The Star-Touched Queen
Andre Norton Award nominee 2016.
A lush, beautifully written and vividly imagined fantasy inspired by Indian folklore.
Cursed with a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, sixteen-year-old Maya has only earned the scorn and fear of her father's kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her world is upheaved when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. But when her wedding takes a fatal turn, Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Yet neither roles are what she expected. As Akaran's queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar's wife, she finds friendship and warmth.
But Akaran has its own secrets - thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Beneath Akaran's magic, Maya begins to suspect her life is in danger. When she ignores Amar's plea for patience, her discoveries put more than new love at risk - threatening the balance of all realms, human and Otherworldly.
Now, Maya must confront a secret that spans reincarnated lives and fight her way through the dangerous underbelly of the Otherworld if she wants to protect the people she loves.
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Roshani Chokshi
Roshani Chokshi comes from a small town in Georgia where she collected a Southern accent, but does not use it unless under duress. She grew up in a blue house with a perpetually napping bear-dog. At Emory University, she dabbled with journalism, attended some classes in pajamas, forgot to buy winter boots and majored in 14th century British literature. She spent a year after graduation working and traveling and writing. After that, she started law school at the University of Georgia where she's learning a new kind of storytelling.
The Star-Touched Queen
The Star-Touched Queen consists of two primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Reviews and Comments
If you prefer your books to be visionary and mildly abstract with a touch of exotic lands ruled by kings in sumptuous palaces, then The Star-Touched Queen is for you. This isn't a book you can pick up and get lost in the story after a few pages. The description is vivid, the wording and metaphors are long but the fairy tale being told here is one that most will become enthralled in.Roshani Chokshi takes us back to a era of Bharata, a wild and oriental land when Raja's ruled in palaces, and princesses wore beauty if only to make them more beautiful.Maya is cursed with an unfortunate horoscope which tells of death and destruction. All revere the horoscope and Maya is shunned because of hers. But the king must end the war and bring together an alliance. Maya is the Princess who must marry for her country to find peace.Unfortunately for Maya the king has other plans. The king pronounces to her that an alliance will never be reached and so he gives her a vial of poison to kill herself. The king expects the other nations to war among themselves because of this slight. However, when Maya is about to drink a strange man catapults her from the palace and to freedom. Or so Maya thinks.She pronounces her saviour as her rightful marriage partner and trusts his words and wisdom as he takes her on a journey which only fairy tales are made from.Who is this handsome stranger to which she is indebted? Why is he not troubled by her horoscope of death? And what is in the lands of Akaran that will satisfy her educated mind to keep her?This is most certainly a book of two halves. The first half will lead you to understand Maya and her stranger, Amar, while the second half will show how easily we must get up and fight for what we believe in.I'm not saying this book was an easy read by any means. Sometimes I did wish the author would lay back a little and tell the straightforward story without so much purple prose. But it is beautifully written, with upsets and passion along the way.This will certainly tickle your taste buds if you prefer your books romantically based, and with the passion of a great heroine I can safely say I did love this book.-CBx