Review #708: The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark #2) by Veronica Roth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn, and where we end up is really, in fact, where we always intended to be.”

----Julia Glass

Veronica Roth, the international bestselling author, is back with a bang and with her new book called, The Fates Divide that marks the end of this fantastic duology named, Carve the Mark. Up in the galaxy of stars and lives, two major planets are at war, and the fates of two teenagers who also happen to be in love with one another, are about to change drastically, that might not only bring war but will also divide them. And when a tyrannical ruler comes back from the dead, everyone in that galaxy is fearing for their lives, but can these two teenagers unite with one another to erase their common enemy before it turns into a bloodbath, despite of what their fates hold for them? This is an immensely power-packed ending to Roth's duology about an inter-spatial drama.

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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.

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Review #645: Red Maize by Danesh Rana

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Terrorism has nothing to do with religion, Islam or otherwise. Terrorism is born of fundamentalism not of religion.”

----Abhijit Naskar

Danesh Rana, an Indian Police Service officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, has penned a vividly compelling tale about Jammu and not Kashmir, the metaphor of this heavenly paradise and its ever growing militants, which we rarely hear of from the hills of Jammu, in his debut book called, Red Maize. This book narrates the tale of three Muslim brothers and their headstrong and brave mother set across the idyllic mountainous landscape of Jammu, where the middle brother joins his hands with the militants to free his land from the Indian Armed Forces, caught between the crossfires of the jihads and the Indian Armed Forces are the innocent people of the land.

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Review #627: Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

----Søren Kierkegaard

Alix Rickloff, a critically acclaimed author of historical and paranormal romance, has penned a heart touching historical fiction called, Secrets of Nanreath Hall that revolves around two women, in two different timelines, searching for their own identities, one is looking for her biological mother's family and her forgotten background, while the other leaves everything behind for love. Both the stories, narrated in alternative chapters, are not only endearing but are also intriguing enough to keep the readers on their edges.

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Review #592: The Hidden Child (Patrik Hedström, #5) by Camilla Läckberg, Tiina Nunnally (Translator)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“One day you will do things for me that you hate. That is what it means to be family.”

----Jonathan Safran Foer

Camilla Läckberg, the international bestselling author, is back with her new Nordic noir, The Hidden Child which is the fifth book in her popular crime thriller series, Fjällbacka. This book welcomes the well admired protagonist, Patrik Hedström, who is on a four month paternity leave for his 1 year old daughter whereas his popular crime writer wife, Erica is back to writing novels but she is distracted by sight of her mother's journals and lingering mystery behind a Nazi medal found among the belongings of her mother, soon followed by the murder of the historian whom Erica had sought help for that medal's history right before his tragic death.

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Review #577: The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

----Pablo Picasso

Sarah Dunant, the British bestselling novelist, has penned a delectable and extremely tempting historical fiction, The Birth of Venus that is set against the backdrop of the Renaissance Florence and that which revolves around a young 14 year old girl who is not beautiful or skilled like her elder sister, yet her talent and eye for art and mind for translating languages is extraordinary but with the changing times, she is forced into matrimony at a tender age, and little did she knew what fight she is put up for, in the name of honor, respect and womanhood during the Dominican rule in the 15th century Florence.

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Review #575: Lost in Terror by Nayeema Mahjoor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

----Anne Bradstreet

Nayeema Mahjoor, an Indian writer, pens a terrific and gripping tale of one woman and an Indian state fighting against injustice of the government and the so-called society's norms that oppressed the freedom of both, in her new book, Lost in Terror. Here the author weaves a sad and heart breaking story of a daughter of the valley disrupted by war and this woman gets caught up between the crossfires from both ends, one fighting for freedom and the other oppressing the rebellions.

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Review #568: Show Me A Mountain by Kerry Young

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


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

----Rick Warren

Kerry Young, a Chinese African author, pens an incredibly heart breaking historical fiction, Show Me A Mountain that is set across the tropical Jamaican backdrop and it revolves around the life story of a half Chinese and half African woman growing up in an affluent household with a loving but non-caring father with ugly businesses and a mother with a terribly impulsive rage and that she deliberately ushered upon her little daughter. A story of losing love and again finding it through an exotic country and learning to forgive the past.

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Review #558: Reliance, Illinois by Mary Volmer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Woman must have her freedom, the fundamental freedom of choosing whether or not she will be a mother and how many children she will have. Regardless of what man’s attitude may be, that problem is hers — and before it can be his, it is hers alone. She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it.”

----Margaret Sanger

Mary Volmer, an American author, pens a well crafted as well as an enthralling historical fiction, Reliance, Illinois that centers around the life of a young teenage girl and her young unwed mother, who shifted from Kentucky to Reliance in order to get married to a wealthy bachelor, all the while addressing the little daughter with a birthmark covering half of her face, as the woman's little sister, grief-stricken by her mother's actions and the coldness by her mother's new family, the little girl takes shelter in the mansion of the town founder's daughter, who teach her a great deal about life women's life in the post-Civil war period, but dark secrets threaten to destroy the safe coccoon of happiness that the little girl built around her.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Review #492: The Good Muslim (Bangla Desh #2) by Tahmima Anam

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy.”

----Rumi

Tahmima Anam, an award-wining Bangladeshi author, has penned a soul touching and a highly poignant historical fiction surrounding a family torn between the after-effects of war, politics and family love in her book, The Good Muslim which is the second book in her Bangladesh series. This story opens with the daughter who goes into exile for seven long years to study medicine and to open up her own practice as a doctor, returning back to her hometown where her old mother is still waiting for her and her ex-soldier brother is vouching towards the narrow philosophy of his religion's preaching, thereby creating a gap stronger than their years of distance between the brother and the sister.

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Review #484: The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.”

----E. Lockhart

Catherine Banner, an English author, pens a breathtaking yet poignant tale about an Italian family saga spun over a century and through three generations in an unknown island in her debut book, The House at the Edge of Night that revolves around the life of a doctor who after completing his studies in Florence, travels off to an Italian island, where he sets up his practice and eventually he also grows his own family through generations by buying the old house at the edge of the island where he opens a bar and runs it with the help of his wife. This book basically unfolds the stories of the people living on this island, thereby narrating the story of this island as a whole, which goes through war and many changes from the year 1914 to 2009.

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Review #470: The Scatter Here Is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



“Just above our terror, the stars painted this story in perfect silver calligraphy. And our souls, too often
abused by ignorance, covered our eyes with mercy.”

----Aberjhani

Bilal Tanweer, a Pakistani author, has penned a poignant tale of five different characters whose lives are devastated after a sudden bomb blast in Karachi and how terrorism fails to bring the peace that these characters are desperately looking for in a city tormented by violence, defected and biased political agendas and terrorism in his award-winning book, The Scatter Here Is Too Great.

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Review #466: Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love and War in Kashmir by Basharat Peer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”

----Robin Hobb

Basharat Peer, an Indian author, has penned his poignant memoir, Curfewed Night where he flawlessly captures the conflicted as well as forgotten pain of the pastoral state of India through his childhood days till adulthood and the author has also captivated the strong sense of one's own "home" be it idyllic or broken or tortured. Through this memoir, the author has walked down into the memory lane of his childhood days in Kashmir.

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