Book Review #6: The DEViant, by Shankar Padmanaban.

Book name: The DEViant
Author: Shankar Padmanaban
Published by: Frog Books
Pages: 278
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult

Review:
The DEViant is the debut novel of Shankar Padmanaban, published by Frog Books, an imprint of Leadstart Corp, and is of 278 pages in length.
Congratulations to the author, first of all, on his debut. The language is simple and easy to read for the average readers.
The book follows the life journey of the protagonist, Sam, as he travels back and forth different cities for various things. Having the elements of a typical young adult story, the instances given in the book were quite relatable.

Positives:
1. Despite being the debut, the language and the flow of content were quite smooth. Kudos to the author and the editor for doing a great job with it.
2. At a lot of points, the description of the places Sam goes to are given in such details that you'll as though you're reading a biography.
3. 278 pages for a debut can be quite tiring, but here too, the author has excelled, as there are very few dull instances in the story.
4. The cover, the title, and the blurb are all intriguing.

Negatives:
1. Time and again, I found typographical errors at some places in the book.
2. The title seems odd, given the content of the story.
3. The blurb is misleading, too. As Dev Aryan isn't a villain. In fact, there are no antagonists here, at all.
4. I hate cliffhanger endings. And the Epilogue has a big cliffhanger to it!

Now, the ratings.

Cover - 8/10
Blurb - 6/10
Idea - 7.3/10
Story - 8.2/10
Presentation - 8.5/10
So, the overall rating, is 7.6/10

Read More

Book Review #5: Let The Game Begin! By Sandeep Sharma

Book name: Let The Game Begin!
Author: Sandeep Sharma
Published by: Inspire India Publishers
Pages: 170
Genre: Fiction, Historical Thriller

Getting straight to the Wows and Oops' of the novel.

Wows:
1. Chess. We have all been playing it since ages but never bothered to explore more about it (I know I never did).
2. Originality: When it comes to thrillers, I have noticed a similar narrative pattern. When I say that, I am drawing line of comparisons between two brilliant authors who have excelled at writing Theological Thrillers. Not mentioning their names. But the author here, taking a novel approach didn't take any chances and penned a new, a comparatively low-stakes thriller here. The plot, the outline, the characters, the suspense disclosed only at certain points is a definite hook.

Oops:
1. Short length: For a thriller, this one was pretty thinner at only 180 pages. So were the chapters.
2. The "to be continued": The climax was perfectly set, I didn't see any room for a continuation. Yet, when I reached the last page, there was a "to be continued" hook-line. "Death", the antagonist (I think) claimed that this game of Chess had just entered its new level.

So, coming to the rating.
Cover: 7/10
Story: 8/10
Idea: 8.5/10
Characterization: 8/10
Quality: 9/10
Length: 7/10
Hence, overall rating: 7.9/10

Let's see if book2 does justice to the first novel. Good luck, Sandeep.

Read More

Book Review #4: Punk Sunk Love by Dhirendra Tiwari

Book name: Punk Sunk Love
Author: Dhirendra Tiwari
Published by: Srishti Publishers & Distributors
Pages: 232
Genre: Fiction, Romantic Thriller

Review:
While the cover seems odd at first sight, the blurb is okay. But what matters, or what will make up for the odd title and cover alike, is the story.
Written in the form of two different storylines running parallel to each other, Punk Sunk Love has become one of the best romantic thrillers I have read that is not by Novoneel Chakraborty.
Until more than halfway through the book, there are two different stories running at a steady pace and everything seems so smooth that the reader wonders how the two storylines are gonna merge together when they do...and when an unpredictable twist merges them, I assure you, the book will get a hell lot more interesting that it was when both the stories started developing a romantic angle with the lead characters.
Like a lot of romantic thrillers, Punk Sunk Love ends up with a preachy line. "Life is too precious to be hung up on the past such that one cannot enjoy the present and secure the future." But this preachy line is presented with utmost earnestness and a happy ending will warm you up.

Rating:
Cover - 3.4/5
Blurb - 3.2/5
Premise - 4.0/5
Story - 4.6/5

Final verdict:
If you are looking for a romantic thriller, this one is definitive read for you. Though I gotta tell you, you'll think exactly what I thought when you finish it. "Title is wrong, man. It should have been, A Bitch Called...Destiny." That would be more captivating, innit?

P.S. There are some typesetting errors, like font getting dark and light in some pages, but I'm no one to criticize. It's all up to you.

Read More

Book Review #3: The Monsoon Murders by Karan Parmanandka

Book name: The Monsoon Murders
Author: Karan Parmanandka
Published by: Srishti Publishers & Distributors
Pages: 192
Genre: Crime Fiction, Murder Mystery

Review:
The Monsoon Murders is a murder mystery fiction set in a contemporary Mumbai and which is inspired from some real life cases, and is the debut novel of Karan Parmanandka.
The cover, as attached with this post, is interesting at first sight, and once the reader starts reading it, the cover makes perfect sense.
The blurb intrigues as equally as the cover. Although not at first sight, it has a gradual pull at us.
Now, the story.
The story seems a mess at the beginning. There are a lot of loose ends. But I assure you, you know there are twists coming along, but you'll be blown when they come and you'll be like, "Holy Mother of God, I didn't see that coming!" Of course, your swearing will be different from mine.
I'll give out a minor spoiler here as to where the story picks up pace. It's not until almost halfway through and you feel like giving up due to the slow pace that a major twist makes its way to you and you'll be, "Okay, whoa!"

On a side note, there are some typos at a few points (quotation marks where the prose wasn't a dialogue). But those can be overlooked given their low frequency.

Rating:
Cover - 3.8/5
Blurb - 3.5/5
Premise - 4.2/5
Story - 4.1/5

Overall rating - 4.3/5

Final verdict:
It's a must read for readers and book-nerds alike who love murder mysteries by Indian authors.

Read More

Book Review #2: PANORAMA by Shilpi Chaklanobis

Book name: PANORAMA - A Collection of Short Stories
Author: Shilpi Chaklanobis
Published by: Notionpress
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary
Pages: 134

Review:

First of all, congratulations to the author on a smashing debut!

Now, the pointers.

Positives:
1. Every story in the book is unique and conveys a message.
2. The prose, the characters, their stories and back stories have been penned beautifully.
3. The blurb is appealing, so is the cover and then typeset.

Negatives:
1.  The consistency is a point at which the book somewhat falters. The messages are strong in each story, no doubt, but it's the presentation consistency where it fails.
2. As stated in point 1, the presentation is consistent from story #1 till #9, which starts to falter from #10 and doesn't gain momentum until the last two stories of this collection.
3. Apart from that, I found some punctuation errors at a few places and some indenting errors. But these can be overlooked because the core strength of the book lies in its prose.

Hence, overall it's a wonderful read for the normal readers and experienced ones, alike.

Ratings:
Blurb - 4/5
Premise(s) - 4/5
Cover - 3.5/5
Presentation - 3.8/5

Overall rating - 4/5

Read More

Book Review #1: Superwomen by Prachi Garg

Review-

"Super Women" by Prachi Garg mainly focuses on the inspirations and the motivations of the female entrepreneurs. It contains stories of amazing women. 

Mrs Prachi Garg has done a fabulous job in writing down these twenty stories of twenty startups which were started by women. Not just writing we can see how phenomenally research work for this is done.

MERITS:

1. Language is easy but writing style has made the words more beautiful.
2. Dedication to the success of the women in the stories.
3. Breaks the stereotype that a woman is in any way lesser than a man.

The title of the book catches the reader’s attention and every woman would pick the book just to know the reason why the book has been titled as Super Women.

I would to rate this book 5/5

Waiting for her next book coming by the end of December. 

 http://www.amazon.in/Super-Women-Prachi-Garg/dp/9382665633

Read More