Review of 'Playing with Fire' by Devika Fernando

        Felicia is a study in contrasts; on the face of it she is a quiet, studious, fastidious, bordering on the dowdy librarian who leads a solitary, secluded life, deliberately cutting herself away from social contacts preferring to spend her time taking long walks on her own.  On these walks she lets another self out. She walks alone but she dresses differently. Vibrant and sexy. She is enlivened and impulsive going where her feet take her. For Felicia has something burning inside her that is as desperate to get out, as frantic as she is to try and keep it in and control it.


       Cool, calm collected Joshua…in contrast has it all in place. He comes into her life ostensibly to try and help her and guide her. However will the strong carnal attraction that threatens to engulf them be their downfall? Is he really what he says he is?

       This is the second book that I have read of Ms Fernando and kudos to her for making this so different from ‘When I see your Face’. If I hadn’t known it, I wouldn’t have even said it is the same author. It is rare for an author to move so well between such disparate themes.

  Which brings me to the part that I was under the impression that ‘Playing with Fire’ was a paranormal romance and there is that, but it is also so much more.  In fact I found more of paranormal drama then romance in the book. For me the book was all about…..the angst of a young girl, it was her confusion on being different,  it was her supposed apathy in the face of rejection, it was about an outsider looking in who is scared and yet in awe of her rare ability. It was about the journey of Felicia and what a well etched one it was.

       Joshua on the other hand I found rather superficial. He came and he went and he didn’t leave much of an impression on me. Most of the feeling and emotions all came through the character of Felicia and maybe that is why I didn’t find the romance element so strong. It just seemed very one sided.

      However I am not here to nitpick on genres. It was a good story and I enjoyed it: the best part being…it is the first of a series. Can’t wait for the next one.

Scorched by his Fire.

Review of ‘Scorched by his Fire’ by Reet Singh.

‘Dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn’t’, is the position Detective Tanay Devkumar finds himself in when he sets out to teach Mita Ramphul a lesson for her supposed indiscretions with his brother-in-law, Samrat.  Haughty to the point of being arrogant, he is not ready to listen to any of her remonstrations of innocence. Even as he is working on his own agenda of keeping Samrat and Mita apart, he cannot but acknowledge the intense attraction she holds for him.

Samrat is Mita’s oldest and dearest friend and ‘just that and nothing else’. Beautiful and feisty she is absolutely indignant at Tanay’s attitude towards her and is not ready to go down without a fight.

The attraction between them is palpable, heady and intense and thank God for an author who doesn’t get her characters to get all coy and evasive about it. She aptly portrays Tanay as this decisive, meticulous go-getter and then she brings into relief the havoc Mita is causing in his life by the way his ‘grand plan’ can be thrown into absolute disarray by a single glance from her. Her family is warm friendly inviting and the descriptions of them and the island are marvelously sketched.

What I would have liked is a bit more of Samrat as he was the whole reason they met in the first place. Just one or two scenes to show the undercurrents between the three of them would have been entertaining and added support to the storyline. Besides, that sub-plot that revolved around Mita ended quite lamely in the end.

On the whole the book was a fast, smooth read that I thoroughly enjoyed: mainly due to it being interesting with well defined characters and above all the flow of the plot was very good.

Blackbird...Go Fly My Son.

http://tinyurl.com/m9l7b9b

A FATHERS SONG TO HIS DYING SON.

"Blackbird singing in the dead of the night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to be free."

From The Beatles Song 'Blackbird'.

Not always so nice!

History, Music, Art ...Literature have waxed eloquent about women through the ages.

Mother, mistress, muse,madonna....if it weren't for her where would civilisation be?

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Taken from “Beautiful Woman” by Maya Angelou
www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/24563.html#GIWiAWbGIbOAreOx.99

And then you flip the coin.

When she is good...she is very, very good.
But when she is bad she is HORRID.

(With due apologies to Mother Goose for the filching)

Some of the worst serial killers we have had ...have been WOMEN.

Brutal, callous, focused. Read about them  The hidden dagger