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Paranormal, YA |
I don’t read that many fantasy books that are not horror based. That is not because I don’t like them but the premises are usually harder for me to get into. When I was approached for the review of YA fantasy fiction ‘Tribal Affairs’, I loved the relaxed narrative style, and I hoped I would like it. Read more to know.
Book Name: Tribal Affairs 
Author: Matt Dallmann
Genre: Fiction – Paranormal Fantasy
Characters: Liana, Dahlia, Taffi, Jamison, Stefan, Amon
Disclaimer: Thanks to the Author and iRead Book Tours for the Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Liana is a teenager whose magician father is losing his charm, and she decides to wear her late mother’s anklet. Little does she knows that she is about to set forth a great chaos in the realms of humans as well as genies alike. Dahlia the genie that is trapped in the anklet tries to connect to Liana through her dreams.
Liana suffers from depression and is being treated by Dr Rattner, just as her mother did. She believes she is losing her mind, as she sees and feels things that are not real. How much of what she sees is real and which is not?
As if things were not already complicated, Liana gets herself cursed to disappear, and she is pursued by a strong and powerful, evil genie. Does Liana solve the mystery about Dahlia and the evil genie? What is wrong with her mentally? Read Tribal Affairs to know more.
The story alternates between the tale of Dahlia and Liana, a genie and a teenager in the present. The shift in the story was kinda abrupt and hard to grasp initially, but later on, it becomes better. The conversations and the writing style is easy to follow, given that it is primarily aimed at the YA crowd. But Tribal Affairs might suit to all age group alike.
There are a few moments in the story that you might feel outta place if you had jumped in thinking only of Aladdin’s Genie.The Djinn/genie world seems much more complicated than that. They have even feuds between their tribes (thus the name Tribal Affairs, get it?) and lots of restrictions on their power. So much for the shape-shifting goofy genies! sob sob. But kudos to the strong world building that even a genie noob like me could understand.
If you are a fan of YA fantasy, then you should pick this book Tribal Affairs right away. Even if you are not, try the book you might end up liking it thanks to its interesting narration.
Read more about the book and enter a giveaway here
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Paranormal |
What happens after you die? Depending on your religious beliefs, it may be afterlife, reincarnation or nothing at all. If you read a lot of YA literature zombie life may not be far from your thoughts. What if you were resurrected and your religious world was all ready to believe in it until you literally are resurrected? Would they understand you are the one that fulfills that prophecies? How would the modern world accept it? Moshe Karlin’s life just would answer those questions in An Unexpected Afterlife
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Book Name: An Unexpected Afterlife
Series: The Dry Bones Society #1
Author: Dan Sofer
Genre: Fiction – Paranormal
Characters: Moshe and Galit Karlin, Avi, Rabbi Yosef Lev
Setting: Jerusalem, Israel
Disclaimer: Thanks to the Author for the Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Moshe Karlin wakes up naked at a cemetery at the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem the morning after his 40th birthday. He catches a taxi to his house, trying to remember what prank his best friend Avi had pulled on him the previous night, only to find Avi and his wife Gallit in bed together. As if that was not enough to enrage him, Avi throws him off his house, saying Moshe has been dead for two years.
He reaches out to the local Rabbi Yosef, the one who buried Moshe when he was dead and tries to understand his situation. Without an ID, place to live or family to depend upon he stumbles on trying to win his old life, his wife, and his daughter. The Rabbi and Moshe are startled to find more ‘dead’ people are resurrected, and they seek their help. Some remember who they were; many don’t. Some are Jews, and few are not. Didn’t Torah promise that only Jews will be resurrected?
Meanwhile, not far from this chaos, the Prophet Elijah himself is stuck in an unforeseen situation. According to the scriptures and the destiny, he was supposed to save the world, but how can he when His world is changing. To make matters worse for the Rabbi the Great Council (of religious wisemen) discards the Rabbi’s theory of resurrection and pronounces the resurrected as ‘ Sitra Achra!’ (other side / unholy world).
What does the Rabbi choose – his free will and understanding of the Torah or the words of the Council that has guided him all through his life and also can change the stability and peace in a teacher’s life? How do Moshe and his clan move ahead? Did they find what they are seeking? The An Unexpected Afterlife and the series will answer your questions.
An Unexpected Afterlife is a steady paced narrative that kept me engrossed until the end, well, end of the first book of the series. Thankfully the book didn’t end in a cliffhanger perse, though the series would answer many questions. The writing is crisp, and the tiny streak of satire kept things interesting. I loved the strong world building, and all the central characters had depth
The one thing that kinda annoyed me at the was that the stories of Moshe and Elijah did not seem to be related all, at least in the first book. Maybe they will merge somewhere down the lane in the following books of the series. I am not a great fan of fantasy and the zombie/undead world and have avoided them for a while. An Unexpected Afterlife made me realize what I have been missing out.
The story is primarily set in Israel, and I loved how the book let me have a glimpse into the world of Jews and their beliefs and culture. It is one of those things that made say yes when the author Dan Sofer approached for a review of his book, and I am glad I chose it. If you are interested in reading a religious take on the resurrection An Unexpected Afterlife is your pick.
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Drama |
How often do you find people who are gonna travel all the way through your life?
I have a set of friends whom I have known for a decade and a half now. We may not be physically close, but when we meet or talk to each other from different parts of the world, it has always been like we are back to our primary classes, mostly. We know each other’s heartbreak stories, the crushes, and the family issues.
Most of my friends are people with whom I have been for more than four years now. That is quite a huge thing, especially for someone like me, who jumps from one shiny thing to another frequently. Thankfully my friendships have not taken that route.
Why am I converting a book review into a sappy old story of yours truthfully? Nothing much other than sheer narcissism and the fact that Second Acts is a book about the friendship between grown ass adult women.
About the book
Book Name: Second Acts
Author: Teri Emory
Genre: Fiction – Drama
Characters: Sarah, Miriam, Beth
Setting: The USA
Disclaimer: Thanks to the Author and Edelweiss for the Advance Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Plot
The story takes through the lives of Sarah, Miriam, and Beth right from their college days. They have spent their lives together for decades, all through their happiness, heartbreaks, the ups and the downs, even when they had lived physically far from each other.
Now the ladies are in their fifties, and their careers and domestic lives are changing. Would their friendship sustain through these storms?
The book alternates between the voices of Sarah, Miriam, and Beth in the first person throughout. Sarah lives with her boyfriend Kevin who wouldn’t commit or even let her in on his life, which seemed convenient for her. She finds out something huge about Kevin and his son and Kevin did not even feel it was important to inform her. And the changes at work makes it impossible for her continue shying away from commitments.
Miriam has had her heart broken once, and she wonders about all the men that she had turned down. She is more than settled with the idea that she is never going to meet the right one. Beth seemingly has it all, until she finds her husband cheated on her. To make her life more fragile the love of her life, the one that got away is back. The group has a second chance in life. Should they trade their old lives?
My initial thoughts
The idea that college friends can stay together well into their fifties is highly romantic. The dynamics among them does not change and if anything, it has become better with age. Though the ladies are all at different points of their life and have chosen different paths, there is no judging and an unwavering support through it all.
Second Acts makes it a point to let us know that 50s are not something to be dreaded about. Lives still go on and about, and exciting things do happen.
Things that worked for me
- The characters were well developed, and even the minor characters had depth.
- I found a part of myself among all the three leads, and I kept rooting for Miriam the most. She was just too cool.
- Several themes like grief over death, lost love, hurt by a loved one, despair over unrequited love, unexpected changes were all dealt with such flair that the reader would feel them.
Things that could have been better
- Though there were too many details and the book as such was tad bit lengthy, I continued through it.
- I would not call the book an un-put-down-able, and it took a lot more than usual to complete the book.
- On the whole, I was not disappointed at all, thanks to the realistic plot and engaging writing.
Bottom – line
Second Acts could be your summer read, the one that you wanna read when you miss your friends in real life or the one you read during your daily commute. If you are up to reading a woman’s fiction with realistic writing this weekend, you should watch out for Second Acts.
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Let us chat
What are your favorite women fiction? Do you like books that are character oriented with slow moving plots? Let us talk.
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review |
Generally my mid week posts involve discussions or tags where we get to talk a lot. But not today. In fact I am gonna have a cheat day and talk about a book. No, it is not going to be a review in my usual sense. To be honest this is not going to be a book that I read normally. Curious? Keep reading. *excited grin*
I saw the review of Kawaii Doodle Class
somewhere and I knew this was the one book that could solve ALL my problems. Well, not solve all my problems but at least make me forget my worries about the long pending reviews of books I have received for reviewing or the ones on my TBR shelf. Who am I kidding? Those are not my worries. I love that I have loads of books to read and review. Okay.. I mean whatever worries I had, Kawaii Doodle Class made me forget. Intrigued? Read on.
Disclaimer: Thanks to the Author and Netgalley for the free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Growing in a family that is inclined very much towards arts and crafts, I have always believed I had to have a creative vein. Even when my several attempts on arts have proved otherwise, I hold on to the hope that some day I would find some art form that I might be good at. So I requested the book that promised to teach step by step instructions to draw these cutest doodles with so much to lose. Yeah Kawaii literally means cute.
First of, the whole book was DAMN CUTE (I know I am overusing the term). The step by step instruction made it even for a craft challenged person to follow, though there were a few redundant steps. Hey who cares, they look adorable. The book teaches to draw day to day items like food and drinks, holiday things and even monsters. I personally loved the monsters (That doesn’t mean I draw them any better).
The entire book may have been for a younger generation but that would not stop you (adult, I mean) from enjoying it all the same. This can surely be a great gift to young and adults alike. I can already think of at least 2-3 people who would enjoy this. I can’t stop gushing over this overtly adorable book. Grab Kawaii Doodle Class already, I say.
(more…)
written by Georgia Rose attempts to answer these questions through the life of Madaliene Rose.
Maddy lives in a laid back, picturesque village. She has made friends with a few, yet believes she will be considered an outsider whatever she does. She wishes that she blends into their life without arousing any suspicion to escape from her pa