review, Romance |
How far would you go further when you have realized that your dreams are shattered? What if it were the one thing that kept you alive and kicking? Would you forgive yourself if you were the only one that was responsible for your fall? Read my book review of With you I Dance by Aarti Raman to know more.
About With you I Dance
Book Name: With You I Dance
Author: Aarti V. Raman
Genre: Fiction – Romance
Characters: Meera, Zoya, Abheer
Setting: India
Disclaimer: I received this book from the FingerPrint Publishers free of cost in return for an honest review.
Plot summary of With you I Dance
Meera Sagar had nothing to do but to return back to India after an on stage debacle during her very first performance as a principal ballerina at New York. She is failing at resisting her parents’ attempt to get her married and settled, as any typical Indian family would want to, but she has a larger problem at hand. She isn’t able to dance anymore.
Enter Abheer and Zoya, who trust her dreams and give her a lifeline to save herself. Does she or rather can she? Read With you I Dance by Aarti Raman to find out.
Book review of With you I Dance
Sometimes you get tired of chasing the serial killers, apocalypse and paranormal creatures in books, that all you want to do is pick a chicklit and curl up in a corner of your bed.
Well, I did.
Yet I was also dreading to take that risk after the few fiascoes I survived on this genre. Thankfully my fear was unfounded. I liked the author’s writing and the easy pace of the story, by which I mean there were no extraneous twists and turns just for the heck of it.
Though I had no affinity towards the protagonist Meera (rather felt irritated with her, more on that follows), I did like the feisty, helpful yet no nonsense Zoya better. Abheer is definitely drool worthy but I hated that he was not given his due, by both Meera and the author. That brings on my personal rant over the protagonist, Meera.
I do understand her flightiness and her trying to be independent and self-standing etc but it didn’t work its magic on me. I personally hated her double standards and disrespect to everyone else’s feelings and lives. But you know what, it is long since I have felt something for a character – be it good or bad. Kudos on doing that, Author Aarti.
I liked the overall easy pace and positivity throughout the story, even after all that is lost. I liked the flawed characters and realistic storyline.
Bottom-line
Pick With you I Dance by Aarti Raman up if you want to read an easy romance that doesn’t ask you to pawn your brain and grammar for a storyline.
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review |
You have heard it all. From your grandfather, your uncle and aunts all through your childhood every single time you request a story. And oh when you are all grown up a repeat of them several times a day especially when you don’t request them at all. Yeah I am talking about Mahabharata and the stories that take place just around it. Then came your television series that gave us an image or a face to connect to the epic that we have been hearing all along.
Yet of late it is becoming too much of a disconnect from all those moral stories we have been hearing, thanks to new age corporate lives we are living in. Truth maybe harsh but I couldn’t possibly understand why and how a story about family feud, a gory war and especially that involves too many marital relationship could relate to my current life. Or so I thought, till I started reading the book ‘Corpokshetra: Mahabharata In The MBA Yug‘ by ‘Deepak Kaul’. Read on to know what my skeptical brain thought about it.
Author: Deepak KaulGenre: Fiction – humor
Characters: Mahabharata
The story-line is very simple and in fact the entire story is literally written on the blurb, which goes like this.
The Pandavas have returned home after 13 years of exile. And they are demanding their stake in Hastinapur Inc. But the Kauravas, led by the haughty Duryodhana, aren’t ready to give them a penny. The battle lines are drawn, only this war is in the present-day Kurukshetra – the corporate boardroom. As the Kauravas and the Pandavas don their sharpest suits, Krishna – the wily Consultant – strategies for peace. This is a humorous, modern take on the Mahabharata (with due apologies to Rishi Ved Vyas). An epic story retold for the MBA generation.
The attempt to try and relate an epic into the modern times that we live in is commendable. The naughty and witty Krishna as we read or heard from our ancestors has been appropriately dubbed to be a consultant. I was wondering how the book was going to explain Dhraupadi being married to five men at the same time in the modern world, thankfully the book didn’t attempt to. Better left untried than to fail miserably at it.
The book had its own quirky moments like having to block gambling sites in Yudhishtra’s laptop or turning Sun God to Movie Star or the talks about Bloody Marys. And converting all the specialized battles to games like golf, cricket and even Arm wrestling.
I wish the editorial had spent a little more time and effort to avoid glaring typos. The language and the style of the author’s writing is simple yet funny, hopefully it agrees more with the target audience than others. To summarize the whole Mahabharata into 120 pages is a feat and it is just at the correct length to behold the reader’s interest.Bottom-line: Short, quirky breezy read.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher free of cost in return for an honest review.
Quotable quotes |
We are finally here. I am super happy and proud to share the final leg aka the Week 15 ofof #100daysofbookquotes.I know there have been times that I thought I was gonna go off the bandwagon but hey, I scrapped through.
For those of you wondering what this is about, go like our FB page and get updates as soon as they happen.
099
“Usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. “I’m okay” we say. “I’m alright”. But sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can’t get it off. That’s when you realize that sometimes it isn’t even an answer–it’s a question. Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
100
“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
review, Romance |
I remember complaining to one of my friends that I need a simple, ordinary love story to read. You might be surprised to hear that those are rare, these days. I have had enough of vampires sucking blood, werewolves fighting with their clans for a mortal and how could I forget offspring from the future come to haunt you. I was ranting on why it was difficult to give me a simple romance for once. Then I got 300 Days
by Bragadeesh Prasanna in exchange for a review.
You know what it is – an uncomplicated love story a boy meets girl, boy likes her, boy gets her and then boy doesn’t – he grows up. The story that would be easy to relate to almost everyone, the kind that we hope happens to us just to experience the warm gushy feeling and then suffer through the gut punching pain all in the name of love.
Book Name: 300 Days
Author: Bragadeesh Prasanna
Genre: Fiction – Romance
Characters: Jai, Sravani, Sai, Sindhuja, Chris
Setting: India
Jai meets Sravani in the midst of a forest, during a trek and falls head over heels for her. Sravani is a shy girl who is already in a committed relationship with Sai. The story narrates how Jai convinces Sravani that he is the one for her and to break up with Sai after two years of silence. But when things seem to settle down for the couple and they decide to tie knots, their world turns upside down once more.
The story also narrates the relationship of Jai with his best friends Sindhuja and Chris and their lives is drawn parallel. I liked the protagonist, even if he was the typical south Indian guy and did not do anything that is impressionable. Yeah the kind of guy we usually friendzone at the first instant – the kind of guy we run to when we have an issue. I liked him, but neither do I approve nor would want someone to do the things he does, for me – so yes I feel obviously like Sinduja. (I will get to that later).
I can not say the same thing about Chilakamma, oops Sravani. Having met enough number of Sravani’s in my life understanding her shouldn’t have been difficult, but I felt nothing towards her. Maybe that is due to the one dimensional development of her character. I loved Sinduja, she seemed my kind of girl; someone I could be friends with, and cursed the author for never giving her her dues, apart from the long ‘marketing dialogues’ (using Sravani’s words) on their sibling love and everything else. What is the deal with her and Vinod?
I understand the stale state of relationship between Jai and his family, but it is really odd to see him being so attentive to Sravani, Sailu and their family and even Viji and then completely leaving his family out of the picture. Is there something I am missing about his character? I loved the writing style of the author. There were too many instances in the story that made me feel as this is as real as it can get. I somehow predicted the end was not going to be something that I was rooting for, but I was okay with the ending as it made sense.
I loved the beginning of the novel in terms of the language. I did not even have to wait for something to happen, because I was reeling among the words. The critic in me wanted to go past the mundane trek itinerary, which had nothing to do with the story at all, but the language lover wanted to stay. There were too many conversations between Jai and Sravani – I mean too much to even care for. I don’t want a peep into someone else’s diary, especially if it was not going to contribute to the pace of the story.
The pace of the story wavers; it was slow – accelerated – then a bit drag and all of a sudden at a jet speed and there we are at the end. But having said that, I couldn’t put the book down even when the pace was slow. If you love a simple, no nonsense love story with beautiful language 300 Days could be your pick.