My most-eagerly-awaited books of 2018

We are into the second month of 2018 and Wildaboutthewrittenword's wonderful post got me thinking - it's time I posted about my most anticipated books of this year. In fact, for the last few months, I've been scouring Amazon and Goodreads for the books I want to get my hands on this year, because let's face it - every true book lover has an inherent acquisitive streak and lives by the unwritten code - grab those hot new books immediately on their release and hoard them, no matter how many unread books you already have lying around!

So here's my list of most eagerly awaited books of 2018 (new releases from February onwards), in no particular order, complete with curated summaries and comments by yours truly to whet the discerning reader's appetite :):

1. Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley (Expected release date - April 24): 

Some houses don't want to give up their secrets - Wilde House on Long Island in America is one such house. Wilde House now houses a museum and Charley is its new curator. She comes to believe that the eerie atmosphere of the house is somehow linked to the legend of a pair of lovers connected to the Wilde family in the 18th Century.

Did the doomed romance of Lydia and her French-Canadian lieutenant really happen or was it just a ghost story invented by the family and passed down from generation to generation? Who is the ghost that haunts Wilde House now? Will the truth ever come out?

My thoughts: Which lover of gothic novels can truly resist the lure of an old house full of secrets and legends of doomed lovers? :) This book sounds like one of Susanna's patented past-present novels, but maybe with a real ghost this time, if I'm lucky enough!

2. Her Mother's Secret by Rosanna Ley (Expected release date - May 15): 

Colette has been estranged from her mother Thea for many years and has been avoiding returning to her homeland in Southern Brittany. But when she hears about her mother's failing health, she is forced to return to the island of Belle-Île-en-Mer and confront the past she had left behind.

What happened all those years ago and how did it cause the rift between mother and daughter? Even as Thea opens up to her daughter and Colette takes over the running of her mother's flower shop, it becomes clear that Colette is still unaware of a devastating family secret. Will unravelling it change the course of her life?

My thoughts: Rosanna Ley's books captivate me more because of their exotic settings than their plots - this one seems to be no exception. Looking forward to reading more about the beauty and customs of this island in Brittany, France.

3. Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb (Expected release date - November 1): 

It's time for the lake to give up its secrets. 
Kate Granger moves into her parent's home in Lake Superior to recover from the breakup of her marriage, only to discover the body of a murdered woman washed ashore. Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is a dead infant, as cold as its mother. No one can identify the woman, except for Kate. She’s seen her before in her dreams. 

Kate begins to have more dreams of the drowned woman - is she trying to convey something to Kate? How is the woman's story linked to the tragic love story and mysterious murder that is said to have taken place one hundred years back? Is all this somehow connected to the haunting folktale that has been whispered about for generations?

My thoughts: Be still, my beating heart! Spirits of dead women reaching out through dreams, bodies floating in the lake, haunting folklore and centuries-old murders left unsolved - perchance this will turn out be one of the best reads of this year!

4. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (Expected release date - March 20): 

This novel is about an abandoned boarding school for "troubled" girls in Vermont - Idlewild Hall. There are rumours about something sinister in the shut-down school - ghosts, hidden bodies and long buried secrets. When journalist Fiona Sheridan learns that Idlewild Hall is being restored, she is determined to find out more, because she has a vested interest in Idlewild - it was the spot where her murdered sister's body was found 20 years back. Her sister's boyfriend was convicted of the murder and imprisoned but he always maintained that he was innocent of the crime. Fiona can't let her sister's case go because she has a feeling that something isn't adding up. As she delves deeper into the boarding school's past, she finds out that a girl named Sonia had mysteriously gone missing from the school in the fifties and was never found. 

The story goes back and forth between the lives of four girls who are students of the school in 1950 (Sonia is one of them) and Fiona's present-day quest. Is the murder of her sister somehow linked to the missing girl Sonia way back in the fifties? What is the secret that lies buried in Idlewild Hall? Because of Fiona's search, the ghosts of the past are about to rise again. Here's a rather creepy excerpt:

"Mary Hand, Mary Hand,
Dead and buried under land...
Faster, faster. Don't let het catch you.
She'll say she wants to be your friend...
Do not let her in again!"

My thoughts: Sounds like a perfect goosebumps-inducing mystery to be read with all the lights on :)

5. Untitled Book 6 by Kate Morton (Expected release date - September 20): 

Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items - a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist's sketchbook including the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river. The sketched image of the house is immediately familiar to Elodie as the house from a bedtime story her mother used to tell when she was small. But the only person who might be able to shed light on why that might be, Elodie's Uncle Tip, falls firmly silent upon seeing the photograph of the beautiful Victorian woman. Meanwhile, in its quiet bend of the Upper Thames, the twin-gabled house is waiting. For the house wants the truth of what happened over hundred and fifty years earlier to be revealed. 

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists, led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe, descends upon the house in rural Oxfordshire to spend the next few months in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time summer is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared, a priceless heirloom - the Radcliffe Blue Diamond - is missing, and Edward Radcliffe's life is in ruins. 

What really happened all those years back? Who is the mysterious beautiful woman whose name history has forgotten? Will Elodie be able to uncover the long-kept secrets of the house?

My thoughts: Promises to be vintage Kate Morton - complete with mysterious house, skeletons in the cupboard (pun intended) and sepia photographs of beautiful women (there are always a few of these lying around in gothic novels)! 

6. A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Numerous Authors, compiled by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman (Expected release date - June 26): 

A mountain loses her heart. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. A young woman takes up her mother’s mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place. 

Star-crossed lovers, meddling immortals, feigned identities, battles of wits, and dire warnings. Fifteen bestselling and acclaimed authors reimagine the folklore, legends and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are mystical, enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate.

My thoughts: Folklore, legends, fairy tale, mythology - can hardly wait!! 

7. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (Release date pending): 

Set in a darkly glamorous Paris, the book follows the cursed but charismatic heir of a massive fortune as he plots to steal three ancient and powerful artifacts of fate. He and his crew will have to navigate the elite gatherings of secret occult societies, traveling through Paris' catacombs where they must confront their worst secrets as well as a destiny they never imagined. 

My thoughts: Roshani Chokshi had me at "curse" and "occult" :)

8. Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews (August 28): 

This is the much hyped 10th and penultimate book of the thrilling and addictive Kate Daniels Urban Fantasy series. Kate has come a long way from her origins as a loner taking care of paranormal problems in post-Shift Atlanta. She's made friends and enemies. She's found love and started a family with Curran Lennart, the former Beast Lord. She even has a son now to take care of. But her magic is too strong for the power players of the world to let her be. 

Kate and her enormously powerful father, Roland, currently have an uneasy truce, but when he starts testing her defenses again, she knows that sooner or later, a confrontation is inevitable. The Witch Oracle has begun seeing visions of blood, fire, and human bones. And when a mysterious box is delivered to Kate's doorstep, a threat of war from the ancient enemy who nearly destroyed her family, she knows their time is up. 

Kate Daniels sees no other choice but to combine forces with the unlikeliest of allies. She knows betrayal is inevitable. But she has to try. Will she survive the battle? Will her family and Atlanta survive?

My thoughts: Having been a squeal-y fan girl of the snarky Kate, the not-so-beastly Curran and the entertaining clans of werewolf shapeshifters for a long time, I am waiting with bated breath for this exciting conclusion to a long but never boring series. The author duo has been tantalising fans with snippets from the upcoming book on their blog and I am simply dying to know if Kate's all-powerful father Roland is truly evil or will there be a reconciliation in the end. I also can't get enough of Kate's cute baby who will debut in this book.

9. Smoke in the Sun by Renee Ahdieh (Expected release date - June 5): 

The highly anticipated ending to the 'Flame in the Mist' duology is due for release soon. Following the capture of Okami and his band of rebels at the end of the first book (reviewed by me here), Mariko has no choice but to return to Inako and face the dangers that have been waiting for her in the Heian Castle. She tricks her brother, Kenshin, and betrothed, Raiden, into thinking she was being held in the Jukai Forest by the Black Clan against her will, playing the part of the dutiful bride-to-be to infiltrate the emperor's ranks and uncover the truth behind the betrayal that almost left her dead. 

As Mariko beings to peel back the layers of lies and deception surrounding the imperial court while trying to free Okami, she gets ensnared in a political scheme that threatens her honor, her love and the very safety of the empire. Who is on her side and who is plotting against her? Can she right the wrong that was done against Okami's father all those years back and save the empire too? 

My thoughts: I really liked Book 1 and Mariko's growth arc there. I hope this one will take it further and successfully wrap up all the plotlines (thankfully, this is only a duology!)

10. The Sapphire Trader's Secret by Dinah Jeffries (Expected release date - February 22): 

It is the year 1935 in Ceylon. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child. While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation, overlooking the Indian ocean. After his sudden death, Louisa is left alone to solve the mystery he left behind.  Revisiting the plantation at Cinnamon Hills, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn towards the owner Leo, a rugged outdoors man with a chequered past. All is not as it seems in the plantation on Cinnamon Hills and soon a shocking betrayal is revealed. Is Leo somehow connected with Elliot's death? What is the secret that Elliot was trying to hide from Louisa before his death?

My thoughts: I like Dinah Jeffries' historical fiction novels because of her ability to transport the reader to exotic settings of the bygone era - be it vivid descriptions of India under the British rule in Before the Rains, Ceylon in the 1920s in the lushly written The Tea Planter's Wife or Vietnam under the French rule in The Silk Merchant's Daughter. The latest by this author appears to be another intriguing one set in bygone Ceylon.

I just noticed that most of the books on this list appear to be about "secrets"!! Hmmm...what does that say about my reading preferences, I wonder! Maybe I'm a person who really likes ferreting out secrets :)

With such a long TBR list, one thing that's no secret is that my plan for most weekends spent at home this year will look something like this - no matter what the weather, I'll be curled up with a book!!

Forest of secrets

Book review: Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

A heady rush in the blood, a faster beat of the heart, every nerve on high alert - any book-lover will recognize this feeling - of unexpectedly discovering a few pages into a book that this is a rare treasure one can't let go of till the last chapter, come what may. Forget sleep, food, office work, test preparation, grocery, guests - everything. One is so sucked into the world created by the author that the world outside ceases to exist. Such authors have that extra genius - every chapter they write becomes progressively more enthralling. Such books are extra awesome - one cannot not review them. So here I am - eight months after my last novel review - driven to review this clever, clever book, "Flame in the Mist" by Renee Ahdieh. This was the last book of my 2017 half-yearly target book list and after having finished all the books on that list, I can honestly say that none of the other books came even close to this one.

I had found the author's debut novel, "The Wrath and the Dawn" enchanting, with its fiery heroine, Shazi and its slowly developing romance and Arabian Nights setting. Its sequel "The Rose and the Dagger"was good, but not as brilliant. "The Flame in the Mist"is completely different from the previous duology - with a feudal Japan setting, more historical overtones than fantasy and a lot more political intrigue. It is also less romantic, though the romance, when it comes late in the book, is breathtaking. The book does have elements of Mulan and 47 Ronin, but in the end, has an unique plotline.

The heroine of the book is Mariko, the young daughter of a wealthy samurai clan, Hattori. She has always been the odd one in the family - a cerebral person who thinks deeply before she acts, is able to read people and predict their motivations and is an aspiring inventor. Being a woman in feudal Japan, she has far less freedom of choice than her twin brother, Kenshin, though she constantly wants to learn more about the world.

Curious had been the word most often ascribed to her when she was younger. She’d been the watchful sort of child. The one conscious of every mistake. When Mariko had erred, it had usually been intentional. An attempt to push barriers. Or a desire to learn. Usually it was that. A wish to know more.
As she grew from a curious child into an even more curious young woman, the word she most often overheard at her back was odd. Much too odd. Far too prone to asking questions.
Far too apt to linger in places she wasn’t meant to be.

Source: pininterest

When the book begins, Mariko is journeying through the creepy Jukai forest (forest of demons) with her entourage, on her way to the imperial city of Inako, be married to the emperor's son, Prince Raiden. It is part of a political arrangement that is designed to elevate the status of her family. On the way, her attendants and guards are suddenly attacked and murdered, apparently by the infamous Black Clan of deadly warriors who are said to frequent the forest. Mariko overhears that the Black Clan wants to kill her and escapes into the surrounding forest. She devises a plan to track the Black Clan and infiltrate them - to find out why they intend to kill her and to plot her revenge.

Follow orders. Engender trust. Strike when they least expect it.

She is also motivated by the freedom to act as she pleases - she knows that the moment she gets back to her family, they will resume the preparations for her arranged marriage. As Mariko disguises herself as a boy and meets up with the Black Clan, she comes across as much more cautious than Ahdieh's previous heroine Shazi - Mariko is more of a planner and strategist who has to constantly motivate herself to be brave and take action. Her growth arc throughout the book from an intellectual to a warrior is a treat to watch.

We choose what we are in any situation, be it a word or an idea....

Be as swift as the wind. As silent as the forest. As fierce as the fire. As unshakable as the mountain.

The introduction to the Black Clan and its members led by Ranmaru and his second-in-command Okami is explosive - Mariko and the readers are straight away pulled into the dark forest frequented by the Clan, with its chilly streams, misty cliffs and carnivorous trees called Jubokko. Mariko pretends to be a determined but inexperienced young boy, Sanada Takeo, who has fled from his family. As she undergoes rigorous initiation training as a new Clan recruit, she realizes that the forest spirits and trees actually protect the clan from enemies and her revenge plan will have to be more carefully devised.

Never forget, Sanada Takeo, in this forest, there is no place to hide.

 As the days go by, Mariko tries to win the Clan's trust through her various invented weapons. She also discovers to her surprise that the clan actually is like a Robin Hood type gang - stealing from the rich and redistributing to the poor. As Mariko struggles to reconcile her perceptions of who is good and who is evil while still keeping her true identity hidden, she develops an unexpected friendship with the cook Yoshi and an enigmatic relationship with Okami, the quiet ninja-like warrior with strange fighting abilities. The hate-to-love relationship that slowly unfolds between Okami and Mariko is straightforward and honest, even though both are still guarding their secrets. Mariko knows that this relationship can never be, once the Black Clan knows who she really is. But still she can't force herself to stop or be dishonest about her feelings.

The stars could fall - the moon could crash from the heavens - and Mariko would not care.

Then he kissed her again, and it was a controlled fire on her tongue. The type that threatened to burn into a crashing, thrashing ache. The type of kiss Mariko had thought to avoid at all cost. The unpredictable type. The dangerous type.

Source: wall.alphacoders.com

The story never loses its pace - moving back and forth between Mariko's quest, Kenshin's search for his twin sister and the devious machinations at the imperial palace, Heian Castle in Inako:

Inako.
A city of a hundred arched bridges and a thousand cherry trees. A city of mud and sweat and sewage. A city of golden cranes and amber sunsets.
A city of secrets.

There are plots and counter-plots, family feuds, cunning consorts and enigmatic princes, betrayals and murders. It seems no one is what he or she seems to be on the surface - everyone has a hidden identity or ability. The author wonderfully recreates Japan of the feudal era with its social norms, customs, dresses and hierarchy. Her writing shows the amount of research that must have gone into the preparation of this book.

As the prologue of the book indicates, the present-day events are somehow linked to shogun Takeda Shingen's seppuku or ritual suicide ordered by the emperor ten years' back. But the readers will keep guessing what the link is till the very end. What is the wolf-life beast which follows Mariko in the forest? Who or what is the evil fox spirit? Which of the princes is more evil - Crown Prince Roku or Mariko's betrothed, Prince Raiden? Which of the Emperor of Wa's wives want more power - his wife the empress or his consort Kanako? Will Kenshin and Mariko's increasingly opposing philosophies force the twins to fight on opposite sides? Other than these questions, there are some shocking revelations at the end of the book, which have left me craving for the sequel.

Having said that, this book is still a must-read. Do not wait to buy it - make sure you get your hands on this book and then retire to a cave-like secluded place for the next five hours till you finish this book. After that go into hibernation for one day to reorient yourself with the real world again! This book is that addictive.

My 2017 Bucket List of Books

My top reads of 2016

Write your own story

Book review: These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

Josephine Montford (better known as "Jo") is a Montford by birth - one of the oldest, richest and most influential families in 1890's New York. She has lived a privileged life for the past seventeen years, wears the latest fashions, attends the most happening balls, and is about to be engaged to the scion of another rich and influential New York family. She should be happy and contented with her life, right? Nothing could be further from the truth, because Jo is not like the other society heiresses who cheerfully spend their time discussing inane topics such as tea parties, ball gowns, flower arrangements and eligible bachelors. She is a girl who is gifted with insatiable curiosity, sharp intelligence and a burning passion for truth, in an era when women are supposed to be docile, subservient and bound by rules of the society. 

Why is it, she wondered now, that boys get to do things and be things and girls only get to watch?

Any woman digressing from the accepted norms of behaviour or thinking faces social ruin, humiliation and even life-long detention in a mental asylum! Women are thought to be fragile beings, incapable of logical thinking or intelligent decision-making. A mere walk in the streets at night alone is enough to get a young woman branded as a woman of loose character or worse still, charged with insanity. In such a world, Jo is forced to keep her curiosity about the world outside her social circle carefully hidden, because she has been repeatedly warned about the consequences of being a non-conformist in society:

"You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that."

"....That was what people did when they wanted to stop a girl from doing something—they shamed her.”

That doesn't stop Jo from being secretly inspired by the trailblazing American journalist, Nellie Bly, and her sensational expose on the inhuman treatment of inmates in a lunatic asylum, "Ten Days in a Mad-House". 

We who have means and a voice must use them to help those who have neither. Yet how can we help them if we don't even know about them? And how can we know about them if no one writes about them? Is it so wrong to want to know things?

Nelly Bly (1864-1922)

Things might still have continued normally with Jo accepting the inevitable and letting go of her dreams, if suddenly her father hadn't been found dead in his study, apparently having shot himself by accident. Jo and her mother are in a state of shock while her uncle helps them sort out her father's extensive business affairs. During a visit to a prominent newspaper office owned by her family, Jo by chance overhears a young reporter talking about how her father's death was actually a suicide but was hushed up by her influential family. Unable to believe her ears, Jo confronts the reporter, Eddie, to find out why he has reached such a conclusion. Little does she know that her chance encounter with Eddie will propel her into a world of people she has never encountered, situations she has never faced and secrets she has never dreamed of before! 

"The truth can be a hard thing, Jo. It’s often best left hidden."

What if everything she has ever known about the world and the people around her is a veneer? What if her father's death is not even a suicide but a murder? Who or what was her father scared of? Who is the man with the scar Jo keeps seeing everywhere? Who knows the truth and who is hiding it? 

The mysteries keep piling one on top of the other and more secrets keep tumbling out, as Jo joins forces with Eddie to find out the truth. As she delves deeper into the mystery, she also travels to the underbelly of New York - the slums, the dockyards, the brothels, the mental asylums. Eddie helps her see and experience things and perspectives to life that she has never come across in her sheltered world. She finds the outside world scary yet strangely fascinating - full of untold stories waiting to be told. She is no longer able to reconcile herself with having no life other than getting married and raising a family - she starts questioning more, she starts wanting more:

How did this happen? How did I get here? Jo asked herself. She didn’t want to do this. She wanted to be home. Safe inside her Gramercy Square town house...

Go back? How? There was no going back. Not to her old life of drawing rooms and dances. Not to Miss Sparkwell’s School. Not to her friends, or to Bram. It had all gone too far....

If only she could be bold enough, and brave enough, to claim the things she wanted: love, a purpose, a life. But could she be?

I loved how the author expertly binds two parallel tracts together - the mystery moves seamlessly on one hand, while on the other hand, Jo awakens to a new and often dangerous world outside her known boundaries, through her association with Eddie. I liked their slow-burn romance, often poignant because of its very implausibility:

He was a flame and she’d gotten burned, and the pain was terrible, yet it didn’t make the fire any less alluring.

I liked some of the secondary characters like Eddie's friend, the forensic expert Oscar Rubin, and his funny comments about human anatomy. I also loved the strange camaraderie and female kinship between Jo and the pickpocket girl, Fay - how both were constrained to do what society forced them to do, and how both longed for freedom, in spite of being from completely disparate backgrounds.

Little by little, Jo's sheltered life crumbles around her and she loses her naivete as her assumptions about people are challenged. She realizes that the past is not really buried and the dark alleys and shallow graves may yield their startling secrets after all:

"If you're going to bury the past, bury it deep..Shallow graves always give up their secrets."

As someone who has everything to lose - her reputation, her family, her riches, her love, her sanity and maybe even her life - can Jo dare to find out the truth? Will the truth ultimately make her or break her? Will she ever be able to write her own story?

For the word is quiet and powerful

Book review: The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon

"For the word is quiet and powerful
Sharper than any two-edged sword.
Piercing even to the divided asunder
Of soul and spirit,
Of joints and marrow.
It is a discerner of the thoughts
And intents of the heart."

- Amy Harmon

After a long time, along comes a book that is so enchanting, imaginative, intriguing, unique, poetic and romantic that I just can't find the right words to do full justice to its beauty, though I will try. It is a book about the power of the word and this blog of words is the perfect place to extol the virtues of this extraordinary book.

"In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left."

In a world similar to the Medieval Ages, little Lark is born with a Gift - a gift of words that she can speak and bring into existence. She can make puppets fly, dance and jump just by saying those words and stop them by taking away the words.

"You don't need wings to fly."

"What do you need, daughter?"

"Words."

She has inherited the gift from her mother, Lady Meshara, who tries to keep this a secret from everyone including her father, Lord Corvyn. In this world where magic is shunned, exhibiting the powers of a Teller, Healer, Changer or Spinner is forbidden and anyone with such a Gift is persecuted and even killed by the King Zoltev's orders. As the book opens, an inadvertent demonstration of Lark's gift results in her mother's murder by the king. In that one moment, everything changes and Lark is so shocked that her voice is gone forever, urged by the dying words of her mother:

"Swallow, daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heaven or hell. You will learn and you will thrive.

Silence, daughter. Stay alive."

Before dying. Lady Meshara curses Lark's father, the king Zoltev and his son, the young prince Taris:

"The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would sell his soul and lose his son to the sky."

Shocked into silence, Lark grows up as a mute and neglected girl, kept a virtual prisoner by her father who fears that if anything were to happen to her, he would die too. He doesn't even teach her to read or write words, knowing that this might cause her to exhibit powers like her mother. Lark has only a faithful troll servant, Boojohni, for company, the only one who cares for her and protects her. She longs to be free and to live a life of her own. She feels emotions and words bottled up within her all the time and is able to hear words emanating from trees, animals and even people. Her loneliness and desolation come across strongly - bereft of words, she has no way of communicating with others:

"I have thoughts and feelings. I have pictures and colors. They are all bottled up inside of me because I can't make words.

But I can hear them.

The world is alive with words. The animals, the trees, the grass, and the birds hum with their own words.

"Life," they say.

"Air," they breathe.

"Heat," they hum.

I love these words. There is no deception or confusion. The words are simple. They feel the joy of creation. They feel joy because they ARE. Every living being has a word, and I hear them all.

But I can't make them."

One day, as Lark is wandering in the forest trying to hear words that she can't speak, she is captured by King Taris, the young prince of her childhood who is now the king after the sudden death of his father. He brings her back to his kingdom of Jeru to ensure her father's cooperation in the war that he is fighting against the Volgars, vicious half-human, half-vulture invaders.

Lark soon discovers that Taris is a man in the throes of an unknown anguish which she can't ignore and is compelled to use her abilities to alleviate his pain. She also realizes that Taris is nothing like his cruel father, especially after he makes her secret wish come true - by patiently teaching her to read, write and articulate words, thus giving her back the ability to communicate. Lark's newfound knowledge of words enhances her powers to make things happen with the words in her mind, and Tariq realizes that her powers can now be used to his advantage:

"You are a dangerous little bird. But I think I will keep you."

But Lark wonders if she is just a political pawn turned into a useful tool for Tariq or something more. She is also aware of how her abilities may hurt others and hence is against Taris' idea. In spite of her frail and bird-like structure and seemingly weak exterior, she is actually strong inside, a morally responsible character who wants to control her thoughts and use her unspoken words only to help others:

I was free. I was powerful. I was terrified. .
I was only limited by my ignorance,  by my fear, and by my own sense of right snd wrong.

In spite of their differences or maybe because of them, Lark and Taris share a strange bond and Lark is slowly able to communicate with him without speaking. The love story woven into the fantasy is slow to unfurl but breathtaking and sometimes poignant:

'“You glow, Lark.” His hand climbed back up again and swept over my unbound hair. 
I swallowed, suddenly close to tears. Then why does no one see me? 
“I see you,” he said..

The words had risen from his skin even when he wasn't speaking, and I had called them to me, collecting them like falling leaves, pressing them between the heavy pages of my memory so I could keep them.

Suddenly yearning had a flavor. It tasted like a king, a beautiful, frightening, infuriating man who flew into my life and began to free my words.

Though the love story is beautiful, this book is so much more than just a romance. It is ultimately a story of being true to one's own abilities, of making choices for the common good, and of accepting everyone as they are. I loved the way the story keeps moving forward, especially towards the end when there is a desperation in Lark's and Taris' relationship and they think that their time together is limited:

I welcomed him, feeling the battle within us both to reconnect and disconnect simultaneously...We were urgent. We were slow. We were barrelling towards the finish, even as we started all over again.

Surprising curses are revealed, hidden enemies emerge and epic battles need to be fought. The epilogue was just perfect and left me with a wonderfully content feeling. 

Very rarely do I come across books of this caliber - books that I want to re-read immediately after the first reading. I am mesmerized by Amy Harmon's magical writing and am definitely going to explore more of her books. This book is a romantic fantasy unlike anything I have ever read before and which I will wholeheartedly recommend, even though it has left me with a major book hangover:) I know it will take me months to find another book which matches up to this one! 

Of visions and illusions, mediums and magic!

Book review: Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

I've always been fascinated by seances and spirit mediums, tarot readings and magical illusions. I have read quite a few books on this theme set in the Jazz Age when seances and mediums were all the rage, especially because of the number of grieving widows and parents who wanted to contact the spirits of soldiers killed in World War I. The books set in this time period that I really enjoyed are "The Other Side of Midnight" by Simone St. James and "Things Half in Shadow" by Alan Finn. I also liked Jaime Lee Moyer's Delia Martin series about a woman in San Francisco of 1906 who can see and communicate with ghosts. Hence it is small wonder that I picked up Teri Brown's "Born of Illusion" which promised to be about a young and gifted illusionist experiencing frightening visions. While this is part of a series, I figured out from Goodreads reviews that each book is a standalone novel and this one is undoubtedly the best of the lot.

"Born of Illusion" is about a young girl, Anna Van Housen, whose mother is a popular spirit medium in post-World War I New York. Anna has had a lonely and unconventional childhood, moving from place to place, while her mother performed in physic shows in various small towns and cities. Her mother, Marguerite, is a stunning beauty who is always hungry for fame and fortune but has no real psychic abilities. She relies on tricks and fake illusions to make her stage shows and seances seem real. Only Anna knows her secret. Marguerite has also changed her real name to gain popularity and has spread rumours that Anna is the illegitimate daughter of the famous magician, Harry Houdini, and even Anna doesn't know if that's  true or another of her mother's elaborate deceptions. Anna is fascinated by magic and has taught herself various magic tricks over the years. Her dream is to perform independent of her mother and become an acknowledged illusionist, which is a difficult thing to do in an age when female magicians are rare and the ones that do practice are not taken seriously.

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When the book starts, Anna and her mother have recently moved to New York as a result of her mother having found a well-connected manager, Jacques. Anna is happy that their days of barely scraping through and evading the law seem to be over and that they are now able to live in a well-to-do neighbourhood. Anna is the responsible one in the family, knowing that her flighty and unreliable mother is incapable to being prudent in money or household matters. She has a strange love-hate relationship with her mother - she loves Marguerite but is wary of her controlling and grasping nature. Anna agrees to be part of her mother's stage show in New York, where she demonstrates magical card tricks as the opening act before her mother's psychic act starts. She has always known that she has more psychic talent than her mother and struggles to keep that fact hidden from her jealous mother, as her act gains more popularity. She increasingly wonders if her powers have been inherited from her alleged father, the mysterious Houdini, and feels a strong desire to meet him in person.

Anna has more secrets that she has kept from her mother and everyone else - she is able to sense the emotions of people through touch and sometimes sees uncanny visions of impending disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic and the Spanish influenza epidemic. Her visions suddenly increase in frequency and this time they are frighteningly personal - she sees her mother in danger and feels herself drowning and unable to save her mother. She also starts experiencing emotions of others more strongly, even without touching them. During one of her mother's seances, Anna is unexpectedly able to communicate with a spirit - something that she has never able to do before. To add to her constant feeling of impending doom, the spirit Walter warns her that her life is in danger.

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Anna's personal life is also in turmoil. She meets an attractive young neighbour Cole, who she feels a strange connection to. Her senses are heightened whenever Cole is near, but she is not able to trust him completely as he seems to have his own ulterior motive in befriending her. Anna is suspicious of her mother's manager Jacques, whose emotions are obscure to her even when she touches him. She also meets Owen, Jacques' dashing nephew, who seems to be interested in courting her. She accidentally comes across Harry Houdini and cannot restrain herself from revealing her illusionist abilities to him.

Things start becoming more complicated when some of her mother's clients start acting weirdly, she discovers the existence of a society which investigates paranormal abilities and realizes that Houdini himself is bent on unmasking phony mediums. Anna is caught between trying to protect her mother, discovering whether Houdini knows about her existence and fighting her growing attraction to Cole. All the while, she continues to question whether her own mother loves her enough and whether she will ever be able to move out of her mother's shadow.

Who can Anna truly trust - Cole or Owen? Can she reveal her true abilities to Dr. Bennett, an erstwhile member of the Society for Psychical Research? What is Jacques' hidden agenda? How much can she reveal to her own mother? What are her visions warning her about? Can she stop these events from happening in the future? All these questions start plaguing Anna and the reader. Though I managed to figure out the culprit before the final revelation, it was still an engrossing read and one I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone who enjoys a light, paranormal mystery about the coming-of-age of a likable heroine with unusual psychic abilities.

The mother of all sequels!

Take my breath away..

Last week, I experienced a phenomenon which I have rarely encountered in my book-reading journey - an author, whose series I had almost given up on, managing to completely surprise me by coming out with a game-changing sequel! To top it all, I have a sneaking suspicion that I felt exactly what the clever author had wanted me to feel - dissatisfaction with the first book's characters and their motivations only to realize in the second book that there were valid reasons for that dissatisfaction! 

Take a bow, Ms. Sarah J. Maas. I had skimmed through the first book "A Court of Thorns and Roses" taking it as a typical representative of the young adult fantasy genre. When the second book "A Court of Mist and Fury" was released this week, I picked it up only because I was intrigued by a certain villainous character who despite having an almost guest appearance in the first book, managed to steal every scene in which he appeared. Imagine my surprise when every chapter in the lengthy sequel turned out to be a revelation, with the main characters undergoing unexpected transformations and the story taking a turn I had never foreseen while reading the first book! The talented Ms. Maas kept me glued to my Kindle for seven continuous hours at night, without food or sleep! So here comes a joint review of both the books because one is of course  incomplete without the other.

The series revolves around Feyre (pronounced as "Fay-ruh"), an independent and beautiful young girl belonging to an impoverished merchant family - how her destiny takes her from a simple human village to powerful faerie courts, the hardships and deadly trials she faces, and the alliances and relationships she forms along the way. At the start of "A Court of Thorns and Roses", Feyre has given up her own dreams and taught herself to hunt so that she can support her crippled father and two sisters. They live in a village on the outskirts of a dense forest which borders Prythian, the faerie land. Prythian is supposed to be ruled by the courts of seven powerful and immortal High Fae Lords.  Humans are forbidden to cross the wall in the forest that separates the human and Fae lands. 

One day, while hunting a deer, Feyre inadvertently kills a wolf, not realizing that the wolf is a high-ranking faerie in disguise. Soon a ferocious beast arrives at her house demanding revenge for the murder of his friend, the shape-shifting wolf. Feyre agrees to go and stay with the beast to atone for the murder and keep her family safe. After crossing into Fae territory, the beast brings her to a beautiful palace in a land of eternal spring. Feyre soon discovers that the beast is actually Tamlin, the High Lord of the Spring Court, who is young and handsome but somehow cursed. Tamlin always wears a mask that hides his face and can take the form of a beast whenever he wants to. He gives Feyre wonderful gifts and makes her feel pampered and protected. Feyre, who has always been the one making ends meet for her family, slowly starts falling for Tamlin's charm. Tamlin never really reveals the full details of his curse to Feyre, though he confesses much later that the curse can be broken only if a girl falls in love with him. This part of the story is reminiscent of the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale and the Scottish folk tale of "Tam Lin". 

In a bid to protect Feyre from the evil fairy queen Amarantha and her imminent attack on the Spring Court, Tamlin persuades Feyre to go back to her family. Feyre however realizes that she does love Tamlin and comes back to confront Amarantha. The evil queen has  by this time captured Tamlin and taken away his powers, to add his court to the six faerie courts she has already enslaved. She tries to break Feyre's spirit but Feyre is determined to rescue her true love Tamlin at any cost. Amarantha sets three seemingly impossible and dangerous tasks for Feyre, promising that if Feyre wins these three trials, the curse on all Fae lands will be lifted and Tamlin will be free. Through sheer willpower, Feyre transforms herself into a Katniss type huntress, and receives help from a surprising ally, Rhysand. Rhysand is the powerful, devious and ruthless High Lord of the Night Court who is pretending to be Amarantha's supporter but seems to be actually plotting her downfall. Rhysand makes a bargain with Feyre that he will heal her wounds in exchange for her spending one week of every future month at his Night Court. Feyre agrees reluctantly and through her bravery and intelligence, eventually manages to win all the three challenges.  But Amarantha goes back on her word the moment Feyre wins and kills her. The curse on Tamlin and all of Fae is nevertheless broken and Tamlin kills Amarantha in his rage. All the seven High Lords are freed and in gratitude, they give a drop of their magical essence to Feyre and she is reborn as an immortal High Fae, though her heart remains human. 

So that was how the first book ended, with Feyre and Tamlin together at last and true love seemingly triumphing over evil. I didn't care much for either of them or their romance which lacked depth. Though the YA blogosphere was going into raptures over it, the book seemed nothing out of the ordinary to me (the reason why its review didn't grace my blog before today). Feyre seemed to be a bit immature and infatuated with Tamlin solely because of the attention he bestowed on her. Tamlin, on the other hand, came across as weak, ineffectual and over-protective. The only character who appeared interesting was the mysterious Rhysand, whose motives for helping Feyre remain questionable till the very end. I was wondering whether there was the possibility of a love triangle in the future (the kind I hate) or if we would see Feyre and Tamlin happily wedded by the beginning of the second book (true to a  saccharine-sweet, predictable fairy tale ending). 

Turns out I was wrong on all counts! I had found the relationship between Feyre and Tamlin too shallow because that's what it was! "A Court of Mist and Fury" starts three months after the events of the previous book and there is no happy ending in sight. We find Feyre an emotional wreck, unable to forgive herself for killing two innocent faeries as part of Amarantha's last challenge. She has nightmares of being trapped in Amarantha's prison again which Tamlin ignores, instead of helping her cope with them. Tamlin becomes more and more controlling and treats her like a prized and decorated possession, allowing her no freedom of movement or thought. On top of that, she feels latent powers brewing within her, perhaps as a gift unconsciously transferred from the seven High Lords who gave her life back. But she doesn't know how to harness these powers and Tamlin once again refuses to help her. On the day of her wedding to Tamlin, when her inner self screams to be saved, Rhysand suddenly appears and claims her week as part of their earlier bargain, and so begins her introduction to the infamous Night Court. This part has similarities to the tale of Persephone who was carried to the underworld by Hades, the lord of darkness.

However, there is a surprise waiting for Feyre as well as the readers - Rhysand's Night Court is not full of depravity, torture, suffocation and death, as touted. Instead, it's called the "Court of Dreams" - the most beautiful place Feyre has ever seen. Feyre is treated as a guest and feels carefree for the first time - staying in Rhysand's wonderfully open houses surrounded by snow-capped mountains, with no walls or windows but just the spectacular night sky and sparkling stars above. The world-building is awesome and some interesting new characters are introduced. Feyre meets and forms surprising friendships with the four powerful members of Rhys' Inner Court - his beautiful cousin Morrigan (or Mor), the otherworldly being of untold powers Amren, and the winged Illyrian warriors Azriel and Cassian. She also tours the entrancing rainbow city of Veralis which Rhys had managed to keep hidden from Amarantha and realizes how much he has sacrificed to keep his family, friends and people safe.  

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Through Feyre's eyes, the different dimensions of Rhys' complex personality are revealed. Her bargain with Rhys has created a telepathic bond between them where each can hear the other's thoughts. Hence Rhys seems to be aware of every trauma she has been through in the last few months. He always treats Feyre as an equal and never patronises or tries to control her. He keeps encouraging Feyre to emerge from her cocoon, to overcome her nightmares, to learn how to read, and to explore her newfound powers. He flirts with her and teases her and their snarky banter is delightful to witness. Yet the reader becomes increasingly aware that underneath it all, Rhys is gently taking care of Feyre's every need. He does not coddle Feyre but leaves her to fight her own battles - be it with the spine-chilling Bone Carver, the deadly Weaver or the cunning Attor. Feyre slowly starts believing in herself again, regains her fiery spirit, and vows never to go back to being a puppet in anyone's hands:

I was not a prey any longer, I decided....And I was not a mouse. I was a wolf... And I bit when cornered....

I had let them make me weak. Bent to it like some wild horse broken to the bit...

I was not a pet, not a doll, not an animal. I was a survivor, and I was strong. I would not be weak, or helpless again. I would not, could not be broken. Tamed.

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Rhys is one of the best fictional heroes I have ever read, one who comes across as an anti-hero initially, only to gradually display every personality trait a true hero should have. His and Feyre's slow-burn romance completely redeemed the series for me. The depth of emotion that was missing from the first book (maybe deliberately) is present in its most believable form here. Rhys and Feyre become friends first, comrades next and lovers only towards the end. The bond that they share is beyond words - they each realize how similar they are at their core. They are both warriors forced to protect their worlds, though they are dreamers deep inside their hearts.

But what I liked was that the romance was never the pivot of the story. The focus is always the transformation in Feyre - brought about first by Tamlin, then by Amarantha and lastly by Rhysand. There is also a lot of action happening in the background. There is a war brewing in Prythian - the tyrannical King of Hybern is about to attack the Fae lands, resurrect an ancient warrior and annihilate all human settlements. As the story progresses, unexpected friendships are formed while former friends turn traitors. Feyre, Rhys and their friends have to form appropriate political alliances, find magical artefacts, fight evil beings and keep their beloved city of Veralis safe. 

The book sets up the context nicely for the penultimate book in the series to be released next year. While many questions were answered and resolved in this book, new questions have now emerged. Will Feyre and her friends succeed in defeating the King of Hybern? Who can they trust as their allies? Will Feyre ever know the fullest extent of her powers? Will she and Rhys get to stay together in the end? I hope so, because they have endured a lot and are willing to ceaselessly fight for their dreams. Keeping my fingers crossed :)

The lesson learned:

Do not judge a series solely by its first book. The author may be surreptitiously planning to throw a googly at you in the sequel! :)