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I love reading PoV versions of Mahabharata, and since Karna is a very intriguing character, I thought this PoV from his wife would be great. But the author simply seems to have read a couple of PoV versions like Mrityunjaya, Palace of Illusions etc and done some general online reading on Mahabharata interpretations, and simply rehashed it. I mean even some of the words sound the same as what I have read on several online discussions of this epic.

The problem with this book is that there is no attempt to create an internality to Uruvi, Karna's wife, or for that matter any of the characters. It is like a third person story, which is simply conveniently written up as a PoV. Just an example, Karna is sharing with Uruvi the secret of his birth, and who his birth mother is. Dont you think he would just get to the point of the conversation. But no, he meanders on and on about how Krishna came with Satyaki and took him in a chariot and they drove somewhere and he asked Satyaki to go away and yada yada. Its like the author saw the BR Chopra serial or perhaps read Rajaji's Mahabharata and is simply making Karna describe the situation which was described in third person in that book. I mean do you really think a man who has been told the secret of his birth and who is wrestling with the fact that he is going to war with his own brothers is going to come and describe the story in this way to a wife he respects. Similarly, with Karna's death, Ashwathama goes on and on and on about the battle that we never really get a sense of the tragedy of his death for his wife. If this was really a PoV, then shouldnt the wife be focussing more on her loss rather than attempting to describe the battle scene. This kind of PoV versions smack of Lazy writing. The author has made no effort to actually get engaged with the character who is narrating the story, but simply using her as a mouthpiece.
For some truly interesting PoV, one should read Bhmsen by Panicker, which is based on the malayalam book Randamoozham. I have not read the original and Panicker stresses that his is not a translation, but you can see the author make an effort to actually narrate a story from Bhima's perspective. It is his story. Even the fights he engages in are narrated from within his mind. We understand what he thinks of his wife, his mother, his brothers.
There are numerous other places, where it is obvious that the author cant be bothered to demonstrate something through the story, and simply states it. For instance, at one point Uruvi says Karna has a good e sense of humor. But not once is anything related to that ever described.
Draupadi's unrequited love for Karna is pretty much a lift off from Palace of Illusions. Uruvi even hints at the same reason for Draupadi to dismiss his suit, as has been described by Divakaruni in her book. But pray on what basis did Uruvi realize this truth. It is natural that she may guess another woman loves her husband, but how can she randomly assign a reason for why that woman then rejected this man.

PS : I thought I was too critical in the review and flipped through the book again. There are some sections which are nice. Kunti finally gets her comeuppance through Uruvi's repeated castigation of her. But Kunti's reasons for hiding Karna's birth remains very obscure and her repeated requests from Uruvi to stop censuring her seems very unlike this strong woman, who made her choices aware of the consequences and probably took full responsibility for her actions. And then I stumble on more bits of lazy writing. After Karna's death, in the battlefield, Uruvi is beholding her husband and the Pandavas and Krishna come and Krishna says Yudhishtra wants to light the funeral pyre, and will she allow it. Uruvi says Karna wanted Krishna to do it. Krishna says he is aware of it, because that was one of the boon he asked of Krishna before his death. SO if Krishna is aware of Karna's desire, why is he even asking Uruvi if Yudhishtra can light the pyre and telling her that it is his right as a brother? These kind of logical inconsistencies ought to have been picked up by an author or competent editor at least.