From the book jacket:

A sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends—one struggling to survive the human slave trade and the other on a mission to save her—two girls whose lives converge only to change one fateful night in 1993.

India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old girl from the lower caste Yellamma cult of temple prostitutes has come of age to fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute. In an attempt to escape this legacy that binds her, Mukta is transported to a foster family in Bombay. There she discovers a friend in the high spirited eight-year-old Tara, the tomboyish daughter of the family, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to a different world—ice cream and sweets, poems and stories, and a friendship the likes of which she has never experienced before. As time goes by, their bond grows to be as strong as that between sisters. In 1993, Mukta is kidnapped from Tara’s room.

Eleven years later, Tara who blames herself for what happened, embarks on an emotional journey to search for the kidnapped Mukta only to uncover long buried secrets in her own family.

Moving from a remote village in India to the bustling metropolis of Bombay, to Los Angeles and back again, amidst the brutal world of human trafficking, this is a heartbreaking and beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship—a story of love, betrayal, and redemption—which ultimately withstands the true test of time.

My review:

I understand the importance behind the subject matter of this novel, as it deals with real-life issues that are still important today, but the writing itself fell short of my expectations.

It was pretty easy to figure out early on how the story would end, and I think that was the first clue that The Color of Our Sky wouldn’t live up to my expectations. The remaining chapters dragged on for too long and I felt that the only reason why I kept reading was because I thought something “big” was going to happen. Everything was a bit anticlimactic, IMO.

This isn’t to say that it didn’t tug at my heartstrings at all. Reading the parts of Mukta’s childhood was difficult – even more so knowing this is something that happens in real life. It just needed a bit more to really pull me in.

Overall, I didn’t love The Color of Our Sky, but I didn’t dislike it either. I just feel it needed a bit more polishing and the storyline could’ve been a bit better.

My rating: ★★★/5