That said, Shveta Tharar’s writing was lovely, so I will definitely give her future works a chance. Overall, Star Daughter unfortunately did not live up to the high expectations that the gorgeous cover and Stardust comparison set. The competition also only lasted a handful of pages, wrapping up in a way that was both predictable and underwhelming. Sheetal’s father’s life is dependent on the outcome of the competition, but the leisurely way in which the story progressed made the stakes seem very low.

It takes ~2/3 of the book to lead up to the competition that decides the next ruling class of the heavens, a glorified talent show that is overshadowed by family drama. The pacing did also not do Star Daughter any favours. You can find her online at and on Twitter and. Shveta's work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Enchanted Living, Uncanny Magazine, and Toil & Trouble. Dev ultimately was more of a plot device than a fully fleshed-out character he easily could have been removed from the story with little consequence. Shveta Thakrar s debut novel, Star Daughter, is a standalone YA fantasy perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman, Laini Taylor, and Margaret Rogerson. Her interest in Dev seemed to boil down to “omg he’s so hot” which would be fine, except there was no chemistry between them. She acted much younger than I would have expected for an almost-17 year old, to the point where I found myself wondering if I had picked up a middle grade novel by mistake.

Thakrar seemed to expect readers to be familiar with both the culture and the mythology, so some of the references that were integral to the world-building were lost on me – something that detracted a lot from the truly gorgeous world that Star Daughter held.įrom the outset, I found it really difficult to connect with Sheetal.

I’m not very familiar with Hindu mythology, but I was quickly fascinated by the concept of stars serving as muses. Unfortunately, the cover was one of the few things I loved about this book. Star Daughter has one of the most gorgeous covers I’ve ever seen, and once I saw the comparison to Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, I knew I had to give it a read.

Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar