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wornoutbookmark 's review for:
The Legend of Meneka
by Kritika H. Rao
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Meneka was destined to be an apsara, Lord Indra's deadliest weapon, from the day she was born in the immortal realms. While she takes pride in her dancing, Meneka loathes the condition she leaves her marks in after her seduction is successful and longs for freedom with every mission she completes. In an attempt to stop her missions in the mortal realm, Meneka strikes a bargain with Indra: she will seduce Kaushika, a powerful but mortal sage who has been threatening Indra's power. Soon she is granted admittance to Kaushika's hermitage and pretends to be sage-in-training, allowing her to the opportunity to seduce Kaushika, but her resolve begins to waver as she finds herself enthralled by the sage, forcing her to choose what to save: her home and her Lord or Kaushika.
This went from 0 to 100 back to 0 real quick. I was extremely bored for the first like 50-60% of the book having to just read through the receptiveness of Meneka's inner turmoil. While her arrogance bothered me sometimes, she isn't an unlikeable character; if anything, I felt sympathy for her due to her precarious position as an apsara who just wanted her freedom. However, I just wasn't convinced by the romance between her and Kaushika, and it felt extremely rushed. How can she love a man when they barely had any meaningful encounters? The story had higher stakes around the 70-80% mark when the war started, but quickly died down within a few pages and I started to lose interest again.
The Hindu mythology was really interesting and was mainly the reason for my continued reading. There were times where I was a bit confused by the timeline of things as there were events that were said to occur thousands of years ago but they happened to the mortal characters. So do the mortal sages live extremely long lives?
Overall, it was an interesting plot and easy to read. The mythology was abundant throughout and made for an intriguing world building. The magic system was unique and related to the mythology, which I really enjoyed. I also loved that it was diverse and queer. The book ended on a pretty intense cliffhanger, and I'll be picking up the next book once it's out as I'm curious how the story will end.
Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for supplying me with the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This went from 0 to 100 back to 0 real quick. I was extremely bored for the first like 50-60% of the book having to just read through the receptiveness of Meneka's inner turmoil. While her arrogance bothered me sometimes, she isn't an unlikeable character; if anything, I felt sympathy for her due to her precarious position as an apsara who just wanted her freedom. However, I just wasn't convinced by the romance between her and Kaushika, and it felt extremely rushed. How can she love a man when they barely had any meaningful encounters? The story had higher stakes around the 70-80% mark when the war started, but quickly died down within a few pages and I started to lose interest again.
The Hindu mythology was really interesting and was mainly the reason for my continued reading. There were times where I was a bit confused by the timeline of things as there were events that were said to occur thousands of years ago but they happened to the mortal characters. So do the mortal sages live extremely long lives?
Overall, it was an interesting plot and easy to read. The mythology was abundant throughout and made for an intriguing world building. The magic system was unique and related to the mythology, which I really enjoyed. I also loved that it was diverse and queer. The book ended on a pretty intense cliffhanger, and I'll be picking up the next book once it's out as I'm curious how the story will end.
Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for supplying me with the ARC in exchange for an honest review.