Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you're only seventeen? 
 To be honest...I buy this book basically by its cover and title. Really, no exaggerate. As soon as I saw the beautiful cover, I was immediately dragged into and believe it'll be a great story. Just look at the queen the stars and the distant kingdom! Don't they look amazing? How can you resist it??? And the title...I can't reject any title with stars and moon and sun. They're lovely, don't you think? Even my own novel is about stars...everything stars stars stars to me. Now, what are you waiting for? Let's reveal the beautiful veil of this book! 
 Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of death and destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father's kingdom. While Maya is content of her follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran ad wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran's queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar's wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire... 
 But Akaran has its own secret--thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet, who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lived to save those she loves the most...including herself. 
 Really...? This is the first time I've read the summery...it's boring!!! The summery is boring!!!! How come it narrates a wonderful story by such a flat tone? It's a great book with great plot with great characters!!!!! Ahhh!!! Oh wait! And it's an Indian story! "A lush and vivid story that is steeped in Indian folklore and mythology." A part of the summery, actually. And I can tell you...I've no idea it's a Indian story until I saw sari...it's excellent! I've expected nothing until I finish the book. It's kind of funning, actually, it might be my first time to do this. And absolutely crazy, for a person who is lack of time and money...it's a great risk to do so. So...will I recommend you to do this kind of act...? Of course...NOT!!! Unless you've nothing to spend expect books! Before I've started this book, I was kind of worry. Like...I had never read the summery, let alone knowing what it's about...the only thing I know is about a queen re-claiming her throne. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less. But then, I saw some of the reviews...oh...hold on, I didn't read the reviews, just the ranking. And some say they can't even bare to finish this book! How horrible must it be? But at the same time, lots of people praising this book as "wonderful" "excellent" "dazzling" or something like that. however...I guess books get both negative and positive reviews all the time...so...you can read the review...but whether the book is good or bad, that's all to yourselves. 
 So then I pick up this book and read it...no, devoured it. Within one mere day. (How I love the life without exams and free 24 hours to use by my own!!! No more stress!!! Yeah!!! Three cheers for college-to-be!!!) Is it good? Yes. Extraordinary? Well...that depends. Horrible? Nothing to do with that world. This is my first time to read something an Indian folktale based story. To me...Indian stories are mostly about religious story and lots of lots of god. But then, The Star-Touched Queen blinds all those suspicious, tales, legends together well. So while I was reading...I don't really travel to an Indian world, but something in between. It's a mix of both western YA novels...but also with the traditional form of India. That's great, I think. But...if you think re-claiming throne is about epic or something like The Queen of Tearling...you'll be disappointed. It's not an epic, nor does it have a lot of fighting scene. No brutal massacre, no bloody death lying on the floor. (Umm...well...there are a lot of death...but none of it can compare to those epic.) And nope, although "re-claiming throne," nothing similar to The Queen of Tearling...on the contrary...it somehow reminds me East of the Sun, West of the Moon. You know...all the finding scenes and saving and blablabla. It's not a journey about fighting for her kingdom, but a journey of finding herself, finding who she truly is, and finding her power. Really, the fighting scene appears only about one minute...and then nothing...all gone into peace. 
 "I'm a dead girl walking." 
 Maya has thousands of identity, and there are lives before her recent life. After betraying, she must set everything right, but not without a cost. Unlike the protagonists nowadays...she isn't that strong. Not exactly. She is hunted, scared, and untrusting. But then, it's fun to read something different from badass characters. My only problem with her is that how can you trust someone without knowing her??? And since you don't trust Amar...how can you trust someone or something inside his house? (Don't worry, this isn't a spoiler...Maya never trust him. Not until the last. And it's no secret at all.) You know...some characters distrust the characters they live with...and when someone else appears...they just sweep their trust almost immediately? 
 Or I'm just too calculating? That doesn't sound like a good thing...distrust. But after surviving your school lives...you'll understand how horrible human being might be. (Don't worry, I believe there're still goodness inside human. But at least for those who are not worthy...that might be...) I love the journey with Maya. It's not extremely exciting or thrilling, but it all comes gradually. How she flee herself from disaster, how she try to figure out everything while everything seems to be hidden from her. And how she learns to let go of the past and turns back every mistake has made. 
 The first part of book is actually not as good as the second part...it's something that we've read before. Something we might inspect from other books. See? The fleeing princess, the rescuer, the sacrifices...and of course, the misleading. But then, the truly interesting part is in the second part, where Maya starts another journey, and she meets interesting company. A horse. A talking horse. I'm not going to talk about her...but really, she is one of the highlight in this book. Then her journey, yes , HER JOURNEY!!! While it is supposed to find her love one...but it's not. Well...correct the mistake...it's about him, but not all of the journey is. Maya also faces other things she needs to learn and help. So when it comes to the part she finds her jaani...everything goes extremely fast. That's one of the good things about the second part, it's really fast pace. Really fast. And how the villain crumples? ...within seconds. 
 So, we might feel like reading the same plot from other books while reading The Star-Touched Queen. However, the foreign worlds and well create realms makes it different. So when you're whining about the "not-so-creative" plots, the set of the story make a mend of that. And the description is especially beautiful. I'll recommend this book if you're fond of foreign culture and set. Although it's not entirely India...you can still catch a glimpse of those cultures we've learned before. And highly recommend for those stars lovers. Definitely need this. 
 This is post originally on my blog 
 Vivian's Book Pavilion