Years ago I read The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi and I really liked it. So I was happy to see a sequel to the story about Lackshmi called The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (The Henna Artist #2). In this story Lackshmi has moved north to Shimla, India which is in the foothills of the Himalaya mountains. She no longer is a henna artist. Now she is married to a doctor and she helps at the clinic. Besides helping with the patients she grows medicinal herbs and plants in the clinic healing garden. She makes salves and tinctures because the nomadic hill people prefer her remedies to modern medicine. Lackshmi kept her young ward, Malik, with her. She sent him to school and is now an educated 20 year old. In an effort to avoid his potential involvement in gold smuggling she sends him back to Jaipur to learn the building trade. Malik is an apprentice in the Facilities Office of the Royal Jaipur Palace where they are making a state of the art cinema. This was a fascinating story about love and family, kindness and corruption. Lackshmi is a powerful female character with a kind soul and a good heart.
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