Sharon Maas has such a beautiful writing style. She tackles difficult subjects and manages to transport you right into the middle of a different culture and you feel as though you can touch and feel the atmosphere around you.

Monika and Jack are desperate for a family and when they meet Jyothi in the streets of Bombay- they want to offer her a better lifestyle. Things don't go smoothly and the dream of a happy little family unit have to be adjusted. Jyothi finds it difficult to adjust to life in Britain.

There are some very touching breakthroughs and the books takes us through tragedies, betrayal, friendships, family relationships and a profound love of music.

Music touches Jyothi in a way nothing else can and Monika is keen to nurture this.

It really draws you in and you don't want to put the book down. I had my kindle almost attached to my nose on the bus! You feel for Jyothi and long for her to be happy- after the turmoil she's gone through in her little life.

I automatically reach for each Sharon Maas book that I see- as I just love the way that you lose yourself completely in the story and finish feeling that you have been along on the journey with the characters.

reviewed on Amazon, Good Reads and my blog.

When I told Kim at Bookouture that I wanted something completely different from my regular reading to cleanse my palette, she recommended The Orphan of India by Sharon Maas, so, into this book I dove!
Surprising even myself, I was completely sucked into this story of love and loss within the first few sentences. Part coming of age drama and part historical fiction, Maas brilliantly captures the life of a little girl and the people who surround her.
Following British couple, Monika and Jack Kingsley, who are desperate for a family of their own. On a charity trip to India, they come across Jyothi, a small girl living in poverty and who seeks comfort from the music she hears around her; the couple fall in love with her immediately. Fighting through red tape and culture they are unfamiliar with, Jyothi finally comes to England and deals with the struggle to fit in to her new surroundings. Following her lifetime, Jyothi realizes the importance of embracing your future and confronting your past.
I really loved the beginning of the novel; with Monika and Jack arriving to Bombay, I really felt like I was there experiencing it with them. Vivid imagery and strong characters really showed the dichotomy diversity and the spread of British idealism and colonialism in the East. It really had a Slumdog Millionaire type of vibe, which I absolutely loved! Moving throughout the time in Bombay and the struggle to bring Jyothi to England, the relationship dynamic between Monika and Jack and the issues that come from becoming a new, blended family; I was absolutely hooked!
However, as much as I loved the beginning of this book, it felt like the plot switched gears half way through. Moving from Jyothi’s youth and following her journey, as she grew older and developed her own love story. I wasn’t actually a huge fan of this portion of the text. I feel like I would have liked it even better should the author have stayed with Jyothi and followed her youth.
Regardless, overall, I felt like this one was well worth the read!

I simply adored this book, it was beautifully written and I loved it from the start and felt even a little bereft when it had ended.  The story flows and I loved the loss and hope, promise and future aspects that were running throughout.  It really did draw me in and I cannot recommend this book highly enough – I tend to read a lot of crime and thrillers at the moment and picking up a book like this really does make my day – absolutely no hesitation in giving this book 5 stars.

Monika and Jack Kingsley are in Bombay trying to make connections so that an English based charity can set up programmes to help the street children and orphanages/hospitals. One day they come across Jyothi, a little girl living with her family in a shack on the side of the road. Millions of people live in these shacks that line the roads for miles in Bombay. Her ‘father’ works in the dhobi (laundry) with help from her mother. After witnessing the death of her mother Jyothi is taken to a hospital where the Kingsleys visit and support her and eventually adopt her and take her to England.

Jyothi struggles in England, with school, with socialising and with education, she grows up with a sense of not belonging, difference and is blocked emotionally. Music is her saving grace, her salvation and her self-worth and she strives for perfection for it is through this she is confident and she does this for Monika. As the years pass we witness Jyothi’s alternating confidence and despair; her alter-ego, Jade, the superstar musician, beautiful, confident and successful.

I was seduced by the cover and the title of this book and anticipated the pleasures that waited within the cover. I was not disappointed – but neither was I spellbound. For me, the star of the show is the description of India which conjures up images of the beautiful madness that is Bombay and the clamour of people living in the margins. I cannot deny that it is beautifully written, nor are the characters not quite right but…

I was frustrated by Jyothi, what did she want? I was even more frustrated by the descriptions of her triumphs with her music – OK, I get it, she’s a brilliant violinist but was it necessary for her to experience the high again and again, playing like she never had before – the music taking her… and then a slump.

Would I recommend this book, yes if only for the descriptions of India.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

I knew I would enjoy this as I have loved all Sharon Maas's previous books. Beautifully written with characters that come to life. Vivid descriptions of India both the best and the worst along as well as an English setting. Both sad and happy with guilt, deceit and a search to belong. Recommended reading.

Sharon Maas is one of my favourite authors. She is one of those select authors whose books I pick without checking to see what they are about, knowing without reading the blurb that whatever it is that they have written, I will enjoy, knowing that they deliver every single time, that they never disappoint. Needless to say, I LOVED this book. I think it is her best yet - but then I think this of every single one of her books. each sentence is beautifully crafted perfection. The prose so evocative and vivid, that I experienced every single word, lived it. I felt for Jyothi, sympathised and empathised with her. Her life, everything she goes through, the dilemmas and choices she faces as she comes into her own as so beautifully realised. I loved this book and would recommed it to everybody. from the first line to the last, this book flows as beautifully and vividly as the music that is Jyothi's gift. Highly recommended. If you haven't discovered Sharon Maas, you are missing out.

It seems like a wonderful chance at a new life. Jyothi has been living on the streets of Bombay after her mother was taken in a terrible accident. Monika and Jack Kingsley, who want a child, fall in love with the little orphaned girl and bring her back to England with them. But the transition is not easy for Jyothi and she once again finds solace in the music she loved in India. It is soon obvious she has a natural talent for music, but even that does not soothe her troubled heart. Maas makes India come alive, from the beautiful to the profane, she makes her readers see the country. And she also touches a chord with the truth that we as Westerners often forget – a new home may mean more opportunities, but it will never replace the home left behind