20 December 2017

Review #693: The Nine-Chambered Heart by Janice Pariat



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal”

----Gayle Forman


Janice Pariat, an award winning Indian writer, has penned an evocative and mesmerizing "fictional" biography through love called, The Nine-Chambered Heart that narrates the life story of a woman through nine characters, who has previously loved her or whom she has loved, either briefly or longwindedly in her life. The readers will only get to know this woman through the varied perspectives of the nine characters. And the one thing is clear from reading this book, that love never stays permanently in reality, but it lives on inside one's heart for as long as time goes on, and that is aptly captured by the author in this book.


19 December 2017

Review #692: A House for Happy Mothers by Amulya Malladi



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“If I were asked to define Motherhood. I would have defined it as Love in its purest form. Unconditional Love.”

----Revathi Sankaran



Amulya Malladi, a bestselling Indian author, has penned a thoroughly refreshing and alluring contemporary fiction called, A House for Happy Mothers that surrounds around two women, one wants a baby desperately thus choosing the surrogate route to India away from her posh Silicon valley life with her darling husband and aristocrat friends, and the other is desperate to provide a good schooling and education to her highly intelligent son and also to keep the wolves away from the doorstep of her poor household by selling her womb. A journey that connects two mothers in different yet in emotionally similar ways that is vivid, raw and extremely heart-touching to read about.

15 December 2017

Review #691: Austenistan by Laaleen Sukhera



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

----Jane Austen



The Jane Austen Society of Pakistan started by the journalist-cum-author, Laaleen Sukhera payed a homage to our very dear and favorite 18th century author, Jane Austen, by penning some Austen-themed stories about the rich, some feminist and damsel-in-distress type, dramatic, haughty aristocrat Muslim women, who are way past their "marriageable age" of a posh society based in Pakistan, through a book called Austenistan featuring a collection of seven short stories written by the members of the Jane Austen fan club and is edited by Laaleen Sukhera.


13 December 2017

Review #690: The Last Namsara (Iskari, #1) by Kristen Ciccarelli



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves”

----Abraham Lincoln


Kristen Ciccarelli, a Canadian author, has penned a delightful debut YA fantasy novel called, The Last Namsara that is the first book in a duology named, Iskari and this revolves around a king's daughter, who was born with the power to destroy and kill lives, who embarks on a quest to kill the first dragon of her land that took away her mother and left her scarred for life, in order to save herself from getting married to a cruel commandant as per her father's deal, and this is no easy task, when she is the one responsible for destroying and burning down her kingdom when she was a little girl by summoning the first dragon all by herself. And now it is time to pay for her sins.

11 December 2017

Review #689: An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong…it is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideas.”

----Emma Watson



Maggie Shen King, a Taiwanese bestselling author, has penned a highly thought-provoking dystopian novel, An Excess Male that revolves around a not-so young man longing for companionship with a woman while getting wrapped up in a government-influenced deadly drama and scandal and is set in not-so-distant future in China, where male to female sex ration has become tremendously high, gradually making women almost extinct from the face of the Earth. This is the Handmaid's Tale for the men set the year of 2050.

7 December 2017

Author Q&A Session #90: With Sharanya Manivannan


Hello & Welcome,


Just a few more days to go before we say goodbye to another year and welcome a new one with open arms.

Hope y'all are spending the last few days of the year without any regret or worry, living a little for yourself.

So without further wasting any more minute, let's welcome a very talented and an amazing Indian author on this brand new author interview session.

Ladies & Gents,

let's welcome Sharanya Manivannan, whose book The High Priestess Never Marries has won the hearts of so many readers, both globally and locally.

Review #688: The Tree Bears Witness (Birbal, #2) by Sharath Komarraju



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”

----J.K. Rowling


Sharath Komarraju, an Indian author, has spun a riveting thriller set in one of the greatest Mughal Emperor Akbar's court in Agra in his new book, The Tree Bears Witness which is the second book in the series Birbal that revolves around Akbar's new Rajput queen's dear brother's highly suspicious death in the gardens of the court and to solve the mystery behind the death of a young and powerful Rajput prince, Akbar assigns his favorite and most intelligent courtier/minister, Birbal in order to give appropriate punishment to the culprit(s).




5 December 2017

Review #687: Hell! No Saints in Paradise by A.K. Asif



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“It’s all Within. The Whole Cosmos.”

----A.K. Asif


A.K. Asif, a Pakistani author, has penned a heart gripping and thoroughly absorbing debut urban fantasy novel set in the futuristic world, Hell! No Saints in Paradise that revolves around a Muslim atheist who embarks upon a spiritual mission to discover the Islamic fundamentals of life and the real meaning of Hell and Paradise through his new found friends and a leader and a preacher of Islam, but the mission is not an easy one, from getting nearly slaughtered to exploring erotica to discovering oneself, this young man's journey is thoroughly refreshing and enlightening.



4 December 2017

Cover Reveal: Love in Lutyens' Delhi by Amitabh Pandey




Hey y'all,

Hope everything is going great and awesome for you guys. As for me, life has never been much better.


Get ready for a touchy-feely romantic journey of two realistic protagonists in a coming-off age contemporary love story.


So let's do a quick cover reveal for this super awesome book (I bet its gonna be super awesome just by reading its synopsis!) that is going to release on 22nd December 2017.


1 December 2017

Review #686: East of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s really an easy way: Stop participating in it.”

----Noam Chomsky



Khurrum Rahman, a Pakistan-born, British author, has penned a pot-boiling thriller, East of Hounslow that revolves around a low-key 30-something Muslim drug dealer, who still lives with his mum in the British town, Hounslow, who is not very religious, yet for the sake of religion, he attends the Friday prayers at a local mosque, but little did he knew that he has been on the radar of MI5 for a very long time, so when he loses the deadly supplier's money, this drug dealer gets caught up as a pawn in the war between religious extremists who wants the world to teach a lesson in the name of Allah and the MI5's one-man team who wants to stop the jihadists at any cost.