As soon as I heard of The Star-Touched Queen I knew it was my kind of book and I was right. I absolutely LOVED it.

Right from the start I fell in love with the writing. It's beautiful and dreamy and poetic yet it's still very readable. I was admittedly worried about that going into The Star-Touched Queen because usually when a book's writing is described as "poetic" I immediately think "purple prose." But I had nothing to worry about. I found the writing to be very readable, and I was finding all of these beautiful quotes and highlighting like crazy on my Kindle. I know not everyone will gel with the writing, but I say give it a chance because it's very special--read the first couple of chapters to get a feel for it before deciding whether it's for you or not.

The Star-Touched Queen is based on the Persephone and Hades myth, mixed with Beauty and the Beast elements. Set in an Indian royal court, complete with harems and the conniving wives of the Raja, Princess Mayavati was shunned and feared by everyone because of her cursed horoscope that promised death. But, she's fine with people staying away from her because she got to do what she wanted. She spends her days giving her cowering tutors the slip and instead reading the books she wanted to read. She had the run of her father's court and found a way to secretly listen in on her father's meeting with his councilors. And most importantly, since her horoscope promised a cursed marriage, no one wanted to marry Maya and she's not forced to enter into a political marriage like her half-sisters. She thought she'd escape that fate until her father announced that she must choose a husband and sacrifice her life to save her country from war. But, on the night of her wedding, a mysterious suitor named Amar, whisked her off to his castle and Maya found herself in a different kind of life and adventure.

I loved Maya's character right away. She's an outsider at her father's court and had this stand-offish shell--but who wouldn't living with the vicious, conniving wives in the harem? I felt protective of her right from the beginning, because beneath her shell was a vulnerability and I just felt for her. One of my favorite things in the novel was Maya's relationship with her younger half-sister Gauri. I loved that they didn't lose their connection with each other despite everything. I also love Amar--he's mysterious and charming and he kept his distance but I fell for him along with Maya. They're both complex, flawed characters, and I adored them both. All of their scenes together were electric and I really, really wish this is not a standalone novel because I want to spend more time with them. I know the author is writing a companion novel so I can't wait for that--hopefully we'll be seeing them again!

I love this book to bits, but the reason why I didn't give it a full five stars is because of the romance. I admit that the main draw for me initially was that I was hoping to read another epic romance like Shazi and Khalid's in The Wrath and the Dawn. Ever since reading Wrath, I've been searching for another read-alike that will make me swoon and fall in love and The Star-Touched Queen didn't quite live up to my romantic expectations. I do love The Star-Touched Queen as it's own story, of course, and the romance between Maya and Amar was lovely in its own way. Just don't go expecting Wrath romance epic-ness like I did.

I recommend The Star-Touched Queen to everybody. Even though the romance didn't live up to my expectations, it's still an amazing [debut] novel and such a beautiful story. I can't wait for more from Ms. Chokshi. She's an author to watch.

Good writing and interesting characters, but gets rather too bogged down in overly-lush atmosphere and confusing mythology.

The first section of this book, in which Maya lives in a palace in the ostensibly Real World, and the third section of this book, in which Maya goes on a kind of spiritual journey with a hilarious scene-stealing demon horse as well as returning to the Real World, are much better than the long and tedious middle section, in which Maya dwells in Amar's palace in Akaran -- a beautiful underworld -- and the author goes on and on with dreamy, fantastical descriptions and swirly love between Maya and Amar that doesn't feel earned or even really understandable.

Maya is a much more sympathetic character when she seems like a put-upon human girl dealing with the new and wondrous things she encounter than after she, herself, turns out to be, let's say, more-than-human. It's notoriously difficult to write, or read, a book in which gods and goddesses are protagonists because they're so unrelatable. Here, Maya starts off as more relatable, but soon starts to feel like a Very Special Author Stand-In and she comes into great power and epic love, and all without much actual character growth.

A companion novel about some of the (human) secondary characters in this book seems very promising, because Chokshi's human-world stuff is a lot more compelling than her other-world ramblings. The Star-Touched Queen is largely saved by the fact that it has plenty of both.

Loved it! I love reading books that make me want to learn more about that world, not just the characters.

I loved the Persephone retelling with a twist with such a beautiful Indian type setting. Character and world building were strong. I could smell, touch, and see what was described in front of me. I loved how the plot developed and turned into East of the Sun, West of the Moon fairytale and how she had to earn back the love and trust to save the Underworld and her love and ultimately, herself.