Monday, May 27, 2019

#645 : The Seduction Expert by Saya Lopez Ortega : Review


The Seduction Expert is the story of a young woman who choose to call herself "The Baroness". Labeling herself to be a hard core proper feminist, the baroness deals in helping women finding about their partner's unfaithful activities. She also helps love stuck women (wealthy teenagers) "achieve" men of their liking by training neurologically to reach their target.  She is essentially a dominatrix who believes in destroying the men who cheat their partners. While her own "love life" has just got interesting, her to be mother-in-law quickly becomes her arch enemy. She treats her own "love" Louis as a case and trails him just like she would do for any other man who is her target. 

While the lead character, "The Baroness" does feel a lot like Miranda  from The Devil wears Prada initially, she is nothing like that as the story progresses. The premise of a feminist victory of sorts by outing a cheating man did seem exciting initially, but as the plot progressed and her "love life" came in to play, it felt cold and bitter. The book ends with such a smart and powerful cliffhanger that the readers would surely be prompted to pick the next. However, I personally felt that the writer might as well have finished the book. As such with satirical writing and sharp humor, the story was a pretty good read!

The writing is a bit odd in a way that it reads like as it if it were a work of translation. That's explicitly not mentioned anywhere though!

This book is strictly for people who enjoy satire and mild drama. 
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019

#644 : Beast by Krishna Udayasankar : Review


Indian fantasy thrillers are always a bit of a gamble to pick up. It's a rather a matter of preferences than the actual writing in question. With such prejudices and apprehension in mind, I decided to pick up the book and I didn't come to regret my decision. The pacing, the structure, the characters and the most important of all, the plot by itself made this book one good read. The story, which starts off being like a mystery at the slightest morphs into a fast-paced thriller as the plot moves along. 

Set in a typical Indian backdrop, Beast is an urban fantasy thriller. Incorporating interesting elements from Indian mythology, the story which starts off as a simple mystery quickly becomes an interesting adrenaline-pumping thriller. 

The female protagonist, ACP Aditi Kashyap is called in to solve a gruesome murder. The whole murder scene looks like as if it was handiwork of a ferocious animal. In parallel, an "enforcer", Pritivi, is called upon to solve the case and hunt the murderer. Together they embark on a dangerous journey involving werelions (or Saimhas) who have co-inhabited with humans since ancient times yet are hidden in plain sight. 

The writing was an absolute delight to read with rich detailing and crisp dialogues. Though the story initially did sound like a cliched werewolf kind, it was far from it as the plot thickened. The story is certainly very well laid out with no characters out of point or purpose. 

A good fantasy thriller after a long time! 

Do buy the book from Amazon
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#643 : Ate! - An Incomplete Short Story

Maya stood next to the picket fence gasping for air. After all, she managed to escape being caught by Nirmal. That was no ordinary feat. She looked around,expecting him to surprise her by pouncing from behind and getting her out of the game. She scanned the yard for places to hide. They always played in Nirmal’s backyard, but today they decided to move to Ami’s house. Nirmal’s mom wasn’t keeping well. This backyard was trim and clean unlike that of Nirmal’s. Mr. Ashok,Nirmal’s dad, loved bikes and cars, hence his yard was bare with various vehicle parts littered all over the place. Since she was the smallest of her friends, physically, she could hide behind one of those mammoth engines or door frames that were there on the yard. If Nirmal was chasing, he would always catch her by surprise in spite of her not making any sound. 

Today, she had no such thing to hide behind. Ami’s yard was filled with potted plants all arranged neatly. She had managed to reach the far end of the yard without tripping over the pots. She turned back and looked at all the plants. They were in varying stages of growth. There were flowers of all colors and sizes. A strong scent of wild Jasmine hung in the air. A slow smile crept to her eyes. There was rectangular patch towards her left. Four long wooden poles stood rooted in rectangular form, covered with vines and leaves. A small wooden horse lay rocking gently inside. She tiptoed towards it and sat on the horse. If felt a size smaller for her frame. That didn’t really prevent her from gripping the handle and rocking the horse gently. For a moment she forgot all about Nirmal and their game. It felt so nice to be in the garden and enjoying a rocking horse. She lived in one of those tall buildings with glass lifts. Her house was on the 7th floor. She hated that she couldn’t go out and stand on the balcony like her brother Rajesh did. He was taller than her and older too, though by just two years. This whole place felt dreamy to her. May be, she could persuade the gang to play in Ami’s house often. Ram came running out screaming and kicking down many pots in the process. Nirmal followed him laughing. At least he was careful enough not to step over the fallen plants. 

Maya sulked and stood up. It was time to end the game.She would walk straight to Nirmal and ask him to get her out. She wanted to stay in the garden taking in the scents and sights. She was bored of the hide and seek game. Her gang of 9 kids from her school almost always played this game for a year now. They had all joined the Sunny brook school in their kindergarten. Now they were all in the third grade. As she walked to towards Nirmal who was now in the floor tackling, a small figure appeared suddenly in front of her. It shot out of nowhere with a low swishing sound. It looked like it was some kind of a creature cut out from a tree. Two tiny black eyes blinked at her as she looked at it with curiosity. It reminded her of that woody thing from the movie her dad had watched on the TV few days back. She scratched her nose to try remember it’s name. It slowly stepped forward towards her. She looked at with curiosity. Were such things even real, she wondered? She stepped forward. It stood still and blinked at her.
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Writer's Note - I had begun writing this short story on 8th Feb 2018, it's May 2019 and I have lost both the story and the drive to complete writing it. Wondered what I'd do with an incomplete story. Thus the decision to throw it out in the open and "crowd-source" ideas to complete it or invite co-authors to complete it. Just so you know, the above piece is un-edited.

If you are interested in writing this along with me, please shoot me a mail - shreejanani@shreewrites.com or if you wish to give me an idea to complete it, please write to the same ID. 

What do you stand to gain? - I cannot afford anything monetary, however, visibility and good credits will certainly be given. 
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