I'm having a hard time getting my thoughts together for this book. There were parts that I did enjoy and related to a lot, and other parts that dragged and made me want to put the book down.

I started off really enjoying the book. Indian and Pakistani culture have many similarities, so it was nice to see traditional food, clothing, etiquettes and social customs. I liked how the author didn't make the book white-friendly. We didn't have any naan-bread or chai-teas, or detailed explanations about traditions. I really appreciate that in books so much!

The writing started off beautiful, but there were times it got confusing. This book reminded me a lot of The Star-Touched Queen, and one of the reasons I wasn't a fan of that book, was because of the abstract writing style. The descriptions and metaphors threw me while I was reading, and some of them just didn't make much sense. I felt lost and couldn't imagine what was exactly happening, especially when it was related to all the sidereal and music stuff.

Despite the book taking place over the course of 2-3 days, everything felt soooo sloooow. It actually felt like Sheetal was in the star realm for over a week. There wasn't the sense of urgency that you would expect considering Sheetal is trying to heal her father quickly. And while it was nice to explore and see more of her mother's world, I felt bored for a lot of it.

I did love Minal a lot though. She's such a good friend and I loved the moments when Sheetal realizes that she's taken her friend for-granted. Minal is a refreshing character to see because she points out Sheetal's faults, but also supports her and cares for her so much!

The one thing that was done well was the family aspect. Seeing how manipulative Sheetal's Nani is felt waaay too real. Sheetal knows what's being done to her, but goes along with it because you have to choose your battles. We have that one scene where Sheetal tries to explain to her Nani that what she's trying to do is wrong and won't make up for her past mistakes, and her Nani doesn't seem to hear her. I read that scene and actually sat there like wow. How many times have we tried to voice our opinions and point out wrongs, only to be ignored and silenced? And yet, at the end, Sheetal says that despite everything, she still wants to maintain a relationship with her grandmother. And I think, for a lot of South Asians, with family being such an important part of our culture and upbringing, that's something that is super relatable.

I didn't like the romance. I usually don't, so that wasn't super surprising, but it was annoying and cringey. The one thing I did like was Sheetal calling out Dev for using her. I'm glad she didn't just accept his apology and move on right away, but stayed angry with him for most of the book. It would have been perfect if she didn't want to kiss him whenever she saw him though *insert rolling eyes emoji*

The other thing that threw me off was Sheetal's reaction to her mother's plans. She just went along with it, thinking it was a good idea. And when she brings up what she wants to do and is called out by Dev and Minal, it finally hits her how horrible it is that she wants to manipulate her own friends into becoming "good" people. The whole realization happens over the course of a minute, and she apologizes and her friends sort of forget it? It didn't make much sense to me. I wish Sheetal could have realized earlier that her mom's way of fixing things between the stars and mortals wasn't right, and confronted her too.

Overall, 3/5 stars.