Rea and the Blood of the Nectar by Payal Doshi

Rohan’s disappearance and the strange reaction by her family to this untimely event left Rea suspicious. Following Rea’s victory, Rohan walks away– puddled in a cloud of embarrassment – and mysteriously goes missing! Longing to partake in the sport, she joins the opposing team and emerges victorious. When the clock strikes midnight, Rohan slips out of bed to play cricket with his friends on their twelfth birthday. However, this time around, things were different. For as long as they can remember, Rea and Rohan have always celebrated their birthday together. Having to live under her brother’s shadow, who excels at everything compared to her, Rea feels pressure and sibling rivalry. Her mother has to work long hours by cleaning houses or by picking tea leaves at a tea plantation, just to make a living. The story is set in Darjeeling, India, where Rea lives with her mother, grandmother, and Rohan. But the clock is ticking.Twins are always known to be together even when apart, but have you ever read a book where the relationship between a pair of twins is slightly uneven? Hidden under the sleeve of every argument or ignorant glance, siblings will always have affection for one another that’s the true beauty of having someone related to you by birth, let alone grow to the same heartbeat! Rea and the Blood of the Nectar by Payal Doshi is a book that encompasses magical wonders, presents foreign worlds in a new way, and represents sibling love! With seemingly unsolvable riddles, nightmares with hidden clues, and a new friend, the main protagonist, Rea, trudges her way to find her kidnapped twin brother, Rohan. Struggling with the truth her Amma has kept hidden from her, Rea must solve clues that lead to Rohan, find a way to rescue him and save Astranthia from a potentially deadly fate. In the shade of night, they portal to an otherworldly realm of Astranthia, a land full of magic and whimsy. Unwilling to give up on her brother, Rea and her friend Leela meet Mishti Daadi, a wrinkly old fortune-teller whose powers of divination set them off on a secret quest. Her grandmother, too, is behaving strangely.

It hasn’t even been a day and Amma acts like Rohan’s gone forever. It’s four in the morning and Rohan is nowhere to be found. After a big fight with her twin brother Rohan on their birthday, Rea’s life in the small village of Darjeeling, India, gets turned on its head.

It all begins on the night Rea turns twelve.