The Star-Touched Queen
21:30
The Star-Touched Queen
STAR-TOUCHED #1
STAR-TOUCHED #1
- by Roshani Chokshi
5.0/5.0 stars
~
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 is one of those books you read then immediately want to pick up again because you feel like you didn't appreciate it nearly as much as it should be appreciated. And not for lack of trying. But it's a book whose words you intensely savour and yet it still doesn't feel enough. It is a book that you could read time and time again, and each time feel unworthy of the privilege in reading something so beautifully written.
The Star-Touched Queen is almost reminiscent of A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas. Whilst the concept is fresh and the story unique, just like ACOMAF, it plays with the elements and is drenched in astral, magical, out-of-this-world vibes that makes reading it a wonderfully alluring experience. The synopsis, in my opinion, is sort of misleading. I thought it'd be a tale of arranged marriage, politics of ruling a kingdom, and falling in love with a stranger and yet, it couldn't be further from what it delivers. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It just threw me off guard and the book suddenly became everything I was not expecting. Not that I can argue with a book taking me by surprise. It's always refreshing to read something that's unpredictable and so...different from what it seems but seeing as The Star-Touched Queen reads as a stand-alone, I wish there was a little more execution of plot, characters, and overall death/destruction/political havoc.
That being said, Roshni Chokshi's debut is one that shouldn't be missed. A dream-like kingdom, a love story that knows no bounds, and rich writing that will sweep you off your feet, it is one that you will treasure having read.
| "My kingdom needs a queen,’’ he said.
‘‘It needs someone with fury in her heart and shadows in her smile. It needs someone restless and clever. It needs you.’’
- Amar, The Star-Touched Queen
- Amar, The Star-Touched Queen
Roshani Chokshi's world is, in every sense of the word, breathtakingly beautiful. A world that spans mythical lands, beholds creatures of fairytales, and brings ancient Indian mythology to life, it teases the imagination and tantalizes the mind. In her gorgeous prose, she creates a magical landscape that is enticing in its vibrant, vivid imagery, and she intoxicates the senses with her meticulous descriptive language that is so fine and flowery it can make one dizzy. And her writing. God, her writing. It makes me green with envy. It is exquisite. It is beyond me, how she can describe something as mundane as a tree bark, or something as simple as the weather in ways that make you wish you could see the world through her eyes. It is beyond me how she can translate love onto paper with the most beautifully written phrases that make your heart melt and make you wish that one day, you experience a raw, honest, ethereal love story like the one she creates. Roshni Chokshi's writing is, quite honestly, pure gold. I would love to say that she seems to do it almost effortlessly and yet, it's as though she has taken pain-staking care to hand-pick words before seamlessly weaving them together in beautiful, angelic prose. Truly, I have never read anything like it.
| 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.
The Star-Touched Queen is almost reminiscent of A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas. Whilst the concept is fresh and the story unique, just like ACOMAF, it plays with the elements and is drenched in astral, magical, out-of-this-world vibes that makes reading it a wonderfully alluring experience. The synopsis, in my opinion, is sort of misleading. I thought it'd be a tale of arranged marriage, politics of ruling a kingdom, and falling in love with a stranger and yet, it couldn't be further from what it delivers. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It just threw me off guard and the book suddenly became everything I was not expecting. Not that I can argue with a book taking me by surprise. It's always refreshing to read something that's unpredictable and so...different from what it seems but seeing as The Star-Touched Queen reads as a stand-alone, I wish there was a little more execution of plot, characters, and overall death/destruction/political havoc.
That being said, Roshni Chokshi's debut is one that shouldn't be missed. A dream-like kingdom, a love story that knows no bounds, and rich writing that will sweep you off your feet, it is one that you will treasure having read.
0 comments