Review: Divyastra

Author: Nimish Tanna.

Genre: Fiction,  Suspense. 

Rating: 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍬

Blurb:

Thousands of years ago, Indian Yogis possessed the knowledge to obtain the weapons of the gods. However, this knowledge could only be transferred from a Guru to his disciple by word of mouth. In today’s world, one mystic, who calls himself Guruji, still possesses this knowledge and is using it to empower an innocent person’s life. Only, this empowerment could be a deception and the innocent person is a thirteen year old boy with a stutter...

In this intertwining tale, an ambitious yet unsuccessful Shankar, in search of his identity, is manipulated to embark on a never-told-before fantasy tale; only to rediscover the father he never knew and unmask the mystical Guruji.

Amidst this confounding concoction of ancient myths, deluding personas and dispersed emotions, will Shankar ever be able to separate fact from fiction and find his true identity?

Cover Review:

The cover is simple, yet a bit intriguing. I like the abstractness of it.

Book Review:

Divyastra was so deceptively good. I knew the moment I finished the first chapter that I was going to like it. It had all the elements you look for in a good book.

I started reading this book yesterday and finished it this morning,  because it was one of those books that you just can't stop reading. 

I loved how the storyline was divided into two threads and then intricately woven back together. It felt like such an adventure,  especially the ending when you start realising what the story was all about.

The only thing I could find lacking was character development. The characters in Shankar's grandpa's stories were well developed but his own character seemed pretty hollow to me.

Other than that minor setback though, Divyastra proved to be one of the best of the Indian literature I've ever read. So I wholeheartedly recommend you to go check this book out. You'll love it, especially the ending.

(P.S. I don't think the blurb does justice to the book.)

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Review & Giveaway: Return To Hiroshima

Author: Bob Van Laerhoven.

Genre: Historical Fiction.

Rating: 🍫🍫🍫🍫

Blurb:

1995, Japan struggles with a severe economic crisis. Fate brings a number of people together in Hiroshima in a confrontation with dramatic consequences. Xavier Douterloigne, the son of a Belgian diplomat, returns to the city, where he spent his youth, to come to terms with the death of his sister. Inspector Takeda finds a deformed baby lying dead at the foot of the Peace Monument, a reminder of Hiroshima's war history. A Yakuza-lord, rumored to be the incarnation of the Japanese demon Rokurobei, mercilessly defends his criminal empire against his daughter Mitsuko, whom he considers insane. And the punk author Reizo, obsessed by the ultra-nationalistic ideals of his literary idol Mishima, recoils at nothing to write the novel that will "overturn Japan's foundations"....

Hiroshima’s indelible war-past simmers in the background of this ultra-noir novel. Clandestine experiments conducted by Japanese Secret Service Unit 731 during WWII become unveiled and leave a sinister stain on the reputation of the imperial family and the Japanese society as a whole.

Cover Review:

The cover is grimy, but also a bit intriguing. It goes well with the storyline, so that's a plus point too.

Book Review:

If I had to write a one sentence review, I'd say that "Return to Hiroshima is not a book you should take lightly." With scenes describing the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bomb blasts and the destruction thereof, it was a gruesome, goosebumps raising read. 

I'm not much of a Historical Fiction buff, and the ones that I do read, I usually don't enjoy. But Return to Hiroshima was a welcome change, and it made me think that I just might enjoy the genre if I read books set in histories that might interest me. 

I appreciated the details, since I'm completely unfamiliar with Japanese culture and geography, but sometimes, the descriptions felt like they could've been avoided.

Also, one of the characters, Xavier, was almost unrelated to the main plot, and I couldn't understand what was his role in the story. Also, his sister's death—which was a topic of suspense until the end—wasn't clarified, and it annoyed me to not know what happened. 

All in all, Return to Hiroshima was gruesome, chilling and real, and I'm glad that I got a chance to read it. 

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Giveaway:

To Win 2 x Return to Hiroshima Paperbacks (Open Internationally)

Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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Review: DareDreamers: A Start-up of Superheroes

Author: Kartik Sharma, Ravi 'Nirmal' Sharma.

Genre: Comedy, Fiction.

Rating: 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍬

Blurb:

India’s first start-up of superheroes with a mission of saving lives is here to kick ass.

Rasiq is riding the highs of life thanks to his successes as an investment banker. But his arrogance soon gets the better of him and he ends up losing everything he holds dear. Managing to salvage only his grit from the wreckage, Rasiq reboots his life and teams up with five uniquely talented superheroes to start a rescue venture

- DareDreamers.

These superheroes Nick: a crazy inventor; Halka: an inhumanly strong man; Arjun: a champion shooter; Natasha: a Bollywood stunt-double; Dr. Vyom, a medical Sherlock Holmes; and, of course, Rasiq: the mastermind combine their unique talents to deliver spectacular rescue operations. Their skyrocketing success, however, comes at a price an enemy hell bent on tearing down their fame and reputation.

Will DareDreamers defeat its wily adversary? Or will it become yet another failed start-up?

Treachery, action and adventure come alive to make DareDreamers a page-turner.

Cover Review:

The cover is totally in tune with the storyline, though it isn't as attractive. Still, it's a good enough cover. 

Book Review:

I received a copy of this book through the Book Genie Review Program.

DareDreamers was the story of Rasiq and his struggle through a life consuming job to a startup that he dared to start with a bunch of people that had nothing in common except the will to do something big. 

The story was full of fun incidents, sweet dialogues and had a firm storyline. There were no plot holes, and the story itself was pretty interesting. 

I enjoyed reading DareDreamers thoroughly, especially the scenes that included Rasiq's father. He might just be my favourite character, despite his few appearances. The dialogues between the father and son were the highlight of the book for me. I guess it has something to do with the fact that the authors are also a father-son duo, don't you think so?

I loved the DareDreamers team too, because all of the characters had a special 'power' each, and it reminded me of Marvel movies and Avengers, only without the actual "super powers."

I read the book in two sittings, because once I began reading, I couldn't stop myself. It was engaging, entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. I liked that the romance wasn't the central theme of the story, even though there were many couples among the characters. 

All in all, DareDreamers was a light, fun read and I'd definitely recommend you to read it!

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Review: The Barefoot Road

Author: Vivienne Vermes. 

Genre: Romance, Historical Fiction. 

Rating: 🍫🍫🍫🍬

Vivienne Vermes' debut novel is a gripping read which will appeal to readers who enjoy historical fiction, thrillers and evocative themes. The book begins with a young woman found, emaciated and unconscious, in the mountains surrounding a village in Transylvania. When it is discovered that she is of an ethnic group which was violently driven out of the regions many years before, old wounds are reopened as the villagers are reminded of their role in the bloodshed.

An uneasy peace is maintained until a young married man falls in love with the girl, and tension begin to rise within the community. The mysterious disappearance of a child causes this tension to mount into hysteria, driving the story to its chilling outcome.

The cover is colorful and eye-catching, but on closer look, I thought that it didn't look very polished, since the image was a crayon-like painting. 

The Barefoot Road was an engaging story about a woman who was hurt and left to die, who's later rescued by the healer's son. 

I loved the storyline. It was beautiful and thought-provoking all at the same time. 

Though the historical-ish naration put me off a bit, and I've realized that historical is not a genre I'm really fond of. 

Sometimes, the descriptions were too much. I'm more of an action loving girl—in the sense that things should keep happening—and so this book was quite dull for me at moments. 

And yet, I enjoyed reading The Barefoot Road, and I'm glad I got a chance to read it. 

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Review: Years Later On Facebook

Author: Jupinderjit Singh

Genre: Short Story, Humor. 

Rating: 🍫🍫🍫

Blurb:

This book is a collection of short-stories and Middles. It begins with the tale of a man who meets a childhood flame on Facebook. The story 'Safety-Pin 'talks about a career woman, who seeks to peep outside marriage. The range of stories takes you from voyeuristic men in a gym, and another in a train, to those taking on 'love jihad', you will find something that teases a thought. From the love story of two canines at the Indo-pak border to nature's effort to erase the borders through 'Peepal no 18'; to gun-firing in Poonch; to the serene silence of Ladakh, the book will offer food for thought to travellers as well. In fact, with glimpses of Istanbul, London, Kashmir and Rajasthan, these stories are sure to make an interesting accompaniment to your travels!

Cover Review:

The cover is a picture of a colour painting. Not really something I'd like to see as a book cover. 

Book Review:

Lets start off with the positives. The stories were funny, had a meaning and some of them were even quite impactful. 

The ones about the author himself were a lot more interesting than the others. They were funnier too.

The stories were all good and had a lot of potential. They could be better though. 

There were a lot of grammatical errors, from punctuation to sentence construction to the application of tenses. If the grammar had been better, I think I'd have given it a four stars rating. 

Some of the stories that I liked the most are 'Peepal Tree No. 918', 'The Pleasure of Giving', 'Of Ghosts and Printer's Devil's, etc.

All in all, Years Later On Facebook is a fun, light read if you can ignore the somewhat apparent grammatical errors and not-so-fun if you are irked by every single one of them. 

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