Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

This is "Guest Post" - A Book review submitted by Riya Kedar, who blogs at Memory Fragrance blog

 

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human... until the cold make him shift back again. 

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever. 

As we all know ‘first impression is the last impression’ so the first impression of the book title and the book cover was great. The book cover in blue and white color with braches of trees and a wolf standing behind them was very attractive.

The story was about a girl name Grace who has bitten by wolves when she was struggling. That time she notice a wolf with yellow eyes and from that moment she was greatly affectionate by the yellow eyed wolf. The yellow eyed wolf ‘s human name is- Sam, who loved her and use to stare at Grace through the woods. He lived with his pack members Beck who was leader of human wolf members, Ulrik, Paul, Derek, Jack and Shelby. They transforms into wolf in winter and transformed back into human in summer. When Grace and Sam meet each other they have romance and adventure in the book. So I will leave this to the readers.
  

 I like the book and I suggest this book for paranormal lovers. My favorite part of the book was when Grace and Sam meet each other and spend their time together. The characters were well executed and fair dealing.  Overall the story was very interesting and never let my expectation down. Recommend to all those who started reading novels coz it was my first novel and enjoy a lot and it was great experience. Even though it is young adult, I think readers from all ages can enjoy “Shiver”.

Book: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Publishing Date: Aug 2009

Publisher: Scholastic Books

Number of Pages: 392

Language: English

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My love never faked by Nikhil Mahajan

 
The main protagonist is Abhay, who is notorious guy, pursuing his degree course. He already has an angel like girlfriend named Priya. But Abhay does not value her. He did everything to avoid Priya, may be not on purpose, but Priya was never his first priority. In all this, Abhay’s notorious nature leads him to some escort website and there he meets Ellenor. To add to Abhay’s problem, Ellenor comes to India and then something happens…which changes Abhay’s and Priya’s life. Obviously breakup was on the card. So, will Abhay be able to convince Priya that his love never faked? Or that was end of their relationship?

Well starting with cover page, the white and red combination is always appealing (at least for me)…and so the book cover is interesting from my point of view. Now moving on to the King i.e content. This is not the usual boy meets girl and girl meets boy, they fight and then make up and they live happily ever after kind of book. Here the boy already has a girlfriend, and he is trying his hands on some another girl with whom he met on website(escort website).

The main motive of author is clear in this book. Even though this book is purely based on the author’s personal life and his relationship with his girlfriend, by the end of book he wants to leave a message to the young generation. The book leaves a message which explains what might happen if you do few wrong things. It might destroy your relationship with your loved ones forever and once a trust broken can never be gained back.

The major problem with the book is its grammatical mistakes. There are loads of spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes and formatting errors. (Note: The author has mentioned that he has rectified these mistakes in his upcoming edition.) But as I was reading the book, I could not ignore these mistakes and so I could not link well, no matter how much unique the plot was. Secondly, I thought the book would have been more gripping, if author would have added more emotions and more detailing to the scenes.

Overall, it’s a different read and can be picked up by those who loves reading love stories.

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Book review of Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim

I ordered this book for my sister(a teen), as she was fascinated by the title ‘Skunk Girl’. Well, she read it and kept on saying me that this book rocks. It made me curious and I thought of reading it too. So, here I am writing the review of ‘Skunk Girl’.

Let me start with the basic idea of story.
Nina Khan is a sixteen year old Pakistani girl who was born and brought up in Deer Hook. Coming from conservative Pakistani family, she has many restrictions. No sleepovers, no parties, no talking to boys and many more… While her friends enjoy weekend and parties, Nina has to stay at home and study. And more to her frustration, she is hairy!! A long strip of black hair runs down on her back which resembles ‘Skunk’. And guess who saw it? Her crush ‘Asher Richelli’, a cute new Italian transfer student.
Does she stand any chance to impress Asher?
Will her life be more interesting, even after so many restrictions?
Nina is always compared to her elder sister, who is supernerd, and her parents wish Nina excel in exams just like her supernerd sister.

The book starts on interesting note, with Nina giving introduction about her Parents and their love for Pakistani culture. It grabs the readers interest as we keep on turning the pages. The author has done a wonderful job of keeping the readers hooked to each and every chapter by adding all sort of possible humor. I bet you can’t help yourself but to laugh as you go on reading further.
Author has used some cheesy dialogues which will make you giggle for sure.
“Nina, don’t talk to boys or you will get pregnant.” Says Nina’s mom.
“Sonia is in Harvard, but Nina will go to Yale University.” Nina’s parents keeps on saying everyone, making her life more complicated!
“Why is the watering can kept in bathroom? They don’t use toilet papers in Pakistan?”Nina’s American friend ask and she replies “It is called Lota.”

The clash between two culture – traditional Pakistani culture and Modern American culture is perfectly explained. And the protagonist Nina Khan is the sufferer of this clash.
What I liked about the book is beautiful character developments and beautiful way of telling story. Language used is simple yet catchy.

But the book don’t have a proper plot(if you are looking for any) as it is a series of events put together . Though the book is targeted to Young Adults, I loved reading it. A light read and it definitely refreshes the reader with the humor.I’ll give 3.5/5 to the book.

Details of Book: Skunk Girl

Book: Skunk Girl

Author: Sheba Karim

ISBN:0143331655

ISBN-13:9780143331650,978-0143331650

Binding: Paperback

Publishing Date: 2011

Publisher: Penguin Young Adult

Number of Pages: 240

Language: English

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Trapped Wings,Open Sky by Nisha Arppit

  

Her name is Preet. She has finished her MBA with cool grades and got placed in one of the leading company which gives her fat salary. You might think her life is perfect and what else she wants? But wait a min!! There are those dark clouds behind the big mountains. Right from Day 1 at office, she faces number of challenges. But Preet is not going to give up. She decides to give tough fight to whatever challenges coming in her way. And in all this mess, she meets Aman. So what is brewing between Preet and Aman? How long Preet will fight to make a mark in the company?

This book is about strong female protagonists who believes in herself and bold enough to make changes. The story unwinds the bond of love, friendship, aspiration and hardships.

Now, let me start the review with the Title of the book “Trapped wings, Open Sky”. Interesting right? So is the book cover. The sparkling blue colored cover, with a girl behind the bars and few birds flying high in sky. The title and the book cover will immediately grab your attention. The book looks interesting considering these two factors. But does it fulfill the reader’s excitement beyond the cover page? My answer is Definitely Yes!!!

Moving on to the story, the author has done commendable job of explaining the story well and my attention was grabbed from the very first page. I could not keep it down and my excitement grew further as I turned the pages. The story is described in campus background, where almost all people are making conspiracies against the main protagonist “Preet”. But Preet’s nature hooked me to the book, as hardly we find these kind of girl around us. Normally, after so many tortures, we might quit, we might cry, we might curse our luck. But Preet is different and a very beautiful message lies in the story.

Although at some point, I felt the negativity is too much as almost all characters have cruel intention. And I would have loved if author would have stressed more on emotions when two people are conversing. At some point, few characters and their emotions were still a mystery. But the book gives different twists and turns and thus definitely keeps the reader hooked to the story.

Overall, the book gives you more than expected and I can say that here “The content is King”. I would suggest grab the book. It’s the short read but worth it.

You can order this book online on Flipkart
Also you can check the fan page on facebook and get in touch with the author.

Book: Trapped Wings ,Open Sky . . . still I Want To Fly

Author: Nisha Arppit

ISBN:9380834122

Publishing Date: 2011

Publisher: Indra Publishing House

Number of Pages: 153

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