I did not know that Georgette Heyer wrote mysteries. I picked the book from its place on a crowded shelf in the mysteries section for its clever title – Why Shoot A Butler? And finally ended up buying the book for its author. A murder mystery by Georgette Heyer, I had to read it. Think of Agatha Christie meets P. G. Wodehouse and a dash of Sherlock Homes thrown into the mix. There is a good balance of levity in…
My favourite part of War of the Fae is the beginning – the setting of a high school, complete with a rebellious teenage heroine and her dorky best friend. In fact, it was so normal that I quickly verified if I was actually reading ‘War of the Fae’ and not some other YA book accidentally. Don’t worry, this is a fantasy novel. The author Elle Casy has a few surprises planned for her reader. **Minor spoilers ahead** You can get…
“If I seem to wander, if I seem to stray, remember that true stories seldom take the straightest way” If J. K. Rowling made me want to write, Patrick Rothfuss made me feel like giving up trying to write even before I start; there is no way that I could write even half as good. The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece. Am in love with the writing. Patrick Rothfuss feeds your imagination with a magical world building that…
Lady in Waiting is Marie Tremayne’s debut novel. I was pleasantly happy reading it. Imagine Downtown Abbey as written by Julia Quinn. 1 scarred (on the inside) angtsy brooding lonely Lord – check 1 semi-radical sort-of-wallflower – check 1 vile widower with disturbing taste in bedroom activities who is ready to marry the wallflower – check 1 reluctant bride – check 1 hidden identity – check instant attraction as Lord Ashworth saves a damsel in distress – double check the warmth in his…
her son is dead, she is alive. the endless agony of this careens through an entire day: morning, afternoon, late afternoon, evening. now keening, now wretched, now rending, always there, almost a central player. on a day like none other, a day perhaps of reckoning. hajar churashir ma, the mother of 1084, mahasweta devi’s stunning indictment ultimately of a whole way of life even as she grieves with sujata, the protagonist, and senses, elicits, and enunciates her every thought and…
**Lots of spoilers but better to be prepared** I have invested so many days into this 6 book series, The Mortal Instruments, and have come out severely disappointed and angry at how wasteful the experience was. What is Good? Jace and Clary. 1st book only. He has this frenetic energy and a daredevil death wish that for the length of the 1st book is appealing to my YA angsty hero loving self. Premonitions of a dark and hopeless future for these…
The James Joyce Murder (A Kate Fansler Mystery) by Amanda Cross is unabashedly literary. Imagine an Agatha Christie bucolic setting complete with the aristocratic rich, the scandalous young and evil lurking close. Add to it, P. G. Wodehouse like whimsical sentence construction and a wholesome disregard to practicality. Most important to the novel, is a Jasper Fforde confident love for literature. I personally, have not read James Joyce, I blame that on my literary ignorance and not the high-handedness of Amanda Cross. If…
Mark Lawrence has become one of my favourite fantasy novelists thanks to his riveting revenge fantasy series The Broken Empire. I picked up the first book in the series, Prince of Thorns, based on its cover and its prominent place on the fantasy novels shelf in the Amazon bookstore. Judging a book by its cover could have never been so absolutely right. Mark’s writing flows like beautiful poetry. Gripping. Dark and defying prediction. The pace of the first book, Prince…
I selected Vesuvius Club as my next read based on the recommendation that readers who like P. G. Wodehouse (an author I absolutely adore) would enjoy this novel by Mark Gatiss. The recommendation promised a whimsical spy novel with dry wit. While settings in P. G. Wodehouse’s make believe British universe remain chaste and refined, Mark Gatiss delights in the crass and grotesque. Vesuvius Club wastes no time in setting the stage for hero Lucifer Box. Painter by day and British secret…
Gift of the Phoenix is 574 pages of fantasy, magic, valour and love. It is a splendid read, specially if you like the epic genre. The prologue starts off in a faraway place and time where a magical phoenix is about to regenerate. The wizards of the land have a ceremony for the regeneration which takes an unexpected turn because the dying phoenix brings 3 magical stones instead of its usual offering of ash with magical properties. Hundreds of years later, an…