Soul Warrior by Falguni Kothari. He has arrived.

Cover Reveal:

SOUL WARRIOR - THE AGE OF KALI 

Book One

BY FALGUNI KOTHARI

Blurb 

Twisted myths. Discretion advised.

Fight fate, or succumb to destiny?

In the dark Age of Kali, the Soul Warrior alone stands guard over the Human Realm, protecting its denizens from evil-willed asuras or demons. When a trick of fate appoints him guru to a motley crew of godlings, he agrees to train them as demon hunters against his better judgment. Suddenly, Lord Karna is not only battling the usual asuras with sinister agendas, but also rebellious students and a fault-ridden past.

Spanning the cosmic realms of mythic India, here is a tale of a band of supernatural warriors who come together over a singular purpose: the salvation of Karna’s secret child.

AUTHOR'S NOTE  TO LOVERS OF MYTHOLOGY....

WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH SOUL WARRIOR?

When you grow up in India, you are engulfed in tales of good and evil, gods and demons, karma and reincarnation on a daily basis. India’s myths are as much part of day-to-day life as is bathing. So I wondered if heaven and hell actually exists what would they look like? What are the good or bad souls doing in this Heaven and Hell? Are the souls in Heaven any happier being stuck there than the souls repenting in Hell? Do they want to come back to Earth as humans?



These questions were the basis of Soul Warrior’s mythos, as was Vedic India and the Mahabharata. India has such a rich offering of grand stories, and its people have a thirst to read them. I want to tell these stories, but in my way. I didn’t want to simply retell the popular tales. I wanted to reimagine them. Go beyond the known myths into the realm of pure fantasy.

Excerpt

SHUNYA: NOTHING AND EVERYTHING

Kuru Kshetra Battlefield.

Day 17 of the Great Kuru War, seven thousand five hundred years ago.

Death is hot.

That surprises me. I’d imagined death as cold and brutal. Merciless. But in truth, death is hot as blood, and constant like a heartbeat.

Thrum. Thrum. Thrum. My lifeblood ebbs to the rhythm. My head ripped from its torso by Anjalika, the arrow of death that burns even now with the energy of the sun. Struck from behind like some novice. Felled in battle by that lily-livered usurper the Heavens smile upon—Prince Arjun. Brother Arjun.

What have I done?

I harness the thought. Cease all reflection and wrench free of my mortal body. I soar up, up into the gloaming, snapping the ties that tether me to life. Dead, I have no use for ties.

“A matter of perspective, Karna, O son of my godsire.” The unearthly words strum through the air, and I quiver like a plucked bowstring, overcome as much by the voice as its blasphemous claim. “Bonds of devotion nourish the soul, brother.”

There is that word again. Brother. Unpleasant laughter wells up in me. Alive, I am abandoned, denied my birthright—Celestial or royal. Death, it seems, changes everything.

A bright, nebulous light brings forth Lord Yama, the God of Death, atop his divine mount. His elephantine thighs ripple beneath a silken dhoti, ochre and crimson of color, as he guides the mammoth water buffalo to a halt. An iron medallion sways against the God’s powerful cerulean torso, its center stone an ethereal blood orange.

Hypnotic. Pulsing with life. I am drawn to the stone.

“Piteous waste,” Lord Yama mutters, surveying the carnage of war far below us.

I trace the trajectory of his gaze and behold the battered remains of my army drenched in the evidence of its mortality. Is it true? Have we died in vain?

Words form inside me and I will them out. “Shall we go, my lord?”

“Ha! Impatient to be judged, are you? Anxious to have your fate revealed?” asks the Judge of the Hell Realm. His red-black eyes burn with intelligence and compassion in a blue-tinged face that is long and lean and hard. “Rest easy, brother-warrior. You are not bound for the Great Courtroom.”

Not bound for Hell? Where then? Fear has eluded me for so long that I take a moment to recognize it. A hollow-bellied feeling it is, as annoying as a bone stuck in my throat.

“My lord, I have done bad deeds…terrible deeds in my life. I have waged wars, this horrendous bloodshed, and all because my pride could not—would not abide rejection. I have sinned. I must atone for my actions.”

Lord Yama smiles in a way I do not like. “You have redeemed yourself admirably, Karna. You forfeited your life for the greater good today. The deed far outweighs any misguided ones. Be at peace, brother, and enjoy the fruits of your karma.”

There is but one place to enjoy such fruits—the Higher Worlds.

I’d rather burn in Hell for eternity. I say so. “I won’t live amongst the Celestials.” Coexisting with the very souls who’ve spurned me is unthinkable. Watching her—for she would surely reside in Heaven soon—will be eternal torture.

Yama shakes his head, the horns on his crown slashing to and fro. “I thought you might say that. Relax. Your destiny lies elsewhere.”

“Am I to be reborn then? Am I to begin a new life, and forget the past?” Pain, sharp as a blade, lances through me at the thought. Forget my past? My family? Even her? Was that my punishment? To forget all that made me human?

It must be so. For have I not betrayed them as surely as I’ve betrayed my prince regent?

“Human rebirth is not your destiny, either. You are chosen, brother. Your war skills are needed for a higher purpose.” The God slips off his mount, his garments rustling in agitation. “This unjust war has pushed the Cosmos to the vortex of a cataclysm. Tomorrow, the Kuru War will end. Fearing its outcome, the Celestials rolled the Die of Fate and have unwittingly bestowed on Demon Kali untold powers.” Lord Yama bares his fangs in disgust at the foolish gamble. “Imagine the havoc that asura and his minions will wreak on the weak if left unchecked. The Human Realm must be safeguarded during Kali’s dark reign.”

I can imagine the horror only too well as I have battled with evil all my life. But I am done with wars. I am done with defeat. I won’t waste another lifetime fighting.

“With due respect, my lord, I am not the man for this task.”

“You are not a man at all,” Yama thunders, fists shaking. “You are the son of Surya, the Sun God. Accept that you are no ordinary soul.”

I say nothing. I think nothing. I feel something but I squash it down.

Lord Yama’s thick black brows draw together. “Demon Kali will try to pervade every particle of good that exists in the Cosmos, beginning with the corruptible Human Realm. Once he obliterates all of humanity, he’ll set his sights on the Celestials. Kali will not stop until he’s destroyed our way of life. But you can stop him. You are light to his darkness. Do you understand now why you had to betray him? Your beloved humans need you, Karna. I need you. Our father believes in you. Claim your rightful place in the Cosmos.”

Impatiently, Lord Yama removes the iron medallion from his neck and holds it out. The vermillion sunstone glows as if its soul is on fire. Nay! It is my soul that is on fire.

Indescribable energy curls through me. I gasp, though not in pain. I shudder and feel myself grow large, grow hot. Was this rebirth?

I am strong, full-bodied and lethal once more. Then I roar as light bursts forth from my very core and I throb with glorious, blinding power. When I come to myself, my world has changed again. Bubbles of color shimmer all around me: cobalt and saffron, azure and rose. By karma! They are souls. Infinite floating souls.

“Behold the spectrum of life: the worthy, the notorious, the righteous and the sinners.” The God of Death’s soul was a worthy sapphire blue with a tinge of silver. “Your duty, should you choose to accept the office of the Soul Warrior, is to hunt down the red-souled asuras and crush them. Whatever you decide, I wish you a long and successful Celestial existence, Karna,” Yama booms out and vanishes into the purpling sky.

The parley has stunned me. The world of color holds me in thrall. I was dead. Yet, now I am not. A new path lies before me. Unwanted, unwelcome, I insist on principle. I close my eyes. Open them to stare at the medallion cupped in my hand—a golden-hued hand at once familiar and not—and know myself for a fool. I do want this. It’s what I am.

Bastard-born. Rebel. Son. Husband. Father. Warlord. And protector. I fist the talisman, buoyed by its concrete warmth. This is who I am.

I am the Soul Warrior.

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Meet the Author

Falguni Kothari is a New York-based South Asian author and an amateur Latin and Ballroom dance silver medalist with a semi-professional background in Indian Classical dance. She’s published in India in contemporary romance with global e-book availability; Bootie and the Beast (Harlequin Mills and Boon) and It’s Your Move, Wordfreak! (Rupa & Co.), and launches a mythic fantasy series with Soul Warrior (The Age of Kali, #1)

Stalk Falguni Kothari @

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'Spectre' ...spectacularly disappointing.

              I am a die hard 007 fan; must be in my genes as my parents were in line for every James Bond movie that hit the screen. To add to that I think Daniel Craig is smoking hot but alas I think 'Spectre' burnt him in it's flames.

             What was Sam Mendes thinking of ? True we do come to see Bond for his stunts;  we do come to see macho ism at it's blatant best manifested in the cool 'Bond Persona'...shaken not stirred ; we come to see it for the stunning locales and the 'Bond Women'. We love to hate the 'Bond Villains' but seriously a story would be nice as well. Some story, any story even the semblance of a story.

            What we got was a series (and by that I mean quite a few) of spectacular stunts in sensational locations performed by Bond, strung together to represent what someone believed was a storyline. After about four of these episodes they got downright repetitive and patronising. Did they believe this is all a 007 fan comes to watch?

           The movie was let down very badly by a weak script and if I may say so poor casting. I want a Bond villain to be truly menacing, this guy looked like a high school teacher. Plucked eyebrows and black clothes do not a spectre make. I want the Bond girls to be original, stunning and vivacious. Its a fantasy world that we inhabit for two hours, I don't want to see my neighbourhood hot mom strutting her stuff. Last but not least...dare I say it? What was Daniel Craig doing? He was great in the action sequences but absolutely mechanical in the romancing and making out department...and this is 'BOND" we are talking about. I felt if I sat back and closed my eyes, I could imagine the cameramen surrounding the couple; would hear the director shout CUT and Craig was acting as if he felt the same way too.

             

The Queen Of Endurance

Michelle Kakade, comes across as just another modern Indian housewife, talking about the traffic problems, her children, what she likes to eat etc...but do not let that fool you.

Prod her a bit and its 'gloves off'.

She is about to embark on an epic journey across India which will get her into the history books.
(Not that she is not there already, with the bunch of records she has under her belt).
http://www.michellekakade.com/queen-of-endurance/trail-of-records/

As part of the Great Indian Quadrilateral Run, she will

RUN ; 6010 KMS

THIS IS EQUAL TO 143 MARATHONS
AND
WILL TAKE 181 DAYS.

This run will take her into the Guiness Book Of World Records.


So..GO MICHELLE GO!

Review of ‘Breach’ authored by Amrita Chowdhury.

‘Colare’ is supposed to be the new ‘wunderkid’ on the block. A drug that has gone through a long and stringent testing period, that is going to be used in the fight against late-stage metastic pancreatic cancer. With millions of dollars already invested in it and billions expected to be garnered from it once it hits the market; the scientists are absolutely horrified to discover anomalies in the data that is coming in from their ‘Research Centre’ in Mumbai.
Days away from filing for global patency it’s a desperate race against time to discover why this is happening?
 Is that drug not all what it was believed to be or is the data inconsistency being thrown up due to non- adherence to research protocol in their Mumbai facility? Has a virus been planted in their system to distort the data and if so who has done it and how do they find it? Is somebody trying to steal their research and piggy back on it? The probable causes are endless, the outcome just one that they can consider…they have to plug the ‘breach’.

Ms Chowdhury takes us through the shiny, antiseptic research centers’ in the USA and India; past the seedy underbelly of Mumbai’s slums and criminals. We catch a glimpse of middle class India and the choices that technology has given them. Above all it takes us into the world of computing and its threats that very few of us know much about.

Breach is an extremely well researched novel, be it about computer viruses or systems, drug related issues or even the patent filing system; Ms Chowdhury has delved deep and given us a comprehensive idea of what all it entails. After reading this book I was absolutely horrified at how easy it is for anyone to hack into my computer and get my personal details. It throws up an absolutely appalling picture of what modern day crime could result in. The plot was a believable one and I could envision something like this actually happening. There were these little nuggets of personal observation by the characters which I felt were so astute, be it Raghu thinking of how their ‘lives were leached of colour’ or Sandman pondering the harsh reality that people talked to him on the internet who would not have given him the time of the day if they had know whom he really was etc.

What I did struggle with in the book was the excessive technological jargon. There was a lot of in-depth exploration and explanation of software systems, viruses, clinical trials, patency laws etc but it was not couched in lay-man’s terms and even though I did appreciate all the research done for authenticity, I found myself skipping parts as trying to understand all that was taking away from the story. Secondly I found it had too many characters and little mini plots around these individuals. My personal liking is for stories in which I can recall the characters and don’t have to keep referring back to see whom is being written about and their context to the story. Then again, wouldn’t call this a drawback but just the way I like something.

Books for your 'Bucket List'.

Lists have become a part of our lives.

You have lists of who are the richest people in the world or then one for the happiest country in the world. Then again one for countries with the highest divorce rate and another for the lowest birth rate and so on and so forth. Something common; anything common ...whoo hoo..lets have a list.

I have to admit I am an absolute sucker for lists

So be it a list of the ten best detergents
List of 10 super foods etc....I faithfully click on all the links.

This list though is a must read. A bit heavy on all the 'Man Booker' winners but got some great books on it nevertheless.

Books for your 'Bucket List'.

Have fun!!

A princess can fall in love too. 'Hidden Passion' by Summerita Rhayne.

Hidden Passion 

by 

Summerita Rhayne 

The Blurb

Rukmani, the youngest of her family, has always had her way and she thinks she would too when the question of her marriage arises. But when she expresses her wishes, her world comes crumbling down because aristocratic affairs seem to matter more than her heart. Who can she run to but the strongest ruler of the region, Deveshwaraya?


Devesh finds himself torn between duty and desire. He is drawn to her yet being with her jeopardizes everything he has worked for. When even protecting her invites trouble, how can he let his heart become involved? 


When the walls of monarchical politics rise high between them, will her passion prevail?


Hidden Passion – the story of a princess daring to reach out for her heart’s desire

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Meet the Author

Summerita Rhayne writes sensual romance with emotional conflict. She took up writing when she was in her late thirties and hasn't looked back since. She first got published in 2013 and has won contests with Harlequin and Harper Collins India. Writing, she finds, is the only way to deal with the numerous story ideas bubbling in her brain which pop up more rapidly than her keyboard can do justice to. Especially when writing time is in short supply while juggling it with a job and the demands of a family. However, her pet belief is that a story and its characters have a life of their own and will find a way to make the writer pen them down. What else can one do when cerebrally confronted with the sizzling interaction of two Alpha characters?



She prefers to call her books sweet and sensual to denote the slowly deepening relationship between the characters.



She loves winding down with music, movies and social networking.

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Nirbhaya, you were a decent girl.

On International Woman's Day a documentary is to be aired about the people who were involved in the horrific Nirbhaya rape case in December 2012.

It makes me sick to even read what Mukesh Singh (one of the accused and his lawyers) have to say. Forget remorse, they actually seem to deem, that they did what was justified under the circumstances.

It is hard to believe that as fellow human beings they are so singularly lacking in any sort of guilt and sorrow that even after they left the poor girl tortured, broken and bleeding at the side of the road they have the gall to say this.........

“When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her', and only hit the boy,” Singh is quoted as saying.

He also says if the rapists are executed, life would be more dangerous for rape victims in the future.
“Now when they rape, they won't leave the girl like we did."
(Do they actually believe they deserve praise for what they did?)

Their lawyers are educated men, so it is even harder to stomach their views on the subject.

A decent girl won't roam at night.

Destiny drew them together. 'Saved in Sri Lanka' by Devika Fernando

Book Blitz 

Saved In Sri Lanka 

by 

Devika Fernando

Some People Are Destined To Meet 

Blurb 

Some people are destined to meet.



It sure feels that way when Sri Lankan tour guide Sepalika meets Daniel. The mysterious tourist from Ireland steals his way into her heart and makes her question everything her life is built upon. Instant attraction turns to love – but does he feel the same? And what about the secret she’s hiding from him?

Follow the two on their quest for a happy ending amid the beauty and wonders of the tropical island paradise of Sri Lanka.

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About 

Devika Fernando

Almost as soon as Devika Fernando could write, she imagined stories and poems. After finishing her education in Germany and returning to her roots in Sri Lanka, she got a chance to turn her passion into her profession. Having lived in Germany and in Sri Lanka with her husband has made her experience the best (and the worst) of two totally different worlds – something that influences her writing. Her trademark are sweet, yet deeply emotional romance stories where the characters actually fall in love instead of merely falling in lust. She draws inspiration from everyone and everything in life. Besides being a romance novel author, she works as a self-employed German web content writer, as a translator, and as a faithful servant to all the cats, dogs, fish and birds in her home. What she loves most about being an author is the chance to create new worlds and send her protagonists on a journey full of ups and downs that will leave them changed. When she’s not writing, she’s reading or thinking about writing.

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Review of 'She Loves Me, He Loves Me Not', author Zeenat Mahal

She didn’t seem to mind looking at him. She didn’t even avoid looking at his face , or cringe in revulsion. If he didn’t know better, he could almost forget his own grotesque reality, the way she looked at him.

Zeenat. She Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (Kindle Locations 937-939). 

                   Life has not dealt Zoella an easy hand but she accepts what comes her way with a smile and tries to make the most of it. Fardeen on the other hand is the original golden boy, born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Rich, successful, more attractive than what is good for him he has the world at his feet. Zoella who is a good friend of his sister Swaba, has fairly grown up in their house and knows she is just one among his legion of admirers but Fardeen has eyes only for his fiancée Neha.

                  This bubble bursts when Fardeen meets with an accident and is badly disfigured. Shunned by his fiancée, a bitter Fardeen locks himself away from the world convinced he is good for no one and not ready to even try.  A series of events cause them to be married: a marriage Zoella knows is purely of convenience and one that Fardeen views with utter disdain. Is this how Zoella’s life is destined to play out , tied to an embittered , cruel man whose only aim in life seems to be to cause as much pain to everyone around him as he is going through himself?

                  Zeenat Mahal excels in her descriptions, be it kite flying on the roof tops of Lahore, or the hustle and bustle of a wedding house or other little vignettes through the story. She subtly emphasizes and brings out the nuances of social dynamics within a family and between couples. I absolutely loved the character of Fardeen. He was marred and broken and at the end so very real, that he fairly jumped off the pages at you. I did not find the same thing happening with Zoella. She seemed too much of a martyr and too one dimensional for me to really like or understand her.  This I found to be a weak point in the book from my perspective. This was saved by the ebb and flow of the dialogue between the two main characters which was funny, witty, poignant and romantic.

                   I would give it four stars as it’s got a good plot that picks you up and takes you with it keeping you interested throughout.

50 Shades to go...

                     One of the most awaited films in recent times has hit the screens and what a grand opening it has been. It is amazing what all they have riding on the coat tails of this movie. Lingerie, I understand but LEGO figures ????? Either 'super kinky' or 'super lost the message there'.

                     The curiousity it has generated is unbelievable; so like it or hate it the figures tell us it has people thronging to the theatres.

81 million and counting

I haven't seen the movie itself as yet but have read the book and besides the curiosity factor that it hit upon big time by bringing BS&M out of the shadows and legatimising it in its own way, it really had nothing at all going for it. Two days later I had zero recall of it beside the names of the main characters and the Red Room.

Personally I do not even put down the super success of the book singularly to the mainstream being intrigued about a previously taboo and shadowy subject . We have had other books on erotica which are much better written, like ones from Sylvia Day and Cherise Sinclair etc but none have come close to the hysteria that FSOG has whipped up.

I think it had an amazing advertising campaign that was aimed solely at women's sexuality. 'Mummy Porn'. It said it was okay for a woman to fantasize and read erotica. That was what it brought out of the closet.

Statistics support me, majority of the people watching the movie are women. Groups of female buddies are hitting the theatres together to sit back and feel naughty and daring. It is as much about Grey as it is about Anastasia and about taking a hereto 'taboo' subject and being able to talk about it and make jokes about. It is an urban, educated phenomenon; women in deeply unequal societies are hardly likely to find it interesting or intriguing. It is to put it simply... a chance for female bonding

So despite all the debate on the psychological impact on women, despite what men are saying about the movie ( most are not saying too much ), despite what abuse campaigners have to say and other groups protesting on grounds of gender and religion etc, despite it not being a well written book and by all accounts even a very good movie...FIFTY SHADES is a watershed that will define how we view and talk about erotica in the future. Men have always had their magazines to show each other and chuckle over. Women now have something too.

Twenty three years earlier Sharon Stone uncrossed her legs in 'Basic Instinct' to make the men jump; today Mr Grey has used cable ties and a crop to make the women think and talk about their 'inner goddess' and share a laugh or two. Go figure that out Mr Grey.

Review of Matches Made in Heaven authored by Sundari Venkatraman

Sundari is an established best selling Indian romance author with four novels to her credit already, however this is her first collection of short stories. She covers a vast vista in this book of 13 short stories: we travel from Patna to Delhi to Rajasthan to name just a few places and we even get a taste of Mythology.

She has shown much versatility in changing the narrator throughout her book. Sometimes it is told from the girl’s point of view, sometimes from the boys and we even have a friend telling us a story. Sundari’s stories are set in Indian culture and this is supported by the recurring theme of pressure from the parents to get married and the wont to set up arranged matches. However then Ms Venkatraman breaks the mould of traditional India, as all her heroines have voices and they want to use it. It doesn’t matter if the story is set in rural India or in New York most of the heroines are feisty ladies who know what they want and will not bow willingly to pressure. If they are not that in the beginning, they become that. Kudos to Sundari for this.

The good thing about an anthology is that even though you have some stories you like better than others, there is usually something in it for everyone. Sundari has covered all the bases with this book and I did enjoy reading it. It is interesting to see her journey as an author through this collection which I am sure has been written over a period of time in her life. Some of them displaying more complexity and subtlety in their narration and plot than others; for example ‘Pappa’s Girl’ and ‘Shweta Ka Swayamvar’ vs.  ‘An Arranged Match’ or ‘Groomnapped’.

Two points that struck me were: number one, the female characters were so much more interesting than the male characters and they were the ones that carried the stories. The male characters were nice but then that is it; they lacked the layers to make them attention-grabbing. It would have been nice to have a thoroughly fascinating male lead thrown in as well in one of the stories. The bad boy, which the heroine falls in love with.  Secondly I know through her other books that Sundari has a remarkable gift of writing poignancy and I would have liked at least one to have such an ending but that is my personal liking and not a reflection on her writing.

This book is definitely worth buying so you can sneak in a short story here and there, whenever you can grab five minutes to read.

Review of Paulo Coelho's 'Adultery'.

Definitely not what I expected.

                   Linda is a woman on a mission to discover herself or rather to run away from a destructive apathy that is threatening to consume her. Rich and successful, with a loving family she seems to have it all and yet she feels these are the very things that make her question her life and mire her down. She is restless and full of turmoil as she looks for answers to this feeling of darkness and desolation and it takes her down a path of risk and adultery. 

                 A path she treads, to look for alleviation from her current mind set by having an affair with an old friend.  At the side there is the on-going tableau of her relationship with her husband, the relationship of Jacob with his wife, and her own private angst which is her driving force behind the whole book as well as a peek at what life in Geneva and upper class Swiss society is  about.

               For me the saving grace of the book was the little quotes that peppered the story.

Some were questioning, some ironical, some matter of fact but most were just pure homespun philosophy and very private and personal thoughts

               Regarding the story itself: what an amazing story this could have been. However when I read this book my first thought was; did Paulo Coelho write this?  It is so different from all his other works, not only in style but also in approach and content: which can be good but unfortunately wasn’t so in this case.

             This was a man writing about a personal journey a woman takes and it came across as precisely that. He failed to get into her head and understand her.  I felt it lacked emotion, lacked a buildup, lacked a good plot and was all over the place. The characters were shallow and some of the outcomes were so trite I felt it was downright patronizing to the reader.  At the end, I just had one thought …”really?"

REVIEW OF CANVAS OF DREAMS by JAYA MURTY

What happens when the colour runs out?

'I did not want to talk to him at all. I could sense the pain he had once caused me returning in full force when I heard him speak.

I felt desolate.'

         Riya is a successful art curator and she has worked very hard to be where she is today, battling a bad marriage and memories of Ryan, her childhood sweetheart. Ryan; the man who promised himself to her, and then walked away.

          On a work related trip to Singapore a decade later, she bumps into Ryan again and all her carefully planned life is thrown for a toss as Ryan still has the power to send her heart and senses reeling just by being in the room beside her. No matter how much she tells herself this is the man that betrayed her and chose Sia over her, his attraction for her never wavers.

          She does the only thing she knows, she runs away. For Riya, is haunted by her dreams; dreams of a painful past. Will Ryan be able to lay her nightmares to rest or will he just add to them?

The story has been told through the eyes of Riya and maybe that is why she comes across as a better developed character. Even though it is the love story of two star crossed lovers; at the end of the day I felt it was Riya’s story and her coming to terms with what she was and what she had become. I appreciate the way Jaya Murty has taken Riya on this journey through her interactions with the various men in her life.

          I would have liked the character of Ryan to have been a bit more developed and even the reason why he left her didn’t quite come across that well.

         This is the debut novel of Jaya Murty and I believe it to be a strong debut. For me at the end of the day it was the story of Riya and it was a well told story of the passage of a young girl becoming a strong woman.

Voices Old & New

It is finally here from Indireads : A collection of short stories that will blow you away.

Read Shanta's story in 'Keep The Lid On'.

Sit back and think; could that be you???????

Why shuck your pants Mr Todd?

The world is a wild, wacky place and you can always be surprised at the next corner
but this has to be CRAZIER THAN MOST

The No Pants Subway Ride Day!

How did Charlie Todd and Improv even come up with something like this ?

OOps! I forgot my pants

(You have to check out No. 47. That guy takes the cake and the bakery)

It's going to be a fun day at the office.