Rea and the Blood of the Nectar by Payal Doshi || Portal Fantasy Adventure Set in India

Rea and the Blood of the Nectar (The Chronicles of Astranthia, #1)

A middle-grade fantasy about twelve-year-old Rea Chettri, who portals into an otherworldly realm to go on a secret quest to find her missing twin brother Rohan. The clock is ticking in this fast-paced, thrilling, and exciting adventure rife with evil creatures, a ruthless villain, and unforgettable friendships.
It all begins on the night Rea turns twelve. After a big fight with her twin brother Rohan on their birthday, Rea's life in the small village of Darjeeling, India, gets turned on its head. It’s four in the morning and Rohan is nowhere to be found.

It hasn’t even been a day and Amma acts like Rohan's gone forever. Her grandmother, too, is behaving strangely. Unwilling to give up on her brother, Rea and her friend Leela meet Mishti Daadi, a wrinkly old fortune-teller whose powers of divination set them off on a thrilling and secret quest. In the shade of night, they portal into an otherworldly realm and travel to Astranthia, a land full of magic and whimsy. There with the help of Xeranther, an Astranthian barrow boy, and Flula, a pari, Rea battles serpent-lilies and blood-sucking banshees, encounters a butterfly-faced woman and blue lizard-men, and learns that Rohan has been captured. Rea also discovers that she is a princess with magic. Only she has no idea how to use it.

Struggling with the truth her Amma has kept hidden from her, Rea must solve clues that lead to Rohan, find a way to rescue him and save Astranthia from a potentially deadly fate. But the clock is ticking. Can she rescue Rohan, save Astranthia, and live to see it all?

Rea and the Blood of the Nectar is Payal Doshi's stunning middle-grade fantasy debut about understanding complex family dynamics, fighting for what is right, discovering oneself, and learning to make friends.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Fast-paced portal fantasy adventure.
• Coming of age middle grade where characters find themselves.
• Lots of character growth and understanding.
• Sibling bonds (including when they go awry).
• A story set in India by an #ownvoices author.
• A beautiful second world that’ll capture your imagination.

Many thanks to Mango and Marigold Press for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I’ve been very much on board with fantasy adventure books this year, especially in middle grade. So when I was given a chance to read an adventure set in India by an #ownvoices author, I was obviously going to jump on that. How could I possibly resist?

Rea and the Blood of the Nectar is a middle grade portal fantasy set in India. It sweeps the reader into a magical secondary world filled with wonder and darkness, where Rea is forced to learn some harsh truths about herself.

I had a lot of fun with this story. While not a lot of time was spent in India, I loved the peek I did get, plus all the aspects of Indian culture the author slipped naturally into the story! Rea was a bit intolerable in the beginning, but it left her character room to grow, and her character arc was really rewarding. Hey, sometimes heroes have to be shaped by their journey and they don’t just start out that way. The only thing I wish there had been more of was addressing the actions of Rea’s mother and grandmother, which I felt like were dismissed and swept under the rug a bit easily and I wasn’t ready yet for that. This is just the first book in a series, though, so I’d be willing to bet it’ll come up in subsequent books!

Doshi delivers an interesting, relatable protagonist in the form of Rea, who undertakes an impressive transformation over the course of this novel in order to learn to be less selfish and how to make friends.

Not gonna lie, Rea is a little bit intolerable at the beginning of the book. There were definitely moments I wanted to shake her. The important thing to remember is that Rea is twelve. I have a 10-year-old who I often want to shake some sense into, too, and I can’t imagine that’s going to get any better in the next year and a half, so Rea’s character seems right on the ball.

While Rea will likely annoy older audiences at first, I think she’ll be highly relatable to younger audiences, who are going through the same internal struggles as she is.

Rea constantly feels like she plays second fiddle to her twin brother, who is not only the favorite child but also way more popular . . . and male. Which makes a difference in a gendered society, of course. She also struggles with the idea of friendship and making friends, preferring to close herself off from everyone rather than risking letting people in. She’s grappling with quite a few normal childhood things, and that’s not even mentioning the paranormal!

I really enjoyed Rea’s arc, because she really has to not only find herself but learn how to trust others. Teamwork is a hard skill to learn (and some people never do). Almost as hard as realizing that you’re being a lousy friend or that you’re being selfish. I love that Doshi didn’t pull punches when it comes to the realizations. Rea has to grapple with her shortcomings. But hey, admitting it is always the first step, right?

Rea and the Blood of the Nectar delivers an interesting, magical world in the form of Astranthia—the world Rea finds herself transported to.

The mythology that comprises the world of Astranthia is surprisingly diverse, and I suppose that has its advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I was expecting more of an Indian/Hindu-based mythological world, so maybe creatures like nagas and vanara and … other things? I am woefully lacking knowledge on that type of mythology, unfortunately. Instead, it’s a bit of a hodgepodge of Celtic mythology like spriggan and Ceffyldwer and Persian mythology like Pari. In that way, it kept me guessing as to what sort of creatures might show up next, so that was fun.

Juxtaposed to the wonder and magic of Astranthia (where everyone’s clothes look like flowers and all sorts of mythical creatures are lurking around every corner), there’s a much darker, more dire world on the brink of destruction.

There’s an evil queen (because of course there is, and I ain’t hating on it) and the people are downtrodden and living in fear. The magic is dwindling in the world and Astranthia is just reaching a tipping point. That being said, despite the darkness of the times, people there do live. I enjoyed meeting the new characters, with all their personalities, and getting to hear some of the lore and such. This definitely seems like a place I wouldn’t mind spending more time in!

Even the adults in this are complex and have their own backstories and struggles.

I really dislike the “evil adults” trope, and I was super glad this book didn’t fall into that. Despite the child protagonists making their own adventure, it isn’t because the adults in their lives don’t care. Actually, just the opposite. After all, there’s more than one perspective to every story, right?

There’s much more than meets the eye when it comes to Rea’s mother and grandmother. First, they’re keeping secrets from her, which is never a good thing, but it goes deeper, even, than that. Indeed, there’s more to the evil queen, too (and in some ways, I was even on her side, so how’s that for a powerful backstory?!).

As I said, the only thing that irked me was how Rea’s mother and grandmother did some not-great things, and that was sort of glossed over in an “all is forgiven” sort of way. Which . . . no. I haven’t forgiven either of you. I don’t accept that. This conversation isn’t over yet! I’m hoping book two will delve more into this.

About Payal Doshi

Payal Doshi has a Masters in Creative Writing (Fiction) from The New School, New York. Having lived in the UK and US, she noticed a lack of Indian protagonists in global children’s fiction and one day wrote the opening paragraph to what would become her first children’s novel. She was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her husband and two-year-old daughter. When she isn’t writing or spending time with her family, you can find her nose deep in a book with a cup of coffee or daydreaming of fantasy realms to send her characters off into. She loves the smell of old, yellowed books. Rea and the Blood of the Nectar, the first book in the Chronicles of Astranthia series is her debut middle grade novel.

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