Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Page Count: 342
Format: Hardcover
Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of death and destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire…
But Akaran has its own secrets—thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most…including herself.
From the moment I saw the cover of The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi I knew I had to have it, the alluring description didn't hurt either. However, not being able to get an ARC I had to wait for the finished copy to come; and now finally after knocking a few other books off my TBR I was able to get to TSTQ and read it! I can easily say that the wait was worth it, Roshani Chokshi spins together a wonderful tale of Indian folklore, magic, and mystery.
As the first book I've ever read set in India (or at least an India reminiscent setting) I had high expectation for the world building an they were easily met. From the start of the book in Bharata to the The Night Bazaar to all the other wonderful areas explored, everything was vivid and colorful; coming to life in front of me. The only qualm I had was that I felt like Bharata could have been explored even more, but I'm sure that will be remedied in the sequel. Usually (at least in my experience) if a book has an amazing cover it will have great world-building to go with it and The Star-Touched Queen is no exception.
The characters of TSTQ were simply amazing, far out-shining the world-building or any other aspect of the book. Maya and Kamala, they were the two characters that made the book what it is for me. Everyone else was great as well but the two of them simply pulled the book forward and were the biggest of reasons why I kept reading. If anything ever happens to Kamala I will just quit reading the book and not go back to it (*glares at Roshani). But in all seriousness, The Star-Touched Queen was a wonderful book to read and I'm glad to have done it.
While the ending of TSTQ wasn't as much of a cliffhanger as other books I've read I can still see plenty of scenarios for the sequel. If you're a fantasy or folklore (with a twist) lover you will definitely enjoy The Star-Touched Queen as much as I did.
4.5/5 - Really good book
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