This book was just … wow. I loved it as much as I disliked it, and I’m just all sorts of conflicted.

I also immediately checked out the sequel as soon as I finished reading this, and I can’t wait to start it, so there’s that. All in all, this was a really hard one to try to rate, because I flip-flopped back and forth so many times between loving it and yelling at my Kindle that my husband became concerned. It’s like he doesn’t even know me.

Chokshi builds a world that is both real and fantastical, beautiful and dark, tied up in a neat little bow with some hot romance and a vivid Asian setting.

 

❧ The world-building was breathtakingly vivid and conjures up a world full of Indian culture and lore … the good and the bad.

The world feels true to it source material, and it doesn’t shy away from the reality, which isn’t always pretty. Maya is the daughter (one of many) of the Raja. She lives among the harem, with her half-siblings and her father’s other spouses. Amongst the women, there is sometimes camaraderie, but most often, there’s fierce competition. Women, of course, are married off for political advantage in arranged marriages. Like I said, realistic, and the real world ain’t always pretty.

On the other side of things, there’s mystery and magic and darkness and danger and all sorts of lovely supernatural elements woven expertly into the real world.

Maya crosses from her kingdom into the Night Bazaar, which is full of intriguing objects but also danger, for everything comes at a price. From there, they travel to Akaran, a world between worlds. Every step of the way brought new wonder, and I couldn’t wait to see the next setting.

❧ The writing is beautiful and evocative and does a great job of eliciting suspense.

Chokshi has a way of writing that is gorgeous and quotable. I could easily picture all the settings, and it really brought the Indian setting to life.

❧ I know I harp a lot on romance, especially insta-love, but you know what? This was kinda hot.

You know what I’ve realized? I’m totally okay with insta-love when there’s an actual explanation behind it, and there is in this book! Which I won’t mention because it’s kind of spoilerish, even though you can probably figure it out just based on the fact that the story revolves around Hinduism.

Maya doesn’t instantly fall into the strong, mysterious stranger’s arms, though she’s obviously attracted to him. Still, he’s keeping secrets and lying to her and she realizes that’s a problem.

Which, I have to say, is so refreshing in romance.  I enjoyed the romance so much, the little barbs Amar and Maya exchange. They felt like equals, and the way they played off each other was marvelous. Considering the setting the book is written in, where women are kept in harems and are intended basically as wives and child-bearers, I didn’t miss the significance of the power and reverence that Amar gives his wife.

For someone who claims not to like romance, I was all on-board with this, and there were plenty of things Amar and Maya said to each other that made my soul melt.

You know, the sort of thing that makes you turn to your spouse and whack him because why can’t he be that romantic?!

❧ There’s no talking swords, sadly, but there’s a zombie horse, and it’s for sure my favorite character.

Technically, it’s not a zombie horse. Kamala is a flesh-eating undead horse, and I’m pretty sure there was a supernatural name for what she is, but I don’t know what it is. So … zombie horse!

Kamala was a delight, with her witty responses and banter with Maya.

I kind of wish that I knew more about Kamala and her background and story, but I did enjoy her role in the books. She almost makes me want to come back as a zombie horse in my next life … almost. Not quite.

❧ The writing was beautiful … but it was also really dense and sometimes hard to get through in places.

Despite getting a good picture of the setting, sometimes there’s such a thing as too much description. There were times when the descriptions felt like fluff. They were pretty, no doubt about that, but they didn’t actually mean anything to me. It felt like pretty for pretty’s sake rather than focusing on clear writing.

There were also places where it just felt like too much, and I skipped passages because scenes slowed down and felt too dense.

❧ Something happened to Maya’s character around the middle of the book where her actions made absolutely no sense to me, and I was so frustrated because anyone with two brain cells should’ve seen the red flags.

I loved Maya as a character. She was strong and resourceful and was so smart. Her brains were proven over and over and several characters mentioned them, as well. Which made it all the more frustrating when she stopped using all that brain power. Her actions felt contrived to me just to fit the plot. I saw where it was going early on, so it was no surprise to me, and I couldn’t figure out why it was such a surprise to her.

I can’t say any more because of spoilers, but it annoyed me enough where I considered DNFing. I’m glad I didn’t, because the second part, while different than the first, was enjoyable, nonetheless.

❧ The book felt a bit disjointed, since the first half is a romance and the second is really a quest story.

This isn’t necessarily a negative, but it did confuse me a little. There was a sudden shift between the two parts of the books, where the characters changed, the plot changed, the whole trajectory of the book changed. There was a reason, so it wasn’t completely out of nowhere or anything like that, but it still felt abrupt.

Have you read The Star-Touched Queen yet? Do you want a zombie horse? Or, I suppose, would you prefer a different kind of zombie animal? As long as they’re snarky, that’s what counts, right?