Henna House by Nomi Eve was another recommendation by my former colleague who always has stellar recs. I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. While about Yemen, not India, it was in the vein of those I loved (The Orphan Keeper, The Secret Daughter, and The Rent Collector, among others), but it fell a bit flat by comparison. Henna House is the story of Adela whose family is desperate to find her a husband before she is collected by the Confiscator. Her prospects are bleak, but her life is transformed by the arrival of her aunt and cousins who teach her the art of henna tattooing. Overall, this book was too tedious for me; I didn’t get sucked in the way I wanted to until the last 50 pages (which were very good). If it had been 100 pages shorter on the front end, I would have liked it much more.