Review – Page 5 – Books & Teaa

Glitter and Gloss by Vibha Batra

A romantic comedy that is funny, contemporary and sharp.

A makeup artist working day & night, living life on her own terms, making decisions for herself suddenly lands up in a situation where she is constantly trying to prove her worth, juggling between work and social life. The cause of her distress and the reason why she sees stars in the daylight is Akshay Agarwal, the man of her dreams.

Misha, our protagonist, is a fun-loving, cheerful girl, who is trying to pursue her dream of being a professional make-up artist. After several failed relationships, Misha finally meets Akshay, who unlike other boys is everything she could ever dream of. Owner of the Aggarwal Jewellers, Akshay is a hot-shot who has a lavish lifestyle and his clothes along with his smell, reek of expensive brands that you can’t even pronounce. He falls in love with Misha’s unconventionality, her quirkiness and upfront attitude. Despite belonging to the elite class, Akshay is humble and down to earth. The chemistry between Misha and Akshay is sizzling. They’re an embodiment of young love, passion and desire. However, as John Green once said, ‘Life is not a wish-granting factory’, our loving couple, face tough time ahead.

Enter, Didi, Akshay’s third parent. Misha soon realizes that pleasing her sister-in-law is more difficult than she imagined. She has to live upto the unbelievably high standards set by Didi, follow the traditions of the Aggarwal family and give up on her dream to become a make-up artist. Will Misha succumb to the demands and sacrifice her life & career to be the ‘bahu’ of the Aggarwal family? Or will she pursue her dream regardless of the societal standards forced onto her? That’s for you to read and find out!

Vibha Batra’s writing style is smooth, simple and extremely fun to read. It’s safe to say the book is a laughter riot. Several instances in the novel are quite hilarious. Misha’s references to bollywood, Big Bang Theory are sure to leave you in splits. Apart from that, Vibha has pointed out a rather gloomy picture of Indian standard for women. The judgemental nature and superficial display of affection is deep-rooted within the Indian families even today. Women face a lot of pressure to give up their jobs after marriage and working women are considered a failure when it comes to maintaining their personal life. Why, after so much progress and empowernment, women are still not able to decide for themselves? Why can’t women have a steady job AND a happy personal life? The reality is distressing. However, one can only hope for a more progressive mindset. The author also tackles a number of inhibitions about an independent working girl. Vibha shares her flat with her friend, Sammy, who belongs to the opposite sex. This is met with shock and disbelief by Didi, who resents Misha’s life choices and living arrangements.

Akshay also represents a man with strong beliefs and ideals, one who never backs from lending his full support to Misha and encourages her to work hard for her career. He refuses to conform to the rules and norms of his Sister and the Indian society at large. He is a full blown Feminist.

(Just when I thought i’d not swoon over a fictional character, Akshay pops up, eh.)

Another important and recurring theme in the novel is self-love, one that most of us overlook. Misha might come across as an independent-confident girl but deep down inside she suffers from low self-esteem and insecurities. She isn’t happy with her physical appearance or her distraught relationship with her parents. She is too harsh on herself and needs constant validation to feel accepted.

From Manish Malhotra and Sabyasachi to wearing the latest collection of M.A.C lipsticks, to a high-end lifestyle and sizzling romance, Glitter and Gloss has it all! I am not one to read Rom-com but this particular novel is fresh and crisp despite having a few cliché moments.

Lovers of contemporary romance and YA, would find themselves flipping through the pages and smiling a devilish smile at having come across a book that’s oh-so-relatable!

What are you waiting for? Grab your book now

Publisher: Bloomsbury India

Format: e-book

Rating: 3.9/5

What are you waiting for? Grab your book now

Window Seat By Yashluv Virwani

A collection of short stories that speak of lost love, failed marriages, harships and life.

The smell of coffee, the hustle and bustle of a busy street, the touch of someone you love coupled with moments that seem like a dream along with literature and poetry are only a few of the serene experiences that have been narrated in Window Seat. It is an anthropology of short stories that has portrayed human idiosyncrasies in its purest form.

Debut author Yashluv Virwani has weaved beautiful stories in his novel Window Seat that transcend beyond boundaries, race and religion. There are 8 stories in the novel; each distinct and profound yet hypnotising making the readers come back for more.

The author has played with words in a way that casts spells on the reader. His words are soothing, hit right on the spot and add life and meaning to the characters. Speaking of which, characters in Window Seat are different from each other, their imperfections have been brilliantly played. The characters are you and me, they’re every person walking down the street, sitting in cafes, going to movies. The characters are us. And that’s what makes them so relatable. You can almost see your reflection in them and wonder how the author penned you down.

From poetry to detailed descriptions to breathtaking characters to burning passion and love, Window Seat is everything a good novel is made of. It’s a quick read and I’m sure you’d complete it in one sitting.

Blurb: What does a Window Seat remind you of? Your apartment in a high-rise building, in the lap of your couch, a cup of chai in your hand, a song on your lips, as you watch the world outside, with its share of glittering streetlights, honks and smoke, flow? Or the incessant journeys you undertake, in buses or trains, with music digging deep in your ears, as you see miles and miles of untamed wilderness ? I want you to go back to your childhood, in the cosy arms of the eldest member in your family, who, using the threads of magic, weaved a parallel existence around you, transporting you to a place away from all the things that bind you – because that is the land where stories work – a land that has no cages, only freedom.

Publisher: Half Baked Beans

Pages: 110

Format: Paperback

Rating: 4/5

You can buy the book here: Amazon

Disclaimer: Received the copy from Half Baked Beans. Views are my own.

Book Review: Option B

“Seeking joy after facing adversity is taking back what was stolen from you”

I don’t know anyone who has been handed only roses. We all encounter hardships. Some we see coming; others take us by surprise. It can be as tragic as the sudden death of a child, as heartbreaking as a relationship that unravels, or as disappointing as a dream that goes unfulfilled. The question is: When these things happen, what do we do next?

Life, as we know it, is unpredictable. You’re walking down the road in your freshly cleaned and ironed white shirt only to have mud splashed all over your clothes. You’re standing on the road, hailing abuses at the vehicle who did it, but there’s only so much you can do. Or maybe accidentally dropping your favorite scoop of ice-cream you’d been wanting to savor. These are small almost unimportant terrible things that happen. What does one do when they fail at an important phase of their life? How do you react when you lose a family member? Where do you go when you’re fighting to live?

You want to give up. Leave everything. And escape. But you don’t. You wake up every day, confused, miserable, but still ready to move on. When there’s no Option A, you kick the shit out of Option B. That’s exactly what this novel by Sheryl Sandberg is all about. To find the light at the end of the tunnel, to find the silver lining and learn to live some form of Option B.

The sudden death of Sheryl’s husband turned her world upside down. It came as a blow, one she thought she could never recover from. To make it worse, she couldn’t think of a life where her children would grow up without having a father. Happiness seemed like a distant dream. Sheryl feared her children would never find happiness again. They would never be normal. She would never be normal. Adam Grant, psychologist at Wharton and a dear friend of Sheryl jumped to the scene. Together they discovered how to cope with adversity and build resilience. Talking about Resilience Sheryl says:

I thought resilience was the capacity to endure pain, so I asked Adam how I could figure out how much I had. He explained that our amount of resilience isn’t fixed, so I should be asking instead how I could become resilient. Resilience is the strenght and speed of our response to adversity–we can build it. It isn’t about having a backbone. It’s about strengthening the muscles around our backbone.

So began a lifelong journey of Sheryl coping with the loss of her husband, maintaining her job as the COO of Facebook and ensuring her kids grew up to be strong and resilient. One of the foremost principle’s used in the book are the 3Ps that stunt recovery. This was formulated by psychologist Martin Seligman when he was studying how people deal with setbacks.

Personalization: The belief that we are at fault
Pervasiveness: The belief that an event will affect all areas of our life.
Permanence: The belief that the aftershocks of the event will last forever.

Studies have shown that the minute adults and children accept that they’re not in control of every situation, that they’re not to blame and that these hardships won’t follow them everywhere and will not affect all aspects of life, they recover quickly.

The book follows Sheryl’s everyday struggles which included attending her children’s school events alone or celebrating birthdays without her better half. One of the important points mentioned in the book which I personally found interesting was ‘focusing on worst-case scenarios’. Adam went on proposing that instead of trying to find the positives in an utterly miserable situation, one should think of how worse the current situation could be. I mean, come to think of it, you’re alive and reading this review right now( well, I hope you are). And the gift of life is probably the biggest gift ever. In Sheryl’s circusmtances, Adam reminded her that her husband, Dave, could have died while driving their children to school. His statement sent chills down her spine overwhelming her. She realized her children were still with her and that gratitude took over grief.

Option B is a sum total of not just Sheryl’s loss. It has tremendous stories of people from all walks of life who have defied all the odds, survived at the face of adversity and have overcome illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters and the violence of war. Not only do these stories inspire they also teach us how to persevere in times of hardships. They reveal how strong human capacity is and that pain usually bows down when faced with people who refuse to beaten by their circumstances.

I learned that when life pulls you under, you can kick against the bottom, break the surface, and breathe again.

Failure can either make you or break you. It’s easy saying you learn from failures. It’s difficult being on the receiving end. Talking about failures, Sheryl says, “Not only do we learn more from failure than success, we learn more from bigger failures because we scrutinize them more closely”. Imagine if we’d stop walking when we were little because we kept falling every time?

The measure of who we are is how we react to something that doesn’t go our way. There are always things you can do better. It’s a game of mistakes

—-Greg Popovich

I spent most of my time underlining and making notes because Option B does offer deep insights and there’s so much to learn from the book. The writing style is simple, it’s not preachy and Sheryl has described her emotions in a raw and unfiltered way. You can feel the emotions deeply but at the same time there’s a sense of hope and faith that pain is temporary.

We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.

Sometimes it takes going through something so awful to realize the beauty that is out there in this world

Author: Sheryl Sandberg

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Pages: 176

Format: Paperback

Rating: 4/5

Review: BAAZ

An unputdownable, heroic and extremely well-researched story.

Author: Anuja Chauhan

Publisher: Harper Collins India

Pages: 424

Format: Paperback

Rating: 4/5

Anuja Chauhan is back with her latest novel, ‘Baaz’, that delivers more than it promises. Known for her highly relatable, swoon worthy and unconventional characters, Chauhan, has once again proved her worth as a writer who knows her craft. Set in the backdrop of the Bangladeshi War of 1971, BAAZ, is a story of Ishaan ‘Faujdaar’ from a village called Chakkahera, Haryana who is known as the top lad of IAF, flying the Gnat, a tiny fighter plane known to make heads turn and create havoc for the enemies.

Meet, Tehmina Dadyseth. A studentof Miranda House, Delhi, often misunderstood as an anti-national. She’s a pacifist. She believes in peace. Losing her brother Jimmy has been hard on her and her father more than makes up for her misery. When forced to marry, she runs. A fiesty, ambitious and a kind-hearted soul, Tehmina also known as Tinka, resorts to creating her own life by becoming a photo-journalist in the midst of war.

The story starts slowly, unfolding details that are meant to be absorbed till it reaches the mercury level and BAM. It’s fast paced, full of humour & fun smartly touching on several issues such as nationalism, social prejudices, refugees and the status of women in post-independent India. Add some fighter planes with goodlooking men clad in handsome uniforms; BAAZ makes for an exciting read.

Since Anuja Chauhan is an Army Brat herself having spent a considerable amount of time in cantonments, she described the life of the Army forces efficiently, where sorties take place in the blink of an eye, where manouevering a flying jet required more than learning lessons in class and where courage tops all the requirements. It is a well-researched book giving insight about our men in the Air Force.

Apart from the two main characters, Chauhan’s book, entails other deeply narrated characters who form a soft spot for every reader. Here, Raka and Maddy, Ishaan’s constant support from Air Force Flying College, Jodhpur, share a camaraderi that makes the novel what it is. Be it their endless bickering to offering support for each other’s love interests to being ready to lay down their lives, these three show their skills not just up in the air but prove their mettle when required to.

The themes of distraught parental relationship along with close sibling bond has been a central focus in BAAZ. If Ishaan struggles to impress his step-father, an orthodox, Haryanvi man, who considers his step-son nothing but a nuisance then Tehmina has to face her father who imposes his opinions on her. While Ishaan finds a home in Raka & Maddy, Tehmina confies in her aunt, Kung Fui.

The question therefore lingers; Do Ishaan & Tehmina find solace in each other? Will a patriot who would do anything for his country even if that means killing thousands be able to give his heart to a woman who is a pacifist, who believes fighting & killing is nothing but animal behaviour? The chemistry between our hero & heroine is nothing short of sizzling. It has an element of drama, laughter and romance that’s anything but cheesy.

From breath-taking air stunts to dropping missiles on enemy lines to falling hopelessly in love, Baaz is an engaging-page turner, that is hard to put down. Once you start reading, you’re going to dive ekdum BAAZ-maaphik, to find out what happens.

Review: Chameleon Lights

When hope turns dark, I will bring the sun to light it.

Author: Ayushman Jamwal

Publisher: Authorspress

Pages: 47

Format: Paperback

I aspire for the ideal without knowing what it is,

As life keeps changing lanes, I search for depth and meaning,

But with happiness so fleeting and ability so meager,

I am tired an worn out, yet hungry,

I search for an elusive peace in a crowd of broken souls.

In a crowd of broken souls, stands one soul who has beautifully penned down his journey of self-discovery, heartache, revelation and desire in his book, Chameleon Lights. Ayushman Jamwal , Senior News Editor at CNN News 18, writer and poet allows us to delve right into the heart of his poems written over a span of ten years.

The title of the book is quite intriguing. Life as we know it is eerily similar to that of a chameleon changing colors. We’re always surrounded by shadows of darkness, happiness, despair and joy. Regardless of how we choose to perceive life as, it will always be an abyss of myriad colors. The author weaved his thoughts in an intricate manner taking the reader along with him on a roller coaster ride of emotions.

15541347_222818938128178_6203228180845744506_n — Mr.Ayushman Jamwal

Each and every poem in the book talks about various themes and emotions one can go through in a lifetime. The poem, ‘Insanity‘ talks about the mind that keeps spiraling into every direction, where grief hits you right on the face, brightness seems like an illusion and how caught in the web of hatred, jealousy and anger, we lose our sense of self.

‘Pain of a Young Heart‘ is one poem that spoke to me in a million different ways. We looked at world with optimism, believing it to be a bed full of roses. Little did we know, we’d soon be swallowed into a whirlwind of doubt, existential crisis, dread and anxiety of not knowing where we’re headed and what life’s going to throw at us. Ayushman Jamwal writes,

“I knew of life and its queer ways,

but never saw a sudden turn around,

I never knew that somehow,

This world would take me down.”

The poet touched the very core of human emotion through the poem, ‘The Beautiful Mind’. Maybe the world is cruel, and maybe you’re going to be tested but keep holding on, continue believing in yourself and keep showing courage when times are rough. The poet urges us to identify our minds, to awaken the sleeping passion inside of us and to look at the world with new zeal.

Happiness and fulfillment, a desire to all,

Cannot be claimed in heaven or hell

But where lives the saint and the sinner,

In my world,

This is where my light shall shimmer or end.

The poems are individualistic, each having an identity of its own. From ‘Canine Love’ dedicated to the author’s dog, Leo, to ‘Part of the Magi’ where the author has described his childhood days and schooling nostalgia, Chameleon Lights is filled with warmth, pain, desire and love.

Ayushman has dedicated his book to his grandfather Late Group Captain Randhir Singh also known as Kunwar Vyogi, who was an established writer in the Dogri Language. The launch of the book took place at Oxford Bookstore, Kolkata, which was partnered by Kolkata Bloggers and supported by Kunwar Viyogi Memorial Trust.

The beauty of a poem lies in its subjectivity. It’s heart-warming to see how one poem can be interpreted in a million different ways. Chameleon Lights gives the readers all that they could ask for and much more.

If you haven’t already, you can purchase the book from here: Amazon

Review: Iridescence

Life is all about pictures and words.

Author: Abhishek Gupta

Publisher: Half Baked Beans

Pages: 67

Format: Paperback

Rating: 4.5/5

Iridescence is a photo-poetry book filled with beautiful, breath-taking pictures combined with poetry that’s straight from the heart. Abhisek Gupta has weaved magic with his photography skills and the poems are an icing on the cake.

Whoever said a picture speaks a thousand words clearly hasn’t read Iridescence. Life is a mixture of colorful hues. Some days its a bright yellow light shining down on you, on other days its a dark, starry night. The book showcases different pictures taken by the author at various conjectures of his life along with his feelings at that point of time. It’s interesting to read where the picture was taken and what state of mind the author was in. This shows that regardless of us being different to each other, we all stumble across certain points in our lives that are relatable and it makes us feel that perhaps we’re not alone.

In the words of Dr.Subhash Chandra( Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha) who wrote the forward to the book,” It is your story as much as it is mine; it is every person’s story. Delve into it to know you are not alone and to reinvigorate the iridescence of your soul”

The book is divided into two parts and is a blend of multifarious emotions running through our veins. I have a couple of favorite poems from the book one of them being Soliloquize.

The world is not the same,

Every day is a new game,

Like lanterns in the sky,

Consistency doesn’t lie.

Through the above poem, the author talks about how each day is completely different from the other, how time has changed us and continues to do so. In the poem ‘We aren’t the Savers’ the author poses some serious questions. The world, as we know, is not the same anymore. It’s unfair, cruel and uncompromising. In the midst of it all, who is going to be our savior?

We can convince the grime,

To sterile our opportunities,

To immaculate our potential,

We have faith in god,

Because he turned our life this way,

And still we say,

We are actually not the savers.

Iridescence takes you on a journey of self-discovery, it makes you ponder and reflect. A photo-poetry book you can go back to when you’re happy or fall back on when days seem rough. The combination of pictures and poetry makes it a delightful read.

Review: Intentional Smile

A Girl’s guide to positive living.

Author: Shazia Omar & Merrill Khan

Art: Lara Salam

Publisher: Bloomsbury India

Genre: Self-help

Rating: 4/5

Format: Paperback

Life is a series of hitting rock-bottom and getting back up. No one gets out without being grilled, marinated and roasted. Such is life. But sometimes the weight of the world gets too hard to carry. We lose our focus and sense of self. All of us have hit rock bottom at one point of our lives. However, how many of us have recovered from the fall? With everything that’s happening in the world around us, finding love, joy and happiness becomes an illusion. The silver lining keeps fading till you realize life’s nothing but a big giant pile of dump. It’s okay. Life is made that way. But what if the secret to living a happy life lies within you? What if the power to realize your potential has been hidden inside you all along, only you never considered tapping into the abundance that YOU are? Well, Intentional Smile is one such self-help book that’s going to help you look within and understand that life, after all, is pretty simple.

Shazia Omar and Merrill Khan have co-authored Intentional Smile which is a girl’s guide to positive living( I think the laws applied in this book are universal and not restricted). The book is a journey of self-discovery where gratitude , joy and abundance are the sole factors that make life worth living. Come to think of it; we spend our days whining and sulking about the tiniest things not realizing we’re being ungrateful for the million things that are still going right in our lives. Maybe if we’d take a minute to express gratitude for everything in our lives, our perspective would change. Life’s not as messed up as we think it is.

The book has been illustrated by Lara Salam who has done a tremendous job. It’s very rare to come across self-help books that are so picturesque and easy to follow. Most of the exercises, morning routines, chakras and Meditation cards are self-explanatory and easy to understand. Don’t you love books that are visually appealing?

I think one of the most important themes in the book is self-love. One of the prerequisites to being a confident person is being happy with oneself. Social Media in this day and age has in a number of ways given false impression to different body types/skin and unreal expectations of how one should should like. Teenagers and mostly young girls are rubbed in a negative way resulting in low self-esteem, failure to accept themselves and lack of self-love. It’s so essential to know that you’re whole just as you are. The book captures and gives readers several practices and techniques to start loving themselves even more.

The journey of self-love begins with loving yourself

There’s a lot of criticism to positive thinking. An underlying impression that positive means staying happy all the time has made it difficult for people to come to terms with their problems. Thinking good thoughts, acknowledging your shortcomings and problems and believing in a better tomorrow is part of being positive. It’s humanely not possible to be an energizer bunny 24/7 but it is extremely important to accept you have a problem and then moving on from there. And how do you accept there’s a problem? You can try EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique. It is a technique to release all your negative feelings by tapping on certain acupoints. There is a clear diagram in the book to explain where your EFT hotspots are.

To free up energy for dream construction, we need to take care of ourselves so we feel good mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Don’t neglect your health.

You might think it’s easier said than done, right? But the authors, Shazia Omar & Merrill Khan, have spoken from their persoanl experiences. They’ve fought the demons and risen above it. Shazia Omar is a well-being psychologist and yoga teacher (she’s multi-talented; writer, mom and a believer too!). Merrill Khan is a child counselor, primary school teacher, wife , a mother and mermaid! (Super woman, eh?) Together these two weaved some magic and presented us with Intentional Smile!

Everyone has fears.

Becoming aware of your fears is the first step towars letting them go.

Identify your fears, then choose to let them go.

From morning routines to breathing exercises to setting goals to yoga, this self-help book has it all. And if you’re someone who loves visual representations of things, then, the art illustrations in the book are a treat. Intentional Smile is one book that’ll give you a warm fuzzy feeling from within and help you look at things from a better perspective. Start thinking good things to attract all that is good!

Remember, “You are a blissful warror princess”

Review: No Time for Goodbye

A roller coaster of emotions, suspense and crime.

Author: Linwood Barclay

Publisher: Orion Books

Genre: Thriller/Crime

Pages: 437

Format: Paperback

Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family, mother, father, brother had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she’ll learn the devastating truth

Sometimes better not to know. . .

Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn’t over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous gifts, someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And no one’s innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers her killer’s shocking identity, it will again be too late . . . even for goodbye.

My Thoughts:

A thriller that made me sit at the edge of the bed as I frantically kept turning pages, inhaling and exhaling and letting out deep sighs while wanting to finish the book but not wanting it to end, No Time for Goodbye, is a treat to thriller/crime lovers out there. I picked this book on a whim at a Trade Fair last year since the blurb sounded pretty interesting. Well, I wasn’t wrong.

Cynthia, a 14 year old girl, wakes up one day after a night of drinking and partying to find a deserted house. Her parents including her brother Todd seem to have vanished from the face of the earth. No one has any clue where they are or if they’re even alive. Fast forward to 25years later, Cynthia is now married to Terry Archer and they have a beautiful daughter named Grace and Cynthia still doesn’t have any idea what happened to her parents.

Cynthia does not give up and seeks the help of a popular reality TV show in the hopes of finding any leads about her parents. This shakes things up. Suddenly, she starts getting mysterious calls from people, her daughter is being followed by someone, a hat (probably her fathers) is found on the kitchen table all this adding to the suspense of the novel. To make things even more complicated, Cynthia’s aunt is murdered right when she was about to reveal something closely linked to Cynthia’s past. The detective, Abagnall, is also murdered while investigating the disappearance of Cynthia’s family. There’s an eeriness when you read this book, and you can feel something’s not right but you can’t put your finger on it.

If we talk about the characters then I’d wish the author would’ve chosen the POV of Cynthia herself. That way we’d have an insight into the psyche of a daughter trying to put together the missing pieces. The story has been narrated from the POV of Terry Archer, Cynthia’s husband, who is an English Teacher trying to maintain a balance between being a supportive husband, caring father and a professional. He is the calm to Cynthia’s storms and I loved the chemistry between the two. Despite, the trust and understanding between the husband and wife, Cynthia’s breakdowns made Terry question her sanity. It was a conflict for him; is Cynthia making things up or is something really wrong? This, I feel, added to the tension even more and gave a unique angle to the story. Although there were certain instances in the book that seemed implausible, the plot packed with high emotions and dark nature more than made up for tiny plot holes.

Sometimes we think we know other people, especially those we supposedly are close to, but if we really knew them, why are we so often surprised by the shit they do?

The writing style is effortless, easy to adjust to and is fast-paced. Linwood Barclay is a brilliant writer who has sketched a mystery that’s hard to decode.

Was I able to put together 2 & 2? NO. I wasn’t good at math anyway. I kept guessing and failed but I believe that’s what made the story entertaining. It kept me alive and wanting to know and get closure. No Time for Goodbye is my first Barclay book and safe to say it won’t be the last. Grab your copies and start reading and let me know so that we can discuss and dissect the book!

Also, your favorite thriller?

Review: UNNS: The Captivation

A secret Mission. A childhood love affair. Death and Revenge.

Author: Sapan Saxena

Publisher: Inspire India Publishers

Pages: 244

Genre: Thriller/Romance

Rating: 3.5/5

Blurb:

“Of course you know about the seven stages of love, but have you ever lived them?”

Atharva Rathod and Meher Qasim.

Lovebirds since adolescence. Bonded by love, separated by circumstances. They part ways only to meet again. But this time, he is on a secret mission…

Are they in control of their own destiny, or its their destiny which is making them dance to its tunes? Only time would answer, as Atharva and Meher unwillingly and unknowingly transcend the seven stages of love.

A quintessential tale of love and romance marked beautifully by its own rustic old school charm.

My Review:

Caught in the midst of childhood love and innocence, Meher and Atharva, fight against all odds to defend what’s right to them. Atharva is a RAW agent, one of the best the indian government has ever seen. Meher, on the other hand, is working against the indian government who were responsible for the death of her father. Their paths cross but are they meant to be?

UNNS: The Captivation is a story about childhood lovers who take separate paths but destiny binds them together under circumstances that changes their life forever. Atharva, is on a mission and meets Meher after 15 years. Little does he know that the love of his life will eventually lead to his doom. The story keeps getting complicated as Atharva tries to decipher what’s happening to him. Suffering from a rare disorder, Atharva, despite his pain, keeps his eye on the mission till Meher arrives and ruins everything for him. Just when he could trust her, Meher, siding with the anti-national forces cons Atharva leading to his arrest on the charges of treason against RAW and India. A failed secret mission that lead to the compromisation of several other RAW agents. All this because Atharva was blinded by his childhood love. His credibility as one of the best RAW agents is on the line and there’s nothing he can do but surrender. His only regret: Why would Meher take advantage of his love for her?

The story does not end there. Infact, it keeps getting complicated. They meet again. Under different circumstances. But will Atharva’s love fool him once again? Or will he see right through Meher? That’s for you to read and discover.

The writing style is pretty simple. Sapan Saxena didn’t lose grip of the plot and was able to create suspense without making the reader pull their hair out. Although, there were a few errors as far as writing was concerned but since the story is indeed captivating one can skim through easily. I think novels that are a blend of romance and thrill go a long way in receiving readers’ attention and bringing parsie to the author. I really enjoyed the climax because it wasn’t cliche at all and did justice to all the characters.

If you’re into novels that have a bit of romance but at the same time are filled with suspense and thrill, then UNNS: The Captivation would be a good choice.

Review: Good Times Bad Times

A story about the significant wisdom of living life to the fullest and, above all, rising above ones fear by facing them.

Author: Chetan Dalvi

Publisher: Half Baked Beans

Genre: Contemporary

Pages: 120

Rating: 3/5

What happens when you’re forced to live under circumstances that suck the happiness out of you? What happens when life keeps throwing curve balls at you? You persevere. You face the storm and you liberate yourself. Such is the story of Jonathan, whose life is turned upside side before he finds peace and unearths the true meaning of life.

In the quest to fufill his father’s death wish, Jonathon, leaves the comfort of his Mumbai life, quits his job and takes on a journey that is filled with uncertainties. At this point, he is clueless. He has no idea how he would complete his father’s wish. He has no financial help, no job to fall back on and hardly a shoulder to cry on. The novel talks about the wisdom of living life to the fullest, believing in the good and understanding that life with its ups and downs is beautiful.

Jonathon encounters several people on his journey who without even trying teach him lessons he can never forget. He learns that no matter how small a job is one should always do it with respect and integrity. I think one of the fundamental ideas reinforced in the book is to embrace the bad times and accept it to be a stepping stone towards a life filled with potential. Towards the end of the novel, the author spoke about a simple rule of life:

We cannot ignore fear. We can just learn to face it each time, as fear is never ending. The more you face it, the bigger it becomes the next time.

The narration and writing style is simple and is quite relatable. All of us at some point in our lives have gone through pain and hardships. We’ve been in situations where the light at the end of the tunnel seemed like an illusion. The author has penned down various aspects of life and how time plays such a crucial role in healing scars and giving closure.

Life, as we know it, is a series of events that either make you or break you. It’s upto you to face it with your head held high or let it shatter your soul. Good Time Bad Times is a novel which makes you believe that there’s always a silver lining, if you refuse to give up.

You can buy the book on amazon: Good Times Bad Times