Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes – Roshani Chokshi

Title: Aru Shah and the tree of wishes (Pandava Quartet #3)

Author: Roshani Chokshi.

Format: Hardcover.

Publisher: Rick Riordan Presents.

Page count: 374.

Release day: April 7^th 2020.

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy.

Rating: 3 stars.

*Be aware that this is book 3 in a series, see my review for book 1 here, and book 2 here!*

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

War between the devas and the demons is imminent, and the Otherworld is on high alert. When intelligence from the human world reveals that the Sleeper is holding a powerful clairvoyant and her sister captive, 14-year-old Aru and her friends launch a search-and-rescue mission. The captives, a pair of twins, turn out to be the newest Pandava sisters, though, according to a prophecy, one sister is not true.
During the celebration of Holi, the heavenly attendants stage a massage PR rebranding campaign to convince everyone that the Pandavas are to be trusted. As much as Aru relishes the attention, she fears that she is destined to bring destruction to her sisters, as the Sleeper has predicted. Aru believes that the only way to prove her reputation is to find the Kalpavriksha, the wish-granting tree that came out of the Ocean of Milk when it was churned. If she can reach it before the Sleeper, perhaps she can turn everything around with one wish.
Careful what you wish for, Aru . . .

Rating:
Characters: 7/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Writing: 8/10
Plot: 6/10
Intrigue: 6/10
Logic: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Average: 6.86 (which means 3 stars!)

My thoughts:

I really enjoy this series, it is quick, action-packed and fun!

I like that we slowly get to know all the Pandava’s, and how they are related to each other through the past. I like that all the characters are really distinct, and their relation is so interesting. It is nice to see it develop so greatly in such a short time! Also their humour together is great, I really enjoyed it!

As I said this book is very action-packed. Which I guess is great for a middle grade book, and I did enjoy it. But maybe I would have liked it a bit better if there were a little less different action scenes, and that the ones that we got were a little bit more dragged out! Now we just had one scene for 5 pages, 1 page of discussion/travelling and then another 5 page action scene! Or at least that is what it felt like!

I really flew through this book, probably because it was so action-packed!

I also really like how Indian mythology is woven into this series! It is there, it is explained, but not in a very obvious way. But you learn it throughout the story, I love that! Not like ‘this is the god of .. and he/she is ..’, but you ‘slowly’ learn these things going through the scenes involving these gods!

A thing that kinda annoyed me were the references. There were not so many, but some just felt a bit unrealistic?! I liked the Harry Potter references, since a 13 year old would probably have read to books or seen the movies. But a reference to Game of Thrones? Or mention of The bachelor? I’m not sure..

Roshani Chokshi’s writing is amazing, and personally I like it even better in her YA works! (I just love the gilded wolves!)

Have you read this book? What did you think?