Perfectly Indian // REVIEW: Baaz by Anuja Chauhan

Title: Baaz

Author: Anuja Chauhan
Publication Date: May 1st 2017
Publisher: Harper Collins India
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Vivek Tejuja and Harper Collins India
Buy Links: Amazon India ||  Flipkart || Snapdeal || Infibeam || Kobo || Google Play Books

Blurb Description: 1971. The USSR-backed India-Mukti Bahini alliance is on the brink of war against the America-aided Pakistani forces. As the Cold War threatens to turn red hot, handsome, laughing Ishaan Faujdaar, a farm boy from Chakkahera, Haryana, is elated to be in the IAF, flying the Gnat, a tiny fighter plane nicknamed ‘Sabre Slayer’ for the devastation it has wrecked in the ranks of Pakistan’s F-86 Sabre Squadrons. 
Flanked by his buddies Raks, a MiG-21 Fighter, Maddy, a transport pilot who flies a Caribou and fellow Gnatties Jana, Gana and Mana, Shaanu has nothing on his mind but glory and adventure – until he encounters Tehmina Dadyseth, famed bathing beauty and sister of a dead fauji, who makes him question the very concept of nationalism and whose eyes fill with disillusioned scorn whenever people wax eloquent about patriotism and war… 
Pulsating with love, laughter and courage, Baaz is Anuja Chauhan's tribute to our men in uniform. 

Anuja Chauhan is one of the ONLY Indian writers whose career in writing I follow religiously and read her books as soon as she writes them. Chauhan manages to capture the essence of India in all its glory, gets her humour and chemistry on point and throws all her characters into such unique settings. In fact, there’s nothing I don’t love about her books.

And so when my sister told me that she was releasing a new book, I compulsively stalked Anuja Chauhan’s twitter to wait and see what this book would be all about and when I could get my hands on it.

Baaz did not disappoint. In fact, the fact that this was centred on a boy made it all the more fun, especially since Anuja’s last two books had a huge smattering of girls, filling it to the brim. As I laughed, prayed for my three mains in the Indian Air Force and took this journey with them, I was only reassured of my love for Anuja’s books and writing.

THOUGHTS:

1.       I loved the banter. I loved all three of our main pilots – Maddy, Raka and Ishaan but more than anything, I loved the camaraderie they had between them, their jokes and their backstory.

2.       I love the way Anuja writes – in English, but an Indianized version of English showing off the Hindi and the way some native language speakers alter the language. More than the actual descriptions, this creates that authentic Indian atmosphere I’ve spent my whole life in.

3.       Her writing style is so unique. It’s all told in third person, but in the midst of a chapter the viewpoint will chance from one person to another just to give you a deeper insight into the minds of all her complicated characters. It’s so different from what I’m used to and I love it.

    4.       I feel like I should mention the names and nicknames in the book. Each of them is so perfectly crafted (Carva-lho) (Sorry non Hindi people) and makes me laugh the minute their name and personality is connected to some sort of joke, reference or nickname.

    5.       I haven’t read many military books before, but everything about the war, the strategy and the piloting manoeuvres were described enough to make me understand and yet didn’t bore me even a little.

     6.       The only reason I’m taking a star off this book is because that ending was so Bollywood and Filmy that it made me cringe. As did the whole cast being moved to Dacca. I honestly just wish it was edited out.

This book is just one more masterpiece doled out by the top fiction writer in India, who will permanently reside on the top of my auto buy author list.

A truly spectacular insight into India, War, Love, Feminism, Patriotism and Family in the 1970s. 

Anuja Chauhan is an Indian author and advertiser. She worked in the advertising agency, JWT India, for over 17 years. She has written 3 novels, The Zoya Factor (2008), Battle For Bittora (October 2010) and Those Pricey Thakur Girls (January 2013). All three books are romances.

Where are you from? What languages do you speak in?

Who are some of the authors on your auto-buy list? 

Have you read any great fictional book set in times of war? Give me your recommendations!

EMOTIONAL TORTURE (The BEST kind) // Dead of Winter by Kresley Cole

Title: Dead Of Winter (The Arcana Chronicles #3)
Author: Kresley Cole
Publication Date: January 6th 2015
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Part of A Series?: Yes Book 3/5 of the Arcana Chronicles
I Got A Copy Through: Sullivan and Partners (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon US || Amazon UK || Amazon IN || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || The Book Depository

Blurb Description: Can Evie convince her rival loves to work together? Their survival depends on it in this third book of #1 New York Timesbestselling author Kresley Cole’s Arcana Chronicles, a nonstop action tale of rescue, redemption, and a revenge most wicked.
Heartbreaking decisions Evie was almost seduced by the life of comfort that Death offered her—until Jack was threatened by two of the most horrific Arcana, the Lovers. She will do anything to save him, even escape Death’s uncanny prison, full of beautiful objects, material comforts…and stolen glances from a former love.
Uncertain victory Despite leaving a part of her heart behind with Death, Evie sets out into a perilous post-apocalyptic wasteland to meet up with her allies and launch an attack on the Lovers. Such formidable enemies require a battle plan, and the only way to kill them may mean Evie, Jack, and Death allying. Evie doesn’t know what will prove more impossible: surviving slavers, plague, Bagmen and other Arcana—or convincing Jack and Death to work together.
Two heroes returned There’s a thin line between love and hate, and Evie just doesn’t know where she stands with either Jack or Death. Will this unlikely trio be able to defeat The Lovers without killing one another first...? 

ENDINGS LIKE THAT NEED TO BE OUTLAWED.

BECAUSE I’M DYING AND YET, THE HOPE OF MORE OF THIS MIGHT BE THE ONLY THING KEEPING ME ALIVE.

Actually, scratch that. I’m most definitely DEAD inside because this book – this series – is EVERYTHING and it just killed me.

The Arcana Chronicles is about a game. (OF MURDERING EVERYTHING IN ME. I’m kidding.) A game where twenty two teenagers handpicked by the Gods and gifted with supernatural abilities depicted on Tarot Cards play for immortality. The winner doesn’t age in the centuries between games, but only at the price at killing all the other Arcana.

Of course, each game has to have obstacles apart from the actual ‘bad guys’ themselves and this one consists of bagmen – zombies that eat blood and whose touch turns you into one of them – and slavers and armies and the plague.

In the middle of a post-apocalyptic world, is Evangeline Greene. The Empress, the Poison Princess, the Red Witch has formed an alliance for everyone to step out of the game – to not kill but to take control of their own fates and live their lives out.

Except in a centuries long killing game for immortality in a post-apocalyptic world, can you really just stop killing?

I LOVE THIS STORY OH MY GOD.

I’m a sucker for bad boys (see: Rhysand from ACOTAR) so, if you throw TWO BAD BOYS IN THE PICTURE, and one of them DEATH himself, I will be in love, before I ever started reading. ALSO, THEY’RE BOTH AWESOME. AND SLIGHTLY MESSED UP. AND GORGEOUS. AND WONDERFUL FIGHTERS. AND POWERFUL. (I could go on.)  

While I loved the boys, however, Evie and the boys and the fact that they were basically in a pissing/ marking their territory contest and the fact that she didn’t say anything was UGH. Like STAND UP FOR YOURSELF. You’re not property to be owned, just because you married someone in a past life doesn’t mean you’re married now. MEH.

Another cool thing I did love was the different Arcana and their powers. I MEAN HOW COOL IS TIME TRAVEL AND ELECTRICITY AND POISON AND WINGS AND A KILLING TOUCH AND MIND CONTROL? Powers have ALWAYS fascinated me and I love everyone’s powers, even if there really was only one scene where we saw a lot of them use it.

I’m craving more action, less romance in book four.

I want Evie to UNLEASH the Red Witch.

I want more of this series, I want more from this series, - I JUST WANT EVERYTHING, OKAY?

Yes, I make no sense.

But you should go DEFINITELY read this. NOW.  

Have you ever used Tarot Cards? 

Do you believe in Tarot Cards? 

If you could have ONE superpower, what would it be?

HAVE YOU READ THIS SERIES, BECAUSE I NEED TO RANT AND SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME.

Review: The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1) by Jodi Meadows

Title: The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1)

Author: Jodi Meadows
Publication Date: March 10th 2015
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book One of Two
I Got A Copy Through: I bought it!
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Barnes & Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery 

Blurb Description: Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.
She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.
She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.
She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others.
Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world. 

AAAAAHH.

This is my The Orphan Queen re-read which was initially done to serve two purposes:

1)      Prepare myself for the GIANT BEAUTIFUL THING that is The Mirror King

2)      To Write a Comprehensive Review for it BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME.

At this point it seems like I’ve also succeeded in breaking my heart yet again. I’m halfway through my FIRST read of The Mirror King (57% according to Goodreads. WHAT.) AND. UM. WELL. I’m just reading and reading and reading and not at all processing because that’s what I do with good books and wait for everything bad to hit me after.

YOU, HOWEVER, ARE HERE FOR The Orphan Queen, SO WELCOME.

What is The Orphan Queen?

Oh, it is only the book that will get you SO BLOODY ADDICTED you’ll need to have The Mirror King to open and devour right away.

Wilhelmina is a spy in the palace in the Indigo Kingdom. She’s the long lost princess of the Aecor Kingdom that stole her homeland and slaughtered her parents. Wilhelmina HAS MAGIC (which is illegal, just so you know).

And now, almost ten years later, IT IS TIME TO EXACT REVENGE AND SAVE HER HOMELAND.

Except in politics, sly games and vigilantism NOTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE. Especially a young queen’s feelings, and her magic.

Wil is, as I was told, A BADASS HEROINE! What makes her stand out SO MUCH in my head though is that the fact that she’s NOT ALWAYS RIGHT. Or holier than thou. Or anything of the sort. She’s scared, she makes mistakes, she pays for her mistakes and she’s ALSO BRILLIANT. She just seemed an all-around REAL character with her fear and insecurities and everything. I love Wil.

Another aspect I ADORE about TOQ is the Osperys (yes, even controlling Patrick) and the fact that they could just get things done. THERE WAS NO WAITING ABOUT IN THEIR MISSIONS, nothing less than true grief when they lost one of their own for they are family and all understanding all the time about who the other person is.

Also, BLACK KNIFE. AAAH.

I did love that there wasn’t a lot of importance given to court drama and social niceties because well, that happens in EVERY book and it would’ve just dragged this piece of gorgeous literature on.

I think the ONLY thing I didn’t like (in my first read) is the fact that I predicted a certain reveal about a certain character and it was kind of disappointing because I was hoping I wasn’t right.

All in all, A BEAUTIFUL BOOK THAT YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE READING.

If you had a group of fictional rebels, who would you choose to be in that group? Have you read this series? What did YOU think? Should I be reading the novellas?

BLOG TOUR: The Killer in Me by Margot Harrison - Review + Quotes + Giveaway

Title: The Killer in Me
Author: Margot Harrison
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: July 12th 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Contemporary, Fiction

Synopsis: Hasn't he lived long enough? Why not? I could take him like a thief in the night.
This is how the Thief thinks. He serves death, the vacuum, the unknown. He’s always waiting. Always there.
Seventeen-year-old Nina Barrows knows all about the Thief. She’s intimately familiar with his hunting methods: how he stalks and kills at random, how he disposes of his victims’ bodies in an abandoned mine in the deepest, most desolate part of a desert.
Now, for the first time, Nina has the chance to do something about the serial killer that no one else knows exists. With the help of her former best friend, Warren, she tracks the Thief two thousand miles, to his home turf—the deserts of New Mexico.
But the man she meets there seems nothing like the brutal sociopath with whom she’s had a disturbing connection her whole life. To anyone else, Dylan Shadwell is exactly what he appears to be: a young veteran committed to his girlfriend and her young daughter. As Nina spends more time with him, she begins to doubt the truth she once held as certain: Dylan Shadwell is the Thief. She even starts to wonder . . . what if there is no Thief?

WHAT EVEN WAS THIS BOOK?

And I mean that in an I'm feeling everything, but I don't know how to process it kind of way (not the terrible kind)

THIS BOOK IS MADNESS PERSONIFIED.

Nina Barrows can see a serial killer in her head. She can see him when he's driving his car, when he's with his family, when he's in his secret lair with all of his weapons and she can see him killing people. And she's inside his head when she does.

At first, she tried not sleeping. After all, if she never sleeps, she can never see him, right? But after a pill incident and rehab and a brutal murder, Nina Barrows decided that if she was the only person who knew this man - The Thief - then she has to do something about it. 

She looks into his mind, into everything he does, trying to find the next opportunity to take him down. There's just one problem - she doesn't know if he really exists. 

I LOVED THIS. AND ALL THE CRAZY IT BOUGHT WITH IT.

Never in my life has a book caused me to question it and myself so much. There were these bouts of insanity from Nina, where I thought that she was making all of it up in her head, then it switched to Warren (poor, sweet, SWOONY Warren) who was a reliable narrator and he found evidence, and I was believing EVERYTHING, until he started second guessing himself and then I went WHAT.

I loved that Margot Harrison had the power to keep me guessing and FEELING ALL THE MADNESS until the very end.

If you're looking for a book to play with your mind, THIS SHOULD BE YOUR NEXT ONE.

QUOTES:

"He serves death, the vaccum, the unknown. Always waiting. Always there. 

"Which was worse, being a thing or being nothing? 

People are eager to believe the best-case scebario, don't want to know the worst."

Follow the The Killer In Me by Margot Harrison Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

I was raised in the wilds of New York by lovely, nonviolent parents who somehow never managed to prevent me from staying up late to read scary books. I now work at an alt-weekly newspaper in Vermont, where my favorite part of the job is, of course, reviewing scary books and movies. The Killer in Me is my first novel.

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Review: Tanya Tania by Antara Ganguli

Title: Tanya Tania
Author: Antara Ganguli
Publication Date: July 9th 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Bloomsbury India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Flipkart || Amazon IN

Blurb Description: Last night there was a snowstorm that made my window disappear. I woke up gasping at the heater. This is my first letter in three years. First letter since I left Pakistan. First letter since Nusrat. 
Tanya Tania is a story about two young women coming of age in two countries that are coming of age. Tanya Talati in Karachi and Tania Ghosh in Bombay, daughters of college best friends, write to each other of what cannot be said to anyone else: a mother who has gone from quiet to silent, sex that has become a weapon, a servant with unforgettably soft hands and a country beginning to play with religion. When Tanya's brother receives a kidnapping threat, she sets in motion what no one could have predicted, least of all Tania, who finds herself alone in a forbidden bazaar in Bombay, listening to the sounds of a riot torn city coming closer and closer and closer . . .
Written in letters that span six years, Tanya Tania is a story of what it means to be between childhood and adulthood at a time when two countries are struggling with what it means to be Indian and Pakistani, rich and poor, confident and lonely. A story of love between girls, between families and between countries, Tanya Tania, is, at its heart, a love story about what it means to be human.

"I want to make something of my life, Tania. I’m not yet a whole person but I’m trying to be. That must mean something.”

I’m Indian. My grandparents moved from the region of India that is now called Pakistan during the partition in India into India and Pakistan.

Pakistan was the country the Muslims demanded for their own religious freedom, and the Hindus along with others following different religions that happened to be living in their promised region were sent out. My family was one of these families.

Reading Tanya Tania was like learning all about my history; all about how different and yet how similar my life could have been, were we still living there. That sounds selfish, now, so how about I stop talking about me and start talking about what this book is ACTUALLY about.

Tania Ghosh lives in Mumbai, with her rich family, boy and popularity problems. Her boyfriend doesn’t publicly acknowledge their relationship, her best friend is a mute girl who also happens to be hired to wash her clothes for her and her parents never seem to do anything but fight and want her to be her older brother.

Tanya lives in Pakistan, but her entire life is about the day she leaves, and goes back home. College in America, that’s the dream. Harvard. In the meantime, she is trying to cope with her mother that fades away more every day, her twin brother and father that are always absent and refuse to acknowledge that there is anything wrong, her boyfriend doesn’t care, and everybody around her is receiving death threats.

Tanya Tania is all about two teenage girls, and their journey into adulthood.

For there is nothing simple about GROWING UP anymore; nothing simple about growing up female in countries where feminism is oppressed. There is nothing simple about growing up in a world where what SOCIETY tells you you’re supposed to do is more important that what YOU want to do.

Tanya Tania is a story, told through a bunch of letters to explain the complex lives of two ordinary girls, and it is GORGEOUS.

It is everything you might be going through, it is everything you might go through in the future, and it’s told in a SUCH heart-warming, you will forever want to stay immersed in there two lives.

What I LOVED about Tanya Tania:

1.       ALL THE DEEP THINGS: EVERY SINGLE PAGE OF THIS BOOK HAD SOMETHING DEEP GOING ON. Depression, Sex and Consent, RELIGION, Standing Up To Your Parents, How Much It Matter If People Like You, AND EVERYTHING WAS HANDLED GORGEOUSLY. I was particularly happy with how much sex was talked about in this book – about what sex means as a teenager, the pressure to JUST GET IT OVER WITH, and how it’s always the GIRL that is the slut when it all comes out.

2.       THE HONEST VOICES: Tanya and Tania had these unflinching voices, raw voices that embodied the thoughts of all teenage girls when it comes to boys, sex, college, parents and just what to do with themselves. It felt like I was reading something I would write on a piece of paper, and I LOVE THAT FEELING.

What I Didn’t Love about Tanya Tania:

1.       That Abrupt Ending: I know this is a story about LIFE, and that the ending of this book shouldn’t have been tied up in a pretty bow, BUT I REALLY NEEDED IT. It felt like all Tanya had accomplished was that she managed to move away and live the American Dream, but nothing about her PERSONALLY had been resolved. She never spoke to her parents about being the invisible one, never spoke to her brother about any of it. It was heart-breaking and she deserved a better ending.

2.       The Names: AGAIN, I know, a symbolic/ publicity stunt, but for the first few letters, I WAS SO CONFUSED about which girl was writing to which. SIGH.

All in all, a book DEFINITELY worth your time, with the most unflinching thoughts on what it is to grow up today.

4 stars!

What books accurately represent your country or religion? I'm dying to read more books that accurately give me insight into different cultures, and I'm looking for recs!

ALSO, which books have helped you through a hard time? 

Please do link me up! I'll be catching up on comments this weekend!

BLOG TOUR: The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry - Review + Favourite Quotes + Giveaway

Title: The Girl I Used to Be 
Author: April Henry
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Release Date: May 3rd 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary, Suspense
Part Of A Series?: Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: The publisher via NetGalley

Synopsis: When Olivia's mother was killed, everyone suspected her father of murder. But his whereabouts remained a mystery. Fast forward fourteen years. New evidence now proves Olivia's father was actually murdered on the same fateful day her mother died. That means there's a killer still at large. It's up to Olivia to uncover who that may be. But can she do that before the killer tracks her down first?

I love murders that keep me on the edge of my seat, like REALLY REALLY love them. I mean, what's the point of writing a book about a murder that isn't even convincing?

Olivia Reinhart used to be someone else. Now, she's an emancipated minor living by herself, working a minimum wag job. She used to be Ariel Benson, the girl who's father killed her mother, then abandoned her and ran away. She was the sad little girl that nobody wanted, that nobody bothered with. 

Until now.

The book starts off with a bang, with the cops knocking on Olivia Reinhart's door, telling her that her father has also been dead all along, and not the person to blame like everyone thought. It pulls you right in to the story, and Henry's writing keeps you gripped. Olivia/ Ariel was a great narrator, each world filled with pain and strength and the ability to love and be loved that was taken from her. Henry really makes you feel for her. 

I loved all of the secondary characters, all of the people from her parent's past. Actually, I loved the idea of them, but none of them were fully explored. As she found out a little more about each one of them, and each chapter ended with a version of "Did they murder my parents?" I felt like I knew more about them, and their possible motivations, but the ending was so abrupt, it ruined the whole everyone-could-have-murdered-my-parents thing the book had going. 

A book with a brilliant 90%, and a ending that let me down, but one that I would still recommend! 

QUOTES: 

"It's crazy to think someone you once loved, who once loved you, could stab you and keep stabbing you. Even after you were dead.

I'm not going to forgive. Someone murdered my parents and left them underneath the cold sky and thought they got away with it. They were wrong."

Follow the The Girl I Used To Be by April Henry Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

I write mysteries and thrillers. I live in Portland, Oregon with my family.

If you've read one of my books, I would love to hear from you. Hearing from readers makes me eager to keep writing.

When I was 12, I sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine.

My dream of writing went dormant until I was in my 30s, working at a corporate job, and started writing books on the side. Those first few years are now thankfully a blur. Now I'm very lucky to make a living doing what I love. I have written 13 novels for adults and teens, with more on the way. My books have gotten starred reviews, been picked for Booksense, translated into six languages, been named to state reading lists, and short-listed for the Oregon Book Award. 

I also review YA literature and mysteries and thrillers for the Oregonian, and have written articles for both The Writer and Writers Digest.

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