One of the best historical fiction writers about India, especially Mughel India, that I have ever read. Excellent balance of contexts of what cities, countryside, geography, flora and fauna, and the building of the Taj Mahal. (I will list this book as currently-reading for a few days so friends can read the review more readily, although I have finished it. I expect to reread it at some time.)
Josanara is the oldest daughter of the Emperor who, after her mother's unexpected death, helped her father deal with his grief and eventually almost all parts of his Emperor duties. The key people are real and the author has fleshed out what events may have been like at that time, to fit the boney outlines found in Indian history sources.
I have always been interested in the power certain women have and have had in India, even during the time of the Harems/zenana/purdah. This is a period of Indian history that I had never explored before and has engendered tons of follow-up research reading.
I am eager to read all her other work and hope she has a long writer life. This book, while focused on the ruling class(es) and nobility, gives respect and honor to people from the poor to the obscenely wealthy. Another strand of the well coordinated story is the role of religions at that time: especially 1600's CE religions. I found the interchanges with Persia, its culture, language, and intermittent wars with India. Within India at the time, we get glimpses of the Deccan Plateau, Kasmir, Kabul/Kandehar at a time when today's Pakistan didn't exist.