300 Days by Bragadeesh Prasanna

300 Days is a simple love story of Jai and Sravani. While Sravani is struggling within a confined relationship with Sai, Jai hopes to win Sravani's love. In contrary to the usual, complicated triangular love stories, 300 days sets off  with a smooth sail between the two main characters. Following cycles of love and separation, whether Jai finally wins her love is the rest of the story. 

The book stands out in realistically depicting the emotions beneath seven gradual stages of love as enumerated in Arabic literature, namely,

Hub - Attraction

Uns - Infatuation

Ishq - Love

Aqeedat - Reverence

Ibaadat - Worship

Junoon - Obsession

Maut - Death

(Though the course of the novel is subtitled according to the seven stages, one cannot find a brief explanation about the same in the book. However, the author, in his blog, shares his inspiration behind adapting the concept). 

300 Days is author Bragadeesh Prasanna's first book. As a debut author, he has proved his stand as a writer and as an earnest narrator. 

Releasing on 1st May, 2016: The Wedding Photographer By Sakshama Puri Dhariwal

Do you love Bollywood? 

Do you love romantic comedies? 

Do you love books? 

Then this one's for you! 

Presenting Sakshama Puri Dhariwal's debut novel

'The Wedding Photographer', releasing this May.

A delicious, Breezy novel full of Fun, Sass, Heart and Wit

Penguin Books India presents

THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

By

Sakshama Puri Dhariwal

  

A fantastic debut with wedding, love, photography, scandal and cricket – a perfect summer read!

Just You, Me and a Secret by Ganga Bharani Vasudevan: Book Review

Just You, Me and a Secret marks a history in my book reading experience for two reasons: This is the first complete book I've read in the digital format through Amazon Kindle Unlimited. And the first book I've read without taking a break because I just couldn't. 

Just You, Me and a Secret is a psychological romantic thriller in which the protagonist, after losing her memory in an accident, tries to regain her lost identity. Shuttling in between whether to trust or not the stories told by people around her, she finally arrives at a point where she understands what has been done to her while she remained unconscious. 

Author Ganga Bharani, as a debutante, has proved to the literary world, "Man, I have a great plot and I can write in flawless English. That was all it required to write a fantastic book."

I don't wear sunscreen by Kavipriya Moorthy: Book Review

Two girls being friends since childhood is a unique relationship. They would hold hands while walking on the road; they would feel jealous when the other gets closer to a new acquaintance and they can't blurt their hearts out better to anybody else.

There hasn't been a formal proposal yet between the boy and the girl. But their relationship is apparently heading a romantic way. They know that it's only a matter of time before the ice gets broken and they are relishing the best phase of their love story. 

All of a sudden, after a train journey, the would-be boyfriend becomes a question mark, the job that she's been dedicated to, slips away and eventually, the best friend walks away from her life. To add to her misery, she is confused without the missing links which she suspects to be connecting the circumstances. And she ends up in a neurotic state. 

I don't wear Sunscreen is a fast-paced tale of Lakshya which carries, till its last page, emotions and suspense of  a myriad of things that could happen to a young Indian girl.

There's Something About You by Yashodhara Lal: Book Review

I read the last 50 pages almost breathlessly, completing it at 2 midnight. 

If you've ever been into the confining world of a book, you would know why I did that. 'There's something about you' is one such work!

Trish looks at herself as a fat, unattractive woman who can never get along with the corporate gimmicks; yet can hold her heart and head strong against any level of criticism with her sarcasm - an attitude that will make you fall in love with the character. 

She gets unexpectedly fired from work. She meets Sahil unexpectedly. She finds a new fortune through her sarcasm, unexpectedly. She unexpectedly discovers her potential interest and it's a series of unexpectation to the readers as well. 

One might presume the fiction being directed towards love, overcoming difficulty or just a personal ranting, but believe me, at a deeper level, the story of Trish is about understanding relationships, diving into the subconsciousness and following one's heart. Shouldn't miss reading!

The Departing Point by Santosh Avvannavar, Jyothi Byahati & Raghunath Babu Are: Book Review

Two people departed…

In search of love…

Leaving love in between”

This is the tag line of the book.

The Departing Point is a collection of seven love stories that neither have a happy ending nor highlight the sadness of love failures. Three common aspects of all of the seven tales are:

• narrated by the boy in love

• the couple in love does not get to stay together in the relationship for long and

• the girl in love happens to be the reason for the break-up.

Hence there comes a departing point in their relationships which all of those men end up facing with both maturity and resentment. 

The authors have brought out the persistent mind set of men when it comes to love. At the same time, the wavering and indecisive natures of women towards relationships are also highlighted.

Unravelling Anjali by Nim Gholkar: Book Review

 


Anjali is like any other middle-class Indian girl raised by the traditional values of India. When she was seventeen, she made a decision that she would only ever marry for true love. 

At last at the age of twenty six, marriage knocks her door and she is married. It was an arranged marriage, to Ravi, a Non Resident Indian, settled in Australia and a divorcee. Her family is happy about getting her married to a NRI and she as well is excited about the life abroad and looks forward to a romantic married life as she lands at the Sydney airport, a few months after their wedding. 

Least did she know then, the fate that awaited her in the new place and how the turn of events would change the traditionally rooted Anjali to an entirely new person. 

Finding Ecstasy by Rebecca Pillsbury: Book Review

Author Rebecca Pillsbury, Prize Winner of "The Christine Kloser's Transformational Author Writing Contest", pens down the most intimate moments of her life in her debut book and a transformational memoir, Finding Ecstasy.

A Candid Memoir!

Conditioned by her family upbringing, religious beliefs and childhood ideologies, Rebecca grows up to an introvert girl carrying unidentifiable shame, guilt and fear about her womanhood and sexuality. Consequently, she faces trouble being in relationship with a partner, both emotionally and physically. The repressed state of her emotions also shows up in her body as disturbed menstruation patterns and poly cystic ovaries. In Finding Ecstasy, author Rebecca discloses her inner-most secrets of how she felt confined within the spaces of her body and mind and how a visit to Buenos Aires and meeting a Brazilian, life-changing books, travels, retreats, opening up with a group of women, blues dancing, yoga and a five-year relationship with her boy friend bring about a transformation not just about her body and sexuality but rather a holistic upliftment, which is truly spiritual in nature.

What Finding Ecstasy is?

From a broader perspective, Finding Ecstasy is not a tale of just one woman. Perhaps, every woman, at some point in time goes through the emotional confinements that the author does in her memoir. By the example of her own life, author Rebecca helps women to identify their emotional and sexual needs and connect with their inner beings with greater depths. It also offers men, a walk through the conflicting inner world of a woman which otherwise remains ever-elusive to their eyes.

New Release & Book Launch: Your Dreams Are Mine Now by Ravinder Singh

After three bestselling novels, author Ravinder Singh released his fourth book, Your Dreams Are Mine Now, published by Penguin Books India in November 2014. Visit the Publisher's page for more details about the book.

Book launch at Chennai will happen on the 9th of January, 2014 at Starmark, Phoenix Market City at 6.30 p.m. Contact 9962777090 for more book launch details. 

Ravinder's Singh's debut novel, I Too Had a Love Story was the depiction of his real-life love story. The death of his girl friend touched him deep which has shaped into a book that touched many hearts as well. His other books are Can Love Happen Twice? and Like It Happened Yesterday. Love Stories That Touched My Heart is an anthology, edited by Ravinder Singh.

Your Love was all I had! by Kaushal Kumar Jha: Book Review

Yet another Indian Love Story!

Your Love was all I had! is a beautiful love story that happens in the busy city of Mumbai. Rahul lands on the city for his medical course. He meets Riya, chases her and they become friends. At one point when he knows he should propose his love to her, he does it and their romantic relationship begins. All goes well until oppositions shoot up from both families and may what happens at the end be a secret to the readers.

Sounds like the usual Indian movies? It is exactly! But not all movies leave the same impact, right? That’s where this book makes a difference. It brings out romance where it should, it brings out lust where it should and it brings out life where it should – all well-balanced! There’s a little tinge of just everything that revolves around young lads of this decade. They know quite well what is to be done with family, love and ambition. And our hero is one of that kinds!

Me “N” Her – A Strange Feeling by Rikky Bhartia: Book Review

 The kind of love story that happens here and there, everywhere!

The story is of Harsh and Janvi. They meet as new joiners at office. Almost half the book is about how their association finds gradual changes as years pass by – from colleagues to friends to lovers to wedding talks to engagement. Sounds like the usual love story? Perhaps not! The plot maintains constant twists and turns throughout the book. And one would want to know ‘what next’ at every stage. The last few pages, especially, contain the most unexpected twist like the O’Henry short stories. Well, was wedding bells finally in their air? I am afraid, I cannot reveal the rest part of the book.

Absolutely, the present-day reality!

The book depicts 100% of the society that most young Indians have been living in, at least for the last five to ten years.

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho: Book Review

Actually I wasn’t planning to buy another book within a short span but the 15% New year offer in Odyssey was irresistable. Probably a part of destiny’s tricks and magics? You see my third book of Mr.Coelho’s I can’t help writing this way ;) Am already a die-hard fan of his by now.

When two young lovers are reunited, they discover anew the truth of what lies in their hearts.  

This was the description I had read about this book before I had bought it. Well if you are not married yet and in particular still single, no wonder this subject shall allure you. And trust me this is a beautiful love story I’ve ever read!

Master of the Game by Sidney Sheldon: Book Review

I’ve just put  this book down after turning over its last page. This is the first time  I’ve ever read a Sidney Sheldon and now I partly understand how some people become book-addicts!

Not exaggerating, it feels I’ve just come out of a strange fantasy world of manipulations to reality. Jamie, Margaret, Banda, Kate, David, Tony, Eve, Alexandra, George, John, Peter…….these characters are like known people in my real world now. I marvel  at what a book can do to its readers. And lo, what an author does to his readers!

Jamie - His vigour and sense of righteousnes! Except of what he did to Margaret. His character is all about how a man struggles to lift himself up in the ladder of success after being deceived so badly. I was too sad to have my dinner the day when I went through the pages of his premature death :( May be he should have learnt little of forgiveness.