Books and Beyond

About the main Character Nina ... a woman who has it all. A woman who has been able to leave her painful and needy past behind, where struggling for basic necessities was just a part of life. A woman who has a loving husband, Finn, who has given her everything and anything and who now lives in a house, thats no less than a mansion in an upper class locality. A woman who has two beautiful children, Declan and Connor, studying in the most expensive premier school/college - where all those who matter in upper class society, send their offsprings to. In a typical story that reads like from rags to riches, Nina is completely busy and immersed with her family and doesn't need anyone beyond it. Her relationship with her only living sibling, Tiggy, is also strained and one that she doesn't care much about - because of their differences and the fact that her sister still lives in the same rundown area where she grew up and one that she has left behind. The Plot  As they s...

OMG! AMAZING! AWESOME! INSIGHTFUL! DELIGHTFUL! It's all of the above and so much more! an epic story of an eccentric grandma and her lovable, but different granddaughter who is bullied in school for it. There are animal clouds that take you travelling to other distant lands, dragons and shadow monsters, heroes, princesses and queens, kingdoms and warriors and most importantly there are quite a few references of Harry Potter! whoa! Any book that talks about HP has got to be great, right? Lolz, no this review ain't biased! Well, the core issues touched upon in this book are diverse, and include themes such as family and relationships, broken families and their children, friendships, the significance of believing in fairytales, the power of love, sibling competition and rivalry, the doubts with a new baby on the way for the elder sibling, and a child's precociousness, and most importantly the relevance of HP in life (:-p)...to mention just a few. This is definitely...

International Giveaway 
Hello guys! THIS is the GIVEAWAY post....to get the 3 points required for you to be eligible for the giveaway, you need to : 1. SUBSCRIBE to my blog (the subscribe button can be seen at the top when you visit my blog) 2. Comment on this post mentioning your IG account - this is very important for me to tally all your points.  The prizes? 2 bestseller books from my own collection - original copies 1 best seller book – local hardcover copy Bookish merchandise I will soon share what the books being offered are (as soon as I can have some time to breathe from my hectic work schedule) as well as share pics of the bookish merch J 

 Giveaway ends on June 20, 2018 and winners will be announced by the first week of July 2018. Good Luck to those entering!!!

"There are three things you need to know about me. 1. I'm in a coma 2. My husband doesn't love me anymore 3. Sometimes I lie." Holy. Mother. of. Thrillers!!! This is one book that I've read in quite some time that has so many unexpected twists and turns.... that I'm 💯 percent sure, no one.... not one single soul could have foreseen what the story really entails. Amber is at the cross roads of her life.... she is in a job that she hates but needs. In her own words, 'to many, I'm living my dream job, but nightmares are dreams too!'. She feels her relationship has come to a standstill, where she and her husband are just tolerating each other and there is no love anymore. She doesn't have too many friends, just one colleague Jo.... and is not close to her family (in fact, she seems to be estranged from her parents and has a weird, imbalanced relationship with her sister!). Just right before Christmas, she is informed by her Mana...

Synopsis: (from Goodreads) A Boy Made of Blocks is a funny, heartwarming story of family and love inspired by the author's own experiences with his son, the perfect latest obsession for fans of The Rosie Project, David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes. A father who rediscovers love Alex loves his wife Jody, but has forgotten how to show it. He loves his son Sam, but doesn't understand him. He needs a reason to grab his future with both hands. A son who shows him how to live Meet eight-year-old Sam: beautiful, surprising - and different. To him the world is a frightening mystery. But as his imagination comes to life, his family will be changed . . . for good. My Review: This is the sort of book that kind of tugs real hard at your heart. It is a story of an autistic child and how difficult it is both for the caregivers and the child.... while going through life in the shadow of this unfortunate disease. Right from initial denial to accepting the diagnosis, to the rifts t...

Yesterday at midnight, A robber broke into my house. At first, I didn’t realize that he had broken in. When the fridge door slammed shut, I woke Abruptly from my deep slumber. I waited for him to come bustling in my room with guns blazing And waited and waited. When nothing happened, I got out of bed, and found the telephone. I dialed 911. They picked up the phone. ‘Hello. Hello! Hello?’ No response. I opened the closet and got my trusty baseball bat out. I went down the stairs. On the ground floor, I suddenly crashed into someone. I beat him with my bat. I turned around and found someone staring at me with pitiful eyes. I turned back, And saw only shards of a broken mirror. I heard one word. ‘Dad?’ He spoke again: ‘Dad, it’s me, John. I bought you some medicine. This should help with you.’ I looked at my hands, the mirror shards and then back at him. I didn’t recognize anything. I fainted. This morning, I ...

An interesting book, albeit slow and sluggish at times. However, the author,  Jonathan de Shalit (a pseudonym) is a former high-ranking member of the Israeli Intelligence Community and that is what exactly drew me to this book in the first place. The very inner side of the book's cover states who he is and how this book had to be vetted and approved particularly by a special Governmental Ministers’ Committee. Based on the plot and the intricacies involved as well as the fine attention to detail, it is evident that the author is well versed and experienced in his previous occupational field. In  Traitor , a young Israeli man presents himself at an American embassy in the heart of Rome to offer himself to commit treason by becoming a spy against his own country. However the very person to whom he offers his service is in turn serving Russian interests. After several years of spying on and sharing all high level secrets of the Israeli government, it is nothing short of a shoc...

Book Name: How to Walk Away Author: Katherine Center Synopsis (from Goodreads): Margaret Jacobsen has a bright future ahead of her: a fiancé she adores, her dream job, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in one tumultuous moment. In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Margaret must figure out how to move forward on her own terms while facing long-held family secrets, devastating heartbreak, and the idea that love might find her in the last place she would ever expect. My review: “It’s the trying that heals you.” “When you don’t know what to do for yourself, do something for someone else.” "Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need." Ok...I started with the quotes, because this book has so many of them, placed here and there within the stor...

I was excited on seeing the blurb of this book and was expecting so much more going in. The story at the outset had it all...a concept that could be worked into something wonderful! Worlds that can come into existence simply by being written about, by specialists known as scriptologists. Technology worked into fantasy....a sub genre called steampunk fantasy. The book started off interestingly enough with the main character, Elsa, being from a created world called Veldana. When her mother, a great scriptologist, is kidnapped from her world and brought to Earth, Elsa has no other option but to follow her to Earth and look for her. In the process she makes friends, for the first time in her life, who help her in her search.  However, as the story progresses, it soon becomes clear that the author has somehow lost the main thread of the story and is bringing in a lot of characters and details with a too long drawn out discussion. By the time the story almost picks up again, it's too...