The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Choksi REVIEW

~This was my first book for the #AvengersReadathon19 for Okoye (Book by a Woman of Color).~

The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Choski

Publication Date: April 26th, 2016

Rating: 4/5

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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.

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First of all, can we talk about how absolutely gorgeous this book is? SO. GORGEOUS. And it’s also gorgeous on the inside! I usually don’t tab my books unless a quote is just too pretty not to want to refer back to later, and this one was filled with tabs!

Britt (banualcosmos on instagram/twitter) said that it was a low key Hades/Persephone retelling and so I bumped it up my TBR because of that! I loved the Hindu mythology incorporated into it as well!

The magic and the world building was so well done! I felt completely immersed in the world and it was just so mesmerizing! I felt just as entranced as Maya when she was discovering everything for the first time!

While we didn’t get to dive too much into the romance, I’m hoping there’s more in the second one because I could feel the chemistry (and Amar saying jaan gave me life–pun intended) radiating through the pages, but because of the plot we couldn’t explore their relationship as much as I wished!

The first part of the book was so gorgeous and magical, and then the plot thickens and becomes this intricate mystery (which drove me insane). The last hundred pages when everything was finally explained made the ending all the more satisfying!

The only reason that this wasn’t a full five star read was just because of that part of the book right before everything was explained when I felt so lost and I just wanted the plot to go a bit faster (but that’s just me being impatient). I loved Maya’s character development and the little bit of banter that she had with the other characters as well. And watching her discover her power and her strength and her story was honestly a beautiful experience!

I would recommend this to anyone who loves mythology, magical lands and mysterious curses, really swoony lines from a very swoony husband, adventure, destiny, and powerful women who probably haven’t even reached their full power yet!