UPDATE: Quick re-read before book 2. I feel better about this book now. (Scroll down to see my re-read comments) 
 Full review can also be found on: Paein and Ms4Tune's Book Blog 
 I don't know where to start! So I'll just start everywhere and this review will be all over. 
 Perfect. 
 I LOVED Amar. I loved his pretty words and I loved his encouragements of Maya, to be HER and not to think the way she thought he wanted her to, but to think her OWN way. He even said at one point he was fine with WHATEVER decision she made, but she had to THINK. It's obvious he's very in love with her and it kinda gives some of the game away - but then it's meant to. 
 So, understandably, I was LIVID with Maya for the way she reacted when she found out who he was. Especially with their belief system! On a side note, these people had a lot of issues with people dying despite their believing in reincarnation... (this could be a major plot hole OR just simple evidence of the stupidity of humans. Honestly, I'm taking it as the second, because there really are some silly people out there and I can totally see someone reacting this way.) 
 Where was I? 
 Oh yes, LIVID I tell you! Luckily she sorts herself out and gets on with it and I commend her on that, but I'm still not a fan. Ok, you can argue it all started with miscommunication , but ugh! I'm so close to saying Amar needs a new match. But, I guess some people might think her reaction fair. 
 (it's not.) 
 It's very hard to try putting what I want to say into words, basically it can be summed up in two sentences, but this is a (hopefully) spoiler free review! So I'm trying to beat around the bush. (SO sorry if I failed!) 
 Apart from that I enjoyed this world and it's characters. Some of it was predictable, the way legends and myths can sometimes be, but at the same time there were some well hidden things that rounded out the whole thing nicely. If you're a fan of elegant writing and vivid imagery this is a book for you. Personally I'm a fan of flowery, shiny lines that take some re-reading to understand. The more you read them the deeper they are. LOVE it. 
 And there's a knitting elephant. 
 Though I have to say I AM very confused. I was seriously hating on Maya for a bit there and yet I've given this book 4 Voodoos! (Pretty sure it's not all for Amar). I'm also pretty impressed I kept going after I swore a blue streak at Maya and I think that that says a lot about this story and how it's written. Maya did grow into herself and I think that, if Amar can forgive her for stumbling a bit, we probably should too. 
 I'd love to know if this was based on a spesific myth/legend, so I may drop the author a question on goodreads. I'm also highly curious who the next book will be about. There's one main loose end that I can see, so hopefully it'll be over that! 
 But now I'm going to go give Ms4Tune this book, so she can read it and then I can say my two spoiler laden sentences. Probably at some volume/using capitals... 
 My re-read review can also be found on Paein and Ms4Tune's Book Blog 
 I wasn't going to re-read this book before reading The Crown of Wishes, but I quickly discovered that I really needed to. The Crown of Wishes is a companion book but in makes many references to this one. It involves Maya's sister Gauri and references several things that happened in this book which I really couldn't remember. 
 I DID remember being terribly mad at Maya while reading this book. I wasn't as mad at her this time, I knew what she was up against after all! Obviously I paid more attention to Gauri and what she was getting up to and though I was mainly reading to catch myself up, I did keep getting sucked back in. There were a few areas where things weren't that well explained and I think that they're covered in the second book - and there's a prequel novella coming soon too which I think will cover all the rest. I'm not sure if they were accidentally missed or if they were edited out, but I appreciate that they're subsequently covered. 
 I know nothing of Indian mythology. My previous attempts to discover myths has either resulted in the 'Essays of an advanced scholar on the subject of this myth' books OR the 'This is all about the people from this myth! Pull this tab and he laughs!" books and I've sort of given up. Where are all the books with the ACTUAL stories?!?! Greek, Egyptian, Indian, Celtic, I want to read them all! (I got side tracked, BUT if you know of any good mythology books, please let me know!) 
 I think I enjoyed this book far more the second time around. I wasn't as angry at Maya and I noticed little things that I missed before. I knew what was going on so I could spot the foreshadowing and the tiny hints (I love it when you spot things in a re-read that meant nothing the first time!) and I liked spending some time in a culture so different from my own. 
 I'll leave you with this though; as a friend pointed out to me, what was up with her shadow?!