I received an ARE of this from a Goodreads Giveaway - thanks!

Would I recommend this: yes!!!
For fans of travel, learning new cultures, exploring family dynamics, and wonderfully written and developed characters. Left me fist pumping and cheering along with them!

OHMYGOD, I loved this! I was so excited to read it, and it was one of those books where within 20 pages you know you were right and you WILL love this book. I love learning about places and cultures through reading, even novels, and this was a new one for me: Sikhism and India. I enjoyed learning about the little bits they mentioned in the book, but as a story it was so strong as well!

The characters are the absolute best. It can be hard to develop strong characters when you have several all taking turns narrating, but they each provided insight into themselves as well as each other when they took their turn in the story. Even the mother, who is dead basically the whole time, feels like a familiar friend by the middle of it. One whose quirks and flaws and passions I know and love.

One great aspect of this novel is the lack of a romance line. It's very firmly based on the sisters and them learning about themselves as individuals as well as a group. The secrets that each sister has throughout their pilgrimage through India are hinted at and built upon, but not in that way where it feels so blunt and tactless; none of those single sentences at the end of chapter just saying "She thought she would be ok... until she remembered what he had said before she left." or some rubbish like that. My god, that gets annoying, right? These were gracefully and naturally woven in, which is key in any story for me.

Is it predictable? In some ways, yes. I had a feeling they would all find their happy endings, reconcile, and all that. But the method of each resolution was hazy enough to keep an air of mystery for me, and I loved it for that. I knew the what, but not the how, and isn't the journey all the fun of it anyway? ( )

Not quite as hilariously magical as her first book but a solid and interesting story still. This time instead of cross generational connection it's sisters with a wide age range ( )

I was apparently so keen to read this novel that I reserved a library copy and then bought the (discounted) Kindle version too! The story was okay and the characters sympathetic if a little tropey, but the pacing was very slow - too much introspection and bickering between the sisters.

After the death of their mother, UK born Punjabi sisters Rajni, Jezmeen and Shirina travel to India on a pilgrimage to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, following her last wishes. Rajni, the eldest daughter, has just received a shocking announcement from her son, wild child Jezmeen is struggling with public humiliation, and little sister Shirina, who lives in Australia with her new husband and formidable mother in law, has a impossible decision to make. The three women haven't been close for years, and the circumstances of their mother's death on top of personal problems combine to overshadow what was supposed to be a celebration of family and culture.

I also want you to experience the familiarity of our ancestral state. You girls are British, yes, but all the previous generations of our family lived in India. It is in your blood – the language, the food, the way things are, these things are not erased just because you grew up elsewhere.

I think I did get a sense of Delhi and Amritsar, the Sikh religion and the inequalities and injustices faced by women in Indian cities. The sisters are first generation British Punjabis, born and raised in London, so I felt like the characters were judging Indian culture rather than the author. Shirina's big secret and the truth about the mother's death were easy to predict, but I was happy that everything came right in the end - the clinic farce was a bit jarring, though! The author balanced family relations and deeper cultural commentary well, just not enough to keep my imagination engaged throughout. ( )

Easy read about how three sisters with their own guilt and secrets bond on a pilgrimage to India which was their mother’s last request. ( )