The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi was my first read of the year. Having seen this book all over my social media sites & without having read what it was about, I picked it up at the bookstore and found myself intrigued by the synopsis as well as its basis in Indian mythology (and the beautiful cover, oh my goshhhh).

The Star-Touched Queen follows Mayavati; a princess who, in a world where horoscopes are of great importance, has a horrible forecast that partners her with death and destruction. She is used as a pawn by her father, who arranges a political marriage to aid in crushing rebellion. The wedding is used as an ambush by these rebels and Maya escapes with Amar, the love interest of our story. They flee into the Otherworld, an intriguing world full of unusual creatures and magic, all enveloped in mystery because it was never explained nor explored until they finally get to the kingdom of Akaran, where Amar is ruler and, consequently, Maya is Queen.
The beginning of the novel was sadly the highlight of the story. Chokshi set the foundations well; a cursed protagonist, an mystical love-interest, a world on the brink of war and unique lore to tie it all together. 
Then, once Maya arrived at Akaran, the story flat lined. 

I realise now that I had a taste of what I was in for when I began to question the logic behind running off with Amar after meeting him for about two seconds, this logic being; “When I looked at him, something stirred inside me”. Still, it hadn’t prepared me for Maya’s idiocy throughout the entirety of the rest of the book.

Even though this book was short it took me quite a while to get through it. This was because;
1. The prose, whilst beautifully written, often became flowery and thick with descriptions that broke the narrative flow. 
2. The plot was scarce and confusing however predictable, and the world was fleshed out to a bare minimum.
3. The protagonist was blind and weak, and the ‘romance’ was build off of zero relationship between the two of them. An insta-love that was ‘different’ because of the couple’s past-life.

Maya was dumb. I tried very hard to find a nicer way to put it, but alas there is no other way to describe her - which brings me to my next point; there are no defining qualities to her. She never thought for herself, she consumed every lie she was fed and never once questioned it, and didn’t learn from her mistakes. Also, Chokshi wrote Maya to seem strong and independent; every time she realised she was being treated unfairly and inequal/kept in the dark by Amar, however this was only an air as she never acted upon it only woke up to the cage she had been kept in. I waited for her to confront Amar, and when she finally did, she took one look at his pretty face, accepted his excuse and fluttered back to her room.

*scowls* 

Amar was so broody, ‘mysterious’ and withdrawn, that he and Maya had absolutely ZERO chemistry and consequently made their relationship incredibly insta-love and forced. Chokshi believed she made up for this, however, by using the past-life soul mate card to reinforce their perfection as a couple. 

*scowls fiercer*

The plot was almost non existent and the antagonist, though curious in character at first, turned out to have a scarce motive in comparison to the utter disaster she was stirring. Perhaps it would have been more believable if she had had an actual drive behind her evil-ness, or perhaps it’s just me being fed up with women having men as their sole purpose in literature. Hmmmm…
That leads me to my next point, Maya had literally no friends, slut-shamed (“I’d rather spread ideas than legs,” I hissed back. “But I doubt you would agree-"), and fell out with her sister over men for what I can only assume would be for eternity. 
Like?????????
It really is sad that it’s a rarity for women in young adult literature to be kind to one another, let alone form close friendships. Instead they’re always pitted against one another, more often than not over men, and it’s infuriating. 

*scowls even fiercer than before, twitching*

My favourite characters in this novel were Gauri, Maya’s reincarnated sister, and Kamala, Maya’s only friend who happens to be a talking horse. 
Oh the irony.
But seriously, this book was dragging on so much until Kamala was introduced. Here’s a beautiful excerpt;
"He's my half-brother."
"Nasty, nasty."
"I know."
"Would you like me to eat him?"
"Definitely not," I said, a little too quickly. I patted Kamala's neck. "But I appreciate your offer. It was almost nice."

In conclusion, The Star-Touched Queen was a fantastic idea and foundation of a story that was executed poorly and interwoven with beautiful prose to hide it. The lack of character development, world building and chemistry between character (esp. The love interests) created a tiresome read, one which made me feel as if nothing actually happened.  Sadly, whilst writing this review, I lowered my rating from 3 stars.

★★★☆☆ - 2.75 STARS


Love, Natalia

xx