MellowDrama

  The Cousins by Karen Mc Manus is delightful, young, involves a mystery and is a very very readable book. Read on to find why I found it "very very readable". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLURB The Storys are the envy of their neighbours: owners of the largest property on their East Coast island, they are rich, beautiful, and close. Until it all falls apart. The four children are suddenly dropped by their mother with a single sentence: You know what you did. They never hear from her again. Years later, when 18-year-old cousins Aubrey, Milly and Jonah Story receive a mysterious invitation to spend the summer at their grandmother's resort, they have no choice but to follow their curiosity and meet the woman who's been such an enigma their entire lives. This entire family is built on secrets, right? It's the Story legacy. This summer, the teenagers are determined to discover the truth at the heart of their family. B...

First Date by Sue Watson is an extremely interesting and readable psychological thriller. The book releases today and I can't stress enough that if you are a reader with a special place in yo ur  heart for mystery/ thrillers, you must get to it ASAP.  Book Blurb First Date is the story of Hannah who has  done everything to make sure her life is safe and secure. A long way from her unstable childhood growing up in foster care, she’s content with her sweet, little, messy apartment and her satisfying job as a social worker. She quietly worries that, aged 36, she might never fall in love. But otherwise her life is where she wants it to be. Until, encouraged by her best friend to join a dating app, she meets  Alex  who is  irresistibly handsome, loves the same music as her and the same food as well. Both of them would love to own a Labrador one day. It’s like he’s made for her.  It’s like he’s too good to be true. Hannah’s friends aren’t so sure about him. ...

For the first time in my life I was devastated by the feeling of being left out. It happened when the usual suspects from Dave's The Write Reads Blogtours opted to read and review The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and  I did not. Then when the reviews began to pour in and I read them, I wrote back to Dave asking to be let in. And to his credit he sent me the ARC link. As luck would have it, the link didn't work and thinking that maybe me and this book weren't meant to be, I yet again told Dave that I won't be able to participate in the blog tour. And then again one fine day, the link to an ARC landed in my mail box. Going through a pretty nasty phase I wasn't sure if I could finish it off or would now even like to read the book but as soon as I started The Inheritance Games, I fell for it, hook, line and sinker. Ms Barnes please take a bow for  writing the most readable book I have come across so far in 2020. The book is about a girl Avery Kimberley Grea...

  It happens very rarely, if ever, that you just hear one praise after the other from the members of your book reviewing community.  It happened with me for the very book that I am going to be reviewing here: (though not given to the use of adjectives much, I break the rules and.....) the hilarious, the fabulous, the must-read, the heart warming, the amazing.....DRUM ROLL.... THE BEAST AND THE BETHANY.  The book targeted for  middle grade readers  has been written by Jack Meggitt-Phillip and illustrated by Isabelle Follath. What a team have they made to bring us this delightful book! I read it with both my kids-the12 year-old and the 5 year-old and we had some hilarious times. Let me start by giving you the blurb from Goodreads.  511 years. How, you may wonder? Ebenezer simply has to feed the beast in the attic of his mansion. In return for meals of performing monkeys, statues of Winston Churchill, and the occasional cactus, Ebenezer gets potions that keep ...

After All I've Done by Mina Hardy is the story of three people Sean, Valerie and Diana. Diana and Valerie have known each other all their lives and promised to look after each other all through their lives.  As the story starts we find that Diana has met with an accident and is recovering. She has lost some of her memories and she seems to be losing her mind altogether. Her husband is having an affair with her best friend and we are told that it might be possible that Diana has herself put Valerie to this task. While everything is happening, Diana's mother-in-law Harriet is by her side all the time, even annoyingly so, at times. The twisted story is engrossing where you can not instantly make out what is real and what might just be a figment of Diana's imagination. The writing flows as we get to hear the story from Diana's and Valerie's perspective. The ending did not sit well with me and was totally unexpected though I could after a certain point in the book see wh...

I had been hearing the name of this particular author here, there and everywhere- BP Walter and always good things about his books, so when I was given the opportunity to read his latest offering I grabbed it. And I am happy to report that the book didn't disappoint. Hold Your Breath is the story of Katherine Marchland, told from her perspective, as a 10 year old in a recently released book. The incidents relate to. a particularly difficult time that the Marchland family is going through owing to her mother's illness of a peculiar nature. Walter writes a gripping tale of what goes on in the life of the 10 year old whose childhood and life  are taken over by her family's circumstances. She sees and hears things which no little one should and that leaves a permanent scar on her psyche. The narration is solid and alternates between the year of the happenings that is 1987 and the current time where Kitty has been called in by the police regarding a death that took place at the ...

The Ship of Shadows by Maria Kuzniar is a fantasy book which has recently released. Not only that it is a fantasy inhabited by an all female pirate crew and that is what makes it all the more thrilling and fun, an adventure to be on! Before anything else on the book, here is a big thank you to the author, publishers at Puffin Books and my blog host Dave of The Write Reads for my eARC.  As usual let us begin with the cover. I am in love with these bright colours that and the image of the ship visible from a window as if in a distant dream. And that is almost exactly how we plunge into the Aleja's story. Aleja's heart thirsts for adventure but the only thing that is proving to be a hurdle in her setting off on a journey at high seas is the fact that she is a girl. Aleja is an interesting character who steals away at night to visit the library or just climb and jump across the walls of her city located near the Spanish harbour. But when the fabled vessel called The Ship of Shadows...

The Knightmare Arcanist by Shami Stovall is indeed one of its kind. The brief on the first book in this fantasy series sounded so good, that I, who barely ever reads anything other than crime and thrillers was hooked. Before we go any further, here is a big thank you to the author, the publishers and Dave at The Write Reads for giving me spot on the blog train. So, let us start with the cover. Have you seen anything more firebrand, anything more fantastic than the art on this cover?! It is absolutely brilliant and I believe world-class! Knightmare Arcanist is the story of a grave digger Volke Savan who yearns to be more than what the society has chosen for him. He wants to emulate his hero Gregory Ruma whose life it seems is stuff of stories and legends. But before he can go on, on his personal adventures, Savan must become an arcanist- someone who can wield magic-  and for that he needs  to connect with a mythical creature. And he won't let anything stop him even if he has to...

A smart, funny and insightful book- Rage against the Minivan is this and more. I am a mother of two and was looking for people like me- whose homes are a mess and their lives even messier, filled with immense love and guilt thanks to their kids- when I came across Kristen Howerton's account on Instagram. I began to follow her there and.knew that I wasn't alone in feeling like a pendulum as far as my kids were concerned- loving them in an instant and wishing to wash them off my hands in another.  So of course, I had to get to her book the instant Net Galley and publishers offered it here. I had no doubts that it would be a book that I would love but I was not ready for some of the emotional rides it took me upon. Kristen has four kids ( I don't know if it matters that two of them are adopted black kids)= she does write about them and her experiences bringing them up but also shares some stories about struggles with infertility and miscarriage. Written in a very intimate styl...

Wow!! If you love a good murder mystery then this  classic Japanese mystery from Pushkin Vertigo is definitely a must read for you. The story is a little eerie, the crime heinous, the sleuth scruffy-looking and the other elements present in just the right proportions to make it a great read even today years after it was first published in  1946.  The book is a locked room mystery told by a writer of Detective stories who is visiting the scene of crime years after it was committed and solved to, what else, write about it. We meet the host of characters in the wealthy Ichiyanagi family which is getting ready to celebrate the marriage of the eldest son. The setting is the year 1937 and a small Japanese village and Yokomizo gives us a glimpse of the social and cultural norms of the rural life of that era. A rumour is also fast gaining weight while the village gossips about the wedding and family. It seems a dangerous  man has been asking questions about the family, And t...

The book and its author try to make these Heroes accessible to one and all by telling their stories in brief. This itself becomes a pro as well as a con for the readers. While the simplification works, add to that Fry's trademark sense of humour, the length at times seemed jarring. 

Dread, Short Stories by Aseem Rastogi is a very small ebook published last month by Blogchatter during the month long e-book carnival. There are five stories in the book, of varying lengths. The thread tying them together is the emotion that finds an echo in each one of them. That emotion is FEAR. A young couple at a safari, a man who had everything working for him in life, an office goer and more make up the cast of the stories.  I can hardly write anything about the stories here without giving up the gist but I can definitely say that Aseem knows how to keep his readers glued to the pages of the e-book. Aseem is a passionate blogger  and traveller. You can get a glimpse of his well travelled soul in the various stories which take place from New Delhi to Grasslands to London.   The stories are written well, the language playing in its author's hands to instil exactly what he aims at, dread. I am no brave-heart but continued reading the 35 paged book in one sitting e...

A dysfunctional family drama that is full of all the usual suspects and Marian Keyes' unmatched wit. Grown Ups makes or a lighthearted read that will keep you laughing out loud from time to time while looking closely at your own family and imaging how many of you did actually grow up over the years. Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together - birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they're a happy family. Johnny's wife, Jessie - who has the most money - insists on it. Everything stays under control until Ed's wife Cara, gets concussion and can't keep her thoughts to herself. One careless remark at Johnny's birthday party, with the entire family present, starts Cara spilling out all their secrets. In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it's time - finally - to grow up? Keyes writes with a certain sincerity and ...

I haven't read as fantastic a book as Karma Brown's Recipe for a Perfect Wife in a long long while. Also not this fast. The book oscillates between the tales of a current day wife Alice Hale and the life of Nellie Murdoch a homemaker who lived in the house that lice now occupies with her husband, during the 1950s.  Alice stumbles upon an old cookbook of Nellie's and not just finds recipes to try but a window in Nellie's life. As she discovers her cooking skills with the help of recipes in the book and Nellie's garden she also discovers the stories from Nellie's life hidden in between the pages of the book. While Alice struggles with finding her own identity within her marriage and life, she finds herself immersing and adopting some of Nellie's choices. Does Alice find herself or does she lose herself further while trying to become a perfect wife? This book must also be praised for the format. Every chapter on Alice opens with hilarious advice for women on ho...

Why you should read it?  Three women discover than they were being duped by the same man in the name of love and dating and the discovery leads to flowering of a beautiful friendship between the three. Reading this in 2020 and the fact that a woman is writing this story, and the fact that she makes sure that this friendship stays as one of the main threads of this novel makes this book so good.  Samiha is a coder and developer and she has realised via Twitter that the man she is dating is dating two other women. She walks on him and meets these two ladies, both very successful in their own right. The night which should have been a painful one spent sobbing about lost love is instead spent on getting drunk, making a pact about life and boyfriends and laying the foundation of a friendship that sees you through thick and thin. Of course, there is a man who might be just too attractive to ignore! The Cast The characters and situations are identifiable and like me I think most of u...

The Book Elizabeth I- The Making of a Queen by Laura Brennan isn't exactly what you call a biography. Yes it does talk about Elizabeth and somewhat about her reign as the Tudor monarch but what it also does and does very well is talk about how Elizabeth reached the throne. It talks about the circumstances in England that led to her crowning, the people involved and also about what was happening around England at that point in. time to give you a complete perspective on things. Why You Should Read It? What this does is let you know what an astonishing feat she, Queen Elizabeth I of England, managed to pull off what with being a woman who ascended the throne. She not only managed to keep her head on her shoulders but also proved to be an astute ruler warding off conspiracies to malign her name and conspirators to take away her throne. The Writing Brennan writes with quite a command over her subject. Her writing makes for an easy reading on this heavy subject and though it not really...

The eerily atmospheric novel, Harrow Lake by Kate Ellis is a book set in the fictional town called Harrow Lake. Lola Nox is sent to live here with a grandmother she has never met after her father is attacked and left to die in their apartment in New York. Lola's father is a famous film director. He specialises in making horror films and had made a film called Nightjar in this small town, some twenty years back. The book opens with Nolan Nox being interviewed for a magazine article. As soon as the questions begin about his wife's and then his daughter's disappearance in Harrow Lake, he gets miffed. From here on the camera kind of shifts its gaze to his daughter Lola and we are brought in to see her character closely. Lola is a very lonely girl, the price she has to pay for Nolan's fame, who takes pleasure and thrills in creating and burying her secrets written in paper slips  everywhere and anywhere. the other thing that Lola is very good at is making stories. Some say, ...

We are in the third phase of the Corona virus induced lockdown. While in the first phase we all probably did not know where we were headed and were probably treating the lockdown as a respite from life in general, this time around we are almost pro at what we can and how we can do in these demanding (or maybe far simpler) times. Today was the birthday of a dear friend's daughter.  Since we have known them almost every year this day has been a huge celebration because my friend takes the kids out and treats them to whatever their hearts desire, no bars. When I called her up during the day to congratulate her and wish the child, I was sent the address of the party venue. The only difference was that this time around the kids were to meet virtually and not physically. They were all to Zoom in from their houses. Hats off to my dexterous friend for arranging an hour filled with games, jokes, banter and fun between this bunch of girls.  How liberating it must have bee...

I participated in the Blogchatter A2Z on almost the last minute. I was not confident about my ability to write a blogpost everyday. I have been at blogging for donkey's years now but consistency, well, who knows what that is. I signed up with a lot of trepidation for sure and made no promises to myself yet when I uploaded my last post on alphabet Z, I could not but smile at the journey I had undertaken via these posts. They say that you should write about something that you are a master of. I have been parenting for more than a decade and having really not studied anything dedicatedly in my whole life ( Jack of all trades was coined for yours truly) did not actually have a subject to write upon. Well, so I set out with the first alphabet- A . As could be expected with my first alphabet I woke up to the need of being organised and prepared for the herculean challenge. Anyway, that is the way things are with me. Always in the retrospective. But finish I did the 26 alphabets ...

नानी तेरी मोरनी  को मोर ले गए बाकी जो बचा था काले चोर ले गए (O grandmother your peahen has been carried away by the peacocks and whatever was left has been taken by the thieves) You must have heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. If you are bringing up a child/ren you will know exactly what this means but if you don't have children of your own yet take my word for it. Raising a child can't be done single handedly by anyone. You need emotional and physical support, you need advice, you need a sounding board and most importantly sometime you just need someone else to take charge. Grandparents play a huge role in our Indian homes in helping raise a child. Whether it is teaching them values and morals via stories, or enforce good habits, they have extremely important roles to play. My children have been very lucky to have a set of doting grandparents on both the sides. On   the paternal side my mother-in-law is always ready with her bag of exciting st...

छोटी सी प्यारी सी नन्ही सी आयी कोई परी भोली सी न्यारी सी अच्छी सी आयी कोई परी If this isn't hint enough, I am going to talk about my daughter in this post. This child gave me the exalted status of Mummy. I will probably be more famous as Netra ki Mummy than anything else at the time. Netra, my 12 year old daughter, was born after a difficult pregnancy and that has been the easiest part so far. She is a sweet, gentle and generous child at, and I have complete strangers stopping me in mid-way or calling me up, to tell me how she has offered help seeing them in a tough spot. Sometimes she has held doors for the, sometimes helped carry their bags, soothe their child and at others just greet them, every time she sees them in the complex, in the lift or on the road. This very child can be very stubborn, adamant and exasperating preteen several times a day. As all of us, she is full of contradictions and I had a very difficult time learning how to be okay with that. It is stil...

All reader everywhere probably are aware of Tayari Jones' name whether or not they might have read her books or not. Her novel American Marriage won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2019. Silver Sparrow is her first UK publication since American Marriage, being brought out by Oneworld Publishers. Silver Sparrow tells the tale of two sisters, rather secret sisters Dana and Chaurisse. Set in Atlanta in the 1980s and 90s, it takes us into the secrets and doings of the two families of Jams Witherspoon junior. The book is told from the point of view of the two girls and begins with perspective of the secret daughter Dana giving us her side of the story and introducing us to the characters involved in her life- her mother, grandfather, teachers, boyfriends. The second half is the story of Chaurisee and characters that shape her. Another central character is their father's friend Raleigh who quietly plays a role in propelling and maintaining the story of all these varied char...

A psychological thriller Only Lies Remain by Val Collins is a ride which you wouldn't want to get off in a hurry that is once you have got used to the pace. It took me some time to warm up to Aoife's story but boy, once I did, it wouldn't le go of me easily. Aoife is looking for a job, her estranged husband has showed up at her door telling her that he wants to improve his relation with his daughter and wants to give their marriage another chance, not caring much whether Aoife wants it or not. Maura, her mother-in-law is suspected of killing her father-in-law whose dead body has just been discovered after years since his disappearance. The characters are well developed and seem to be full of surprises as much as people are in real life. For example Aoife seems like someone who can be easily pushed around but eventually her character progresses through trials and tribulations and she develops into someone who is strong and can hold her own in the face of adversity. ...

How Selfish! is a soon-to-be-released word and picture book by Clare Helen Welsh and Olivier Tallec, published by Quarto Publishing Group. The book tells the story about a Duck and her friend Dot. Duck finds a stick but Dot makes away with it. duck tries to get the stick back from Dot but ends up losing all the other toys to her as well. And Dot though now has things, she learns a most difficult lesson about friendship and sharing. Beautifully illustrated and with excellent (and minimal) writing this book catches attention and manages to deliver an important message , teaching children not to be selfish. The quirky illustrations are not your run of the mill ones. They capture the child's imagination. I read the book with my 5 year old and after we were done, he went back to it to just look at the pictures. Quarto publishes fantastic books for the younger audience and I am a big fan of their Little People, Big DREAMS series which bring to life various world leaders for smaller...

I am a reader of course but I since I began my second innings as a reader I have mostly been hooked to mysteries, thrillers and crime novels. In between, I have often found that up comes a book- sometimes a non-fiction, a classic, a children's book or any other -that just blows me away. And today if I were to typify the book that I am going to be taking about then I would put it in league with my two other favourites from the similar feeling genre- Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us  and Vibha batra's Glitter and Gloss . Rebecca Serle's In Five Years, isn't really a book that I can put in a particular genre. I might have called it a romance because love runs all along the book as a theme but so does friendship and sisterhood so maybe, women' fiction but then well there are elements of a mystery too in the early pages. So you see my problem and also why I absolutely adored this book and you might too. In Five Years is the story of an up and coming lawyer Danni...

What would you think of a book that is set up in a retirement village and features a heroine who is well past her prime? Meet Clemmie or Helen who will dispense all your preconceived notions about who can do what and at what age. Helen had a tragic past and to escape it she changes everything about herself and her life. She chooses to become Clementine and we meet her at a retirement village called Sun City where she is now living in her old age. She has keys to the house of her next door neighbour Dom- for emergencies. Not having seen him for a day or so,Clemmie goes to investigate about his welfare. She finds the villa almost as if no one has ever lived in there and also finds a glass dragon whose picture she clicks on her phone and shares with her nephew. And like they say all hell breaks loose. The glass piece apparently belongs to a drug dealer who will go to any length to get it back. As he arrives in Sun City, we begin too know more about Clemmie's past- how she was rap...

I Could Be You by Sheila Bugler is a taut thriller that is not only good because of the storyline but is different than many others because of the heroine- an investigative journalist. The book opens with her, Dee Doran, finding a dead woman who has been hit by a car, lying on the road outside her home. The dead woman is her tenant Katie but her two-year-old son Jake can't be found though his upturned buggy is also lying around twisted and bent near to Katie. Fearing the worst, Dee being her search for the child. After the matter is taken up by the local police, Dee realises that the woman that she had identified as her tenant Katie is someone else and Katie had been living under someone else's identify. Gradually Dee's journalistic instincts that have been lying dormant for a while since she quit active journalism to come back to her childhood home to look after her ailing mother, kick in ferociously. She begins to look at various leads in an attempt to find out the w...

तबस्सुम कैसी हो? हम सब यहाँ बिकुल ठीक हैं।आशा है की तुम भी सही सलामत होंगी। आज मैं ये चिट्ठी इसलिए लिख रहि हूँ की तुम्हे बता सकूं की मैं अक्सर तुम्हारे बारे मैं सोचती हूँ। सोचती हूँ अब तुम क्या करती होगी, काम पे जाती हो अब भी? कोई मना तो नहीं करता? सास बच्चे संभाल लेती है तुम्हारे पीछे से? वो तो अब बड़े भी हो गए होंगे न? स्कूल जाते होंगे? मुझे अब कोलकाता मैं रहते हुए ६-७ साल हो गए  हैं। जब चंडीगढ़ से निकले थे तो उम्मीद न थी की इतना समय इस परायी नगरी में निकल जाएगा। नेत्रा को याद करती हो कभी? वो इस साल १२ की हो गयी है। उसे तो तुम्हारी याद नहीं लेकिन आज भी जब वो ज़िद्द करती है की मैं उसे खाना खिला दूँ और मैं बहुत थक गयी होती हूँ, तो झट से तुम्हारी याद आ जाती है। तुम होती तो मुझे चाय का कप पकड़ा कर उसे प्यार से फुसला के ले जाती और खुद ही खिला देती। कहती, "मेरे पास आओ नेत्रा, माँ को रहने दो। आओ मैंने तुम्हारे लिए कुछ स्पेशल रखा है।" कितने सारे अंग्रेजी के नए नए शब्द सीख गयीं थी न तुम. कुछ तो तुम्हारे ख़ास बन गए थे। जैसे बॉय, गर्ल, र...

When I Was You by Minka Kent is a thriller which I found an easy read and highly recommend if you are scared of the gory stuff but still like to be surprised in the realms of suspense. It is a bit predictable though the bits which are unpredictable are pretty good. I read this one soon after finishing Luanne Rice's Last Day  which was hardly as much a thriller as a story about secrets, sisters and sisterhood. So getting back to When I Was You. Well the book is told via two perspectives Niall and Brienne. Brienne is a victim of a mugging and now lives scared and traumatised. She suffers from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)- a mental health condition which is triggered by a traumatic event. Its symptoms include severe anxiety, flashbacks and nightmares among other things. She lives in a huge house that once belonged to her grandparents but since her attack, rents out a portion to Niall who is an oncologist and a very caring, considerate man. But of course, things are ha...