A coming of age story, an epic love story, a war against the gods, a questioning of identity and of choice and ones place in the world. 

This was so well written, the characters have a lot of depth and plenty of flaws and so much inner turmoil. The characters aren’t always lovable but they are believable and real. 

A story about a woman who was destined by birth to serve the god Indra in the form of seduction and dance, who would give anything to be free of this job she never chose for herself. In desperation she chooses and impossible mission: seduce the powerful sage that could rival the gods power himself, and bring the sage to his knees in exchange she will be free of the missions Indra sends his apsaras on to seduce troublesome humans. 
Meneka uses her wit and cunning to do her missions without seducing her marks in the traditional sense. She fully intends to do the same with this powerful sage, except she discovers she might be falling for him. As she lives and works at his hermitage and learning to be a sage with other disciples, she gets to know kaushika, the sage who is her mark for this mission, and learns he is so much more than just a vengeful heathen. 
While she falls for kaushika she struggles with her own sense of self and her existence. Feeling she fails at being an apsara like she was born to be, but not knowing how to be anything other than herself. She feels guilt and shame and anger for being pushed into this life without any true choice in it of her own. She vows to not take the choice away from her marks either, at least when it comes to sexually seducing them. As she struggles with herself and her mission, the war building between kaushika and Indra builds until finally coming to culmination. But there’s so much more going on behind the scenes just waiting to be revealed. 

My only downgrade for this book is the ending. I felt like there needed to be more. I understand the ending that was given but it wasn’t a satisfying true ending, feeling like a whole second book could be added easily.