Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi

We are back with Aru Shah as she works to clean up the teensy mess she made last time. It's no big deal. She has a sister to help her. Now she just needs the Otherworld to believe that it's no big deal. That is especially hard when no one likes her dad and someone with her face has stolen the god of love's bow and arrow and is not using it for happily ever after. 

And then, there's this new person who is so not nice stomping all over Aru's turf. Yeah, she's super strong, but she doesn't have to be so rude when she's clearly a thief. But maybe she'll end up being a good person because the really cute boy from across the street seems to come with this bigger than life, wait, is she a shapeshifter?

For the Pandava's second quest, they must travel through the multiverse to reach the Ocean of Milk and retrieve the bow and arrow before nefarious deeds are committed. While questing is certainly formulaic for middle grade reading, the Pandava series are witty and adventurous. I found it truly difficult to set this novel down.

The Indian mythology drew me to the first novel, and I'm happy I decided to keep reading. We get to meet nagas, rakshasas, asuras. All these fascinating mythological characters in a beautifully developed story world. Roshani Chokshi does a fantastic job bringing myths I'm not familiar with into the 21st Century. They are just pop culture enough to make me snicker  (nice little Riordan easter egg, the lookalike makes Aru appear to be a lightning thief, tee-hee). And Aru fills the world with bad puns. My hero.