second sojourn: “memories have a habit of storing themselves up, like shoving things into the back of a closet. They’ll live there for so long as you care to leave them, and then, many years from now, you might find yourself cleaning out that closet one day and out they will tumble, all your memories of yesteryear.”Characters are problematic in this novel. Many tend to be either too good or too evil to be believable. Veronica Schofield, Sophie’s mother, is part of the latter group. She is shallow, hypocritical, and abusive; one is hard pressed to find a positive quality. Jag, on the other hand, is just the opposite. He may be the romantic hero but surely there must be something this man cannot do? How many times does he cross a large swath of India? Even minor characters are unbelievable. Jag’s aunt, for instance, is just so loving and accepting of everyone. These characters are just not realistic. The number of coincidences is also an issue. In a country with “four hundred million people,” Jag’s uncle locates Joy? In the midst of the Partition which saw the displacement of millions, Jag is chosen to work in the same clinic as Dr. Schofield? The author tends to emphasize the star-crossed lovers element a bit too much. Sophie is the one to initiate a kiss and then she and Jag totally discard all the values of their upbringing? Jag’s behaviour while a guard at the residential enclave does not ring true. Why doesn’t he identify himself sooner when he surmises the state of Sophie and Lucien’s marriage?The historical element, on the other hand, is not emphasized sufficiently. The upheaval of the Partition is not conveyed very strongly. There is an attempt to show some of this during Jag’s stay at the refugee camp, but general descriptions such as “this unimaginable scene of human tragedy” do little to give a real understanding of the suffering of the displaced. This novel would probably appeal to those readers who enjoy historical romances. It has the exotic location and the everlasting love that knows no bounds of time and space.
    • 4/5
      I've noticed there are two distinct types of books about India that come across my reading desk. The first is those books that showcase the lives of the privileged; the people who are without caste, who don't struggle against poverty and the other injustices meted out by a flawed system. The second are books that really dive deep into the lives of the underprivileged. Those books tend to either produce an underdog who rises above or serve their purpose by educating the reader about a life that, quite frankly, 99.9% of those lucky enough to be reading the book, will probably never have to experience. Under the Jewelled Sky by Alison McQueen is one of the books that fits the first category.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on April 12, 2014.
    • 5/5
      Are you ready? Today it is time for another great new book. Today's book is another wonderful find at the library. I was lucky to have obtained this one from NetGalley also. I didn't realize I already had it! LOL. This book was published in January 21 of 2014. It is a beautiful story of forbidden love set in a magical palace of a maharaja.This book is a real gem. You should read it!!Sophie is becoming a woman. She is the apple of her father's eye and the object of her mother's wrath. She is bored with her life in the palace of the maharaja until she meets Jag. Jag is a young servant boy that she falls in love with. He opens up a whole new world to her of love and the sights and sounds of the palace. Sophie soon finds herself the victim of her forbidden affair. Her whole life is turned topsy-turvy. Little does she realize that this one event will affect the rest of her life.This is another book that travels back and forth in time, but Alison does a wonderful job weaving everything together. We see how the past has an effect on Sophie's future. I liked that this story has a happy ending, but that it wasn't what I thought would happen. I felt that this book was very well written with really well-developed characters. Be aware that this is mostly a romance story, there is a little about partition and british colonialism, but not much. If you are reading it for the political history you will probably be disappointed. I thought that it gave a wonderful sense of what it would be like to be in India. If this sounds interesting to you at all, you should give this one a try!! I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars. Can you tell I loved it?
    • 3/5
      This book takes place in 1947 and 1957. Sophie first comes with her mother and father to India as her father becomes a doctor for a maharajah. It's a small world, her mother suffocates her and she finds a friend and her life is changed. India becomes a country and fast forward to 1957. This time Sophie comes to India with her new husband, it's a different country from what she remembers. Still again she feels suffocated.

      What to say about this book, what will I remember from it. Well, it made me cry. I can't even remember when a book last made me cry, maybe it happens once a year. It's a good thing, this book truly made me feel. It's a bad thing, omg it made me cry, it was sad! Why!? It broke my heart.

      But before that happened a lot of other things happened. Sophie was kind of quiet, first she followed her parents and then her husband. First in the end she followed herself. This was her journey and I am glad she found courage in the end. True courage.

      Some things happen that I wont get into too, spoilers. But now (-57) and then (-47) comes together.

      Just as it is Sophie's story it is also a story about India. We see how India is formed, and broken apart. Hindu and Muslim countries, there is kidnappings, rape, murder, families torn apart. It was not a pretty break.

      An interesting story.