“I want to share whole worlds with you and write your name in the stars.”
“I want to measure eternity with your laughter.”
I want to know what the fuck that^ means? No, seriously, can someone tell me?

1 1/2 stars. The Star-Touched Queen is a book full of dreamy, purple prose that is at times beautiful, and at others makes absolutely no sense. But if you buy into these metaphors, put on your prose-tinted glasses and let yourself get drunk on the glittering descriptions, I suppose you might be able to ignore:

• The slut-shaming/woman-hating
• The instalove/obsession (complete with nauseating sweet nothings)
• The lack of character development
• The meandering plot
• The blind stupidity of the heroine
• The lack of world-building (beyond the nonsensical weirdness of the Otherworld)

Let's start at the beginning and break this down.

The Star-Touched Queen is not what I expected. People often to comment on my that "just because it isn't what you were expecting doesn't mean it isn't good". Very true. So I will also add that, for me, this book wasn't good, irrespective of my expectations. But I had it in my mind that this book was a high fantasy entwined with mythology, kingdoms and death. It's not.

It's yet another fairy tale-esque retelling, based on stories Beauty & the Beast and Hades & Persephone, and reminiscent of better books Cruel Beauty, and not so great books A Court of Thorns and Roses ( this one, it has lots of kissing).

The book opens with Maya being forced into a political marriage by her father. When the groom is chosen, she must take a poison and martyr herself for the sake of her kingdom. But at the point when all seems lost, a dashing suitor whirls into the room and takes her away to the Otherworld. The love interest can be spotted immediately from the way the air changes when he enters the room.
When I looked at him, something stirred inside me. It felt recognition sifted through dreams; the moment before waking - when sleep blurred the true world, when beasts with sharp teeth and beautiful, winged things flew along the edges of your mind.

Being with him was seeing for the first time.
But, take a step back a minute. Maya's lack of character development will remain throughout the entire novel, but it is in the early stages of the novel where she establishes herself as someone with no female friendships, lots of female enemies, and a tendency to slut-shame:
“I’d rather spread ideas than legs,” I hissed back. “But I doubt you would agree-"
Suffice it to say, this book definitely does not pass the Bechdel test.

In fact, Maya has literally ONE female friend, who is - wait for it - a horse. Which is almost hilarious.

Not only is Maya allergic to all the other evil, slutty females in this book, but she is so freaking stupid... I can't even. I honestly cannot think of anything she does that was guided by her own decisions and brain cells (does she even have any?). The plot is propelled along by her doing what everyone else tells her to do and being tricked into acting an idiot. The bad guys (or should I say "girls"?) are not difficult to spot in this book. The reader will spot the deceptions coming a mile away - why is Maya so dense? She has very few thoughts of her own.

Maya: Oh my god! How could I be so stupid?
Me: I literally DO NOT KNOW.

The middle part of the book was the hardest for me to get through. Once Maya becomes the queen of Akaran, the plot meanders and we are taken on repetitive tours. Cruel Beauty, but less compelling, there are many doors, mysterious voices and mirrors. It is this wandering part of the book where I could not see what we were reading towards. What questions did we have to answer? What made us turn the pages? For me, I drew a blank.

Fortunately for the plot, Maya acts stupid, gets bumped out of this world, and has to figure out how to get back to where she was. That's right - we basically reach the happy ending by the middle of the book, but Maya fucks it up to give us another 150 pages. And to give another example of her a) stupidity and b) lack of original thoughts, this is what happens:
“Gupta, what door is that?”
He frowned. “Door? What door?” He turned around and then asked sharply, “What did it look ?”
I hesitated. Mother Dhina’s words echoed… keep some secrets for yourself.
Yes. Maya decides to withhold information about a weird voice coming from behind a door... because of the words of an evil, conniving woman. She would rather give weight to the words of someone who hates her than think for herself.

Who would I recommend this book for? Maybe those readers who cursed romances, but don't care about character development, woman-hating, or actions making sense. Sorry, but it wasn't for me. Points for Kamala, though. The horse is the best thing in this book.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Store2016 fairy-tales romance ...more901 s1 comment Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies831 41.1k

Although I had never envisioned marriage, I had thought of love. Not the furtive love I heard muffled in the corners or rooms of some of the harem wives. What I wanted was a connection, a shared heartbeat that kept rhythm across oceans and worlds. I didn't want the prince from the folktales or some milk-skinned, honey-eyed youth who said his greetings and proclaimed his love in the same breath. I wanted a love thick with time, as inscrutable as if a lathe had carved it from night and as familiar as the marrow in my bones. I wanted the impossible. **high-pitched screaming**



Sorry about that.

Oh. My. God. I'm speechless with glee and my head is spinning from this fantastical, lovely, exquisitely built tale. The story can best be described as Greek mythology in a mythical Indian setting. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

Seriously, both of those elements promise to be magical, and trust me when I say you will not be disappointed by the way they are represented in this book. I have always been fascinated by the image of the Indian royal court and the harem. Call me a romantic, if you will, but I love the colors, I love the harems, I love the power play and the backstabbing. I love the richness, and vibrancy of it. It's something that has always fueled my imagination, and this book delivered on every front.

Seventeen-year old Princess Mayavati lives in the royal courts. Though she is a princess, a charmed life it is most defintely not. The belief upon horoscopes prevail, and upon her birth, Maya was predicted to have a cursed life. As such, she may be a princess, but she lives her life as one ostracized.

It's not all bad, because nobody pays attention to her, Maya gets the run of the court. She reads. She spies on her father. That independence soon comes to a close when Maya gets the shock of her life; she is to be betrothed to the a foreign prince to avert war between their nations.

Life is over as she knows it. Instead of freedom, Maya will now live a life in a gilded cage to a stranger. But her wedding is a bit...unexpected. A soldier's hand grasped for me, but Amar pulled me away. Arrows zoomed past, but each time one came near, he would whirl me out of the way. He moved fluidly, dodging javelins, always a few steps behind me, a living shield. Oh snap! Not your traditional wedding, that's for sure.

Against all hope, Maya finds happiness. She finds love. She finds a partner. But what fun is it if the story just ended there? There's magic and mystery and hidden rooms, and then there's the mystery of her groom itself. The groom that's just too good to be true, and perhaps is. That night, I dreamed of locked doors and baying hounds, rooms that were night-dark and a beast-king that smiled and laughed around a mouthful of broken stars to sing one phrase over and over: I know the monster in your bed.

Maya is such a wonderful character. She may have suffered from her loneliness, but she never becomes a martyr. She has strength that comes from such loneliness. And un other characters in other books who frustrates by building an impenetrable wall of bitchiness around their heart, Maya is open to what her heart desires. One criticism may be that she is too easily susceptible to romance, but I compare it to a man dying of thirst, confronted with a bounty of water.

The world building is incredible. From the mythology within her world...In all the tomes and folklores I had read from the archives, there was no limit to the worlds around us. Somewhere unseen were demonic realms filled with laughing asuras and blackedned suns. There were austere kingdoms on the peaks of mountains where phoenixes serenaded the moon and the halls of the gods glinted with lightning. And there was our own, human world, mortal, with only the comfort of stories to keep away the chill of death."And the romance! THE ROMANCE! IT'S HOPELESSLY ROMANTIC. "What do you want from me?

He stopped, the smile was gone from his lips.

"I want your perspective and honesty," he said, before adding in a softer voice, "I want to be humbled by you. My kingdom needs a queen. It needs someone with fury in her heart and shadows in her smile. It needs someone restless and clever. It needs you." IT'S WILDLY, MADLY ROMANTIC AND GUESS WHAT? I DON'T GIVE A SHIT. It was beautiful and glorious and my heart sings with joy.

All quotes are taken from an advanced reader's copy and is subject to change in the final edition.

Read this review and more @ The Book Eaters762 s Elena MayAuthor 11 books712

When my favorite character is a skinny talking horse, who also happens to be a flesh-eating demon, you know it’s a memorable book!

Mythology retelling! Indian folklore! Harem backstabbing! Lush and colorful settings! Strange creatures and hungry demons! What’s not to love???

The book seems to be partially based on the legends about god Yama:



The version we see here is quite different, though we still have the water buffalo. I got to ride one too:



Princess Mayavati’s horoscope is a disaster – she’ll be partnered with death itself. But the real disaster is people’s interpretation. Everyone blames her for everything that happens in the palace. A child gets sick? Maya’s fault! A wife dies in childbirth? Maya’s fault! A wife’s slippers disappear! Okay, that one was really Maya’s fault.

But then she’s swept in a magical adventure, one from the bedtime stories she tells her little sister, and she must learn that there are many ways to interpret a horoscope. In a world of reincarnations, death is not just a natural part of the circle of life – it’s also a new beginning.

Before she find herself, Maya goes through being an ignored princess, a confused queen, and even an unwilling sadhvi (a sadhu / sadhvi is an ascetic, who is simultaneously respected as a holy person and ostracized for being an outcast and a beggar):



Maya’s characterization shows some inconsistencies, which is why I’m deducting a star. At the very beginning, her father informs her that in order to avoid a war, he needs to wed her. Maya will have the choice among a pool of possible husbands. Instead, she decides to run away. Her choice is somewhat selfish – this could mean war and would surely bring lots of trouble to her people. But this is selfishness I can accept and understand. What has her family done for her, after all? What does she owe them? The choice is still self-centered but it would have made for an interesting, flawed character. But it was not to be...

Once her escape fails, her father tells her his plan has been different all along. There will be war anyway, so his plan is to lure in her suitors and kill them off. However, they would be protected by guest rights, which is why Maya needs to kill herself; after her death, the foreign nobles will no longer be protected.

And Maya’s reaction is... okay, sure. She never tried to fight her fate and obediently starts drinking the poison until a random stranger stops her. Supposedly, she does it to protect her people, in particular her half-sister, but she never spares them any thought before. So she is unwilling to marry someone of her choice to protect her people, but is fine with dying?

From that point on, Maya shows next to none independent thoughts. She just blindly follows whatever random people tell her, without putting much thinking into it. I’ve seen many reviewers complain she makes a stupid choice, but I didn’t really have a problem with the choice itself. Honestly, she doesn’t have enough information to make the choice, and she’s right not to trust Amar at this stage. The bigger problem is, she never really thinks about her choices and seems to decide at random. And, given how insane her life becomes all of a sudden, she doesn’t ask enough questions. Why is Amar so unconditionally in love with her, without even knowing her? He is willing to forgive her anything and overlook all the messes she makes. He claims he needs her insight, but we’ve never seen this insight. The reasons are revealed later on, and they are not hard to guess even before that, but Maya never guesses what’s happening. She doesn’t even wonder about it.

Also, it doesn’t look good when we see how in a previous life she makes EXACTLY the same mistake! Listening to Nritti now is somewhat understandable, if random, but listening to Nritti in the past??? After Maya already knows Amar and all his secrets? After she knows Nrittin has a reason to hate them? Also, I’m not a fan of the trope where friends turn against each other because of a lover.

There are some other minor inconsistencies, e.g. in the beginning we see Maya’s mother dies when Maya is young, but later the book claims she dies in childbirth. Also, Amar waits for one specific event to happen after “sixty turns of the moon” in the mortal realm, which is roughly five years, and yet at one point we see ten years have passed and yet nothing has happened. Overall, the book would have benefited from a stronger editor.

One small thing is bugging me – can someone with a better knowledge of Indian names help out? Isn’t Gupta a surname? I was quite surprised to see it as a first name here, so I got curious and looked it up. I work in a large multinational company, and I did a search in our internal directory to find I have 448 colleagues with the surname Gupta, but not a single one who has it as a first name. A quick Google search confirms my thoughts. Then why is it a first name here? I’ve seen some very high profile authors mess up first name / surname conventions of cultures they’re unfamiliar with, but this author seems very knowledgeable, so I’m sure that’s not the case here.

Please don’t let my complains discourage you, this book is epic and beautiful! If you’ve read my other , you’ve probably noticed I tend to nitpick the most about books I love the most. Also, guys, there’s a talking horse! And it’s not really a horse, but a pishacha: a demon that haunts cremation grounds and eats flesh. It’s absolutely ugly and terrifying, but so, so cool!327 s Laura425 1,302

I know I'm in the minority with this one. I gave a full star simply for the writing. Other than that...the book lost me. It was hard to stay interested. Gorgeous writing is not enough to make up for what it's lacking in plot and characters.

I admit it. I saw all the hype surrounding The Star-Touched Queen..all those 5 star . And I needed to read it. A retelling of Hades and Persephone. Fairy-tale story. A girl cursed by the stars. What could go wrong? Unfortunately...me and this story weren’t friends.

This book is filled to the brim with lush, flowery prose. Metaphors galore, over-descriptions, lyrical writing. If this doesn’t interest you, I’d already suggest reading something else. I mean...the writing. I get it, I can appreciate it. But it got to a point where it was just way too much. If we took the book and cut out all the overly-descriptive sentences and metaphors, it would be less than half the size and that’s being generous.

There was so much lacking when it came to plot. Not a lot happens. And when something does, it doesn’t even make sense. Nor does it flow well. The plot is hard to follow. I found myself so completely lost at times. Other times, I found myself bored. I really had to push myself to keep reading.

Where was Maya’s characterization? Where did we establish who she is? I don’t feel we knew her. I don’t feel we knew any of the characters really. Which brings me to the romance at the center of it all...The insta-love is real. OH BOY is it real! Although I understand the purpose within the plot of this particular book, it was still nauseating and overall just annoying. It’s hard to care about any relationship when it begins this.

Again I’ll mention that while I can appreciate the beauty of the writing, it wasn’t enough for me. Luckily I still haven’t read some of The Star-Touched Queen's closely compared novels such as Cruel Beauty, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and A Wrath and the Dawn - all of which which I’ve heard are similar, but seem a little more my thing. I think I’ll just read those and pretend this didn’t happened.fantasy read-in-2016 young-adult247 s1 comment Hailey (Hailey in Bookland)614 85.7k

Goodreads is saying I've read this for the second time but this is my first time reading it (as it has with a lot of books since adding the rereading feature). Need sometime to think on it also it's 5am so I will update later!fantasy owned ya198 s jessica2,576 43.6k

you know that feeling when you finish a book and enjoy it, so you go creep on your friends to see how much they it as well, but then you have to slowly back away because more than half of them DNF’d it? no? just me? okay then. haha.

yikes. i honestly had no idea so many people disd this book. i mean, i can sort of understand how it might have bored some people, but i actually quite d this. i thought the writing was imaginatively descriptive, the story was unique and magical, and i was pretty much entertained throughout the entire book. the only complaint i do have was the ending - it left with me with a ‘huh. okay.’ reaction, which was a little anticlimactic, but it didnt ruin the book for me. i feel so sad that a lot of people didnt enjoy this, but the book had high entertainment value for me personally.

3.5 stars 172 s Mikee (ReadWithMikee)203 1,336


?He loved her. And she loved him. And in such bliss does devastation grow.?
Rating: {? ? ?}

I must admit, I'm a bit conflicted on how I want to rate and review this book. I enjoyed reading The Star-Touched Queen but at the same time, I did have a few issues that stuck out to me and affected my reading experience.

The Star-Touched Queen was The Wrath and the Dawn meets Cruel Beauty meets A Court of Thorns and Roses with Indian mythology added into the mix. A lot was going on and I was really lost 90% of the time I was reading. I think even when the truth was unveiled, I became even more confused as to what was happening. I had hoped that once everything was explained, it all would start to come together but it never really did...

Roshani's writing is very vibrant and beautifully detailed. Her sentences are weaved together perfectly to create such melodious prose. However, I did find the writing to be both a strength and a weakness when it came to The Star-Touched Queen. On the plus side, the lush writing provided the readers with such fruitful imagery. Unfortunately, at times I did feel overwhelmed with the amount of details that were given to us. The imagery, of course, was enthralling but in certain parts it became too much and too flowery to the point where it took away from the plot because I often found myself getting lost in the descriptions.

Secondly, I felt that the world-building was a bit confusing. Even after finishing the book, I'm still unsure of how the world works... How the threads worked... How the palace worked... I'm not even sure. I'm just completely lost with this book. :( The only thing I understand is that the palace has different rooms? (Obviously) But different as in... There's a different world in every room? Every room is a gateway to another world? Goodness, I honestly don't even know.

One of the things I did enjoy was the star-crossed relationship between Maya and Amar. However, I did feel that they were a bit insta-lovey in the beginning. I just think that any relationship that deals with past lives or past "loves", is a bit tricky to handle in order to avoid coming off as insta-love just because of that instant spark that they're supposed to feel due to the whole past love thing. But I decided to just look past the insta-love part and found myself enjoying the chemistry between Maya and Amar.

The Star-Touched Queen wasn't really how I expected it to be. It's sad to say that I'm a little disappointed but I have no doubt that Roshani will write many great books in her future. Roshani's writing is very artistic and beautiful, and I wish I could've enjoyed it to its full potential but it didn't work for me. I can understand completely how other readers would enjoy The Star-Touched Queen. It's very creative and diverse. I sure haven't read any books based on Indian mythology and I give Roshani props for trying to pursue this! We need more diversity in YA and I'm glad she decided to contribute to this movement. Although I didn't enjoy this as much as I was hoping to, I have faith that this author will accomplish a lot with her future books. She is a great writer and a great person to talk to. I will read anything that Roshani writes and support her 100%. :)153 s Christopher PaoliniAuthor 78 books39k

Wonderful mythic fantasy. Definitely recommend it!recommended147 s Melanie1,227 101k



“Kill, if you must. String a garland of severed heads around your waist if you want. I would take you in my arms if you were drenched in blood or dressed in rubies … but think. Impulsiveness is a dangerous thing.”
You guys, this was so beautiful! The Star-Touched Queen is a loosely based retelling of the Greek mythology surrounding Hades and Persephone, but told in a setting to completely celebrate Indian culture. I loved every aspect of the retelling, but I also loved every new and inventive way Roshani crafted this into her own story. This was lush, and engaging, and so romantic. This was an absolute treat to read.

Maya is the daughter of a very powerful Raja, who is constantly trying to keep a war at bay. Maya is also the daughter of a woman who was a part of her father’s harem, but died while giving birth to her. In this world, horoscopes are read prophecies once you are born, and they are very important and very dependent on what your future will bring.

Maya’s horoscope is one that promises she will be married to death, therefore many people in her community treat her awful. Also, this makes her very undesirable for a marriage proposition. Though, her father soon becomes very desperate and arranges a marriage for Maya while covering up her real horoscope and replacing it with another of better fate.

“He loved her. And she loved him. And in such bliss does devastation grow.”
Obviously, the story takes a very unexpected turn, and Maya is thrown into a world where secrets literally hide behind every door. We get to see her grow, and learn, and become strong on her own and decide what she wants for her life. This is a story about a girl learning what she is capable of, without her father’s power, or her brother’s kingdom, or her husband’s help and that’s so damn beautiful.

This story places a heavy emphasis on love, but also the importance of sisterhood, motherhood, and friendship. And the price and weight we put on all those titles. And the good and bad things we are willing to do for the sake of those relationships.

And the romance, the romance is so good. I was swooning so hard at some of these lines. And even though I think the writing could be almost too lyrical at times, this book had some of the best one-liners I’ve ever read.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I’m also completely in love with a certain sassy, flesh-eating, demon horse.

“I would break the world to give you what you want.”
Overall, I loved this. It was diverse, and so well crafted, and the world building was phenomenal. It was swoon-worthy, and empowering, and a joy to read. I want so badly to read the spin-off, A Crown of Wishes, now!

I was blessed to meet Roshani this October at the Goodreads Power User Summit in San Francisco, and she was honestly the sweetest and kindest author I've ever met. I knew I couldn't let 2017 end without giving The Star-Touched Queen a proper review! This in no way has impacted my rating or review, but I just wanted to let you know what an absolute angel is she.

And this was a buddy read with another confirmed angel, Sonja! ?

Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Youtube | Steam | Twitch buddy-reads fantasy filipino ...more139 s Drcong O '756 2,560

Minor spoilers ahead. They won't be marked.

I've been reading this book for about 15 days now and I'm so thankful it's OVER! This was one of the most annoying and confusing books I've ever read with the most over descriptive and lyrical writing EVER. Some of the sentences made no sense to me??? I skimmed through the last 25% and could care less what happened. The romance was horrible insta love and Maya was super annoying.

Alright, let's start with the good:

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