30 September 2016

Review #532: One Half from the East by Nadia Hashimi



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .”

----C.S. Lewis


Nadia Hashimi, an internationally bestselling author, pens a terrific and extremely heart rending yet enlightening tale of love, friendships, child marriage, bacha posh in her new middle grade contemporary fiction book, One Half from the East where the author weaves a tale centered around a ten year old Afghan girl who encounters a bomb blast that claims her father's leg that led that girl and her family to shift to the villages where the little girl is forced to dress as a boy in order to bring good fortune to her falling family.



29 September 2016

Review #531: Love Bi the Way by Bhaavna Arora




My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Whether it's men, women—it doesn't really matter. The human race is filled with passion and lust. And to coin terms like heterosexuality, homosexuality or even bisexuality makes no sense to me. You are human. You love who you love. You fuck who you fuck. That should be enough—no labels. No stigmas. Nothing. Just be to be.
But life isn't that kind. People will always find things to hate.”


----Krista Ritchie



Bhaavna Arora, an Indian best selling author, pens an emotional and hilariously sassy contemporary fiction in her new book, Love Bi the Way that narrates the story of two young and successful women, both with broken past that they do not want to share with one another, while one being an introvert and the other an extrovert, lives life freely through men, sex, love, royalty but with one another's support, care, trust and friendship, but is that all?

27 September 2016

Review #530: Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2) by Leigh Bardugo



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule.”

----Charles Dickens




Leigh Bardugo, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, is back with the exciting new sequel to her YA fantasy Six of Crows series, called, Crooked Kingdom and this time the group of teenage rebels are up against a politically corrupted city that is constantly scheming with their twisted minds to bring down the leader as well as the whole group of rebels.




26 September 2016

Review #529: Thorn Jack: A Night and Nothing Novel by Katherine Harbour



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time.”

----J.M. Barrie


Katherine Harbour, an American author, has penned a captivating and heart rending young adult fantasy fiction in her novel, Thorn Jack that marks as the first book in the Night and Nothing series and is loosely based or rather say, a modern retelling of an ancient Scottish folklore ballad called, Tam Lin where a young woman tries to free a prince without a heart whom she loved from the dominating and magical powers of a cruel fairy queen, resulting in devastating consequences.



23 September 2016

Review #528: The One Man by Andrew Gross



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“After the thing went off, after it was a sure thing that America could wipe out a city with just one bomb, a scientist turned to Father and said, 'Science has now known sin.' And do you know what Father said? He said, 'What is sin?”

----Kurt Vonnegut


Andrew Gross, an American best selling author, pens his exciting and intriguing new historical thriller, The One Man that revolves around an old dying man who narrates the story of his untold past about a braveheart who saved the future by risking his life to rescue one forgotten scientist with a knowledge to build the atom bomb from a Jew camp in Poland right under the eyes and noses of some brutal and torturous Nazi soldiers.


Review #527: X (Kinsey Millhone, #24) by Sue Grafton



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”

----Joe Klaas


Sue Grafton, an American bestselling author, returns with her popular alphabetical mystery series of Kinsey Millhone and this time it's the 24th letter, X that welcomes the infamous and odd female detective, Kinsey and her sarcasm about herself when she uses a marked bill at a grocery store that was paid by one of her recent clients, thereby leading her to dig up dirt about that mysterious client's background, also her late and former colleague's wife is facing a tax issue on her dead husband's assets, so Kinsey needs to find out what her former colleague was working on and last but not the least, her landlord is facing trouble with new next door tenants, so that too needs to be addressed by Kinsey.

19 September 2016

Review #526: The Last of the Firedrakes (The Avalonia Chronicles, #1) by



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case.”

----Erin Morgenstern



Farah Oomerbhoy, an Indian bestselling author, has penned her debut engaging young adult fantasy novel The Last of the Firedrakes which marks as the first book in The Avalonia Chronicles where the author has weaved a mystical fantasy universe where a young princess has just returned back to rightfully proclaim the throne that belongs to her from an evil queen who killed her parents when she was just a baby, but before that she needs to be groomed and proper training to face that ruthless queen thereby saving the kingdom.

15 September 2016

Review #525: The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"I could never be on stage on my own. But puppets can say things that humans can't say."

----Nina Conti



Keith Donohue, an American best-selling novelist, spins a thoroughly engrossing part-horror-part-mystery book, The Motion of Puppets where the author weaves a slightly gripping tale about a newly married couple's dilemma when the wife goes missing and surprisingly she turns into a puppet, leaving the husband on a trail through the city's darkest alleys to the trending ones, until his belief comes true about his wife.




13 September 2016

Review #524: Remember Death: An Arjun Arora Mystery by Ankush Saikia,



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.”


----Rick Warren


Ankush Saikia, an Indian author, pens his new crime fiction, Remember Death which is the second book in the Arjun Arora Mystery series, and this story welcomes the odd yet super smart detective Arjun Arora who has been assigned on a case to track down a suspected air hostess accused of murdering a bar dancer and looting the money of a crooked businessman, and that puts Arjun on the edges of death, yet once again, he needs to use his sharp wit to look beyond the narrated story, maybe he needs to start looking somewhere during the era of India's independence, all the while fighting against his own demons and past mistakes.

11 September 2016

Review #523: Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“He who searches for evil, must first look at his own reflection.”

----Confucius


Pierre Lemaitre, an award winning French author, has penned a riveting and brain twisting psychological thriller, Blood Wedding that narrates the story of a mid aged recently widowed woman who faces memory lapses and so when, one morning, she finds the child, whom she babysits, murdered in his bed with a shoelace, from her very own shoes, tied around his neck, she cannot even once remember what happened the previous night despite the evidence screams out her name and points towards her, the only way she can escape it by running, leaving the city and finding a new identity and finally finding a new husband to settle down with, and within a year, she finds a random man, whom she met online, to settle down with, but that man too harbors some ugly secrets like her.

Review #522: The Muse by Jessie Burton



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”

----Pablo Picasso



Jessie Burton, an English author, has penned a deeply moving and intoxicating historical fiction novel, The Muse that narrates the story of two women separated by a timeline of almost thirty years, where the one is an aspiring Trinidadian woman who finds work as a typist in art gallery of London whose odd boss encourages and explores her talent in writing stories and one day, a mysterious painting lands up in that gallery with a deeply buried secret, that will take the readers back in time when the other woman who is a young teenage girl, is trying to keep her artistic talents hidden from her dominating art dealer father's eyes and when she meets a young housemaid and her half brother, her life forever changes with life shattering actions.


Review #521: It Must've Been Something He Wrote by Nikita Deshpande



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.”

----Robert Fulghum


Nikita Deshpande, an India author, pens a lively yet soul-touching contemporary romance debut novel, It Must've Been Something He Wrote where the author weaves a sweet and funny romantic comedy that is centered around a woman who is a nerd-cum-marketing-executive for a publishing house in a city away from her own, where she faces lots of hurdles to make her boss happy with marketing ideas as well as she also caters to the country's dashing bestselling author's needs and events, and little did she knew that love can happen even with someone who is entirely different from herself.

6 September 2016

Review #520: For The Most Beautiful by Emily Hauser



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.”

----Homer



Emily Hauser, an English author, has penned a stirring debut historical fiction, For The Most Beautiful where the author has weaved the infamous Greek mythological tale of Trojan War through the voice of two female characters, who lose a great deal and fight some complex battles, to save their city of Troy. Also watched from the mountains are the gods who are controlling the war.




4 September 2016

Review #519: Cuckoo by Keren David



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The capacity for friendship is God's way of apologizing for our families.”

----Jay McInerney


Keren David, a Dutch writer, has penned a heart touching and an eye opening YA contemporary book, Cuckoo that narrates the story of a sixteen year old teenager, a talented actor and a household name for his recently cancelled TV series, who found out that his own parents are stealing his hard earned money and is constantly pressurizing him to bag a role in some new show or a movie, eventually making his life a living hell in his own home, thereby forcing him to take shelter in his friends' houses instead of living with his own family.



2 September 2016

Review #518: Blog Tour of A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2) by Sabaa Tahir



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Power isn’t control at all — power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own.”

----Beth Revis


Sabaa Tahir, an American bestselling author, pens the much awaited sequel to her bewitching YA fantasy book, An Ember in the Ashes called, A Torch Against the Night where the author continues to weave the adrenaline rushing and edgy adventure of Laia and Elias, who have finally managed to escape the Blackcliff Military Academy as well as the wrath of the ruthless Commandant and an equally sadistic Emperor and are on a run and on a mission to break free Laia's brother from one of the most dangerous prison of their land.


Review #517: An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1) by Sabaa Tahir



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”

----Nelson Mandela



Sabaa Tahir, an American bestselling author, has penned a heart wrenching and an extremely gripping YA fantasy novel, An Ember in the Ashes that narrates the tale of an ancient yet evocative fantasy world where a young Scholar girl wants to free her brother from the deathly clutches of the ruthless Martial men who have dominated over that young girl's clan for the past 500 years, and now that young girl must do anything in order to help save the only living member of her family, on the other hand, there's also a young man who is on the verge of graduating and becoming a candidate for the throne to the Martial leadership, but he longs for freedom and is planning an escape.