Book review: Two Graves by Zoe Kalo

A Dante-ish descent through a sinister world of decadent shadows and woeful souls…

Doesn't that sound nice and spooky for a short novella tagged as a dark psychological suspense?

"Seven years ago, he shattered her life. The town eventually forgot the headlines and the nightmares. But 23-year old music student Angelica hasn’t forgotten.

For the past seven years, she’s contemplated payback with as much intensity and unwavering faith as she puts into her violin playing. Finally, all the pieces are in place. Over the course of one night, disguised for a masquerade ball,

Angelica orchestrates a journey of revenge."

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Book review: The Reflections of Queen Snow White by David Meredith

What happens when “happily ever after” has come and gone?
On the eve of her only daughter, Princess Raven’s wedding, an aging Snow White finds it impossible to share in the joyous spirit of the occasion. The ceremony itself promises to be the most glamorous social event of the decade. Snow White’s castle has been meticulously scrubbed, polished and opulently decorated for the celebration. Things could not be better except for one thing: The king is dead.
The queen has been in a moribund state of hopeless depression for over a year with no end in sight. It is only when, in a fit of bitter despair, she seeks solitude in the vastness of her own sprawling castle and climbs a long disused and forgotten tower stair that she comes face to face with herself in the very same magic mirror used by her stepmother of old. It promises her respite in its shimmering depths, but can Snow White trust a device that was so precious to a woman who sought to cause her such irreparable harm? Can she confront the demons of her own difficult past to discover a better future for herself and her family? And finally, can she release her soul-crushing grief and suffocating loneliness to once again discover what “happily ever after” really means? Only time will tell as she wrestles with her past and is forced to confront The Reflections of Queen Snow White.

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Ebook review: Got me for life by Chandni Moudgil

Women. Are they complex creatures or the simplest of beings? The answer is perhaps not as simple.

In a series of 26 short stories, explore the world of EveryDay Women with me. They aren’t the superheroes who claim to save the world. They are the ones who form a part of your world.

They can create magical moments, make or break people, manipulate relationships, slip in and out of roles or refuse to fit into one at all. They are the real women in our lives. But the common thread that binds these fascinating women is , they don’t need anyone to make their world better – they have themselves for life.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you find a bit of someone you know in each of them.

Let the stories begin?

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Ebook review: The Other Side of Love by Richa Singh

“Twenty seven is the last age to get married an in style.”

So begins this short novella, which was was penned by Singh during the month-long Ultimate Blogging Challenge.

The story follows 27 year old Radha, who, of course, is not yet married. She lives a rather lonely existence. She’s friend zoned by Sushant, the man she loves; her sisters are married and settled; and her mother is worried about Radha’s future. But instead of being forced into marriage, Radha accepts a teaching job from a coveted institute.

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Ebook review: 26 by Aditi Kaushiva

26: 26 Stories. 26 Colours. 26 Emotions, is an anthology that strives to explore the myriad hues of life by painting 26 bite-sized stories, each based on 26 colours which commence with every letter of the alphabet from A to Z. The themes developed in these stories range from marital despair to urban city-life blues, from love to loss, from child abuse to infidelity, divorce, and much more.

This short eBook is a collection of 26 pieces of flash fiction. Kaushiva wrote each story in a day, in an attempt to show that short, swiftly written and transient narratives can be as powerful as complexly-constructed prose.

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Book Review: Sweet Breath of Memory by Ariella Cohen

Life is in the telling.

Sweet Breath of Memory by Ariella Cohen When Cate Saunders walks into Amberly’s Italian grocery store Vitelli’s, little does she know how her life is going to change. Weighed down by the loss of her husband John in the Iraq war, having lost the house they bought together, and all dreams of the life that they wanted to build, Cate has accepted a job as a caregiver.

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#MicroBlog Mondays: The first Gurgaon BYOB meet-up

The first Gurgaon BYOB (where the last B stands for books, not booze) meet-up took place yesterday at The Wishing Chair’s adorable Mad Teapot cafe. It was quite a turn out, and I was blown away by the variety of books and authors that people brought along to the discussion. Ranging from Murakami and Rushdie, to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, to an Indian author from Nagaland and an Iranian graphic novelist (yes, the Iranian graphic novelist), to a pilot and a sports writer – the discussion was engaging, illuminating, and passionate. The best thing was the absence of Chetan Bhagat and his ilk – although there was quite a heated debate on bad writing and there being no such thing as bad writing. It was a stimulating meet-up, and I came away with a couple of more books added to my TBR list. Here’s to more BYOB events in Gurgaon; may the tribe of readers grow!

Linking up with MicroBlog Mondays.

Book review: Five Roses by Alice Zorn

A young, naive girl with no social graces; an aging hippie whose baby daughter was kidnapped; a hospital operator whose sister committed suicide; a young, talented pastry chef who hides her talent behind the counter of a patisserie. All linked, somehow – as friends, neighbors, blood relations.

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Book Review: The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayer

From the back cover:

Kat Lind, an American expatriate living in London with her entrepreneur husband and their young son, attends an opening at a prestigious Mayfair art gallery and is astonished to find her own face on the walls. The portraits are evidence of a long-ago love affair with the artist, Daniel Blake. Unbeknownst to her, he has continued to paint her ever since. Kat is seduced by her reflection on canvas and when Daniel appears in London, she finds herself drawn back into the sins and solace of a past that suddenly no longer seems so far away.

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Book Review: Our Moon has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita

Rahul Pandita was fourteen years old in 1990 when he was forced to leave his home in Srinagar along with his family, who were Kashmiri Pandits: the Hindu minority within a Muslim-majority Kashmir that was becoming increasingly agitated with the cries of ‘Azadi’ from India. The heartbreaking story of Kashmir has so far been told through the prism of the brutality of the Indian state, and the pro-independence demands of separatists. But there is another part of the story that has remained unrecorded and buried. Our Moon Has Blood Clots is the unspoken chapter in the story of Kashmir, in which it was purged of the Kashmiri Pandit community in a violent ethnic cleansing backed by Islamist militants. Hundreds of people were tortured and killed, and about 3,50,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their homes and spend the rest of their lives in exile in their own country. Rahul Pandita has written a deeply personal, powerful and unforgettable story of history, home and loss.

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