Book Reviews

Raavan – Enemy of Aryavarta

Heroes or Villains, no books are worth a pick-and-read unless they are intriguing. Amish Tripathi, the master storyteller of the Shiva Trilogy, Ram and Sita offers us with his latest offering Raavan – Enemy of Aryavarta. And boy, he simply doesn’t seem to lose his winning streak. (Touchwood.) We have read various versions of Raavan like from the perspective of Ashok Banker, Anand Neelkanthan, Kavita Kane. We have seen him through B.

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#Mythology

Beast

So here’s the thing about Krishna Udayasankar’s characters. They are not perfect; they are not knights in shining armours. They are not the goody-good stereotypical Adarsh people. Most importantly, they are neither stain-free nor flawless. And that, my friend, makes her characters relatable. They are so engaging that the readers find themselves stepping into the characters’ shoes more often than ever. Plot: Prithvi is a Saimha – a were-lion, who continually struggles to tame the beast within him and troubled by the demons of his past.

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#Fantasy #Thriller

UNNS – The Captivation

This is the second time I got the opportunity to get my hands on Sapan Saxena’s book. The young author who has enjoyed quite an excellent debut with his book Finders, Keepers, now tries to charm his audience with UNNS – The Captivation. Does he succeed? Does he live up to his readers’ expectations? He does/doesn’t. You have to read it yourself to form an opinion on this. Plot: Unns (definition for dummies like me: An Arabic/Farsi/Urdu word for love, attachment, friendship) – The Captivation is about Atharva Rathod and Meher Qasim and their story of 28 years (my assumption: one year in school, fifteen years of separation, twelve years later.

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#Romance #Thriller

AB de Villiers: The Autobiography

Corrections The name is AB de Villiers. Abbas de Villiers. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is the name of AB’s father and AB Jr. AB was never shortlisted for South African national hockey squad, national football squad, captain of junior rugby, holder of national school swimming records, fastest 100m junior sprinter, member of national junior Davis Cup tennis team (well, almost), nation under-19 badminton champion, national medal winner for a science project, plays of handicap of scratch in golf.

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#Biographies

Immortal

Before I start my review, I think I should make a confession. Krishna Udayasankar, the brain behind Immortal, deserves my apology. Her book and talent was highly underestimated. (Not to mention the error in judgement about her gender. Trust me, names can be misleading.) It took me a while to notice about her being a bestselling author. I was introduced to this book by a shadow account on twitter by the handle viz.

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#Thriller

He Lost His Mobile And…

An advisory note for the bookworms and the potential bookworms: If at all, anyone wishes to explore new books (read: experiment with new authors or genre) then I have a perfect checklist to make their choices easier. So here it goes: One. The author is a debutante. Two. The author is a Puneite. And three. The author is an engineer. If the book’s author matches the requirements then congratulations, you already have a potential bestseller in your hands.

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Menaka’s Choice

First things first. Kavita Kane, the author who previously penned **Karna’s Wife **and **Sita’s Sister **deserves a huge round of applause for her latest book Menaka’s Choice. If you assume that this book too, talks from a feminist’s point of view then you may need to read the book and correct yourself. This book is as much about men as about the women involved in this story. The protagonist Menaka is not just an enchantress apsara (heavenly nymph) who is treated as an object of lust.

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Play With Me

Before I start writing the review about this book, I would like to make it clear that this book (touted as India’s first erotic thriller) contains contents for readers above the age of 18. I hope that makes it clear that kids should not pick up this book read. So, this book by Ananth who is a photographer by profession, debuts in the world of literature by a topic that is a taboo by default in India – SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS.

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#Romance

The Mahabharata Quest: The Alexander Secret

First things first, the author Christopher C. Doyle deserves a pat on his back for the improvement in his quality of storytelling. It’s no secret that his first book The Mahabharata Secret wasn’t as exciting as expected. In my personal opinion, I had even contemplated giving up his book mid-way. After reading his previous book, I was in two minds if I should read this book or not. Luckily the courage to read it paid off.

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#Thriller

Ajaya: The Rise of Kali (Epic of the Kaurava Clan, #2)

A wise man once said, “There are three versions of a story – the winner’s version, the loser’s version and the truth.” However, what happens when we read the winner’s and the loser’s version? Who is telling the truth? Whom do we believe? Another wise man once said, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” Sometimes, even fiction seems more believable than the truth. Anand Neelakantan, even though he said that his book is a work of fiction, successfully questions the beliefs of the readers of Mahabharata.

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