Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

13 April 2018

Review #704: Flamingo Boy by Michael Morpurgo



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Close friends are truly life's treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.”

----Vincent van Gogh



Michael Morpurgo, a bestselling English writer, has penned a delightful children's historical fiction called, Flamingo Boy that revolves around a young teenage boy, who after finding the real artists behind the painting in his room, journeys to the north of France, where he stumbles upon a family of an old woman and a strange old man living in a farm, and gradually the old lady narrates the story of that strange old man, who was once known as the Flamingo Boy, a story that involves the German invasion, the playful song of a carousel, friendship, laughter, even grief, a boy with healing powers and lots and lots of flamingos.

27 June 2017

Review #619: Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.”

----Heinrich Heine



Michel Bussi, a French award-winning author, pens his latest crime thriller, Ne lâche pas ma main translated into English with the title, Don't Let Go. The story revolves around a happy married couple and their young daughter, while holidaying at a French island, the wife goes missing without a trace but leaving behind a trail of clues and eye-witnesses that make the husband a sure shot suspect, and when the local female detective reaches the crime scene, she is sure that the husband is hiding something from them and not too long her hunch comes true, as the husband runs away from the police and the ongoing investigation, and so the body count which skyrockets like anything.

20 November 2016

Review #557: The Spy by Paulo Coelho, Zoë Perry (Translator)



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Death is nothing, nor life either, for that matter. To die, to sleep, to pass into nothingness, what does it matter? Everything is an illusion.”

----Mata Hari



Paulo Coelho, the international bestselling author, pens a gripping and part fictional tale on the life of a legendary dancer cum falsely accused as a spy, Mata Hari in his new novel, The Spy that opens with the execution of this exotic and talented dancer by the French, but then the author spins a riveting autobiographical account of the dancer's life through a fictional letter penned by the dancer herself addressing to her lawyer. She is an epitome of grace, individuality, extravagant lifestyle, exquisite and unique fashion style, independence and her erotic dance moves in the early 20th century in Paris.


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.

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.

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.



19 July 2016

Review #489: Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.”

----Claude Monet



Michel Bussi, a French award-winning author, has penned a gut-wrenching and extremely intriguing crime thriller, Nympheas Noirs that has been translated into English by Shaun Whiteside and the English title is called, Black Water Lilies. The mystery revolves around a rich doctor's murder that occurred near Monet's famous garden in Giverny, that leads the detective to stumble upon the most beautiful woman of the village, while in the background, a little girl is trying to follow on the footsteps on Claude Monet to recreate his famous water lilies painting, and also an old female widow is managing pretty well to unfold the puzzling mystery with the help of her dog.

4 July 2016

Review #477: Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, Irene Ash (Translator)



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"L’amour fait les plus grandes douceurs et les plus sensibles infortunes de la vie."

English translation: "Love makes the greatest pleasures and most sensitive misfortunes of life."

----Madeleine de Scudery



Françoise Sagan, an award-winning French novelist, has created an uproar in the French literary world as well as in the French community, with her debut novel, Bonjour Tristesse that has been translated into English by Irene Ash, after its crazy popularity and scandal, that earned Sagan a reputable spot in the literary world. Sagan was barely eighteen when she published her first novel featuring a teenage girl flying away freely with love, physical intimacy, carelessness, promiscuity and other such immoral acts, on the pretext of her father's engagement with rather young mistresses.

29 April 2016

Review #413: The Sisters of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #1) by Sally Christie



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“When a man takes a mistress, he doesn't turn around and divorce his wife.”

----Arthur Golden



Sally Christie, an England-born Canadian author, has penned her enthralling debut historical fiction, The Sisters of Versailles that narrates the story of the five infamous Nesle sisters among whom four of them became the mistresses of King Louis XV of France. This story marks as the first book in The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy and the story accounts the life of each and every sister till their death.




12 April 2016

Review #396: The Secret by the Lake by Louise Douglas



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned.”

----James Joyce



Louise Douglas, an English author, has penned an intriguing tale of historical mystery, The Secret by the Lake that unfolds the story of a nanny living with the Laurent family, but when tragedy strikes, the whole family move from the suburbs in Paris to a countryside cottage in Somerset. And in his village mystery lurks everywhere, before the nanny stumbles upon which opens the door to a hidden past related to this family.


11 January 2016

Review #315: The Confectioner's Tale by Laura Madeline



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

----Kahlil Gibran
 

Laura Madeleine, an English author, pens her debut novel, The Confectioner's Tale that portrays the story of a young man falling for a famous pastry shop's owner's daughter that blossoms into something forbidden, meanwhile, somewhere 80 years later, a PhD student discovers an old photograph of a pastry shop in Paris in her recently deceased grandfather's treasure, that takes her back in time to solve a beguiling mystery surrounding that forbidden love story of that young man.




3 February 2015

Review #139: The Sharp Hook of Love: A Novel of Heloise and Abelard by Sherry Jones



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


God knows I never sought anything in you except yourself. I wanted simply you, nothing of yours.

                                                                     ----Héloïse d'Argenteuil, a 12th-century French nun, writer, scholar, and abbess, best known for her love affair and correspondence with Pierre Abélard

As the author, Sherry Jones, an international best-seller author says in her note at the end of her book, The Sharp Hook of Love that though this is a fictional story but Heloise and Abelard's love affair is not like fictional characters Romeo and Juliet's love affair, instead they were very much real. Inspired by one of the famous love stories of the world- Heloise and Abelard, dating back to the 12th century in France, the author, Sherry Jones, has crafted out a fine historical novel, The Sharp Hook of Love: A Novel of Heloise and Abelard that encompasses Heloise and Abelard's heart-breaking and devastatingly beautiful love-story.

Synopsis:
Among the young women of 12th century Paris, Heloise d’Argenteuil stands apart. Extraordinarily educated and quick-witted, she is being groomed by her uncle to become an abbess in the service of God. But with one encounter, her destiny changes forever.
Pierre Abelard, headmaster at the Nôtre Dame Cloister School, is acclaimed as one of the greatest philosophers in France. His controversial reputation only adds to his allure, yet despite the legions of women swooning over his poetry and dashing looks, he is captivated by the brilliant Heloise alone. As their relationship blossoms from a meeting of the minds to a forbidden love affair, both Heloise and Abelard must choose between love, duty, and ambition.

24 November 2014

Author Q&A Session #6: With Ellen Allen

I hope that your coffee mugs are on your hand, because, in an another Author Q&A Session, we have Ellen Allen, the debut author, who has enthralled us with her YA thriller, The Sham. So get comfortable and read on about this brilliant author. 

Read the review of The Sham here

24 October 2014

Review #35: The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton






My rating: 5 of 5 stars


We often catch ourselves day-dreaming of that idyllic life up in some quiet countryside, spending our days either by farming in the gardens or reading by the brook- an ideal getaway away from the bustling of the city life! An English author, named, Rosy Thornton, has once again allowed us to think about our guilty pleasure of getting away from our bustling life once and for all. The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton is a poignant combination of happy solitude away in some French countryside up in the mountains to sad, and monotonous life away in England. Also Thornton's magnificent tapestry of silk and love have managed to spin this tale into something rich and highly remarkable.