30 August 2016

Review #516: The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A woman is not a touch but a response to it”

----Pratibha Ray



Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, an Indian best selling novelist, has penned an extremely emotional and gripping mythological-cum-historical-fiction novel, The Palace of Illusions that narrates the great epic Indian mythological tale, Mahabharata from the point of view of the most brilliant and fearless female character, Draupadi, who weaves her thoroughly soul touching yet enduring life story starting from the day she was born to the day she left her palace and kingdom to follow behind the footsteps of her husbands to heaven. Yes, in modern terms, you call it a fan fiction of Mahabharata.


29 August 2016

Review #515: The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.”

----Steve Maraboli



Carrie Firestone, an American author, pens her debut YA contemporary fiction novel, The Loose Ends List that narrates the story of a young high school "soon-to-be-graduated" girl who decides to live her life and enjoy the last few days of summer before she joins college, but her grandmother is dying and takes her along with her extended crazy and quirky family to a voyage around the world on a cruise, and things are about to change for her.



28 August 2016

Review #514: The Reader (Sea of Ink and Gold, #1) by Traci Chee



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced."

----Salman Rushdie



Traci Chee, an American author, pens her debut YA fantasy novel, The Reader which is the first book in the Sea of Ink and Gold series and this series opens with a young teenage girl and her aunt who are on a run for ages from the men and the assassins who have murdered the girl's father. But pretty soon, the girl's aunt is kidnapped and she is left with so many unanswered questions about her parents and her sketchy past and especially with a package that contains a rectangular mysterious object that her kind do not know how to interpret it or rather say, read the book of her father's.

25 August 2016

Review #513: How It Feels to Fly by Kathryn Holmes



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”

----Amit Ray



Kathryn Holmes, an American author, pens a heart touching and extremely enlightening YA contemporary fiction novel, How It Feels to Fly that tells the story of a young, aspiring and really dedicated female ballet dancer who faces image as well as body issues when her body starts to develop curves that is a strict rule against someone who is going to perform ballet professionally, and that depresses her, not to mention, her mother's constant obsession does not help her a bit, instead she is sent away to a summer therapy camp, where she gradually stops believing in herself and her body and also fears to lose her only dream of being a ballerina.

24 August 2016

Review #512: Poisoned Blade (Court of Fives, #2) by Kate Elliott



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”

----Mark Twain



Kate Elliott, an award-winning American YA author, pens the next book in her series of Court of Fives called, Poisoned Blade and this time the story gets deathly, complex and extremely mind-blowingly edgy as Jes, the champion of the Fives, is caught between the war of her divided kingdom as well as the strive and the challenge to save her dear mother and her sisters, all the while being under constant supervision of a cruel ruler.




21 August 2016

Review #511: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.”

----Salman Rushdie



Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an award winning Nigerian author, has penned an immensely absorbing family drama in her literary fiction novel, Purple Hibiscus where the author weaves the tale of a young Nigerian girl who belongs from a very rich and affluent family where the father of the family is a religious fanatic and used to torture his wife, his daughter and his son in the name of Christ if they commit a slight mistake, but when the young girl goes to live with her aunt during the military coup invasion, she learns ugly secrets about her not so perfectly religious family.

20 August 2016

Review #510: Swear on This Life by Renée Carlino



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“You can love someone so much...But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.”


----John Green



Renée Carlino, USA TODAY bestselling author, pens her latest tear-jerking new adult book, Swear on This Life which is a love story between two people who met when they were teenagers and feel for each other, but later they moved away from each other's lives thereby breaking hearts, but a decade later, they meet again through their first love story in the form of a bestselling story, but are they willing to reconcile what they lost?




19 August 2016

Review #509: Maestra by L. S. Hilton



My rating: 2 of 5 stars


“Drink from the fountain of love where every drop is eternal passion.”

----Mahogany SilverRain



L.S. Hilton, an English best selling author, has penned a sexy and extremely scandalous thriller, Maestra that narrates the story of a highly educated assistant auctioneer who starts working as a hostess for a shady nightclub to make her ends meet, but when an art dealing goes wrong with a client that makes her to lose her job due to her attitude of sniffing into a possible art fraud case, she plunges into the world of revenge with her rage that makes her weak for designer labels and men with money and sometimes killing too, thereby making her finally powerful.

18 August 2016

Review #508: Red Queen (The Chronicles of Alice, #2) by Christina Henry



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“We're all mad here.”

----Lewis Carroll




Christina Henry, a national bestselling author, pens her latest book, Red Queen, sequel to her duology of The Chronicles of Alice which is a creepy retake on the Lewis Carroll's popular book, Alice in Wonderland . Alice's journey continues along with her only friend, Hatcher, after escaping from the horrifying clutches of an equally creepy mental institute but more challenges await Alice and Hatcher, once they step out of the city, and somehow Alice must get to her destiny, at any cost.



16 August 2016

Review #507: The Last One by Alexandra Oliva



My rating: 3 of 5 stars



“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.”


----Yann Martel


Alexandra Oliva, an American author, pens her debut science-fiction dystopian book, The Last One that unfolds the story of a woman taking part in a deadly real-life survival game where twelve contestants without any prior knowledge needs to survive through a dense, dark forest filled with deathly challenges, but little did they knew or the woman knew that this game show is going to get very real, so real that apocalypse can even happen.

15 August 2016

Review #506: The Paris Secret by Karen Swan



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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

----Pablo Picasso



Karen Swan, an English author, pens a heart-touching and intense contemporary romance novel, The Paris Secret which unfolds the story of a family as well as a powerful female art dealer who gets muddled into the family drama as well as the family secrets of a reputed and affluent French family suddenly discovered artworks are needed to be studied by the art dealer to find its origin as well as the reason behind its concealment, but there's more to art drama than this art dealer can ever guess.



Book Subscription Box (July) Review: The Biblio Box


Good evening my fellow bibliophiles,

Hope you're having a lovely Monday, minus the Monday blues. Well for me and for the rest of the 1 billion fellow citizens of my country, India, we are actually having a pretty great Monday, as it is our Independence Day, but that does not mean that every body in enjoying a holiday, unlike me, there are people who work round the clock and keep the country and so the society in order or maybe out of trouble.

14 August 2016

Review #505: My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.”

----Dave Meurer



Jane Corry, an English author, pens her debut psychological thriller, My Husband's Wife that narrates the story of a couple who goes through ups and downs in their newly marital life, through many years, but their past mistakes and their involvement in the life of a notorious and sly criminal and a sweet little girl, comes haunting back at them ages later, and that can either destroy their relationship or can kill them.



13 August 2016

Review #504: Here Be Dragons by Mohit Uppal



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”

----Helen Keller



Mohit Uppal, an Indian author, pens his debut part-contemporary-part-mystery book, Here Be Dragons that unfolds the journey of three imperfect, once-upon-a-time, best friends through the dark, narrow alleys in Venice to the mesmerizing city of Rome with its grand architecture only to look for a Korean woman and also to find oneself through mistakes and isolation, so that all can go back to living their normal life after experiencing themselves in an evolved way.



12 August 2016

Review #503: Summer Secrets by Jane Green



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”

----Raymond Chandler



Jane Green, the New York Times bestselling author, has penned an extremely heart touching yet sassy contemporary fiction in her book, Summer Secrets where the author weaves a tale about an alcoholic woman's life about how she learns to stand up on her two feet after losing herself into the delusional and easy escape of golden and often crystal clear liquid (alcohol), how this woman despite having her own family travels back and forth in time through her mother's childhood days to her struggling single days to some dark secrets that take her back to her own original roots.

11 August 2016

Review #502: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"The American dream means that you have the chance to work hard, get an education and do great things for yourself, for your kids. The great thing in American is it doesn't matter what your last name is, doesn't matter if you're wealthy."

----Bobby Jindal



Imbolo Mbue, a Cameroonian author, pens an incredibly inspiring debut novel, Behold the Dreamers that unfolds the stories of two families set against the backdrop of the Big Apple, one is a very poor yet hardworking immigrant family from a very small town in Africa and another is an American family who are filthy rich, as the two families come together with their growing fondness for one another, and so the inevitable curse of the Great Recession that tears each and every one from both the families apart.


10 August 2016

Review #501: In Too Deep by Samantha Hayes




My rating: 4 of 5 stars



“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”

----George Washington


Samantha Hayes, an English author, has penned a gripping psychological thriller in her new book, In Too Deep that narrates the story of a woman and her daughter, whose husband and father goes missing one fine day and things start to fall apart months after the disappearance, and soon deadly secrets come knocking at their doorstep that can destroy the lives of two women.





7 August 2016

Review #500: Heart of Stone (Ellie Stone Mysteries #4) by James W. Ziskin



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

----Albert Einstein



James W. Ziskin, an American author, has penned a riveting thriller in his new book, Heart of Stone which marks as the fourth book in the Ellie Stone Mysteries series. The book opens with the protagonist poking her nosy nose or rather say, investigate the death of a man and a teenage boy, who died apparently from diving off the cliff in Adirondack lake, as per the local sheriff's initial observations, but this investigation also makes the protagonist fall in a passionate summer romance with one of her childhood friends.


Review #499: An Unsafe Haven by Nada Awar Jarrar



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Every heart to love will come, but like a refugee. "

----Leonard Cohen


Nada Awar Jarrar, an award winning Lebanese author, pens an incredibly moving tale, An Unsafe Haven set against the modern day back drop of Beirut, where the civil war as well as the religious in differences are effecting lives of those who have forever braced the war and also to those who live like a refugee. This story is about three families mainly, whose lives are effected by the raging war in the neighboring country Syria that makes them question their faith, loyalty to one another as well as to their patriotism towards their homeland.



1 August 2016

Review #498: Malice (Kyoichiro Kaga series, #4) by Keigo Higashino



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Because teachers, no matter how kind, no matter how friendly, are sadistic and evil to the core.”

----Heather Brewer



Keigo Higashino, the most popular and biggest selling Japanese fiction author, has penned an intriguing thriller, Malice that is the fourth book in the detective Kyoichiro Kaga series. This book revolves around the murder of a bestselling author right before he was going to leave Japan with his new wife to Canada and also right before the publication of his another book. The infamous detective soon arrives in the crime scene, and within few days he suspects the best friend of the author to be the killer behind the author's death.