Book Review - Zoe M's Call Me Saaya

Synopsis

Shamsher Singh Rathore has it all. A job he loves and a life he lives every moment. Until an untimely call from home embroils him with a woman called Saaya who proceeds to turn his orderly world upside down!

The only interest Sayana Singh Rajput had in him was the prized Sheesh Haveli. She had never believed in love until destiny threw her this impossible challenge.

What do you do when all that you believed in turns out to be a lie?

Will Shamsher be able to save his world?

Will Sayana believe in love or will she allow avarice ruin it all?

What about Saaya?

What happens when desire meets destiny?

Set in idyllic Rajasthan, Call me Saaya is the story of two souls in pursuit for true love while destiny has other plans for them.

About the Author

Zoe M lives and works in Mumbai.

She fell in love with the written word at the age of sixteen. Her affair has only matured over the years as she read stories that captivated her. Now, she uses the magic of words to help her spin her own stories. Her love of reading was born when she read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

Call Me Saaya is Zoe M’s debut novel. It is a romantic tour de force that weaves in and out of metros and a forgotten, quaint village in Rajasthan, revealing stories as it goes. The novel reflects the author’s love for the unexpected and is as engaging as she is.

One can follow the Author and her works on 

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My Honest Review:

Call me Saaya is Author Zoe M’s debut novel.

Call Me Saaya is the story of Sayana (Saaya) and Shamsher; their anger, their love, and their true identities. It is a romance with suspense as the background.

The author has done a nice work with the use of local lingo as the story is based in Rajasthan. The characters are well defined and the pace of the story is also good especially in the first half.

Though the author has maintained the romance part 100%, the suspense of the story is not up to expectations. Also, I felt the tug of war between the protagonists has been dragged a little too much which made the story little stretched.

Secondly, the antagonist, Ravindra Rajput Kumar, who is supposedly a vile and scheming person, how can he just disappear in the second half of the story. How come he didn’t fight back?

If one ignores the above shortcomings, one can really enjoy this light-hearted, romantic plus suspense story on a dull day, with a cup of kadak chai. It will definitely lighten your mood and bring a smile on to your face.

One can buy this book on Amazon.

I got this free review copy from Keemiya Creatives

Book Review-S K Sanyal's A Morsel of Different Shades

A MORSEL OF DIFFERENT SHADES

by

S.K. Sanyal

Blurb

Sumitra Ghosal came all the way from Bankura in West Bengal to join the education service in the recently formed Bundeli State. During the period from 1956 to 1990, spanning more than three decades, she got shunted around small towns and semi-rural areas. The book is woven around her experiences on women teachers lives. She found for some teachers, cruel circumstances charting out the unknown trajectory, while for the others, the evil streak already present manifested itself rather blatantly during their teaching careers.

Ranging from the weird to the quirky, scheming to whimsical, there were all kinds of women for Sumitra to experience and continuously learn from. Bearing a religious bent of mind, Sumitra, a spinster by choice, didn’t fail to take cognizance of the bizarre instances of marital co-existences in the couples she met throught the story.

Read an excerpt

Sumitra Ghosal had stepped into the thirties. Young and hopeful, bubbling over with the excitement of yet another transfer, she arrived at Domod, a district town. The three successive postings at Putlinagar, Bajera and Sagar in the sprawling Uttar Madhya Desh (UMD) had done little to exhaust her. UMD had its capital at Lakshminagar. As distinct from other States, it had predominantly Government schools, private schools not many in number. This State was created according to the prevailing trend of creating smaller states out of larger ones. Rashtriya Daridrya Mochan Party (RDMP) was in power, their manifesto focusing on widespread measures for promoting education for women in remote corners. Sumitra, though, found the efforts not coming entirely from the depths of a sincerely dedicated state. It seemed to be RDMP’s propagandist move to gain more votes.
Sumitra found travelling in ramshackle buses and waiting at railway platforms for the few trains available at odd hours, quite an ordeal. Hers was the fate to move around insignificant remote corners in the heartland of India, where commuting was not easy; semi-rural people formed the stock of commuters. Sumitra, however, didn’t rue her fate; she enjoyed, for she was an optimist drawn by the hidden charm of the unknown places. And what a taste of independence in not marrying – she wasn’t anybody’s property. Her decisions were squarely her own. She had her own conduct or the way to what people say, religiosity; none could teach her the way to realise God. If, as a woman, she worshipped the deity of Hanumanji, let people laugh at her fasting or bratas on Tuesdays and Saturdays. That she got the strength of character by observing the rituals of her making was what mattered. That she wrote with her fingers, without making any impression, the names of Gods and Goddesses on her pillow before sleeping was her unique way to ward off any trouble.
She had a personality built up over long years of getting over the inferiority complex she had developed in her formative years. Neglected and over-ruled, she wasn’t permitted to go for higher education, as her parents wanted their nubile daughter to be tied in a nuptial knot. But Sumitra went on rejecting proposals one after the other until her parents got tired. She was finally allowed to go for higher education. She had a late start, but this belated take-off made her even more determined to be independent, even to take a curious, brave and adventurous decision to take up lectureship in the newly created state of UMD when her native place was in Santhal Parganas in the east.
The fourth and the youngest daughter of a businessman, she had had occasions to go to shikar and witness ruthless killings of sambars, tigers and other small animals or birds. In those times, there was no ban on shikaris engaged in indiscriminate decimating of wild animals. One day, she was seated in the jeep with her legs on the warm and still throbbing body of a fallen sambar. Touched, she took a vow not to have meat ever again. Thus, she was the only vegetarian amongst her non-vegetarian sisters. Alas, she had no brother, and that is why she equated the male visitors of her generation to her parental house as brothers and bestowed them with sisterly affection.

***

It was the month of April when nature attired herself in a new garb with little smooth green leaves sprouting on some trees, while the others had not yet shed completely their brownish yellow leaves. A mixture of dusty yellow fallen lifeless leaves under the massive trees and the seasonal flowers past their full bloom presented a spectacle of life and death. One had to step over the crispy fragile remains of what once was a prized greenery to get near the rows of pansies, zinnias, lilies and other flowers to see the minute tapestry of the multicoloured spectacle amidst the crackling dead leaves. The winter’s ruthlessness had made way for the pleasant breeze, dusty at times, that replaced the cold winds of February. It was a pleasant, beautiful, sombre and placid morning in a strange land when Sumitra joined the school at Domod as a lecturer. It could have been the month of July with blackish-grey clouds suppressing the bright onset of the dawn or the torrential rains drenching her on her first day of school; it could have been the month of December with its biting cold necessitating the full stock of woollen clothes. Nevertheless, out of all the random eccentricities of the transferring authority, she was slated to join the school during the best period of the year, and it sure augured well. A placid look came over her face when she saw the red cap over a green body, the gulmohar, topping the fresh green leaves of the massive tree at the end of the road leading to the school. The April bliss.
She got the first shock when she found the distance cut short abruptly. The school happened to be in full view, even as she was jostling through the crowd, manoeuvring the sharp cuts and turns of the street; an expectation of an ideal location of the school belied. Why this proximity? A school in a bazaar? How nauseating and depressing?

My Honest Review:

A Morsel of Different Shades spans a period of three decades from 1956 to 1990. The story is about Sumi (Sumitra) who travels along the length and breadth of Madhya Pradesh as a government school teacher and later as a Headmistress. The story covers her journey and her experiences during her tenure in the various schools.

Author S K Sanyal has given local flavor by using local folk poems to describe an instance or importance of a festival. His knowledge of local folklore can be seen through his use of poems and verses sang during the festivals. Also, his knowledge about the system and working of government lead schools is also commendable.

I loved the book cover as it gives a rustic look which is similar to the story.  But my only grouse is the use of too many characters in the story; so many that it became little tedious and confusing to keep a track of all. But on second thoughts, it is not irrelevant, as the story required it, I feel.

What I loved the most is the story brings out the flavor of remote areas of Bundelkhand and also in and around Madhya Pradesh, which one rarely gets to read as there are not many stories written about local folklore.

Grab your copy @

Dogearsetc

About the author

A member of the Indian Statistical Service, S.K. Sanyal retired as Director, Central Statistical Organisation, Delhi, after having served as a statistician at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, and as a Professor of Statistics at All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata.

After retirement,he served from time to time as a consultant with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Delhi. As a UNDP consultant, he had short-term assignments at UN Statistical Office at New York, Malawi University, Malawi, and Central Statistics Office, Sierra Leone. Prior to those, as a sampling expert, he delivered lectures on Sampling at Fiji and Nepal on behalf of Statistical Institute for Asia and Pacific, Tokyo, and ESCAP, Bangkok. At NIPFP, he was deputed for poverty studies at Sikkim on behalf of the Asian Development Bank.

Besides numerous technical papers and articles, he has also published a novel, ‘Shifting Silhouettes’, and a real-life story, ‘Memories Unlimited’. He resides in New Delhi.

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Book Review - Manju Nambiar's Love.exe

Synopsis

If you are looking for a feel-good heartwarming love story with a happy ending, this is your right pick!

Nitya Balakrishnan, a young girl from Kerala had it all planned out. She was going to live a life of her dreams in the United States of America. And she thought she had nailed it when she was accepted into one of the best universities of the world. But cosmos had other plans and conspired to drop love.exe into her.

He came with a bang and stole her away in a breath. Love was not quite there in her agenda, but her heart wouldn’t hear of it. The human heart has its own little brain with its strange logic that remains elusive to our reasoning. For once, she just let it be, only to realize that there is no undo button.

This coming of age, beautiful tale of love, relationships and dreams would prick your soul, bring a smile to you, and tear up your eyes. A must read!

About the Author

Manju Nambiar hails from the southern state of Kerala, India. A Computer Engineer by profession, she now works in one of the leading firms in San Jose, California where she lives with her husband and daughter.

My Honest review

Love.exe is a story of a simple girl Nitya who is striving hard to fulfill her dreams and ambitions. On one hand is her dream but on the other, she is also a dutiful daughter who doesn’t want to hurt her parents, who absolutely dote on her.

Love.exe is a love story of Nitya(Neetu) and Ganapathy (Gane). The story traverses through the ups and downs of their relationship.

Love.exe is author Manju Nambiar’s second book and I enjoyed reading it. Her writing is a magic which transports you to book’s locale. Her description of a scene is so detailed that you can feel as if you can see it as if it’s right in front of you.

I love the way in which the author has described each emotion or actions of the protagonists in detail. Sometimes while reading you feel déjà vu like the part in which Nitya is reluctantly getting ready to meet Ganapathy for the first time.

Also, I liked the author’s detail knowledge of computers and constellations and also the way she has described, taking care of each and every minute details.

The book cover is apt to the book title and is also eye-catching with bright color. Error-free writing, use of simple language, lovely characters, good storyline, all makes Love.exe a must read.

You can buy the book from Amazon

(I got free review copy from Keemiya Creatives).

Book Review-Sundari Venkatraman's Matsya

DASHAVATAR

MATSYA: The First Avatar

by

Sundari Venkatraman

Blurb

Lord Brahma is highly disturbed when the four vedas are stolen from him the moment he goes to sleep at the end of the kalpa. It’s Asura Hayagriva who’s gotten away with the sacred scriptures.

Lord Vishnu offers to go to the creator’s rescue and takes the guise of Matsya, the fish.

King Satyavrath lands up with a tiny gold fish when he’s offering prayers to the Sun God one morning. Is the fish all that it appears to be?

How can Satyavrath help the fish?

Read more to find out the reason for Lord Vishnu taking the avatar on earth as Matsya.

*This is a straightforward story of the first avatar of Mahavishnu, retold in simple English just the way it’s written over the ages. The target audience is the youngsters, children, who don’t know all that much about Indian mythology. It’s also for those parents who are keen to read aloud stories to their children and are looking for suitable books on mythology.

Grab your copy @

Amazon.com | Amazon.in | Amazon.co.uk

About the author

Sundari Venkatraman is an indie author who has 16 titles to her name, all Top 100 Bestsellers on Amazon India, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada and Amazon Australia in both romance as well as Asian Drama categories. Her latest hot romances have all been on #1Bestseller slot in Amazon India for over a month.

Even as a kid, Sundari absolutely loved the ‘lived happily ever after’ syndrome as she grew up reading all the fairy tales she could lay her hands on, Phantom comics, Mandrake comics and the like. It was always about good triumphing over evil and a happy end. 

Soon, into her teens, Sundari switched her attention from fairy tales to Mills & Boon. While she loved reading both of these, she kept visualising what would have happened if there were similar situations happening in India; to a local hero and heroine. Her imagination took flight and she always lived in a rosy cocoon of romance over the years. 

Then came the writing – a true bolt out of the blue! And Sundari Venkatraman has never looked back.

My Honest Review:

Romance Queen Sundari Venkatraman pens a mythology...

And it's absolutely awesome just like her romantic novels...

The details, her writing style is really so simple and addictive that a reader is left wanting for more.

Matsya is a short read and I really can't wait for the other nine parts of the book to release.

Loved reading it and it is a must read not only by adults but also a good read for young generation for whom mythology is like an alien language.

Click here to check out all the titles by the author...

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Book Review-Divyata Rajaram's If You Only Knew Me

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IF YOU ONLY KNEW ME

by

Divyata Rajaram

BLURB

If You Only Knew Me is a story of friendship, passion and intrigue set in Dubai, arguably one of the world’s most exciting cities to live in.

Rupali, Anjali, Dipika, Sakina and Monica are five NRI women whose lives are glitzy and exciting as they flirt with high society within the charmed social circles frequented by the Dubai expat community. Beautiful homes, designer clothes, shoes, fast cars and a lifestyle that is envied by all, there is very little these women have not attained. Together they have also woven the closest of friendships and must rely on each other to stay on top.

Appearances are deceptive, though, and often the people you think you know the best, harbor secrets too dangerous to be shared. When tragedy befalls, the investigation that follows opens an ugly box of secrets that will test their friendship and find them struggling to make sense of the madness and deception surrounding them.

Who can they really trust anymore? How far must they go in their fight for survival?

How long will their friendship last once the masks have dropped and none can pretend any longer?

Read an excerpt from the book...

Dipika’s head was swimming as she sat in Tim Horton’s, Mall of the Emirates, waiting for Rupali to join her. The only reason she had even fixed up to meet her was that she knew her mother had called up Anjali who would have informed Rupali.
“Ha … I’ve crossed over to the dark side, Ma. Too late to return home again,” she thought. The black coffee she sipped did nothing to clear the confusion in her head.
Dipika pushed her limp, dank hair out of her eyes, struggling to make sense of the menu in front of her.
That bastard was stringing her along, she knew it. All his false promises meant nothing, she thought wearily while gazing at the menu.
She looked up to find Rupali rushing over to the table.
“Dips, darling, so good to see you,” said Rupali, trying to sound upbeat and cheerful. She almost recoiled as she hugged Dipika.
The stench of body odor and some other strange pungent aroma permeated the air around her.
Dipika looked awful; her usual dark circles worse than ever, hair dank and limp, and lips cracked and blistered. She never used makeup, but this was truly the worst Rupali had ever seen her look in a long while.
“Are you okay, babe?” she asked in a soft whisper. The answer seemed apparent - she was not.
Dipika made a superhuman effort to sound and act normal.
“I haven’t been too well, Rupa. That’s what I had called mom about. Hope she didn’t worry you girls. I’m sure it’s nothing serious. I just haven’t been sleeping much lately and it’s telling on my health.”
Rupali was sure that Dipika was depressed about her father’s upcoming death anniversary.
“Listen, baby … you are going through a tough emotional phase right now. It will get better, I promise. Meanwhile, we are all there for you, okay?” She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.
Dipika nodded listlessly. Poor Rupali, such a good friend, always looking out for her. Dipika felt a million miles away from her right now.
They finished their coffee and made their way over to a few shops. Rupali could tell Dipika was having trouble walking and put it down to her mystery illness. Psychosomatic symptoms, probably, given her bouts of depression. All she could hope for was that whatever it was, it would clear up and her friend would get back to normal.
Dior, Valentino, Lanvin; there was truly no dearth of high-end brands in the latest styles in the Dubai malls. The girls finally agreed on a stunning Chanel dress, stark and beautiful, in black and white. When Rupali tried it on with the blue turquoise earrings the shop assistant provided, she loved what she saw in the mirror. The hunt for matching shoes took them to the Shoe District where even Dipika was seemingly revived by the stunning collection of Christian Louboutin. Rupa convinced her to pick up a pair of strappy stilettos in hot pink with a gold trim.
Rupali hesitated for a few seconds before charging her card. Sometimes she felt guilty about spending Rohit’s money. However, he had always told her that appearance meant everything - sleek, sophisticated and expensive clothes were his natural choice and, now, hers as well.
Finally, exhausted with their shopping, the girls headed to the parking lot where Rupali’s driver was waiting for them. She asked him to first drop Dipika off at her apartment on Sheikh Zayed Road before heading to her own home.
On her way home, she quickly called up Anjali.

My Honest Review:

We all have a group of friends, whom we have met through various stages of life. Some stay, while some get replaced. Those who stay with us throughout, we assume that we know about them inside out. But sometimes, when a particular situation arises, we feel that person is not the person we knew but is some stranger. 

If You Only Knew Me deals with something similar. This book has a unique blend of friendship, relationships, love, betrayal, suspense, and mystery.

The story is about five women who have settled in Dubai and share a love-hate relationship amongst themselves. But when the need arises, they have each other's back. But is their friendship for real? Are they really what they show they are?

At first, I thought this book is just another suspense murder mystery. But when I started reading, I just couldn't stop until I finished reading the whole book, in just one sitting.

Nice story plot, detailed description of characters, and even more detailed description of their clothes and ensemble, use of simple language are all the plus points of the story. The only minus point is some errors in few initial pages which could have been avoided.

Other than that, this book is definitely a must-read.

Grab your copy @

Amazon.in | Flipkart

About the author

Divyata Rajaram has been living and working in Dubai for the past fifteen years. An experienced financial service professional, she is also an accomplished singer of Hindustani classical as well as western music. If You Only Knew Me is her first novel based on NRI women living in the UAE, and offers a glimpse into their lives and the challenges they face in a foreign land.

An avid reader of crime fiction, Divyata lives with her husband, their daughter and a beautiful dog in Dubai.      

                          

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Reflections A to Z 2018 Challenge

Wow, what a hectic month April was…

This year, not only did I opt for a different style of writing the daily blogs but also, I finished on time. Not like previous years where I finished one day/week later.

April A to Z Blog Challenge (to read the details click here) is a challenge where we have to blog every day on the particular letter of the alphabet except on Sundays. We can write on random topics or select a theme. In 2014 I had done random topics (A - Z) while in 2015 the theme was on various medical conditions of children with special needs (Reflections 2015). Then for next two years, I backed out from the challenge at last moment.

This time too, initially I was a bit skeptical on what topics to write. But since a few months, I had been penning down few of my thoughts in form of flash fiction/micro tales; a format which is neither lengthy, nor in form of poems, but still, convey the entire story in a matter of few lines.

Here is the list of my blog post

• A for Abandoned
• B for Bhaiyya
• C for Cakes
• D for Darkness
• E for Ego
• F for Farewell
• G for Granddaughter
• H for Hospital’s Apathy Towards People with Special needs
• I for Indie Author (Guest Post By Sundari Venkatraman)
• J for Jumping to Conclusions
• K for Kiss
• L for Lonely
• M for Mid-summer rains
• N for NRI Housewife (Guest post by Rubina Ramesh)
• O for Oblivious
• P for A Picture is worth thousand words
• Q for Quote on Life
• R for Raksha Bandan
• S for Secret Surprise
• T for Teenage Tantrums
• U for Understanding your Homeopath (Guest post by Dr. Gopikrishnan Nambiar)
• V for Visitor
• W for Who Am I?
• X for Xenophobia
• Y for Yours Truly
• Z for Zoo

Not only did I enjoy writing in this format, but also the feedback I got was overwhelming.

Also, I enjoyed reading some great posts by

• Deepa Duraisamy's Deepa's Kaleidoscope
• Vidya Sury's Collecting Smiles
• Dr.Roshan's Godyears
• Shalini's Something's Cooking
• Shaiaja's Diary of a Doting Mom
• Shilpa Garg's A Rose is a Rose is a Rose
• Varan Bhaat, amongst many others (still to catch up with many).

Though I couldn’t reply to every comment, I would like to thank everyone who read my blogs, voted for me on Indivine, and appreciated my writing.

Also, I thank Rubina Ramesh, Sundari Venkatraman and Dr. Gopikrishnan Nambiar for taking some time out and writing the guest posts.

Last but not the least, thanks to the team of A to Z Challenge for creating such an awesome challenge and doing a great and commendable job in motivating and helping the participants.