The Magic Word is Click! Click! Click!

Welcome to The Book Club’s very first Giveaway

Tornado Giveaway

We’re extremely excited about it. You will be too…when you hear the details. Get ready to be blown away by Tornado Giveaway! 

A tornado of books is coming your way. We love our Authors. They give us hours of entertainment; they fill our lives with love and passion. Today, we want to do exactly that. Fill your life with love. This is a Romance Giveaway with a smattering of crime thrillers and a heartwarming family saga - to spice up your life.

Starting on the 1st of July we will introduce each of the twenty-three participating Authors on our Book Club page. Some you already know; some are new.  But all promise to keep you entertained with their words.

Believe it or not, we have 200 books to give away.  Didn’t we say, a Tornado is coming your way!  And there will be not one... not two ... but 17 Winners who will get 17 books each and 6 Mega winners will get a chance to grab 22 books each.

How do you participate in this Giveaway? It's simple... just follow the Rafflecopter(scroll down) and win all the books. 

So what are you waiting for?  Join us here as we introduce each author daily and get a sneak peek into their writing. Get ready to be swept away! 

The Rules....

Love Books of course :)

In the Rafflecopter follow the rules....

1. Like the Author Facebook Page - Mandatory - 1 point

2. Follow the author on Twitter -Mandatory- 2 points

3. Tweet on the dates mentioned in the Rafflecopter about the Author - Optional - 3 points

4. Like the Harlequin India Facebook Page - Mandatory - 5 points

5. Like the Indireads Facebook Page -Mandatory - 5 points 

6. Like The Book Club Facebook Page -Mandatory -  5 points

23AUTHORS; 23 NOVELS; 17 WINNERS; 6 MEGA WINNERS 

the tornado giveaway - Video Maker

Participating Authors

Name of the Book	Name of the Author	Date of Post
Scarlet Revenge	Ann McGinnis	1st July
Saving Justice	Tasman Gibb	2nd July
The Perfect Groom	Sumeetha Manikandan	3rd July
Wilde Riders	Savannah Young	4th July
Scorched by His Fire	Reet Singh	5th July
When I see your Face	Devika Fernando	6th July
The Malhotra Bride	Sundari Venkatraman	7th July
Butterfly Season	Natasha Ahmed	8th July
The Indian Tycoon's Marriage Deal	Adite Banerjie	9th July
Bootie and the Beast	Falguni Kothari	10th July
Full Circle	Yamini Vijendran	11th July
Bollywood Fiance For a Day	Ruchi Vasudeva	12th July
The Truth About De Campo	Jennifer Hayward	13th July
Twelve Hours of Temptation	Shoma Narayanan	14th July
Monsoon Memories	Renita D'Silva	15th July
His Captive Indian Princess	Tanu Jain	16th July
The Return of the Rebel	Jennifer Faye	17th July
Rapid Fall	Adiana Ray	18th July
Kingdom Come	Aarti V Raman	19th July
Crossing the line	Nicola Marsh	20th July
India was one	An Indian	21st July
Lily's Leap	Téa Cooper	22nd July
Love's Labour	Andy Paula	23rd July

All the Best Dear Readers...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RESULTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON 30TH JULY

Participating Blogs

Bloggers/Writers	Blogging @
Aarti V Raman	Rt_Writes
Adiana Ray	Rayyyydays
Adite Banerjie	AditeBanerjie
An Indian	India Was One
Ann McGinnis	Ann McGinnis
Arti Metroreader	Arti Metroreader
Bhavya NK	Ishithaa
Devika Fernando	Devika Fernando
Dola Basu Singh	Shiuli
Falguni Kothari	Falguni Kothari
Inderpreet Kaur Uppal	Eloquent Articulation
Janaki Nagaraj	Memoirs of A Homemaker
Jennifer Faye	Jennifer Faye
Jennifer Hayward	Jennifer Hayward
Jigar Doshi	Jigar Doshi
Parichita Singh	Parichita
Natasha Ahmed	Dear Rumi
Nicola Marsh	Nicola Marsh
Nikita Soni	Njkinny's World of Books & Stuff
Pooja Abhay	Thoughtless Ramifications
Reet Singh	Reet Singh
Renita D'Silva	Renita D'Silva
Rubina Ramesh	The Book Club
Ruchi Vasudeva	Ruchi Vasudeva
Savannah Young	Savannah Young
Shoma Narayanan	Shoma Narayanan
Sonia Rao	soniaraowrites
Sumeetha Manikandan	Books Reviews by Sumi
Sundari Venkatraman	Flaming Sun
Tanu Jain	tanurja's Blog
Tasman Gibb	Tasman Gibb
Téa Cooper	Tea Cooper
Usha Narayanan	Usha Narayanan
Yamini Vijendran	Straight from the heart
Andy Paula	Andy Paula

This Giveaway is hosted by The Book Club. A group of Writers and Bloggers who have come together to spread the works of different authors from around the globe. 

Logo design by Natasha Ahmed

A special thank you to Adite Banerjie, Sundari Venkatraman and Dola Basu Singh. Without you this Giveaway was not possible. 

The Tornado Giveaway.

A fun time ahead with a lot of books heading your way and all you have to do is Click! Click! Click!

Brought to you by 'The Book Club'

REVIEW OF THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS BY M.L.STEDMAN.

     Tom Sherbourne takes a job as a light house keeper on a remote island off the western coast of Australia to escape his nightmares and guilt for returning alive from World War I. Isabel is the Head Master’s daughter in the small town nearest the lighthouse.
      She has her eyes set on Tom from the very beginning and despite Tom’s misgivings he agrees to marry her and take her to live with him on Janus Rock. Life is idyllic till Isabel has a series of miscarriages which in a heightened emotional state she blames on the island and their life there; even though she is the one who continuously refuses to seek medical help. In this tense atmosphere, a boat is washed ashore with an infant in it. There is a man in the boat as well, who is dead. Despite his serious doubts about the morality of the situation Tom is persuaded and manipulated by Isabel to keep the baby and raise her as their own. They have the perfect family life shut off in their own little cocoon till they come to know whose baby she really is. Fierce as a tigress, Isabel is ready to hold on to her daughter and not let go come what may. It is Tom who treads the higher moral ground and is torn between his love for Lucy and Isabel and doing what is right. He finds it all the more difficult when he realizes that he has met her biological mother before and sees the state she has been reduced to by the tragedy of losing her only child.
         He tempts fate by sending messages to Hannah and is eventually caught. This causes the three main protagonists to be sucked down into a vortex of anger, desperation and guilt from where there seems no escape. A tender heartfelt story of how we fool ourselves to believe what we want to believe, how we build up chains of lies around us, how we take decisions that are impulsive and that haunt us for years to come and the all important question at the end; if we had known what were to follow, would we have done things any differently?
        It’s a beautiful read about people, relationships and their emotions. The author paints a vivid picture of the little town and the era it has been set in, of the war veterans and the scars they come back with, of the effect on the families of these men. She is unsurpassed when she talks about the little island and the life of a light housekeeper. I say this, as it is such a dry subject which she has breathed life into. I loved the female characters; the human foibles and effervescence of Isabel; the forlorn drifting of Hannah, the ambivalence of Gwen, carefree, spunky Grace/ Lucy; they all strike a chord. However, I would not say the same thing about the male characters Tom was this good, stolid man who was so ridden with guilt that he seemed to have no voice or wants of his own, besides always being morally right. Hannah’s husband was this amazingly forgiving man who always found the bright side in everything. At the end I found both these characters boring with their martyr’s complex. The one male character who was vivid and attention grabbing was Septimus (Hannah’s father). Unfortunately he didn’t have too big a part in the story.
        The other thing I thought was uncalled for was the last few pages. Here was this thoroughly engrossing read and then I got to the end and I felt somebody had decided that everything needed to be dusted and tied up with little blue bows. It was absolutely brilliant without it.
        Despite these shortcomings, the story came together wonderfully well and even though it was not an action packed saga, it did grasp me and time flew as I read it. It is for this that I give it four stars and definitely recommend it as a captivating read.

Review of The Madras Mangler authored by Usha Narayanan

Usha Narayanan has given us a fast paced thriller in ‘The Madras Mangler’.  In true whodunit style you only get your answers in the last few pages.
Kat, Moti, Lolita and Minx are four close friends studying at SS Padmaja College. Each of them come from very different backgrounds but in college they find kindred spirits in each other and giggle, chat, live, laugh and support each other.  They are young girls enjoying life and living from day to day until the decomposed, strangled bodies of girls start being fished out of the water. Enter Vir, the Criminal Psychologist from the USA who has been called down by his friend Bishnu to help crack the case. Packing a mean punch, he brings his own dark motivations to the bearing of this case.
Even though they know that the murderer is targeting college girls, each of the girls are too wrapped up in their own lives to really take it seriously. Lolita, Moti and Minx are all facing trouble from different quarters due to their actions. A whole plethora of shady characters are stalking each of them separately.  The killer is on to them as well, trailing them at every turn. They only realize the true implications of the ‘Mangler’ when a friend of theirs disappears and her battered body is found later.
The book takes us through the trials of their college and personal life; with Bishnu and Vir struggling to come up with some meaningful clues to find the killer who is always one step ahead; it culminates in a desperate chase to save them.
The author’s forte lies in the action packed scenes. Her description of the HATCHET HQ and the conversations on criminal profiling and strategy between Vir and Bishnu are brilliant, as are the menacing ‘asides’ from the murderer which help build up the suspense.  The key male characters are well developed as are the four female protagonists. The conversations between the male characters is realistic and sharp, unfortunately I did not find the same attribute in the dialogue between the girls, where I felt the exchange was stilted. Besides every male character at that college were absolute degenerates.  Would have also preferred fewer secondary characters, as at times it became a bit confusing keeping up with who they are and their connection to the story.
However, these are really trifling issues when we look at the book as a whole and I am definitely no expert on college life in Chennai.  All in all an appealing read that maintains a good pace throughout. I would give it four stars.

What do we do with our secrets?

REVIEW OF THE HUSBAND’S SECRET (AUTHOR LIANE MORIARTY)

                Set in the suburbs of Sydney, Liane Moriarty picks up the silken strands that are the lives of Cecilia, Tess and Rachel and laces them deftly together over the ‘Easter Week’.

                Rachel’s daughter was murdered when she was seventeen, a tragedy she has still not come to terms with over twenty five years later. She now faces the daunting prospect of her grandson moving away. Tess finds out that her husband and her best friend who is also a much cherished cousin are in love with each other. Shattered, she retreats to her mother’s house in the suburbs with her son. However, it is Cecilia; the one with the perfectly organized life, the one who always seems to have it all together, who finds ‘the letter’ from her husband. Will she open it or not?

                Over a period of just seven days we have events from their lives woven together with a skill that would have made Athena proud. Circumstances, decisions, consequences and the circle goes on.

                This was a sizeable book, it was set in the suburbs and there wasn’t any great mystery here despite what the title suggests. On the face of it there was nothing that should really grip your attention but enthrall me it did. I couldn’t put it down and I was surprised myself at how fast it went. Kudos to Liane Moriarty for being such a great story-teller.

                She draws you into the perfectly ordinary lives of these women and you don’t even realize you have actually been pulled into the room with them. Fear, lies, loss, weakness, adultery she throws them all at you and it eventually boils down to the choices these women make in their lives. What I appreciated is that the characters were not black or white, they were human with all the foibles that humans have and Ms Moriarty just presented their story, she never judged them. That she leaves to us.

                The only part which I question is the need for the character of Tess and her story. It was a great story but I didn’t quite get the connection with the main plot. Also the ending felt too much like a ‘done and dusted’ affair. Minor drawbacks at best.

                It categorically deserves a five star rating and what was the icing on the cake for me were the brilliant little truisms’ that her characters come up with either as snippets of conversation or in their thoughts. E.g. one from Cecilia

‘She’d learned that with her daughters. Don’t say a word. Don’t ask a question. Give them enough time and they’d finally tell you what was on their mind. It was like fishing. It took silence and patience.’

An excerpt from' The Guardian' by Adiana Ray.

She shifted a bit to see what she was looking at through the window and her mouth tightened perceptibly, when she saw the figure riding a horse. There was no mistaking who it was; the sun rays shone down on the sleek corded muscles of the man riding bare back around the maidan. (ground) His long hair flowing behind him, he had his face turned up in ecstasy to the sky. Sheer exhilaration in the moment and the diffused golden glow of the sun, lent piercing detail, to the already striking visage.  Razia looked at him, her heart in her mouth, truly God had made this man, she thought. Looking at the feelings play across her face, the old crone’s face hardened. If she had dared to, she would have spat on the ground in disdain.

Yaqut, she hissed to herself.  She should have known that haram salla (bastard) would have been behind all this.

A never ending song

Would your brain react differently to a song by Charlotte Church versus one by Maroon 5?

Why Music Makes Our Brain Sing

www.nytimes.com

When a song triggers both anticipation and reward, it moves us like nothing else.