 Okay, I forgot to turn the AC off but I turned the AC off so hopefully as long as there isn't another leaf blower We should be fine. All I saw were his eyes Velvet dark the kind of umbra the shadows would envy Hi, I'm Kim, and I'm gonna be doing a spoiler-free review of the Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chakshi Sometimes in the flurry of our visual media culture and Twitter and Instagram and Netflix and chill I forget the power that words possess And Roshani Chakshi Definitely helped me remember This book is Evocative and enthralling it is it is a magic spell interwoven into a work art, and I love it Now From the descriptions floating around booktube and even the synopsis on the inside dust cover. I Honestly thought I had already read this book You can't tell me that some of these descriptions really do sound like The Wrath in the Dawn by Renee Adye Now don't get me wrong. The Wrath in the Dawn is amazing Renee Adye is amazing. You should definitely read those books. The Star-Touched Queen is very different They sound the same at first blush, but as soon as Princess Mayavati's father shows up at her door with a vial of poison You know, it's gonna take a turn Roshani Chakshi interweaves several Indian myths in order to tell a story about a young woman who must journey farther and be more clever than she Has ever before in order to save her husband from a fate worse than death There's a lot more to it than that, but this is a spoiler-free review Okay, okay, but if my love for this book were a pie chart It would be like 30% the writing and like 30% the plot and like the and then 30% for the characters and then with that extra 10% specifically reserved for Kamala the horse So good. First you have Maya our leading lady She is whip smart and honestly relishes the idea of dying an old maid She has this terrible horoscope in a culture that puts away too much credence in horoscopes and so she honestly thinks she has a shot at being a advisor and a scholar and not having to get married like all of her half sisters Her little sister Gaudi is a dreamer with some serious ambition Amar is Steadfast and as honest as he can be but there is a veil of mystery that is not easy to brush aside Gupti is Awkward and loyal and I love him Hell even mother Dina has some redeemable qualities Kamala definitely wins though. She just she just wins and then the writing Okay, but listen to this Light burst through the threads dazzling me with a thousand streams of color so vivid that I could feel it seeping warmly across my fingers Shards of evening sky the cool frost of lonely mornings drenching nectar sticky heat I could feel the color as if it were dimension of time and space heavy and solid full of flavor of life It's snuck under my tongue like a bright candy and voices loud and soft whispers and howls of Passion so grand that tottered on the edge of mythic and sorrow so plangent they trailed in their own shadows I couldn't take it I don't know if I did it justice, but oh yes, okay fans of Hemingway will definitely call this flowery and ornate writing But I'm so impressed and moved by the fact that we're shining chalk She could not only like suck you into her world, but then make it so fragrant and and Delicious it has it has smell it has taste if you if you reach out you think you can feel it on your fingertips and I just love it as for the plot I think everything was perfectly paced except for the middle bit of the second half which went way too fast and I accept that supposed to be reminiscent of That folklore and and oral culture of Indian mythology But for the whole rest of the book they they accepted the reality of human transportation This bit didn't that's all I'm saying Overall, I give this book five out of five stars. I loved it The writing is lush the characters are beautiful and oh my god Kamala the horse Also crown of wishes is coming out soon It's not a sequel per se, but it is in the same in the same vein And and I'm really excited to read pretty much anything else that this author writes So let me know what you guys thought and I want to know if you've read this book And how you felt about it if you haven't read this book if if you want to read this book Just just talk to me about books. I love books Abiento