The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen #1) By Roshani Chokshi [Review]

RELEASE DATE:  April 26, 2016
AUTHOR: Roshani Chokshi
GENRE: Young-Adult, Fantasy, Magic Romance.
PUBLISHER: St. Martin’s Griffin
SUMMARY: Cursed with a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, sixteen-year-old Maya has only earned the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her world is upheaved when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. But when her wedding takes a fatal turn, Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Yet neither roles are what she expected. As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds friendship and warmth.

But Akaran has its own secrets – thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Beneath Akaran’s magic, Maya begins to suspect her life is in danger. When she ignores Amar’s plea for patience, her discoveries put more than new love at risk – it threatens the balance of all realms, human and Otherworldly.

Now, Maya must confront a secret that spans reincarnated lives and fight her way through the dangerous underbelly of the Otherworld if she wants to protect the people she loves.

 The Star Touched Queen is a beautifully crafted enchanting tale that’ll definitely capture readers’ hearts from the first page. The story is actually a retelling of Greek myth Persephone and Hades based on Indian mythology. Persephone and the Hades is one of my favorite mythologies and I loved the way the author executed it basing on Indian Mythology. The world building was beyond fascinating and it’s the best part of this book that captured my entire attention. The Characters Maya and Amar are simply wonderful and their love for each other was really heart touching. I must appreciate the author Roshani Choksi for writing this beautiful masterpiece and I’ll definitely look forward to her future works.

Princess Mayavathi is born with a cursed horoscope that’ll bring nothing but death and destruction which has made everyone in the kingdom loathe her. When her father, the king Of Bharatha arranges for a swayamvaram(arranged marriage), Maya has no choice but to agree to it. Maya prepares to sacrifice herself for the sake of her kingdom but things take a surprising turn when she gets married to Amar who seems so mysterious. She gets bewildered when he brings her to a whole new world of Akaran where magic and creatures like demons exist. Maya suspects there’s more to the man she has married and she knows he is a man with so many secrets and Maya is determined to reveal them. Her journey for finding answers ultimately brings nothing but pain and loss. Now Maya is finally left with a new journey to make everything right and find the love she has lost.

I liked Maya but I did hated her for not trusting Amar and being so impatient. I loved the character development of Maya. In the first part, we see her to be naive, innocent, stubborn and curious but in the second part she becomes strong, matured and determined. Amar is absolutely charming and mysterious. His love for Maya is totally admirable. He was always loving and tender towards Maya and it’s pretty sad for what he has to go through with the re-incarnation thing. The relationship between Maya and Amar is sweet and heart breaking. Together they really have a great chemistry. I loved the slow burn romance and how their relationship slowly developed. They reminded me so much of my favorite couple Khalid and Shazi from The wrath and The dawn series. As for the supporting characters, I loved the flesh eating demon horse named kamala who brought humor to the plot.

The plot is simply brilliant and intriguing. From the start, the story was engaging and I couldn’t even put it down for a second. I liked the first half but I loved the second half filled with twist and turns. The pacing is also quite good and I haven’t felt bored anywhere which is another great aspect of this book. I loved the writing. It was so elegant, beautiful, lyrical and poetic that I can’t help loving it. Her words breathed life into the story and her vivid description made it easy to imagine everything clearly. The world building is the major highlight of this book. The author has done a wonderful job in creating this world based on Indian culture that felt very realistic and accurate.

Overall, it was fantastic and beautiful! It has an amazing world building, brilliant plot and great characters. This book is definitely a must read for all the fantasy and fairytale lovers.

MY RATING:  [4/5 Stars]

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