2017: The year so far

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.

Who walks in the shadows?

Book review: The Walker in the Shadows by Barbara Michaels

It's no secret that I like books written in the good old 60's and 70's, when the plots were simple and yet engaging, relationships were less turbulent and morals were not as lax as they are now. In fact, the quaint manners and social mores of those times are what attract me most to these mysteries and romances. Give me a novel by Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Barbara Cartland or Elizabeth Peters and I would any day be more excited to read it that the breakneck-paced thrillers by modern novelists! I am currently going through a gothic revival phase and one of my favourite gothic comfort reads are the mildly scary novels by Barbara Michaels (the pen name of Barbara Mertz who also wrote as Elizabeth Peters). Having read most of her novels in the past, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had missed out on a few promising ones. So I started off with Ammie, Come Home which I liked and moved on to The Walker in the Shadows which I liked even more.

Pat Robbins lives with her college-going son, Mark in an old house in Maryland. She is slowly recovering from the loss of her loving husband, Jerry, one year back, and is doing her best to bring up her son single-handedly. Her husband had been a connoisseur of antiques and architecture and had been instrumental in buying and redecorating the old house. The house just beside theirs is a mirror image of their house, having been built together in the nineteenth century for two sisters. In the present day, the house has an unkept appearance due to the neglect of its owners and is inhabited only by an old and cranky caretaker, Hiram.

When the book starts, Pat comes to know that the house next door has finally been sold and the new family is about to move in. It seems her new neighbours are the Friedrichs family - a pretty, young girl named Kathy and her stern and overprotective father, Josef. Mark takes one look at Kathy and falls head over heels in love with her and she appears to reciprocate his feelings too. However, the fly in the ointment is the rude and unwelcoming Josef, who resents Mark and discourages Pat's overtures of friendship.

But things are about to change. The new occupants of the house seem to have awakened an evil presence that appears in Kathy's room every night at one a.m. and tries to harm Kathy. It reeks of malice and destroys everything that comes in its path. Circumstances compel the two families to get together to solve the identity of the ghost and what it wants. The rest of the book is about how they delve into the past and try to find a way to stop the ghost which seems to be gaining in power as the nights progress.

I loved the interactions between the characters, especially between the older and the younger generations. Mark is intuitively clever and in his zeal to protect Kathy, reads a lot of old books and diaries belonging to the Civil War era. Pat tries alternatively to curb Mark's enthusiasm and cope with the evil looming over both the houses. Josef injects a note of rationality and maturity into Mark's often wild theories. Kathy is sweet and charming and takes it all in a spirit of adventure. What I liked were the witty dialogues and observations infused with Barbara Michaels' trademark humour - for example, how Mark keeps devouring enormous quantities of food despite the peril they are in,  how Mark's so-called guard dog Jud is terrified of ghosts and so on. I also liked the mystery element - the research into the past of Maryland gradually reveals secrets about the two families that inhabited the twin houses in the nineteenth century. A couple of good twists at the end left me pleasantly surprised and very happy that I had picked up this book :)

This book has further whetted my appetite for ghostly mysteries and I am off to read more hitherto unexplored Barbara Michaels books! Looks like my gothic reading phase is here to stay :)

A seductive sojourn in Sicily

Book review: The Villa by Rosanna Ley

Italy has long been one of my favoured destinations and I eagerly pick up every book that has this ethereal, ancient land as the backdrop. Rosanna Ley is my new favourite author, because of her astounding ability to capture the true essence of a place through her descriptions of colours, scents and food of the land. So when I read that she has set a novel in Sicily, Italy, I grabbed the book instantly.

"The Villa" lived up to all my expectations - it is one of the most seductive novels I have read - every page, every word is drenched with the flavours and fragrances of the magical land of Sicily. I felt like I could taste the golden olive oil and the sun-dried tomatoes on my tongue, and see the azure sea and the ruined Greek temples right before my eyes.

Sicily; Source: travel.allwomenstalk.com

The book starts with Tess Angel, a 39-year old single mother, receiving a letter from a solicitor that she has inherited a villa in Sicily from a stranger, Edward Westerman. She has never met or even heard of Edward Westerman, though she realizes that he must have some connection to her mother, Flavia. Flavia is a Sicilian by birth, though she left Sicily long back to settle permanently in England after marrying Tess' father, Lenny. In fact, Flavia has shunned all mention of Sicily and Tess has never been able to find out anything about her mother's mysterious past.

Tess has just broken off an affair with a married man, resigned from her demotivating job and also needs a break from her volatile relationship with her rebellious teenage daughter, Ginny. So she takes this opportunity to visit Sicily for the first time, to find out what link Edward Westerman had with Flavia and if someone in Sicily can shed more light on her mother's past. Tess is convinced that Sicily holds the key to her mother's unnatural reticence about the past. Also the will stipulates that she cannot sell the villa without visiting it once.

Villa in Sicily; Source: www.casainitalia.ch

On arriving at the village of Cetaria in Sicily where her villa is located, she meets an old lady named Santina, who she discovers is her mother's childhood friend, and Santina's enigmatic great-nephew Giovanni Sciarra. Tess is enthralled by the Villa Sirena perched on top a hill overlooking the beach and spends her initial days soaking in the atmosphere of the small seaside fishing village, exploring its shops and markets full of fresh produce, and scuba diving in the sea. Her nights are peaceful - sitting under the stars, eating the local cuisine and listening to the soft sounds of the sea below.

A village market in Sicily; Source: www.thewealthscene.com

Near her villa, on the way to the beach, Tess notices a small shop displaying stunning, many-hued mosaics made from bits of sea glass and stone pieces. She meets the reticent and moody mosaicist, Tonino Amato, and spends hours listening to him recount the folklore and myths that he brings alive in his mosaics - fascinating tales of a singing mermaid (after whom Villa Sirena or House of the Mermaid is named), a cursed serpent prince, a fisherman named Ciccu who rescues a fish from death and many others. Tonino also takes her to the picturesque ruins of a Greek theatre and temple in Segesta amidst olive groves. Tess starts feeling a strange pull towards this vibrant and mystic land and decides that she wants to renovate the villa instead of selling it.

Greek theatre in Segesta in Sicily; Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Back in England, Tess' daughter, Ginny, slowly comes to terms with what she wants from life and realizes how much her mother means to her. Flavia also starts reconciling herself with her painful memories and writing down the events of the past in a diary so that Tess can finally know the truth about what happened all those years ago. She painstakingly puts down her beloved recipes as part of a tradition of handing over family recipes to the next generation - Sicilian favourites such as Arancine or rice balls, Panelle or fried chickpea Polenta, Pasta alla Norma, breads drizzled with olive oil, and Cassata.

Sicilian food; Source: www.siciliangirl.com

In Sicily, Tess is caught up in the seductive beauty of the place and drawn to the brooding Tonino. Giovanni also seems to be interested in her, though his motives remain mysterious. Tess talks to Santina and starts to find out more about what happened to her mother all those years ago. She also gets embroiled in an age-old feud between the Sciarras and Amatos, represented in the current generation by Giovanni and Tonino. It seems that there is a mysterious treasure or 'Il Tesoro' that disappeared years back and which everyone seems to believe is hidden somewhere in the Villa Sirena. The plot thickens as Tess tries to figure out who among Giovanni and Tonino she can trust.

Why did the unknown Englishman, Edward Westerman, leave his beautiful villa to Tess? What happened to Flavia in the past that led her to cut off all ties with her family and Sicily? Are the Sciarras or the Amatos connected to the infamous Sicilian mafia? Who is trying to threaten Tess off her property and why? Is the hidden treasure just a myth? All these questions are answered most satisfactorily in the end.

Sicilian landscape; Source: www.planetware.com

But what mesmerized me were the descriptions that flowed effortlessly from Rosanna's pen. Rosanna uses landscape, weather and food very effectively to convey emotions and passions. The allegorical legends of the sea, the tempestuous weather, the temperamental people, the fresh produce of the markets, the earthy Sicilian breads and pasta are all so vividly portrayed by Rosanna that I guarantee that anyone reading this book will be instantly smitten by an uncontrollable yearning to visit Sicily. I, for one, now have Sicily on my list of top 10 must-visit destinations! 

In an exotic land

Book review: Return to Mandalay by Rosanna Ley

Rosanna Ley is an author who any travel-loving reader like me will adore - because of her remarkable ability to bring the sights, sounds, people and cuisine of a place alive through her descriptions. Be it an English cliff-side town in West Dorset (in several of her novels), the spice-scented by-lanes of Morocco (The Saffron Trail), the white-sand beach of Fuerteventura in Canary Islands (Bay of Secrets), or a beautiful seaside village in Sicily (The Villa), her vivid prose has enabled me to virtually travel to these countries and places. Add to this a past-present mystery and a dash of romance and I'm sold! Small wonder that I picked up her "Return to Mandalay" after realising that it is set in Burma or Myanmar, as it is now known, a land I've never before encountered in fiction or in reality, even though the country borders mine.

"Return to Mandalay"revolves around Eva Gatsby who is an antique dealer in an emporium in England. She has always been fascinated by Burma, after hearing innumerable tales of the golden land from her grandfather, Lawrence. Lawrence had spent his youth in Burma in the late 1930s and early 1940s while it was still under British rule. Even though after the end of WWII, he came back to England, never to return, Burma and its people seem to have left an indelible impression on him. So when Eva's boss asks her to go on a business trip to Mandalay to explore some antiques, she jumps at the chance.

On hearing that she is going to Myanmar, her grandfather gives Eva a "chinthe" or a small statue of a lion-like creature which is supposed to guard Burmese holy temples. Chinthes always come in pairs and it seems that a Burmese lady who Lawrence had loved gifted him this chinthe as a protection against evil. Lawrence now wants it to be returned to its rightful owner and be reunited with its twin.

Pair of Burmese chinthes; Source: pininterest.com

Before she leaves for Myanmar, Lawrence tells Eva about Maya and how he had met and fallen in love with her back in the 1930s, just as the Second World War was about to break out. Maya realises that Lawrence has never forgotten or stopped loving Maya, even though he later married Helen, Eva's grandmother (now deceased). Eva is determined to uncover the whereabouts of the mysterious Maya so that Lawrence can get some sort of closure to his story. So begins Eva's adventure in Mandalay on the banks of the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar.

Mandalay; Source: pandaw.com

Eva does manage to locate Maya and her half-English grandson, Ramon, and discovers secrets that even her grandfather does not know. The chinthe too is not what it seems and has an interesting back-story intertwined with the period when the last king and queen of Burma, King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat, were deposed by the British. As Eva tries to find out more about the past, she gets involved in a quest to find a missing chinthe and even embroiled in an international smuggling ring. Her passion for the past, especially antique furniture, draws her closer to the mysterious Ramon who may or may not be involved in the smuggling trade himself.

The story alternates between past and present here, with the past providing a glimpse of the deep and abiding love between Lawrence and Maya and the forces that drive them apart. In the present, parallel to Eva's unfolding quest in Myanmar, there is a side story of Eva's mother, Rosemary, in Dorset, England. Rosemary has never been able to move on in life after the death of her first husband and Eva's father, Nick. Consequently, she has alienated herself from her father Lawrence and her daughter. As Lawrence's health deteriorates and Rosemary nurses him through it, she comes to terms with her relationship with her father, daughter and second husband.

In the present, as Ramon shows Eva around Mandalay, the reader is allowed a leisurely sensory exploration of Myanmar. I felt instantly transported to the roads filled with the aroma of cooking, men and women in colourful "longyis" and clean shaven young Buddhist monks in saffron robes, the lush green gardens of teak and tropical orchids, the traditional houses smelling of coconut oil and sandalwood, and the moonlit nights fragrant with jasmine and fangipani. I too wanted to stand on the U Bein bridge in Amarapura, the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world, and watch as dusk descended on the lake.

U Bein bridge; Source: natav2.com

I found myself more involved in the present-day adventure that Eva goes through than the doomed love story in the past. Ramon comes across as mysterious yet strangely enticing, just like the intoxicating land to which he belongs. Maya is serene and accepting of her destiny, strong in spite of her outward fragility. Lawrence and Rosemary are perhaps the weakest characters, who too find redemption at the end.

I loved the hours that I spent immersed in the textures of this exotic country of teakwood, gold and Mogok rubies - a land of forgotten riches which still retains its deep spirituality. For me, it was a memorable read - one that is meant to be savoured and not breezed through.

All things gothic!

Book review: Valley of Nightmares by Jane Godman

Imagine my delight when I found that this book contained all the elements a true gothic romance should have! Young governess. Tick. Frightened child. Tick. Brooding, enigmatic employer (who may be the hero or the villain). Tick. Crumbling, old house in the middle of nowhere. Tick. Nightmares filled with a sense of impending doom. Tick. Creepy noises and eerie howling at night. Tick. Celtic legends. Tick. Mysterious dancing lights on the mountain. Tick. It was my lucky day indeed when I found this book on Goodreads! 

It is 1938, the eve of the Second World War, and Lilly Divine is earning a living as a burlesque dancer in a London nightclub. She starts having recurring nightmares of being chased by a sinister figure and in these dreams, she always sees a small girl who is being pursued by the same hunter.One day, her best friend and colleague, Ricky, is found dead - an incident which leaves her sad and determined to leave her ignominious career behind. Her chance comes unexpectedly in the form of Gethin Taran, a patron of the club who is looking for a governess for his eight-year-old niece, Ceri. Apparently, Taran House is a bit remote, on the foothills of Mount Taran, and not many young women are willing to venture out there in the wilderness. 

When Lilly arrives in Taran House, she is drawn to its sad, neglected aura - as if the house has been waiting for something or someone to awaken it. There is a crumbling clock tower at the top of the old house, which somehow fills Lilly with a sense of foreboding. But what shocks her most is Ceri, her charge - Ceri is the same girl Lilly has been seeing in her nightmares! Lilly feels an instant connection to Ceri and it seems Ceri recognizes her too. As Lilly starts settling in, she hears strange noises at night from the clock tower room above her bedroom, sees swirling, dancing lights on Mount Taran and hears eerie howling of hounds at night. She soon learns of the local Celtic legends which say that Mount Taran is a mystic place where the devil and his undead huntsmen ride through every night, along with their hounds of death. 

Things start getting dangerous as several attempts are made on Ceri's life and Lilly's bedroom is ransacked. A mysterious big, black dog appears one day, befriends Ceri and seems to protect both of them. A young man who is staying in the village nearby starts showing an interest in Lilly. In the midst of all this, Lilly develops a strong and unwelcome fascination for her mysterious employer, Gethin, in the true tradition of gothic novels :) There are supernatural elements thrown in, along with a bit of WWII intrigue - a missing top-secret letter, a dead evil twin, a jilted fiancee, a lake which drowns those of unpure heart, gypsy caravans and last but not the least, the house which may or may not be evil.

What I liked was the author's descriptive prose which brought out both the beauty of the surroundings and the pervasive sense of doom. Lilly is a refreshing take on the Gothic heroine, she is neither shy nor a dewy-eyed innocent; she tackles things head-on and speaks her mind. Her interactions with Gethin and her internal monologue are sometimes funny, and they nicely balance the eerie atmosphere of the rest of the book.

All in all, a nice, suspenseful, creepy, supernatural read - perfect for curling up with on a lazy evening, accompanied by a cup of steaming tea :)

Ghosts of memories

Book review: Haunted Ground by Irina Shapiro

Imagine having a strange fascination for a country you have never visited, imagine feeling a pull towards a house you don't even know exists, imagine feeling a certainty that you belong to a particular place more than anywhere else in the world. That is how Alexandra Maxwell (or Lexi as she prefers to be called) has always felt - that she somehow belongs to England, to a place steeped in history. 

Her dreams of visiting England have always been ignored by her American parents, but they become a reality when her father passes away, leaving her the family business. She promptly sells off the business and flies to England to buy a house which she can convert into her own Bed & Breakfast.

That is how she lands up in a small, remote village in Lincolnshire not even on the map and discovers the house that she has always unconsciously searched for:

The house loomed in front of me. tall and gray; the stone walls bleached by decades of sunshine and rain and buffeted by wind, the south side dressed in a thick coat of ivy that crept almost as far as the gabled roof. The half-lowered blinds in the upstairs windows gave the impression of hooded eyes, wearily watching me as I stood there on the lawn, my whole being flooded with joy and a sudden sense of deja vu. 
This was it; this was the house I'd been looking for. I didn't know where I would find it, but I knew exactly what it would be like, and how I would feel when I finally saw it.

Lexi discovers a faded sign announcing that the house is up for sale and immediately contacts the estate agent to buy it. The agent, Paula, is overjoyed to have sold off the property which had apparently been on the market for a long time. She tells Lexi that the property had belonged to an old lady named Mrs. Hughes whose ancestors had lived in the house since its construction in the seventeenth century. The house is bordered by trees and an old creek, beside which Lexi spots a mysterious ruin. It seems the ruin is part of the property and the old owner even left a stipulation in her will that the ruin is not to be demolished. The ruin obviously is an older structure than the house but no one seems to know for what purpose it was built or who it originally belonged to.

From here, the novel starts alternating between the past (1650) and present, with two different story lines - the seventeenth century plot about a soldier named Brendan Carr in Oliver Cromwell's army, and the present-day story about Lexi's first days in the house. In the past, Brendan is disillusioned with Oliver Cromwell's cruel battles against the Scottish and deserts the army. He returns home, only to find that his father is dead, his younger brother has usurped his property and his fiancee, his beloved sister Meg is widowed and his mother is on the deathbed. His scheming brother, Jasper, throws him out of the house and  sends men to murder him on the highway. Brendan is able to kill the assassins but is severely wounded in the process. He somehow manages to reach his uncle Caleb's house in Lincolnshire, where an old priest gives him shelter and a young girl called Rowan nurses him back to health. Even as a tender relationship starts growing between Brendan and the mute Rowan, they are surrounded by enemies and traitors - Jasper, Rowan's betrothed Stephen and spies sent by Cromwell to capture Rowan.

Oliver Cromwell

In the present, Lexi hires a contracting agency owned by a handsome Scot, Aidan Mackay, to restore and redesign the house. As Aidan and his workers dispose off the old furniture, Lexi slowly starts settling down in the house. She notices a man who emerges from the ruin every evening to pray in front of an old tree and then goes back dejectedly inside the ruin. One night, she wakes up to see a faint candle burning on the second floor of the ruin and a man, similar to the one she had seen earlier, reading a book. But in the morning, when she and Aidan go into the ruin, they find that the second floor and stairs no longer exist and even the roof has caved in; no living person could have actually climbed up to the second floor. So who is the man Lexi had seen? Why does Lexi keep seeing the same sad man every day at twilight? If he is a ghost, is he in some way tied to the ruin? Why does he seem to repent in front of the tree endlessly? One day, while digging up an old wall in the basement of the house, Aidan's workers find a locked room which it seems hasn't been opened in centuries. They break down the door to find a coffin with a skeleton inside. The name 'Brendan Carr' is engraved on the coffin, but no one in the village or vicinity seems to know who Brendan Carr or his descendants were. 

To add to the mystery of the past, there seems to be a mystery in the present too about Lexi's background. Some old residents of the village seem to recognize Lexi and express happiness that she has finally found her way back to where she belongs. Lexi is confused by what they mean but no one wants to explain their strange comment. She comes to know purely by chance that a murder had taken place in her house some twenty years back - when Mrs. Hughes' daughter Kelly was murdered by her husband. She is driven to know more about how she is connected to the house. Who is Lexi really? What secrets are people hiding from her? Who can lead her to the truth?

As skeletons in the closet are revealed, both literally and figuratively, Lexi realizes that she needs to find the answers to the questions plaguing her past and present, so that she can move on. She gets support from Aidan in this and there is a nice little romance between the two, but this is largely overshadowed by the poignant and doomed love story of Brendan and Rowan in the seventeenth century. How are the two story lines tied together? How are the ruin and the house connected? What eventually happens to Brendan and Rowan? Are the ghosts of the past and the present laid to rest at last by Lexi? To find out, you have to read "Haunted Ground" yourself :) I liked the book and would recommend it to lovers of paranormal or past-present mysteries.

The sands of time

Book review: The Egyptian Years by Elizabeth Harris

I accidentally stumbled upon this book on Goodreads when I was in the mood for a past-present book with a gothic feel. It was written in the early 1990s and frankly, I hadn't heard of this author before reading this book. I couldn't find many reviews of Elizabeth Harris' books on the net either. But this book actually managed to exceed my expectations - it was a nice past-present mystery with a paranormal element and worth a read.

The book centers around Willa Jamieson who leads a boring life working in a museum with two aged employees. Her staid life changes suddenly when she receives a trunk full of old Victorian clothes from her distant relative, Hester Montsorrel. Willa doesn't recollect Hester very clearly, as Hester seems to have been an oddity in their family, mostly keeping to herself and always being whispered about. It seems the clothes belonged to Genevieve Montsorrel, Hester's mother, and Hester wants Willa to have them due to her interest in antiques.

On her way to Hester's house, Willa meets Hugo Henshaw-Jones, a collector of antique items, who has come to buy an Egyptian mummy-mask from Hester. Once she reaches Hester's house, Willa finds that Hester is now a very old and somewhat eccentric lady, though all her faculties are very much intact. Hester is apparently disposing off her old and antique items by selling them at nominal prices or giving them away as gifts.

After going back home, Willa is very curious about the unknown contents of the trunk, especially since nothing much is known about Genevieve. Willa is intrigued by Genevieve and finds out that according to the family bible, there is a mysterious question mark against Genevieve's year of death. Willa manages to open the trunk with Hugh's help  and is excited to find a lot of well-preserved and good quality dresses and hats from the Victorian era. She is attracted to a beige suit in particular and tries it on in front of the mirror. The dress fits her perfectly and for a moment, she thinks she sees another woman's face superimposed on her own face in the mirror. Willa, of course, dismisses this as a trick of the light. When she checks the pockets of the jacket, she finds grains of red-brown sand and hears a voice whispering "Egypt" in her ears. Then a whirl of images hit her - wide azure skies, golden sand, mummy-masks and she feels a frisson of a strange, momentary fear which goes away the moment she takes off the suit.

Willa is somehow sure that Genevieve had visited Egypt in her lifetime and is determined to find out more about what eventually happened to Genevieve. She soon discovers a journal written by Genevieve in the trunk and is sucked into the events of 1890 when Genevieve travelled with her husband, Leonard Montsorrel, to Egypt. It soon becomes apparent that Genevieve wasn't happy with her marriage and Leonard was a cold and unfeeling man, incapable of understanding his sensitive wife. As Willa keeps reading the entries in the journal, Genevieve's voice seems to reach out to her from the past and her own present world seems to fade away. She starts living in a trance-like state, forgetting to eat or sleep or go to work for days, so strong is her identification with Genevieve's life.

The events in Genevieve's life soon take an unexpected turn and Willa starts having surprisingly realistic dreams of Egypt. Willa realizes that she is fast losing her grip on the present and Genevieve's emotions are somehow taking over Willa's life. As Willa stays alone, she has no one to turn to for help. Her parents are also out of the country and are unable to come to her assistance. In her desperation, she reaches out to Hugo who seems to be her only connection with the present. Hugo and his mother take care of her and help her make sense of her visions. Willa is increasingly driven to find out more about Genevieve's disappearance and to know why Genevieve's voice seems to call to her. She knows that she will have no peace till she finds out the truth behind Genevieve's mysterious disappearance.

Shocking secrets are slowly revealed about Genevieve and Hester, and Willa and Hugo travel to Egypt to finally bury the past. What really happened to Genevieve in Egypt? Who is the red-haired man Willa keeps seeing in her dreams? Why was Hester shunned throughout her life by her family? Why is there a dark stain on the beige coat that looks suspiciously like blood?

There is an unexpected twist in the end that I didn't see coming, and I was glad that the ending to the tale is a happy one. My only complaints with the book are that it drags somewhat in the middle and Willa is a bit too passive for my taste, but I think I can live with that, considering that this book was written almost 25 years back. All in all, a nice, little mystery read :)

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?

Bargaining with your life!

Series review: Covenant of Thorns by Jeffe Kennedy

Ever read a book where the writer makes you see everything through the main character's eyes, leaving you increasingly confused and lost in a strange world - and instead of putting you off, this actually makes you more desperate to  figure out what exactly is going on? 

Ever read a book which starts off with elements you find unsavoury and characters you think are unlikable till suddenly mid-way you realize, to your surprise, that everything had happened due to a reason and that you like the characters after all? 

That was what happened with the Covenant of Thorns series by Jeffe Kennedy.

I stumbled upon this  fantasy series purely by chance on Amazon, and went into it with zero expectations, never having read a book by this author before. It's a trilogy, and I cautiously bought the first book, Rogue's Pawn, believing it to be a standard fantasy romance (judging by the clichéd cover!). But it was nothing like I had expected it to be! It disguises itself as a romance, but it actually isn't. It may be regarded as an intriguing mix of Alice in Wonderland, Rumpelstiltskin, Tamlin, Puss-in-Boots and Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, but it is not really like any of them. The series progressively got better with every book and I ended up racing through all the three books in two days! Thank the gods that all the sequels had already been released and each book was of a normal, manageable length!

This is no fairy tale....

- cautions the back cover of "Rogue's Pawn", but I still wasn't prepared for how different this book was from the run-of-the-mill fantasies. The book starts like many normal urban fantasies, with a logical scientist frustrated with her dull job and duller fiancé finding herself transported accidentally to the Faerie world while on an impulsive hike to Devils Tower in Wyoming.

Devils Tower, Wyoming

When she regains consciousness, she sees a ferocious black dog standing in front of her - the same mystical dog which has been stalking her dreams for the past few weeks. The black dog attacks her, almost ripping out her throat and the next thing she knows is that she is in a dark castle where a mysterious stranger and a suspicious healer are trying to either heal her wounds or murder her (they themselves don't seem to be sure about which one they would prefer!). When she is told that she is a human Sorceress, she realizes that not only has she somehow entered the Faerie realm but has also mysteriously acquired some magic while transitioning to this world - she has only to think of something to make it happen! She can also communicate telepathically with certain people in this land. Surprisingly, she can understand and interpret the Fae people's language as her mind can translate that into English. Everyone views her as a dangerous human and an unpredictable hazard and she is bound in silver chains to restrict her magical powers. She is healed by magic, under the orders of the man who she learns is a powerful Fae sorcerer called Rogue (it seems people are named as per their character or profession in this world!). In spite of the gravity of the situation,  Jennifer's internal monologue is a joy to read:

"Call me Rogue - that's my name." 
I snorted out a painful giggle and he paced into my view. 
"I take it that translated oddly? Show me a picture of what that word means to you."
I pictured Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, scraped and bruised from escapades, a bottle of booze in one hand and a couple of girls in the other, wicked mischief on his face."

Ha-ha.

From here, things get more mysterious as Jennifer (which translates as Gwynn in Fae language) realizes that this world may look as  magical as a fairyland but is actually vicious and cruel, hiding all manner of creatures with their own agendas. The author creates a dark and uncertain world where wishes coming true have unpleasant repercussions, where everyone has an ulterior motive, and where every action and reaction have to be carefully thought out. The currency of Fae is bargain - nothing comes for free. Each favour is treated as a bargain which has to be repaid by service, trading a loved one or even death. There is no room for a random thought or impulsive action.

Rogue takes Jennifer/Gwynn to a party where she needs to bargain for her life and she doesn't fare well, given that negotiation is not her strong point. It seems she owes quite a lot of people and she is forced to survive by bargaining away her services (hence the title "Covenant of Thorns"). Rogue wants Gwynn's first born (with him!) as payment for saving her life, another noble Fae named Lord Scourge wants to train her, a general named Lord Falcon wants her assistance in winning battles and even a magically anesthetic (!) cat named Darling  wants to be her Familiar. What happens in this part left me as confused as Jennifer and unable to decide who is a friend and who is a foe, who is good and who is bad:

"You are a child in the wilderness. You are without friends."

I had issues with Jennifer submitting to the sadistic training boot-camp she undergoes, and I felt she didn't try enough to wrest back control. I found her too passive in this part and also hated Rogue for allowing this humiliation. In hindsight, I realized why this had to happen.

Things got better as the story progressed. As Jennifer becomes tougher and learns to control her magic, she also devises strategies to win battles, change hair colours, dream up the perfect dress complete with accessories and make lights out of pillows! Rogue makes a re-entry at this point, trying to use his considerable charm to seduce Jennifer, though neither she nor the reader is entirely sure of his motivations. His erotic torture is strangely irresistible to Jennifer, though she's not sure if that's due to Rogue's powerful mind control or her own weakness towards him. Every encounter with him and the other denizens of Faerie makes one sit up and notice that something underhand is happening here - a dark undercurrent of deception which seems to be leading Jennifer to an outcome which someone else is orchestrating. To top it all, Jennifer keeps seeing the mystical black dog and isn't sure if it still wants to harm her.

What kept me more interested was how well the author infuses humour in the most dangerous of situations and how quick on the uptake Jennifer is. Her intelligent mind and unique perspectives to unpredictable situations make for some delightfully snarky comments:

Act II, scene ii. Exit Nasty Tinker Bell, Enter God-Only-Knows-What-Now...

"Relax."...This wasn't easy to do, what with the knife and all. However, I was concentrating on being the most Zen I could be. Which was so not my forte.

I looked like death warmed over. Maybe death microwaved - because my eyes shone and my complexion looked fantastic.

I should have gotten coaching on proper greetings. Though it would have been difficult to cover "formally greeting nasty noble folk who've dumped soup on your head."

Each chapter begins with a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek comment, mostly starting with, "In Which I....", for example: "In Which I am Covered in Glory and Other Obnoxious Fluids" or "In Which I Accomplish Several Impossible Things before Breakfast".

Her analytical mind makes mental lists of her predicaments, that are totally hilarious:

Organize your options, I ordered myself.
1. Endure the pain..., then spend weeks convalescing chained to this bed, surrounded by people hoping to kill me.
2. Attempt to control myself long enough to be knocked unconscious, risking the possibility that I could harm someone else and likely be killed.
3. Do nothing and die here of starvation and infection.

As the story progresses, we are introduced to more likable characters who form part of Jennifer's entourage, such as Starling, Larch and Athena. The world-building is engrossing, as are the descriptions of the different types of Fae - dragonfly girls, pink pixies, blue pages, brownies, dragons and even crossover humans. Another hugely entertaining character is Jennifer's cat familiar Darling, who communicates with Jennifer using mental images and has delusions of being a fierce battle cat!

He flattened his ears in disdain, splayed his legs to lick his butt, and sent me an image of him striding through a battlefield, tossing monsters aside. The cat had battles on the brain. Plus he wanted a new name. A battle name....

"Gigantor", he suggested.
"I am so not calling you Gigantor."
Darling swirled himself around my ankles. "Titanus".
I rolled my eyes. "No."
Darling meowed up at me, lashing his tail. "Colossus."
A snort escaped me and I picked him up so he could head-butt my chin.

You go, Kitty!

The action moves at a rapid pace, the stakes get progressively higher, with never a dull moment - as Jennifer slowly starts understanding what is actually happening in this world and how to bargain with those trying to manipulate her. As she gains more clarity, the missing pieces start falling into place for the readers as well. We comprehend who is really on her side and who is not. Towards the end, there are some unexpected twists, though I cannot reveal any more of the plot to avoid spoilers. But trust me, the ride from being disoriented to being in control is well worth it, both for Jennifer and for the reader! I will give it a 4.5 out of 5, which is a very high rating indeed. Looking forward to discovering more such gems unawares! :)

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!