Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Its one of my favorite young adult novels, even though I read it once long back, I wanted to read it once again before I review it. I really appreciate the author for creating such a wonderful suspense story. I so wanted to read the remaining books but I was caught with other books. I watched Complete 1 season of ”Pretty little liars” and 2 season is  waiting to be watched in my system. I heard that they are broadcasting the 3 season next week on ABC family.

Imagine you having a popular BFF and everyone wants to be you, but you are not sure weather having such a BFF is curse or blessing. This is how it  is for Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily. Their BFF Alison disappears during the slumber party.After her disappearance, the four friends gradually drift apart until no one can even recall they were once friends. It’s now three years later and the teens are about to start their junior year. Spencer is very clever and competitive with her older sister about everything, Hanna is now the new model like girl but carries a terrible secret about her drastic makeover,Aria is back from Iceland with her family and has a crush on a new boy, unfortunately she just found out he’s her new English teacher, and Emily is the  good girl doing what she can to please her parents, that is until she meets Maya and finds out a new change in her. All four have secrets and they shared it only with Alison who took it with her to grave or thats what they think until it all starts coming back to them haunting. They start getting message and mails about their little secrets by A. Their life is complete mess now!  Who is A? What happened to Alison? What are their secrets?

Now that I read this book, I will soon start reading remaining books from ”Pretty little liars series”. Once I finish this series I want to read Lying game by the same author.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

I really don’t know how to write something bad about a book. I never wrote till now! I am very choosy in reading even though I like to explore different writing style. But when I took up this book to read I was expecting a lot, No 1 New York Time Best seller! Wow I wonder how.

First of all these type of books are not my choice. I have never read a complete erotica book. Through out first few chapters it was going real good, college student Anastasia who never had sex in her life, meets Drop dead gorgeous, handsome and rich Christian Grey who falls for Anastasia but never loves her! Anastasia loves him deeply and  wants to get the same treatment from him. How she tries to change him is the story through out the book.

Facts I didn’t like:

1. Male character is rich and handsome, thats normal. But he has a big business at the age of 26 and he is a trained pilot and worked for four years in that field, but never works. He is always busy sleeping with the heroine or e mailing her or messaging her. And he reaches wherever she goes and he is good at stalking and finding out where she is ( that is like real creepy! imagine your lover following wherever you go)
2. Anastasia blushes and chews her lips through out the book, if you take out those parts from the book then book will come down to half of what it was before.
3. Those rules and regulations given by Christian to Anastasia is so boring and long.
4. There is no love between them, and Anastasia agrees to sleep with him whenever he wants and takes all his gifts. When there is no love, I don’t see any self respect in her.

Fact I liked: Anastasia loves him deeply and tries to understand his situation and keeps trying to change him.

There are two more books, its a trilogy. First book  ended without giving a hint about what happens next or what happened in Christian’s past. I skipped so many pages, and finally finished this because I just wanted it to end.  I wanted to see what made people to think so good about this book. I never found the male character hot or lovable why would anyone admire him? He is crazy, abusive, disrespectful of women, a control freak, and a stalker, but I felt pity for female character. This is a fan fiction of  ”Twilight Saga” only names are changed but I don’t see any other similarity. Instead of ” The book everyone is talking about” it should be ” The book everyone finding difficulty to finish”.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I have always wanted to read this book, a true classic. Jane Austen is one of the great masters of the English language, and its one of her masterpieces. I enjoyed the book. It was wonderful feeling to read such an old book. Even though I took many days to read this book, I liked it.

I like almost all characters here, especially headstrong Elizabeth and proud Mr. Darcy. They make a good pair together. When the wealthy Mr. Bingley moves to Netherfeld Mrs. Bennet is  certain he will marry one of her girls: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, or Lydia. And so one of the greatest love stories ever told begins. More than anything I liked the way author described the society through out the story.

I faced difficulty to understand the heavy English language ( I am so used to simple novels.. I should read classics more often to get a grip on language). While reading sometimes I used audio books too.One thing I noticed is author never describes about places and the interior of houses a lot, it would have been more helpful to know the things from olden days better. But I would surely read more classics it makes me happy.

I am planning to watch movies based on the novel. There are many, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice gets a Bollywood treatment and its called  Bride and prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai  and Martin Henderson.

Brida by Paulo Coelho

”Nothing in the world is entirely wrong my dear, even a stopped clock is right twice a day”

I’m a big Coelho fan and i have read only two books so far! The alchemist was a great phenomenon,  when compared to The Alchemist, Brida does not match that level. But I liked the same positive energy throughout the book. The author once again brings about a good reflection on universal truths and spiritual enlightenment.

Soul mate, love at first sight concept  doesn’t exist now or if it still exists people are not bothered about that. This book explains a lot about soul mates and how they are formed and why they are meant to be together. But at the end it tells us even the soul mate concept will not stand if there is no love in between soul mates. As usual with all his energetic philosophies and a good story line I completely enjoyed reading.

This is a story about a young Irish girl who wants to learn magic. She finds two teachers to teach her magic. Both are excellent teachers, Magus who follows the tradition of sun and Wicca who follows the tradition of moon. But which one will she choose is left to her and her destiny. During  all these learning sessions she learns about  concept of soul mate and gets curious to know who is her soul mate. When she learns that she has a difficulty to follow that. A young girl’s confused, fascinating, magical tale of achievement.

I know magic is something, most of the people will not believe. Its up to you how you want to take it. If you consider this as a  real story ( I see author saying so before the story stars, or its only me who read it? ) or fiction. I found many things I came across before in my life just like how I found some similar things happened or happening in life when I read The Alchemist. I strongly believe in fact where Wicca says to Brida that clothes carry a part of emotions like happiness or sadness from past at least the memories will be there in them. Some clothes always makes us sad or put us in danger when we wear them because they are not meant for us, but for someone, we bought it by mistake. I felt that many times that clothes reflect our past feelings which we had when we wore them and some clothes no matter when I wear them gives a kind of un easy feeling  or sad feeling.

I would say its great book if you are interested to know about magic, witchcraft and related things.

Time to read something which I never heard before..

As I promised myself to buy a book per month I ended up buying two! My previous book purchase ( The Alchemist, Brida and The secret life of bees) covered till April and I count this purchase for May and June

I  accidentally discovered this Book shop while I was taking a walk on Cornish Road. And for my surprise there was a book sale. This time I thought of buying something which I never heard of before. I bought Disco Daddy by Morag Prunty and Riptide by James Humphreys.

As I never heard about this authors or books before I am so exited to read these books. But I am in half way with Pride and Prejudice hope to finish that first. Let me know what you think about my book purchase, or if you have read these books before or heard about it please share your view.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I have seen people going mad after ”Twilight series”. But that never happened to me. Even though I watched movies based on the series I didn’t feel like reading the books. But recently I thought of reading it because I was bored of seeing it lying unopened. I am not bothered who is more hotter Jacob or Edward, or how expressionless but still manage to be pretty Bella Swan is, I like stories related to vampire so finally I completed reading the first book. I surprised myself, I actually liked TWILIGHT.

I don’t think I have to explain anything about the story. But still I will keep up with my usual  book reviewing pattern. Bella Swan, who moves from Phoenix to the small town of Forks, Washington, to live with her dad for the remainder of high school. There, she meets Edward Cullen who  is strange and she is drawn towards him. It’s the tale of Bella and Edward’s  relationship, filled with standard teenage drama with unexpected twists because, after all, Edward and his family are vampires. Who are not into human blood, and trying to calm their thirst with  animal blood and trying to be good. But everything changes when 3 wandering vampires form other place sees Bella.

I agree with the fact that Vampire stories should be terrific and filled with horror like Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But I also agree that everyone has the right to love, may be its monster or a normal human being. So if we look at this prospective then you will surely like Twilight.

Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

I don’t know why but I always find debut novels interesting, may be because I don’t know what to expect if I am reading a debut novel. If I am selecting some book form  one of my  favorite authors then I am definitely expecting something, if its totally new author then there is no such expectations. I was attracted by the book cover and the title.

This book was funny, sweet, sentimental and very touching. When I started reading it I never thought I would like it this much! A book about a road trip, think about it, how exiting! I always wanted to take road trips but some how I could’t This book is exactly what you expect from a long unplanned road trip.

Its about Amy, living in a house alone in California. Her mother has already moved to Connecticut, her twin brother is in rehab and her father recently died in a car crash. Her mother decides to shift completely by selling their house. After Amy’s exams when she wants to shift to Connecticut  that’s when Roger enters the scene. Amy doesn’t want to drive across America or anywhere else and Roger, a family friend’s son who has to go visit his father in Philadelphia, has been designated to drive for the trip. The route is set, Amy’s mom has planned it and booked the hotels.  Amy doesn’t like to go with a stranger in a car that too on four days trip. But after seeing him she realizes that how cute and attractive he is.They  both plan to take a detour for different reasons. They never check in in any hotels or go through already planned places. They set out completely for a detour. What happens then is extremely unexpected, twisting road trip.

An extremely interesting road trip story. I liked almost every characters in this book, especially Amy and Roger.  I wish I could take such adventurous road trips. I would give this book all 4 and 1/2 stars  A fast moving, young adult story I think if you like road trips then you should try reading this book.I would definitely  want to go to some road trip  sometime.

The Chronicles of Narnia Book 1 – The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

My first step towards ”The Chronicles of Narnia” is established. I have read the first book in the chronology of Narnia. It was the sixth book published in  The Chronicles of Narnia series.

It reveals the secrets about the world of Narnia and how it formed. I have already watched the movie based on the book  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which comes second in chronology and first in series. But after reading this book I came to know of many basic facts.

The Magicians Nephew is a story of two children Polly and Digory who were forced and sent to another world by Digory’s  uncle who knew little magic. From there their journey starts to unknown worlds. They found many worlds and go for exploring it. There they meet a witch who will follow them to the  land of Narnia, just born from the songs of  a lion Aslan. There they witness talking animals, gold growing trees  and many strange things. Digory receives a gift in return to his favor to Alsan before returning to home. What is the favor? Who is this witch? Where will she go from there?  How Narnia was born? It’s an interesting story about magic.

I totally liked the creation of Narnia. It was incredible imagination. I am happy that I decided to read this finally. Its a great fantasy, fiction novel.

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

This is the second Dan Brown book I’ve read, actually when I started reading this I was expecting something better than this. But its a good book if you are interested in thrillers. I read many reviews about this book saying most of the software related information are wrong, I don’t have much idea about that because I am not a genius when it comes to computer field. I felt interested only at the end and other than that I found the story little dry. But I liked Angels and Demons compared to this book.

”Digital Fortress” starts out quickly and continues with high speed. The basic outline of story is  is that a  former employee of the NSA has allegedly created an unbreakable encryption algorithm that he’s threatening to release into worldwide effectively rendering the anti-terrorism monitoring programs worthless. However, this man has died – and nobody knows who is now in control of his invention and who has the pass key to unlock it.  Susan a genius code breaker in NSA, is helping to break this problem. What happens to the people involved in NSA? Will they succeed to protect their Data from the new destructive invention?

I should say about authors writing style here, I liked the way he brought suspense in the story with lot of unexpected twists. Over all its a good book, but  I should warn you that read only if you are thriller fan

Rogue by Danielle Steel

I enjoy reading Danielle Steel’s novels, its good to read predictable happy endings sometimes. This is the second Danielle Steel book  and I liked it. I can’t say its too well written, but its one time or time pass read with lot of family drama and romance. The first book I read is- Toxic Bachelors that was quite fun compared to this one.  I have three Danielle steel books and all are given to me as gifts

Maxine has her life dedicated to her 3 children and her practice as child psychiatrist. After getting divorced from Blake, one of the richest man in the world she is happy with her life style. Blake and Maxine are like best friends now who comes once in a year like Santa Claus to meet his children. When she feels that she found some one in her life whom she can love and live with she realizes that Blake is a grown up man now and knows his responsibilities. Whom will she choose? What will happened to her love life? And why Blake is changed from a Rogue to a responsible person?

I am happy that author wrote a lot about teen drug addiction, suicides and many teen related queries and the way they deal with them in this book. And earthquake incidents which will break readers heart at one point. I am happy to see how novels can bring awareness in people. Even if it brings a small difference I am sure it will help people to know about it.

A slow moving (508 pages) novel. I will recommend this to people who like family drama but I should warn you its very slow going story( before you read, be aware of this) but with sudden twists!