Tasha Suri is a librarian who studied creative writing at University and both of those facts are evident in her debut fantasy novel which is clearly well-researched and oh so creative.
Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor of the Ambhan Empire and an exiled Amrithi mother. The Ambhan Empire has all but wiped out the nomadic, desert dwelling Amrithi and Mehr's mixed parentage means that she is an outcast in her own home, not least because her stepmother wishes her gone. When Mehr accidentally reveals that she's able to wield the same kind of magic her mother did, she's "encouraged" to accept an arranged marriage to Amun who belongs to an order of priests who want to control Mehr's magic. Their uneasy union changes and grows as Mehr comes to understand that Amun may be as bound and trapped as she is.
Using India's history and myths as an inspiration Tasha Suri has created a world that is beautiful but also brutal and sometimes even scary.