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This blog is to celebrate the magical books, I would be writing book reviews, about books and authors along with articles related to reading and possibly writing as well.

Wednesday, October 12, 2022


 




Book - Dune (40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Book 1 in Dune Series

Author - Frank Herbert

Country - United States

Language - English

Publisher - Ace Books

Genre - Science Fiction

Published - October 2019 (Originally Published in 1965)







This book is a masterpiece in the Sci-Fi fantasy genre and since its publication, it has always found a place on the best books list and loved this book as well not only for the story but also the gorgeous 40th Anniversary version I got. The dust jacket is a work of beauty and the book is also wonderful. The story is set on a desert planet where our hero and his family are sent. And then it covers the story from there and recently an adaptation was released last year and was received very well but that only told half of the story and the sequel is already in the works. 

I enjoyed the story but the truth is that you need to read at least the first four books in the series to get the complete saga of the Dune Messiah and then there are further books as well. There is a total of 8 books in the series and then there are other books set in the world or about the books. I would try to read at least the first 4 books and maybe the further books as well. These are the books in the series:

Dune (1965)

Dune Messiah (1969)

Children of Dune (1976)

God of Emperor of Dune (1981)

Heretics of Dune (1984)

Chapterhouse Dune (1985)

Hunters of Dune (2006) by Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson

Sandworms of Dune (2007) by Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson

I bought the book because I loved the edition and always wanted to read that but beyond the cover and the illustrations at the start and the end the book doesn't have any other illustrations in the book but at least the page quality is very good. This is an example of a special edition where publishers actually paid attention to make sure that the book is actually a collector's item and it's a beauty to be featured in the bookcases of each book reader who loves the fantasy and Sci-Fi genre.



Friday, May 27, 2022

Book Blitz - Vive La Résistance (Donovan Trait#3) by Seelie Kay


Things are gonna get messy…

An illegal union, a banned birth, a Great Lie, and now, genocide. Vampire lawyer Donovan Trait and his wife, chemically-turned Judge Shirley Magnusen, are battling for their lives and the lives of their children. The Vampire Coalition wants them dead, but now the despots have also decided to expand their net, targeting any vampire whose blood is mixed with human or Were. Half-bloods are already treated like dirt by the Vampire Nation. They have been subjected to centuries of discrimination and cruelty at their hands. As the Coalition embarks on a campaign of terror, destruction, and slaughter, millions of half-bloods emerge from the shadows, ready and willing to reclaim their place in the Vampire Nation. The problem is, war cannot be unleashed out in the open in the human world, battles must be fought in other ways. Even with an island of highly-skilled vampire nuns and a few Weres and humans at that their side, it appears the Traits may be fighting an unwinnable war. Their only option may be to sacrifice their own lives in the hopes of setting all other half-bloods free.


Book Links:
Extasy Books * Goodreads


Read an Excerpt from Vive La Résistance


Donovan shifted on the lounger and muttered incomprehensively, then he emitted a rumbling snore.

“Hey, y’all. So yeah, vampires are real and they’re not above doing the dirty to those who share their blood. Take a look at this.” The Tik-Tokker grinned. “You are not gonna believe it. It’s so shady.”
Video of the Coalition camps rolled across the screen. Occasionally, the camera zeroed in a dirty or bruised Millennial, or a guard pushing a group of people into a building, their ankles locked together with some sort of rope. They were seen eating off of metal plates and lined up to fill a metal cup with something from a barrel. It wasn’t water. The liquid was rust-colored and thick, like blood.

“And the dudes running the place have a Marie Antoinette fetish. You know—” The woman mimicked a knife across her throat. “Off with their heads?” She giggled.

A guillotine appeared on camera. About ten people were in line, each with a black hood over their heads and their arms bound behind them. One at a time, they were pushed onto a stage and forced to their knees, their necks positioned directly under the blade. With manic efficiency, a guard released the blade. Most heads flew into a barrel in front of the platform. The ones that rolled off onto the stage were kicked to their final destination. The headless bodies were tossed onto a pile on the ground.

“Oh, grosss,” the woman complained. She leaned toward the camera. “Kind of like a bad zombie movie, isn’t it?” She sat back in her chair and made a face. “Whatever. I mean, like, are we supposed to believe that’s really happening? Isn’t that against the law or something?” She cackled. “As if.” She leisurely stretched her body, her crop top exposing a belly button ring. “I’m so shook.”

The woman tossed her hair over her shoulder and smiled. “Now, I’m not sharing this for the views. It is kind of sus. But if this shit is real, someone needs to get off the pot and do something about it. Aren’t there any woke cops out there who can play the James Bond card? Before anymore—” She swiped her finger across her throat and giggled. Then the screen went black.

Donovan shot up in his chair and blinked. Once. Twice. He shook his head and attempted to gather himself. What the hell? Sure, he had needed the sleep, even if it was only a thirty-minute nap, but the dreams he could do without. It had been less than forty-eight hours since the worldwide kidnappings. Donovan knew preparations for rescue were underway. But he also knew Bengotten and Hannigan were capable of even greater cruelty. He could only imagine the terror and the torture the victims were being subjected to. 

It was difficult to understand how the vampire world was capable of this. He had long prided himself on their natural superiority, their ability to rise up above the petty politics and unjustified violence in the human and Were worlds. Yet overnight, vampires had become the monsters, the tyrants capable of such evil. That astonished him. For the first time in his long existence, Donovan was ashamed of being a vampire. If it was possible, he might very well submit to being turned into a human or a Were. He buried his face in his hands. Yes, he could live as a human. Perhaps he could ask Dr. Alvarez to find a way to turn off his vampirism, maybe using the gene-editing Marilyn could not stop talking about.

 About Seelie Kay:

Award-winning author Seelie Kay writes about lawyers in love, sometimes with a dash of kink.

Writing under a nom de plume, the former lawyer and journalist draws her stories from more than 30 years in the legal world. Seelie’s wicked pen has resulted in nineteen works of fiction, including the new paranormal romance series Donovan Trait, as well the erotic romance Kinky Briefs series and The Feisty Lawyers romantic suspense series. She also authored The Last Christmas, The Garage Dweller, A Touchdown to Remember, The President’s Wife, The President’s Daughter, Seizing Hope, The White House Wedding, and participated in the romance anthology Pieces of Us.

When not spinning romantic tales, Seelie ghostwrites nonfiction for lawyers and other professionals. Currently, she resides in a bucolic exurb outside Milwaukee, WI, where she enjoys opera, the Green Bay Packers, gourmet cooking, organic gardening, and an occasional bottle of red wine. 

Seelie is an MS warrior and ruthlessly battles the disease on a daily basis. Her message to those diagnosed with MS: Never give up. You define MS, it does not define you!

Seelie on the Web:
Website * Blog * Twitter * Facebook * Instagram * Author's Amazon Page



Thursday, May 19, 2022

Book Blitz - Once Upon a Mistake (Il Cuore #1) by Shilpa Suraj

 


There are no second chances, only missed ones...


Five years ago, an accident changed Maya's life forever. From an engaged, MBA graduate with her entire life in front of her, she'd ended up dumped, bedridden, and in enough debt to drown her and her family.
Five years ago, Yash had been looking forward to marrying the woman of his dreams. Then his father died, he lost his job and his fiancee dumped him over a text.
Neither have forgiven each other and neither has forgotten the other. When their paths cross at Il Couer, a vineyard owned by common friends, sparks fly, past hurts are stoked and present dreams are destroyed.
And that is just the beginning. As their lives get entangled, both professionally and personally, they find themselves fighting familial disapproval, professional jealousy, and a mutual attraction that threatens to burn them down.
Can Maya and Yash ever unravel their tangled past? And will the truth of their past define or destroy them? Can you build a future on a posioned past? They're about to find out...

Book Links:
Goodreads * Amazon.in * Amazon.com


Read an Excerpt from Once Upon A Mistake


The door slammed behind her and he heaved a sigh of relief. Peace and quiet at last. He put on his reading glasses, opened up the book and started to read.

And then he heard her laugh. He shouldn’t, he told himself. He really shouldn’t stand up and try to see where she was or what she was doing. Maya Patgaonkar was not someone he should be looking at or looking for or any other type of looking. 

He got to his feet and walked to the balcony railing, peering out through the dusky light of early evening. He was definitely looking.

She was walking down the endlessly sloping green lawn with the guy she’d arrived with and another guy and girl. All four of them seemed to be talking at the same time, practically talking over each other. 

Her hair was loose and hung in waves down her back. She wore a loose, floral skirt with a billowing white shirt that gave her a distinctly free, bohemian look. And she still limped. 

Not a temporary thing then, this limp. Had she gotten it in the accident that had killed Vikram? Aakash’s bitter recounting of their wild night of debauchery that had ended in his brother’s death had been both sordid and distasteful. 

It had also been deeply disturbing. That had not been the girl he’d thought he was marrying. Maybe her dumping him for being a penniless loser had been a true blessing in disguise. And yet, Yash continued to stand and watch her and her friends meander along in what was clearly an aimless walk. 

Maya. The name resonated in his head. Almost as if she heard him, she turned, her gaze drawn to the house. He saw her scanning the side of the house facing them and was about to step back and out of sight when her gaze snagged on him. 

The guy who’d arrived with her, Ved, said something to her and she responded but she didn’t look away. 

The moment between them stretched into an eternity that should never have existed. His heart was thudding, a drumbeat that he didn’t want to hear but one that thrummed through his veins nevertheless. 

She took a step toward him, a miniscule movement that nobody caught but him. It broke the spell. Yash stepped back and away from the railing, consciously turning away from her. 

The few months they’d known each other had been a lasting lesson. Maya wouldn’t get another chance to play him for a fool again. 



About the Author:


Shilpa Suraj wears many hats - corporate drone, homemaker, mother to a fabulous toddler and author.

An avid reader with an overactive imagination, Shilpa has weaved stories in her head since she was a child. Her previous stints at Google, in an ad agency and as an entrepreneur provide colour to her present day stories, both fiction and non-fiction.


Contact the Author:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Newsletter






Thursday, February 17, 2022

Review: I am Number Four

book-cover-I-am-Number-Four

 





Book - I am Number Four

Book 1 in Lorien Legacies Series

Author - Pittacus Lore (James Frey and Jobie Hughes)

Country - United States

Language - English

Publisher - RazorBill (Imprint of Penguin Publishers)

Genre - Young Adult, Science Fiction

Published - August 2010







I am number Four is the first book in the Lorien Legacies series which has 7 books. This book was adapted into a movie in 2011 and that was just an average movie that killed the movie franchise for this book series. But let's come back to the book, the book is about a group of aliens who escaped to the earth after their planet is destroyed by a hostile group of aliens. Nine young kids along with guardians leave the planet and there is a charm placed on them which means that they can only be killed in order thus we start with the murder of number 3 and then we meet Number Four. After they landed on the earth all Nine groups moved in different directions and they tried to stay away. And that means that our protagonist leaving for another small town and assuming another identity this time they reach Paradise, Ohio, and assume the names John Smith and Henri Smith and pose as a Father-Son duo. 

Now let's talk about how I felt about the book. I had seen the movie when it was released and wanted to read this series for a long time and wanted to collect the entire series but alas could only collect the 5 out of 7 books I am missing books 5 and 6 in the series. But I had enough and finally started reading the book and I freaking loved the book. This book is very slow yet it was a book that I finished in just a few days and I quickly picked up the second part of the story and I am already 50+ pages in that as well. The book its time as John or Number Four discovers his past and his powers. John is now 15 years old and so he starts gaining some powers. And then the training begins as the hostile race that attacked their planet is also hunting them on the earth. Also as John is a teenager he is attending high school and there is his love interest Sarah and the antagonist Mark. Sarah and Mark used to date but have since broken up. I enjoyed my time reading this book and would recommend this book to all if you love reading fiction and YA books. I am myself love YA books and fiction books. 

My Rating for this book is 5 out of 5

or

***** out of *****

Amazon link for the book I am Number Four 


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