Mini Arc Review: The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi!

Title: The Star-Touched Queen
Author: Roshani Chokshi
Series: The Star-Touched Queen #1
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: April 26th, 2016
Pages: Kindle, 342
My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you’re only seventeen?

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. Content to 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 and 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 secrets—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 lives to save those she loves the most…including herself. 

  I was given an Audiobook by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

When The Star-Touched Queen was first released, there was so much hype surrounding it that I truly wanted to read it someday. However, I was not able to buy a copy of this book yet when I was offered a copy for A Crown of Wishes, so I decided to read that one first. When I was given the chance to review the audiobook copy of this book, I immediately jumped at the opportunity because this book sounds amazing. Huge thanks to Macmillan Audio for this audiobook!

The Star-Touched Queen started out to be interesting, but then quickly turned boring for my taste. Throughout the duration of the book, I fell asleep multiple times which is why it took me a really long time to finish it. And by then, the continuity of the book has already been disrupted multiple times. The story was actually okay, but the pacing was just a tad too slow for me.

One thing I liked about The Star-Touched Queen though was the romance. It made me feel the feels, although it didn’t really progress in a realistic manner for me. I also liked all the conspiracies surrounding their romance, and the manner in which the secrets were unveiled. However, it felt like this book only centered on the romance part and not about anything else, which bothered me. Most fantasy books are exciting with a great story arc, but this fantasy felt like a contemporary romance novel that’s just set in a different world. Anyway, that’s just me.

Overall, this book was not quite what I was expecting, and I didn’t like the fact that it mostly centered on romance and not anything else.

2.5 limited-story-arc stars