[Review] The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

ABOUT

Title: The Star-Touched Queen

Author: Roshani Chokshi 

Series: The Star-Touched Queen #1 

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: April 26th 2016 

Goodreads Page

Synopsis:

Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you’re only seventeen?

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.

The Star Touched Queen gave me some Anatolia Story and some Drop of Dreams, The Golden Birdcage type feels, mostly because those are both the only stories that I’ve read that dealt with harems in historical kingdoms. They’re both pretty excellent mangas, if you’re looking for something with that vibe. However, it quickly departs from that harem and political court life for the more magical side of things.

I really love the incorporation of magical beings and all the sorts of mythology in this novel. I’m very into all sorts of mythology and I enjoy seeing classic stories like mythology being reworked in new ways. I’m also definitely unfamiliar with the mythology used in this novel though so I don’t know what was factually from mythology and what is made up.

Roshani has some seriously gorgeous writing. The book is just reams and reams of gorgeous prose and imagery that really leaves you feeling as if you were touched by magic in the instances that you were reading her words. I thoroughly enjoyed inhaling her words and I look forward to reading more of her writing.

I really like Mayavani’s character. She’s most definitely not perfect and she’s very stubborn. She also has some wisdom to her and she’s intelligent. She definitely got a bad card handed to her and she longs for freedom from her circumstances. Though she doesn’t make some of the best choices, it humanized her.

I also enjoyed Amar’s character and his flaws. He’s the only one who’s really flowery with his words in this novel and while it sounds super romantic on the page, I don’t know how I would feel if someone said that to me in real life. It would be either super romantic or super pretentious. Any ways, I enjoyed that while he is the love interest and he plays an important role in the story, The Star Touched Queen is really Mayavani’s story and her journey to accepting and growing into her destiny.

Overall, The Star-Touched Queen is a gorgeously written fantasy novel with lots of mythology incorporated into it. I'm interested to see what will happen in the next novel!

Happy Reading!