This book was so good OMG! I loved how it built up and showed the character Meneka as she grew. This story really was great at showing how differing perspectives, The love story and bi rep was also great. I have delved much into Hindu mythology, but I can tell this story does a great job combining mythology and a new tale. I can't wait for book 2.

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC.

i love retellings and specially hindu retellings, as even though im not a hindu myself, growing up in india these stories and folklore have always been around, and to now read these stories in a different, feminist light is delightful.

the writing was gorgeous, the prose was definitely the best aspect of the book, i didn't even realise i flew threw the book, and this is now making want to read other books by the author.

the plot, even though i know about apsaras and meneka was new to me, this myth has not been talked about enough in media.

this book is for everyone who loves mythological retelling, books with beautiful enchanted setting and flowy prose.

3.5⭐️

The Legend of Meneka is a fun retelling of Hindu mythology. I am not as familiar with that topic and there is a lot of information to take in, but they also give you a glossary, which was incredibly helpful. It’s a great story about finding the magic within yourself and I think it made a lot of great statements. The found family aspect with the friends Meneka makes at the hermitage was really nice and I enjoyed those charactets a lot. Meneka herself was a very good FMC for the story. She was stubborn and self assured, but also open minded enough to realize she should be questioning certain things she has been taught to believe. Kaushika was an odd character for me. He was a little stiff and I wish we could have gotten to delve into his character and growth more. I also don’t feel like we quite got the romance I would expect from a book listed as Romantasy, but that might just be a personal opinion.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did, but it ultimately fell a little short for me. It wasn’t bad, and I would absolutely recommend people read it; it just wasn’t quite my thing. The prose was a little too flowery and descriptive for me. It felt like it took a long time for the plot to actually pick up. I will say, it got much more interesting about halfway through, which is why I bumped this up to a 3.5 rating. I have high hopes that the sequel will have more action and romance.

I was immediately interested in this book when it was described as a romantasy inspired by Hindu mythology.

Meneka is a celestial dancer, known as an apsara, tasked with seducing a human sage, Kaushika. She ends up falling for him and is torn between her love for him and her devotion to Indra.

My biggest complaint about this book is that I didn’t feel anything for the romance. Meneka is sent to seduce Kaushika, but I never felt any chemistry or longing between them.

This book was a lot of fun to read and I enjoyed every moment reading it. The writing is very strong and characters are fairly likable.

This is a beautiful, but imperfect personification of Hindu mythology. I need to be upfront that I am not from a Hindu culture or background, so there are many things I only know from reading other people’s thoughts. So I will do my best to interpret my experience reading this, but it may not be the best or most accurate interpretation.

This is a retelling of the story of Meneka, an apsara, and Kaushika, a human sage. Meneka is meant to seduce Kaushika on behalf of her lord Indra, but ends up falling in love with Kaushika instead. This is a very bare bones description of the plot, and neither that nor the blurb really help the reader understand how steeped in Hindu mythology this really is. This is a time where I feel like the blurb calling this “romantasy” is harmful to understanding the story. It’s really more than that.

The best parts of this book are the multiple details, both subtle and obvious, that immerse the book in Hindu mythology and culture. It’s a vivid and sensual read. But the book falls down a bit when it comes to the characterization of Meneka. She’s our window into the world and she’s frustrating.

Plus, if you go into this world thinking it’s a traditional romantasy book, you will be disappointed. It’s got some spice, but this is about more powerful ideas like devotion, loyalty, and identity. It also touches on loss of faith in a way that romantic fantasy usually doesn’t. This is no shade to romantasy (god knows I read it), but it’s a limiting title.

I recommend this book, but I would also recommend going in with proper expectations.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Well, Zana and I hated this. At least it's not just East Asian fantasy we hate? We've moved on to South Asian.

No, but seriously, mythology retellings have not been done well. And for something labeled romantasy, I expected it to get hot and heavy. It was just boring. I have nothing nice to say, so I'll end it here.

🍛 Take a shot every time this book is dumb as hell
🍛 Take a shot every time they mention yogis
🍛 Take a shot every time they mention ascetism
🍛 Take a shot every time this not as dirty as advertised

📖 Thank you to Goodreads and Harper Voyager

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager

In The Legend of Meneka, the first element I enjoyed was the world building. There's not only a world of gods and goddesses, but also of sages and dance magic. It felt immersive and magical from the very beginning. But what stole the show was the relationship between Meneka and Kaushika. She won't back down and the banter, the barely concealed chemistry and tension are chefs kiss. While it's important to find someone who complements us, we also need someone who challenges us. Who isn't afraid of question us, to tell us when we need to take a moment, who believes we can be something more.

Did I unexpectedly fall in love with this book? Yes, I did. Did I need more after finishing it? Yes, I need more! It's literally so freaking good for a diverse fantasy read. It has bits of Hindu mythology with romantic fantasy elements, and it ties so well together.

The Legend of Meneka starts off slow, but it's a good thing. You want to know more about the world-building before getting to the action-packed or the romance starting to heat up. It's best to pay attention because it comes to a head toward the end. Trust me, it gets a bit action-packed when everything comes ahead.

I won't say anything more besides the nonstop tension and chemistry between Meneka and Kaushika. Their nonstop banter makes the tension so much more intense that I am waiting patiently for Meneka and Kaushika to be together already. I know that they are attracted to each other even though they don't trust each other. You just can't deny the chemistry and the never-ending pull. It's there.

This was such a highly anticipated read for me. I highly enjoyed it. I'm always a sucker for when the FMC or MMC is the target of the other. It's one of my favorite tropes and I ate this book up. The world in which this takes place is also so interesting.

The Legend of Meneka strikes at the heart of Indian Mythology about an apsara (celestial dancer) who was sent to seduce a sage but falls in love. But this story is more than just a romantic fantasy seeped in heartbreak and betrayals. It's a story about a woman realising her own power, not just the magic of her dance forms but her worth that is more than seducing her mark. Meneka's story just like a lot of female mythology characters isn't one that's known to all. We know about the sage who is popular in Hinduism but we don't talk about the woman he fell in love with. It's amazing to see literature give voice to these women and their stories.

I really like how this author focuses on retelling the stories of characters from Hindu mythology who are wives or lovers of "wise men", whose canonical story always reduces them to "she was so hot, no gods or men could control themselves and for that she was somehow punished". I enjoyed how this was done with Ahalya in a dazzling and inventive Sci-fi setting of floating ashrams in the author's previous work, and Ahalya has incredible agency in her story and is allowed to be terrifyingly competent and flawed. This story about Menaka, apsara and grandmother to the king Bharat (after who India the country derives its Hindi name), doesn't do much in terms of creative worldbuilding and just straight up retells the story with a bit more fleshed our and vivid depictions of the original elements of the story. So Amaravati, Indra's domain, gets the Marvel Asgard treatment, as do the Apsaras as a legion of sexy, magical spies and infiltrators. The book opens in the middle of Menaka using her skills to seduce and neutralize a queen who has, gods forbid, notions of being formidable on her own. Immediately afterwards we see Menaka returning home to the City of Immortals wanting to quit and stay with her best friend, mentor and secret lifelong crush, another apsara named Rambha. But the doomed flaw of retellings in that despite that fantastically sapphic opening and setup, you know where this is going and it's AWAY from all the lesbian visibility. Reinterpreting Vishwamitra as Kaushika, the green flag sage in a forest hermit, does take the sting out of any potential repeat of the original rapey vibes. That said, it's difficult to see Menaka falling for him, when she is constantly casually expressing a preference for the ladies, no biphobia intended. It is ultimately a story about reclaiming agency and unlocking your own potential when you're being used as a tool for the purposes of those who you love and idolize, and there is so much good discussion on the nuances of divinity in the Hindu pantheon that is hella inclusive. So I applaud the author for doing that, but I'm afraid a casual reader of fantasy would find that too dense and infodumpy. For context, I'm someone whose first encounter with the fantasy genre was Hindu mythological stories, specifically the story of Shakuntala, Menaka's daughter (spoiler alert, but also has terrible luck with men showing up in forests and screwing her over). And even I struggled to remember the context of this specific corner of the pantheon because it either predates or postdates other more well known stories. That said, I'm still impressed by the sheer effort it took to construct this story in a fresh way, despite the leaps of logic it had to take to close the gap between the old and the new. If you like the works of Vaishnavi Patel a la Kaikeyi, etc. you might really enjoy this as well. However, I'm DEEPLY skeptical of this not being a standalone and having a planned sequel, because stretching a solid retelling into a second book is where the previous work by this author went wrong for me.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I did not find myself clicking with this. I ended up DNFing because I couldn’t see myself enjoying it. I don’t think it’s a bad book, per say. I just wasn’t at all what I expected.
The summary promises the story of Meneka, an apsara, a celestial dancer who seduces mortals in order to manipulate them in the name of Lord Indra. The plot follows her last seduction, after which Lord Indra has promised she can go free — but, of course, she ends up falling in love with her mark.
The book is being marketed as adult, with blurbs from Shannon Chakraborty and Thea Guanzon that heavily feature the word “sensual.” The tagline is “Seduction is her weapon. Love is her destiny.” With this in mind, I had expected an exploration of Meneka’s relationship with her “profession,” as well as the implications of being forced to seduce someone. In a real world scenario, we would probably call Meneka a victim of human trafficking or of forced prostitution. I thought this could be a very interesting medium in which to tell this story, especially since it heavily relies on Hindu mythology, which I don’t think has been featured to its full potential in fantasy.
However, I found that the writing style was a lot more YA-ish than I expected. It was jarring, due to the heavy subject matter, and I think it was to the book’s detriment. I was being told a lot of Meneka’s feelings from the first chapter. There was little mystery.
Eventually, I realized that this wasn’t for me — I don’t think the writing style works as a medium to tell the story. I’m sure that there could be very interesting things further along, as well as a nuanced interpretation of Meneka’s situation, but I just didn’t think I could buy into it with the writing style. I didn’t finish the book, but I wouldn’t discourage anyone from giving it a go, especially if YA is more your thing!

Legend of Meneka is a fantastic read, a wild adventure full of love, hope, devotion, and wild emotion. The novels overall message is that love comes in every shape and form, and all of it is divinely inspired and worthy of celebration. It spins a grand tale of learning to love oneself as much as one loves others. That love comes with its own difficulties and is a practice as much as an emotion.

The story begins with a young beautiful celestial who struggles against what she is told is her nature, of lust and devouring appetites. Meneka is a gentle and tender being who loves as deeply as she questions the world around her. She struggles to understand and see herself for who she is, much like any other person. As she grows into herself and learns more about the truth of the works around her she finds herself in emotional turmoil trying to reconcile the many parts of herself, which, i find deeply relatable and that many readers will love and feel with her.

Meneka and Kaushika's romance is organic and bursting with raw chemistry; their personalities oppositional yet complementary. The transition from enemies to lovers progresses naturally and healthfully. I enjoyed that this romance though the pair squabble and fight never enters abusive territory. They both learn an grow from one another and bring out the best in each other. Each page makes the reader yearn with Meneka for ger budding forbidden love for her target. At times the innocent and pure pining from her to Kaushika reminded me of my own first crushes and made me blush at times.

I loved how this story ended and it brought together all of the emotions and to me ends with hope and love. There is a wide variety of queer characters; nonbinary, trans, gay men, gay women and I loved all of them. The representation is organic and tender, the characters are all their own people and matter to the plot instead of being tokens or cheap punches.

The only reason I marked this 4 out of 5 is some of the smut is written a bit clumsy for me personally. Phrases like "just there" , "my entrance", "my folds" , "tongue savaging" zonked me out of the scenes that took several hundred pages to build. They weren't bad and I was excited to read them after so much thoughtful build up and masterful pining.

Otherwise a great read!

Thank you to Harper Voyager and Netgalley for this ARC. I did DNF @ 48%.

The Legend of Meneka is about a celestial dancer named Meneka, sent to Earth to seduce and destroy Kaushika who is a threat to the deity Indra. I thought the Hindu mythology was fascinating. I went in with very little knowledge about it so reading the beautifully described mythology was great. I also enjoyed the exploration of the idea of blind devotion and loyalty to any deity or religion.

However, as other reviews have noted, I felt this book didn't pick up until about 30% in. Throughout my time reading I was really struggling to connect to Meneka or Kaushika and the developing connection between them.

I think the writing and story are good but the characters were just not for me this time. I'd recommend to fantasy and romantasy readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publisher's Inc for the opportunity to read and review this arc. I got a little rambly while I work through my thoughts. Apologies.

REAL RATING: 3.5 stars

The truth is, I am a bit torn about this book. If you are looking for a VERY spicy book, this is not it. There is only one scene, but the build-up is pretty great.

The Legend of Meneka is essentially about a crisis of faith and self-discovery. I felt invested in Meneka and Kaushika as characters. I enjoyed delving into Hindu mythology for the first time in this way. I advise anyone who reads it to take the time to read the Glossary. You're going to need it.

I liked the book. I feel invested in the world, characters, and plot enough to want to read the sequel. It was easy to get swept up into this world and carried away by Meneka and her journey. I think that she will be a very relatable character for women who are still in their "not a girl, not yet a woman" phase of their lives; for women like me who are still learning about themselves and accepting what they learn.

Meneka's character development is a circle rather than a linear tale of self-discovery. It is natural that a newfound sense of self and newfound convictions should be tested, especially in a story like this, but the fact that she kept spiraling back to the beginning of her development became a bit tedious. By the second or third test, you should be able to stand on your own two feet a little better. It got to the point that she started coming off as indecisive, wishy washy, and whiney. I wanted to see her learn to accept herself and become her own person rather than a being who is a slave to her devotion to this or that man. She gets there in the end. I was really pleased by where she ends up in her internal journey at the end, and for me it was worth the back and forth.

REGARDING THIS THOUGH, I think that it is vital to remember that these are not "men" that she is dealing with, but god-like men or literal gods. She was essentially born a slave to Indra. She suffers from that mentality. Her purpose as an aspara and her very existence is a test of her devotion to him. When she starts to loathe her purpose and her devotion frays as a result, of course her sense of self is completely unraveled. Maybe it is natural that she is a little all over the place before she makes REAL progress in her development. I understand that the back and forth might annoy some readers and that's why I wanted to address it and offer this perspective in my review. I've noticed a lot of people bringing it up in theirs.

Kaushika's character development is really good.

As for the love story.... my feelings about it are fairly complex. I was invested in it, even heavily at times. On the spicy side of things, the build up and the execution were wonderful. However, I do have some contradictory feelings about the actual romance. The characters admire certain traits in each other, but there is no indication that anything beyond lust binds them. There is a lot of telling about how perfect they are together rather than showing. They are on two completely separate journeys, they have different ideologies. There is not really a bridge there. While opposites can attract, that doesn't mean that it works and lasts. There has to be a bridge.

ON THE OTHER HAND!! This is book one in a duology. You can't judge the arc of a love story too harshly when you only have half of the puzzle pieces. So it is very possible that, without the secrets between them, this will be built on going forward. I feel like I trust the author to do that even though this is my first time reading her work. She seems very interested in the exploration of the self and I really think that the whole story, all together, is going to be great.


Final notes. I finished this book. I enjoyed this book. It has some flaws, but every book does. I would recommend this book to others. I think that the good outshines the bad.

The Legend of Meneka takes you on a journey of magic, love, betrayal, & self-discovery. I was unfamiliar with this mythology and enjoyed learning about new deities in this well=crafted tale. I was instantly drawn into the rich descriptions & world building. Meneka is an apsara, a celestial being on a mission for Indra to destroy the sage Kaushika. Her devotion to Indra is tested as she explores her prana & what she's capable of doing without her celestial magic. Her connection with Kaushika leads her on a journey of self-discovery. It's easy to get swept up in the fantasy & romance.
Coupled with the stories of the Hindu tradition this is a must read for anyone who is fascinated by mythologies from around the world.

3.5⭐

LOVED:
- The mythology as a whole. The dichotomy of the immortals vs the immortals and how they coexist was interesting
- Meneka was a really well fleshed out character and I thought her journey of self-discovery was interesting and enjoyable to follow
- The prose was gorgeous. Honestly, the prose greatly outweighed the execution of the story, in my opinion. I’ll talk about it about in a later section, but this book took quite a while to really take off and then it felt like a whirlwind. If not for the beauty of the prose, I don’t think this book would have been able to sustain that
- Kaushika was also a pretty interesting character. I am, probably unsurprisingly, not super away of the real life mythology of his character, but I found his character development to be pretty fascinating.
- This book is queer without feeling forced (though there could be some arguments of this book having a bit of queer baiting, I think that's a matter of personal opinion)

LOATHED:
- There’s a lot of characters in Kaushika’s camp to keep track of and I don’t think they were unique or discernible enough from each other. Honestly, I wanted a bit more personality from nearly everyone in this book with the exception of the love triangle.
- The depiction of seduction felt really flat at some points. I was really fascinated by Meneka’s ability to unearth another person’s inner lust and that in itself was really intriguing, but the actual seduction aspect was really…confusing, honestly. It wasn’t really explored beyond the inner lust and I wanted to understand the actual process of Meneka’s seduction as a power
- Why is she all of a sudden “in love” with him? Is this a fault of the original mythology or is it just a fault of the romantasy genre? This felt like it was just more prolonged lust than anything, especially “love”. What about him informed her “falling in love with him”? And recognizing that she *was* in love with him? I just don’t understand
- The progression of the story is really clunky. I mentioned this a smidge earlier, but with how lovely the prose is, it’s a bit disappointing that the story is just lacking really solid momentum. The middle act drags quite a bit and the beginning doesn’t really get you into the story effectively enough to be fully immerse, in my opinion. Again, the prose is beautiful enough to keep you going, but I wish that the story progression matched that level

LONGED FOR:
- I really wished for more with the depictions of her dance power in this story. It’s so important to Meneka’s being, but the descriptions don’t follow the beauty of the rest of the prose. It feels like the author was really holding back in describing the act of the dance itself. And that’s a bummer to me. It’s such a wonderful concept and so deeply rooted in Hindu culture (like the majority of the rest of the book, obviously)
- More exploration/exposition into the relationship between the immortals and the mortals, if not just the relationships among immortals. It’s so interesting to me and maybe it’s more ingrained in the actual mythos of the story, but I think more of the politicking of those two factions could have been really interesting
- More description or exploration into why and how Kaushika falls for Meneka beyond just the obvious “she hot”

Will I read the next one? : Possibly. Like I’ve mentioned ad nauseum, the prose is just so good. I think it depends on the stoyr, but if it’s another mythology retelling then I will probably check it out

*Thank you to Harper Voyager, NetGalley, & the author for providing this ARC!

I am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

This was an eventful read. Having never explored Hindu mythology before, I was completely engaged from the beginning.

The chemistry between Meneka, an apsara (a celestial dancer and seducer), and Kaushika, a mortal sage on a mission to create a new heaven, was enthralling. Their relationship evolves from enemies to lovers and back to enemies due to the circumstances surrounding their union. While the pace was a bit slow, it allowed for necessary character and world-building. As Meneka seduces Kaushika, she begins to fall for him and questions everything she has been taught and her purpose.

I appreciate the author's foresight in including a glossary at the beginning of the book. For those unfamiliar with Hindu mythology, this was a lifesaver.

Kritika H. Rao is an author I haven't read before, and I am pleased to add her to my reading list.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Kritika H. Rao for the ARC of this book.

This book has everything. Dancers as spies. Seduction as a weapon. A great protagonist and a conflict that kept me engrossed until the end. Love it.