The Star-Touched Queen

I've had this on my TBR shelf for quite a while, but only got around to reading it because the library finally really wants it back. Oops! And now I'm regretting not reading it sooner because it is OH MY GOD FANTASTIC. This is one of those books that's going to be hard to talk about without giving things away about the plot, but I'm going to try. Maya is the main character, a princess with a horoscope full of doom for whoever marries her.

She's in for a surprise when she does marry, though, as she is whisked away from her father's kingdom to a palace full of hidden doors and a husband who is more than he seems. She's quickly embroiled in a mystery to find out not only the secrets her husband's kingdom is hiding, but the secrets behind her own history.

I absolutely love reading non-western fantasy because there are NEW fantasy elements to discover. This book makes heavy use of reincarnation, which is not a common trope in western fantasy. Not reincarnation as karma, anyway. There is fate, and horoscopes, and choosing your own destiny despite those things, and spirit worlds, and OH IT'S JUST SO GOOD.

The second book, about Maya's sister, came out last March, so I need to read that too.  The same author has written another book set in Paris, The Gilded Wolves, which came out in January and immediately hit the bestseller list. I'm glad, this author is fantastic. I'm not sure I'll read it though, as the description doesn't really intrigue me. But The Star-Touched Queen and its sequel, A Crown of Wishes - these are just my cup of tea!

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

1.5 Stars

Book 8 complete for O.W.L.'s 2019 Astronomy- Star in the Title

This is going to be a challenging review to write because I do not even know where to begin and how to effectively articulate my thoughts on this book. I'm going to try to do my standard pros/cons, but there is just so much with this book
Pros:
- Writing. Chokshi's writing is amazing. She has this lyrical style and that is gorgeous and descriptive and I immediately enjoyed reading her story.

Cons:
- Story. I was confused for probably 90% of this book. I read another review of this book that had a similar thought. I just did not understand what was happening and what the characters were doing. There were even times when I did not know who the characters were. For whatever reason, the explanation portion of the story was lacking. It may have to do with Chokshi's style of writing, but I just could not follow it. It has now been a few days since I finished the book and I honestly could not tell you what happened for the majority of this book. I can tell you small bits but nothing beyond that.
- Themes. At the beginning of the book, Amar comes in and is the “savior” and it really irked me that we did not have a strong female character who was saving herself. Yes, she had the choice to go with him or not but I still felt that it was framed in a way that he was this amazingly attractive savior.

I have many more thoughts but I'm not sure how to explain them. I do know that I will not be picking up a Crown of Wishes. I have no desire to read anything else in this world or with these characters. However, I do think part of my “issues” with this book could be due to it being a debut and I strongly believe Chokshi will get better with each book she writes. So I will be picking up the Gilded Wolves. I had high hopes for it prior to reading this book and while my expectations have been lowered, I am still looking forward to it, especially if it has the great writing of this book.

Though I enjoyed the mythology, my favorite part of this book was Maya's personal journey. I really liked her due to her determination, hopefulness, and strong belief in accountability. The last third of the book didn't work quite as well for me as the rest because (unpopular opinion time!) I thought Kamala was a dull character. I know. A flesh-eating demon horse sounds like an excellent addition to any novel, and I seem to be very much in the minority on this one, but I didn't find her compelling. However, I thought the book was good overall and would like to read the companion novel about Guari.

3 1/2 stars

Full Review: http://www.fantasybookcafe.com/2016/08/mini-review-the-star-touched-queen-by-roshani-chokshi/

A beautifully crafted story about love, loss, identity, and the circle of life, The Star-Touched Queen features a strong female lead and enchanting descriptions of various worlds. At once a romance, a mystery, and a coming-of-age story, there is something for everyone in this book. It is also a delightful immersion into Indian mythology, which is underrepresented in the YA genre. A very enjoyable read!

So many things happened in this book! Enough so that it was difficult for me to keep track of what was happening. I was surprised a bunch of times by the story and the character but over all I felt the story was a little bit all over the place. There were some interesting elements in there but I didn't connect with the characters and the story.

Hands down the best part of this book was Kamala the cynical, bloodthirsty, talking demon-horse.

I had such high hopes for this one. In theory I should have loved it: a magical fantasy inspired by Indian mythology? Sign me the f up, right?? But it just didn't deliver. The plot was sloppy, the characters were one-dimensional, and the romance relied too heavily on the fated lovers trope, rather than a genuine connection. The writing was lovely, but the floweriness (Safari isn't underlining that, so apparently it's a word) of it seemed to simply serve as a cover-up for those lacking essential elements of a good story.

The world was really intriguing, but it also could have used so much more development. I might give the second book a go in the hopes that it focuses more on the world-building and characters, but if it's just going to be more of Maya and Amar being inexplicably drawn to each other then no thank you.

An interesting book. Definitely a distinct world among much of the YA fantasy I've read, and I appreciated that. I could've done with a bit more character development, and at times a bit more description of where we were, what was ... actually happening. The prose got pretty flowery in places—sometimes, it worked, but sometimes it took me out of it. A lot of kind of extravagant descriptions that failed to actually give me a visual picture of a person, place, or thing.

I liked it, but I didn't really finish the book feeling like I wanted to return to the world and characters, because I'd only just started getting to know them when it wrapped up.

~Full review notes on The Bent Bookworm!~“I am a frightened girl, a roaring river and night incarnate....And I will not be tethered. My life belongs to me.”Feels:Reading The Star-Touched Queen was like falling headfirst into a swirling vortex of color, light, and strange beasts. It was beautiful, fascinating, terrifying, and slightly confusing at times.Characters:Maya is one of the many sons and daughters of the Raja of Bharata. Ostracized for her “cursed” horoscope her entire life, Maya has developed more independent thinking than most of her sisters. I immediately admired her resiliency in adapting to her less-than-ideal circumstances. I loved her protectiveness towards her younger sister Gauri. Very endearing. I didn't quite understand some aspects of Maya's character though...some of which I think may be due to cultural differences. For instance, near the beginning of the book, she makes a certain choice (no spoilers), that for the life of me I cannot understand and to me seems very out of character for what we know of her, up to that point, and even to her as we see later in the book. I just don't understand it at all.Maya does a lot of growing in this story. She changes. She comes to realize who and what she is, is not determined by her horoscope.Once, I would have hurled curses at the stars. But the longer I looked, the less I hated them. The stars, filled with cold light and secrets...I, not the starlight, shaped my decisions.Amar is the hero of the story...or is he? What is he? He's so mysterious, so confusing...and holy shit, the man has some of the most amazing one-liners I've ever read. Like melt-my-heart kind of one-liners. Stop and think and WOW kind of one-liners. At the same time...he seemed to be a lot of smooth talk and not a whole lot of action. At least that was my impression. As more of his character and his life is revealed...well, you'll have to judge him for yourself. His quotes are amazing though.“I make this bond to you in blood, not flowers.”“There is no romance in real grief, only longing and fury.”To be honest, while I liked both Maya and Amar, I wasn't OMG invested in either one of them. I think this was at partially because I was so overwhelmed by the world and everything that was happening (more on that later). I'm really eager to see how the next book plays out, thought I'm afraid that since it's focusing on Gauri, we won't really get to know Maya and Amar much better.Plot:Bharata is at war. The Raja will stop at nothing, nothing, to win and secure peace. However, all that quickly takes a backseat to the journey that Maya takes with Amar, to the kingdom of Akaran. Everything slows way down once they arrive there, and several chapters are spent wandering around the palace and discovering ALL SORTS OF THINGS. It was beautiful, but it was slow. While I was intrigued, I kept wondering when something was going to happen.Once things started moving again (oh look...there's ONE THING Maya is not supposed to do...and what do we all do when told about ONE THING?), they really start moving. I was NOT prepared for all the world-time-space jumping and more than once literally felt like I was falling into that vortex. It was amazing, but it seemed a bit disjointed at times.About halfway through the book, I realized that there were really TWO major plot lines. My little light-bulb came on, and that was very helpful...but I really feel like it could have somehow been done better to avoid all the “WTF is going on” moments I had. I really doubt I'm the only one having these thoughts, but if I am...you know. I might just be weird.I really like that there is no prince-saving-the-princess going on here. Yes, there is a love story. It's beautiful, and powerful. However. Maya and Amar both remain fully their own people and in the end, Maya is the one who really does the saving.Worldbuilding/Setting:This, my friends, is where The Star-Touched Queen shines. The world building here is nothing short of phenomenal. The fuzziness of the plot was forgivable so long as I could live in this bright, beautiful, and unfathomably deep world. It glows. It glitters. Rosin Chokshi employs all five of the reader's senses when building her world. I could smell the spices, see the split skies, hear the jingle of bells. It's by turns beautiful and frightening.The world and characters are largely drawn from traditional Indian (Hindu?) mythology and culture. Now, I am almost entirely unfamiliar with both, so maybe I was a little more in awe and sometimes a little more confused than a reader with more background. I had next to none, but the awesome thing is: it didn't matter. Chokshi has missed nothing...I could see every step Maya took in the palace halls, I could feel her falling through space, I could see both the beauty and the horror of her journey. As someone with no frame of reference for this world, I can't say enough good things about this aspect of the book. I was fascinated. When I was confused, it wasn't for lack of being able to picture what was going on but being at a loss as to WHY or HOW something was happening.I had never read a fantasy book where reincarnation was treated as...well, as anything! It added an amazing new element and all kinds of new possibilities. I found it a little hard to wrap my head around, but I hope to see it again in the second book.Rating/Thoughts:4/5 stars. Half a star off for the meandering and delay of the plot after the story moves to Akaran, half a star for the confusion and lack of explaining on how the space/time thing worked. Maybe I'm just a confused muppet but I really could have used a little more explanation...shocking, coming from someone who usually complains about too much telling versus showing.I'd love to hear what other readers thought of this book! Was I the only one confused?Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+