The Lady or Lion

Written by Aamna Qureshi

Narrated by Deepti Gupta

“He sunk his teeth into her heart and she let him.”

As crown princess of Marghazar, Durkhanai Miangul will do anything to protect her people and her land. When her grandfather, the Badshah, is blamed for a deadly assault on the summit of neighboring leaders, the tribes call for his head. To assuage cries for war, the Badshah opens Marghazar's gates to foreigners for the first time in centuries, in a sign of good faith. His family has three months to prove their innocence, or they will all have war.

As Durkhanai races to solve who really orchestrated the attack, ambassadors from the neighboring tribal districts arrive at court, each with their own intentions for negotiations, each with their own plans for advantage. When a mysterious illness spreads through the villages and the imperialists push hard on her borders, Durkhanai must dig deep to become more than just a beloved princess—she must become a queen.

To distract Durkhanai from it all is Asfandyar Afridi, the wry ambassador who tells her outright he is a spy, yet acts as though he is her friend—or maybe even something more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CamCat Publishing
• Release date: Jul 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9780744303940

Reviews for The Lady or Lion

[thepageladies · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a great story of forbidden love with some mystery! The descriptions of the settings and what was going on was really good! The characters were good but I never really got invested in them. Durkhanai is spoiled and stubborn but it fits her character and she did grow and change as the story went on and that was nice. Overall it's a story rich in culture, mystery and some interesting twists! Thank you Let's Talk Books for sharing this book with me!

[zeborah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So, there are things I'd like improved in the prose. Mostly I found the point of view wobbly: it definitely needed to be flexible, as the prologue needed to be a bit outside of the main character and the rest of the book needed to be very much inside her until very near the end, but it was hard to know whose thoughts we were listening in on at the beginning, and even throughout I wasn't always clear whether it was the main character who was self-aware about her spoiled nature and need to be worshipped, or if that was an omniscient narrator's commentary.But I really appreciated the different cultural setting putting a different lens on the YA themes here. And I loved the ending - both despite the fact and especially because I think I know what the author's doing with it. It's a similar dilemma to the one she poses the reader: if I'm right, I'll probably enjoy the promised sequel less; but if I'm wrong, I'll feel disappointed in this one. I may choose to remain in blissful suspense, but strongly suspect that those who enjoy YA themes will be safe to continue.