Kritika H. Rao (The Surviving Sky) reclaims a character from Hindu tradition and brings her into her own in the epic romantic fantasy The Legend of Meneka, first in the planned Divine Dancers duology.
Meneka is an apsara from Amaravati, the City of Immortals and seat of the god Indra. Indra calls his apsaras "his snakeskins, ready to shed and birth anew," but to Meneka, "we are cobra venom. Our magical dance is lethal. It had felled kingdoms." A celestial being imbued with magical powers of dance and illusion, she is sent by the god to seduce and desert human leaders who forsake worshiping him, leaving them desolate and ineffective. Meneka is only 23, but her long list of missions has left her jaded. She longs to remain in Amaravati with her mentor, a beautiful apsara for whom she has romantic feelings. Her ill-considered request to the god to do so angers him terribly and results in Meneka striking an impossible bargain. A powerful sage named Kaushika is challenging Indra by encouraging surrounding leaders to stop worshiping him, which would lead to the downfall of Amaravati. Already three apsaras have been sent to seduce him and are presumed dead. Meneka volunteers to make the next attempt at distracting the sage from his goals, on the condition that Indra allows her to remain in Amaravati afterward if she succeeds.
Meneka returns to the mortal world braced to match her skills against a scheming, diabolical villain. However, nothing can prepare her for the reality of powerful, arrogant Kaushika, whose abhorrence of Indra comes not from his own ambition but disgust at the god's uncaring attitude toward humanity. Meneka poses as a hopeful acolyte at his hermitage, but Kaushika proves immune to her apsara powers and wary of her to the point of disdain. Still, respect and a powerful attraction begin to grow between them as they verbally spar. Meneka finds her loyalties divided between the home she loves and the man who has captured her heart without knowing her true identity.
Rao's spellbinding prose conjures a cinematic grandeur around each scene, and her worldbuilding brings legends to life in this gorgeous love story perfect for readers of Vaishnavi Patel's Kaikeyi. Meneka's transformation from naive and yearning to powerful and self-assured is inspirational and engrossing, and her journey to love and community feels authentic and meaningful. Gods war with sages as faith is forged and shattered in this dynamic, woman-forward retelling. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: A beautiful apsara finds herself captivated by the man she's supposed to seduce and betray in this epic, romantic fantasy retelling of a Hindu story.