The Last Tale of the Flower Bride the haunting, atmospheric gothic page-turner

This novel is the perfect pick for those who love stories within stories and delight in the confusion of blurred lines between reality and the fantastical. As our protagonist falls in love with a wealthy heiress who seems to have walked out of a fairy-tale herself, all she asks in return for her love is that he never enquires into her past and family history. This promise is lightly made but over time fatally broken, absorbing the reader into dark secrets and even more sinister family relations. Chokshi incorporates various folk tales from around the world into her own story, thus using them to foreshadow her own turning points and the many secrets that lie behind her characters. This book was so much fun to read and always left me guessing what is real and what is only an inventive child's imagination.