Where the Forest meets the stars

Well when the book is an Amazon Charts, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post bestseller, and a Goodreads Choice Award finalist, the expectations are pretty high.  Where the Forest meet the stars by Glendy Vanderah is amazing Book filled with lots of love, hope and positivity we all need in our life.

Reading the blurb I mistook it for fantasy, but even though rational explanations are given in end, the book seemed simply magical. The characters, the story arc, their past struggles, future uncertainity and the spirit with which they try to overcome these is simply amazing. I loved the way, as writer puts it, the three leads, Jo, Ursa and Gabe had created a nest for themselves. The plot, refernce to forest, stars, nesting and migrating seasons was so poetic and heart touching that by end I had my heart in my mouth, desperately wanting to have these characters Happy ending.

If you are looking for a book on positivity, hope with little bit of allure for magical feel, please read this. No words will suffice the feel you have when you live the characters of Jo, Ursa and Gabe.

My Verdict: Please read this one

Best phrases :

"I've decided language isn't as advanced as we think it is. We're still apes trying to express our thoughts with grunts while most of what we want to communicate stays locked in our brain"

"Survivors can live and love more fully than people who haven’t stared death in the face."

"If she’d learned one thing in the last two years, it was that life could be hard enough without adding petty resentments."

"Sometimes bad things happen to make good things happen".

Availablity- Amazon , Free with Kindle unlimited subscription

The Best Man by Kristan Higgins

In an age of one night stands, here comes story of Faith ready to have  a dream wedding with love of her life; only to be jilted at altar. Fast forward to three years later, where Faith is getting attracted to the person responsible for ruining her wedding- The Best Man- Levi Cooper.

Here are the leads that always felt something for each other. Even when she was dating his best friend, supposedly love of her life. Did they pursue each other then? No, ignoring the attraction over the practicality of their situation. and what do they do years after when they meet again and old attraction rekindles is the rest of the story here.

I loved Faith's family drama, and the characters that supported our leads. I loved Faith's spirit, an epileptic patient, she doesn't let her disability, her ruined wedding, small town gossip, tragedies of her past or lack of dating success lessen her optimism. Never once in entire book, even when she is broken, she seems depressed. Her relationship with her past fiance are also shown too mature.

Her relationship with our lead Levi cooper, although starts with attraction, slowly brews and grows on us. I felt some kind of domesticity whenever they both were involved. One of the rare books now, that doesn't force putting Sex in front of readers all in name of passion.  It just remains a part of their relationship, never overshadowing it.

What didn't worked for me was poor development of Levi's character. I just failed to connect with this guy. I failed to reason his logic of dating Faith, or of fighting with her. He seemed too superficial. Even his efforts for reconciliation didn't generate any empathy. I think his poor character development is the main reason, why story wouldn't stay with you long after you read it, inspite of having strong plot and other strong lead and supporting characters.

Memorable Quotes- None, but yes I had a happy feeling whenever Faith was around in book.

My Verdict - Wish the male lead had any depth.

Best to read - This one is really long, so start reading when you can justify that time. Story itself will not grip you to finish it. 

Availability -  Amazon

The Reluctant Matchmaker

Well I am back again after a long break. No, I Didn't stop reading all these years, just stopped reviewing them apart from some on Good reads. But this year's resolve is to start this blog again. And here I am...

Well the first book I read in 2019, is The reluctant matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal. The premise is pretty much set in Amerika as we desis call it, with  protagonist being second generation American - Indian.

Now this is how book fared for me-

Plot - With female protagonist(Meena Shenoy) interested in male, and our hero being so dumb to ask her to find a bride for him, this could have made for really intriguing plot but alas writer was too lazy to put depth in it. He could have easily carved pun in this extremely predictable story but he missed it.

Primary Characters - Well I almost can say this was one protoganist story as our hero missed any kind of character building here. Remember one iconic male character that resists female protagonist as he was too dangerous for her kind. That was Edward to our Bella and it was Vampire ~Human love story. Our hero here uses same convulated logic that  he is not good for our female protagonist due to his gigantic build and in his own words, " Any Kind of physical relationship with me will be death of you"😂 and "Can you honestly see a man over two hundred pounds making love to a doll like you,"🤔 well with male protagonist having such harebrained logic , it was difficult to accept him as CEO of a software firm in US.

In any normal book, I would have dismissed Meena's character too, but her being only one to cling to, I feel that writer should have carved the characters better.

Secondary Characters - Many a times in book, I felt that writer just made a checklist of requirements of story, and implemented all in this one without bothering to check whether there was requirement for the story or not. For example most of romantic Mills and boons type of books have one evil vamp, here we had one lady called Gargi Bansal, which was there is three to four instances in book. Our female protagonist says she is evil, and we have to accept she is evil. She does almost nothing in entire book. Why she was there is big mystery. Also there were bunch of other odd Characters and a sub-plot of Meena's brother loving a Muslim that were utterly unnecessary and did nothing to the story.
The second character of Akka that was sort of Grand mother of Meena and actual match maker is end also was a imposed on us. As if writer thought there is need of one sassy Grand Mother and there she is available in out story. Just like we have seen in many movies based on NRIs life. Replace here with any Good friend / Neighbour/ collegues and then also you won't miss any thing in book. That is all because writer was too lazy to build his characters or to give them any depth.

Memorable quotes - None

My Verdict -Opportunity wasted due to lazy writing

Best to read - I read this one when I was there at some place and needed to read something but couldn't afford to invest my much attention in that. I call it Passive Reading. Reluctant Matchmaker doesn't deserve undivided attention.

Availability - Hardcopy at Amazon and Flipkart

Animal Farm

Fight for the Freedom. Agreement to establish a democratic system. Commandments for the secular state. And in the end, few of the fighters become “More Privileged” and rest of them “toil hard for the needs of the privileged ones… Does it resembles the state of our Country? Actually its synopsis of the “Animal Farm”  by George Orwell.

The catch here is the book was published way back in 1945, before India got its freedom. And yet, it coincidentally mirrors the Journey of India or rather many democratic states.

The fight of the freedom by animals, their abhorrence for humans, and the ultimate behavior of some animals matching with humans, is satire on our political systems.

Though according to the writer Orwell, the book is based on, events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalin era in the Soviet Union, its content and satirical message is much more relevant in today’s scenarios also.

It’s one of those reads, that will never fade with time, and will send you in deep thought on what our political scenario has became

The best thing about ‘Animal Farm’:-

 The Content- though written way back in 1945, I could connect with the story today also..

 Crisp writing- The writer if wanted could have converted this novella and dragged it to become full-fledged book. But he deliberately avoided that, giving thought provoking plot in small novella.

The Characters – The characters are actually inspired by certain world famous leaders. But actually you can always identify them with leaders that came into force even after book was published. This is the most important facet of “Animal Farm” that makes it relevant even today.

The Commandments – Yes, “Animal Farm”, gives you seven commandments of animal world that are modified as per changing times. It’s satire on how we change our values for our benefit.

Animal Farm was a surprise read, recommended by some Friend. And I truly recommend everyone to atleast once read this humorous – political – satire that will send you deep thoughts but with a smile on your face.

Overall  5/5 read

The famous quotes are its seven commandments and modifications thereof:

The original commandments are:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

Later, the changed commandments are as follows:-

4. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.

Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey As Told by Christian

First of all, let me admit, I liked the trilogy- Fifty Shades of Grey a lot.  The time I read it, I was unmarried and it was first erotic series that introduced me to the world of BDSM. So, it was novelty. And more than that, its Ana-Grey’s love story had striking resemblance to Bella-Edward’s relationship that touched my heart. And why not, the series originally was posted as Fan-Fiction to Twilight.

Coming to Grey- Fifty shades by E L James from the point of view of Christian Grey. The story is same as First part of trilogy’s series Fifty Shades of Grey, albeit from the point of view of Christian Grey, as opposed to Anastasia’s version in first series. The idea is also inspired from Twilight series (Stephenie Meyer's unfinished version of Twilight from point of view of Edward – Midnight Sun).

Well we never got to read Mid night sun, So I had to pre – order this one for sure. The book arrived on the stipulated time, and as soon I finished my office, and home chores, and started with this. And my boy it was sooo long. I sincerely felt that the book dragged at certain points especially the occasions of sex. The negative point here is, if I didn’t know the story, I would have read word by word of it. But as knew it, I skipped the paras, where sex was feeling repetitive.

The narration- the selling point of this book, whose story world already knew, was its narration from point of view of mysterious Christian Grey, the world wanted to know, what exactly he thought of his relationship with Anastasia Steele. However this selling point turned off when I started reading this book. When Anastasia’s narration touched heart, I as a reader connected to her as like her I was novice to world of BDSM before reading this book. Like her, I was exploring this with the book. I felt like her. But I couldn’t empathize with Christian in same way. His character is too advanced in his world and I fail to form sync with him in Grey. As a reader, I fail to make a connect with protagonist. I think this is a two way sword the failure of the book as well as the success of it.

Apart from this failed relationship with narrator, the fan of series would surely enjoy the book, especially the climax. Grey’s feeling and his view to give his and Ana’s relationship a chance, will surely make up for the long drag book, Grey is. Also for original lovers like me, it will inspire you to re-read Ana’s version of Fifty Shades of Grey again.

Summarising the book in Grey's Style, the book is not Outstanding or dud....It's like its name is Grey, you won't love it, buy will surely read it.

And regarding the expectations from possible sequel, In words of Christian Grey, "Do I dare to hope?

Damn it. Yes, I do."

As a Fan of series 3.5 out of 5.

Favourite Quotes- None from Christian’s World.

About

This blog is my tribute to the world of books. 


I am obsessed with reading, do not hear or reply to anybody when I am reading. I Love Romance heroes, live in world of Fantasy and imagine myself Austen's Girl. Harry Potter is a friend and Mr. Darcy the Love, I have secret crush on Dimitri and behave like Elizabeth Bennet. Crazy isn't...


Lately I decided to share my love of  books,  and blogging came as handy medium. And this blog is the result.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Happy Reading..

Love,

Bhavna

Eclipse

‘Eclipse’ by Stephenie Meyer, is the third book of her famous ‘Twilight’ series, continuing the story of Bella and Edward from the first and second book.

Bella has got her Edward back and their Love life is back on the tracks. Vampire Victoria is on loose trying to kill Bella to avenge the death of his mate James.  Jacob black is open about his feelings about Bella and fighting hard so that she chooses him over Edward.

Bella is set to become vampire after her graduation. She wants Edward to change her, Edward wants to marry Bella. Jacob wishes Edward hadn’t came back and he would have eventually had Bella. And Bella wants to have one ‘special human experience’ before she becomes a vampire.

There is a love triangle and villain on the loose, and werewolves and Cullens are together to fight with them.

So whom does Bella choose, Werewolf  or Vampire? Whether they win over Victoria or not. What will Bella do to have her one ‘special human experience’ before she becomes a vampire. or Whether Edward will make her Vampire at all… ‘Eclipse’ gives all answers..

The best thing about ‘Eclipse’:-

-          The saga of teenage love. The confusion of loving two persons in a different way. Eclipse appeals all the teenagers/ young adult who have gone through these feelings of ‘whether I am in love or not’, he is my love, but I love that one a little too’. For those who read it in their mature age, it would be a pleasant de-ja-vu of our school-college days.

-          When you go through the pages, you cannot help but admire how ordinarily the writer has portrayed the central characters. The protagonists though extra ordinary in a way, behave like what very normal persons do. I can almost feel Bella’s emotions over two guys, her anxiety over the unknown life of a vampire, chosen by her, Jacob’s fury over loving the girl who loves somebody else, or has chosen life most hated him, Edward’s guilt that he is taking life away from his Bella.

-           The plot- the plots and subplots mingle in each other without superimposing on each other. Here’s a love triangle, and a preparation of fight against Victoria, both the events happens throughout the book, and circumstances follow naturally...

-          The characters – Bella’s confused, she loves Edward but cannot hurt Jacob also. Edward is determined to fight for Bella to save her life and have her in his life. Jacob is impatient to have Bella and save her from Vampire life. The characters have so well progressed from previous series, like people growing gradually…

-          The quotes, the way Edward and Jacob express their love for Bella made me cry… I wanted to be Bella myself, I think it’s the most winning part of the book.

Eclipse always had expectation to be better than its prequels, and progress in the love life of Edward- Bella, but feelings of Bella for Jacob was  indeed a happy surprise. Like any other book of the series, it made me carve for more and pick the next.

Overall  5/5 read and best in the series…

The famous quotes:

“If we could bottle your luck, we’d have a weapon of mass destruction on our hands.”

“The way you move — you orient yourself around him without even thinking about it. When he moves, even a little bit, you adjust your position at the same time. Like magnets… or gravity. You’re like a… satellite, or something.”

“I wanted to make both of them get out of their cars and shake hands and be friends — be Edward and Jacob rather than vampire and werewolf. It was as if I had those two stubborn magnets in my hands again, and I was holding them together, trying to force nature to reverse herself…”

“But if you ever bring her back damaged again — and I don’t care whose fault it is; I don’t care if she merely trips, or if a meteor falls out of the sky and hits her in the head — if you return her to me in less than the perfect condition that I left her in, you will be running with three legs. Do you understand that, mongrel?”

“I had no right to want you — but I reached out and took you anyway. And now look what’s become of you! Trying to seduce a vampire.”

“Isabella Swan? I promise to love you forever — every single day of forever. Will you marry me?”

“When I left you, Bella, I left you bleeding. Jacob was the one to stitch you back up again. That was bound to leave its mark — on both of you. I’m not sure those kinds of stitches dissolve on their own. I can’t blame either of you for something I made necessary. I may gain forgiveness, but that doesn’t let me escape the consequences.”

“I used to think of you that way, you know.

Like the sun. My personal sun. You balanced out the clouds nicely for me.”

He sighed. “The clouds I can handle. But I can’t fight with an eclipse.”

“It had not been Edward and Jacob that I’d been trying to force together, it was the two parts of myself, Edward’s Bella and Jacob’s Bella. But they could not exist together, and I never should have tried”