Books for me: woman's fiction

Showing posts with label woman's fiction. Show all posts

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Book Review:Best kept secret by Amy Hatvany

Title: Best kept secret
Author:Amy Hatvay
Publisher: Washingnton square press
Pages:330
Genre: Woman's fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: online

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Summary
Cadence was not into more than a glass of wine till she got divorced from her cheating husband ..Just to relax and for a deep sleep it all started with one glass then she couldn't get sleep without one full bottle and then it just went on...From a happily married life with a lovely son she had a perfect life until her divorce lead to reach out for alcohol to cope up with her sinking career and life all together..Predictably the bottle took control over her and she lost everything around even her son the only hope of her life..This novel is about a long struggle of Candence getting over her addiction and finding a new life..

Review
Reading the back cover I was convinced that this would be an emotional read for me, my only question was how far..Quite amazingly the book held me enchanted...Alcoholism was the only thing that made me skeptical about the book but as I read through all doubts just evaporated... Just divorced, now a single parent of a pre-school son, Candence resorted on two glass of wine for a deep sleep each night..Slowly and steadily this habit expands onto one bottle and by a year she turns out be a fully alcoholic, yea I know its nothing to be proud of or to be boasted but well that's what happened to Candence...She ended up there with all her senses loud and wide still I couldn't help from sympathizing with her..Predictably she takes grave steps that further risks her to the edge..She now has no friends she can identify with..Her son who was her life is taken away by her ex-husband..Her life is all messed up from there on her path to recovery begins., alcoholism to sobriety she makes it through her ebbing confidence that she somehow pushes high...Her strive to stay in touch with life after divorce, her inabilty to find a job after being a stay home mother,her sinking career graph as a freelance writer, are vividly portrayed by Hatvany....Hatvany makes Candence's character likeable, in spite of her flaws..Yes, she isn't anything closer to perfection, she makes dumb mistakes. succumbs to alcoholism when she knew right away that would end up losing her beloved son, yet she did it all but that happens to many..Candence recovery is driven by one determined thought., that is her son, I really felt bad when her sister put Candence in hospital..She is all alone and no one to hold on or lean to., well life can in deed could go through rough water...All the perfect description of alcholism made me search more for Amy Hatvany's profile and interviews and there she was admitting to be on the path of recovery from alcoholism....One trouble with alcoholics is that., apart from their own life, they also disrupt the lives of people around who care and love them...During her initial stages of recovery, she feels at peace at home all alone., somehow she feels she feels good without her son to mess up things around....To deal with a infidel husband itself toils up a wife emotionally and then when you venture upon alcohol just to shake off the sinking mood which starts to control you is definitely not a great way to deal with things...One of my friends said that.,this book has helped her see alcohol addicts in a new light, now I can see why!!!!Its sad that like Candence., alcoholics are judged , but its also important to make way for them to recover with a helping hand and with some assuring words that they eagerly look out... The novel is not just fabulous but quiet thought provoking too...The honest take on alcoholism and recovery just took my heart away..This book makes me want to read her other works too...

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Book Review:Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

Title: Hotel du Lac
Author: Anitha Brookner
Publisher:Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pages: 192
Price: Rs 450
ISBN:0679759328
Genre: Woman's Fiction
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Source: Personal

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Buy Hotel du Lac from amazon.com

Summary
Hotel du Lac tells the story of Edith Hope, who writes romance novels under a psudonym. When her life begins to resemble plots of her own novels, however, Edith flees to Switzerland, where the quiet luxury of the Hotel du Lac promises to restore her to her senses. But instead of peace and rest, Edith finds herself sequestered at the hotel with an assortment of love's casualities and exiles. She also attracts attention of a wordly man determined to release her unused capacity for mischief and pleasure.

Review
Edith Hope is an English author whose genre is romance , now she is on a self imposed exile at a Swiss hotel, during off season ..There she meets fellow guests majority being women...These are array of people whom she meets include Mrs Iris Pussey, widow ,she is rich and glamorous accompanied by her devoted daughter Jennifer , she is too thin which is amusingly put in, Lady Monica and her dog, Madame de Bonneuil, she sent out of her home by her sister in law, hence she carries an aura of that of a depressed soul being ..Initially Edith's decision to come over to this old fashioned hotel is a mystery..She composes letters to David that describe her day today affair in the hotel with immense details of the people she has been meeting..But David is a married guy , and thankfully this is not the main focus of the book then enters Mr Neville rich and single , guest of the hotel and they slip into a relation which you can't define ii to be very romantic..

She discovers the true nature and feelings of these illustrious lives of these people, which in turn makes her to contemplate upon her life, her decisions, her mistake and the life she has been living so far...People are pretending to hide away from their unhappiness, disdain and self- melancholy...The more she gets closer to these women the more she reflects upon things finally getting a clear cut vantage...Through the novel we also feel a change in the way Edith sees things, her judgement on people that her rich experience has brought in her...Through the first half Edith spends much time guessing the age of mother daughter duo, later she lets things be..There are some eccentric , whimsy, funny moments all along...

The specialty of novel is that it is not the magic of the plot that drives you ahead but the characters ., their complexities and shedding up of the layers that they seem to carry around...Puseys's relationship with each other was weird and good at the same time ., as the novel progresses their true feelings for each other unfolds well and sound.. At times I felt the characters were under expressed revolving into an orbit of lethargy as I read through...The hotel itself carries an aura of old , yet not being classic about it and the residents somehow reverberated that spirit even more...I loved the overall calm, slow, steady pace of the book...The mix and match of words and sentence were simply brilliant to me...I would have loved it even more if the spirit of writing could transcend to the novel itself...Although I liked the book I couldn't figure what was so special about this book to win a Booker Prize...

Book 4 for TBR challenge

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Book Review: Torn Together by Emlyn Chand : Blog Tour

Title:Torn Together
Author: Emlyhn Chand
Publisher: Evolved Publishing
Pages: 256
ISBN: 1622531981
Genre: Literary fiction/ woman's fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Source: Review copy

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Summary
From her cheating boyfriend to her dead father and cold, judgmental mother, Daly knows she can’t trust others to be there when it counts. This cynicism begins to melt away when she meets Kashi, a light-hearted charmer from India, who decides he cares too much to let her fade into the background of her own life. After a series of false starts, their quirky romance carries them to India, where Daly must win the approval of Kashi’s family in order to seal their “forever.”Meanwhile, Laine struggles to cope with thepain of early widowhood, fleeting into the pages of her well-worn library and emerging only to perform her duties as a social worker at the crisis pregnancy center. Althought her daughter wants nothing more than to work as an artist, Laine doesn't know to redirect Daly to a more suitable profession without further damagig their tenous relationship....Can Laine look past her pain to learn from an unlikely mentor? Has Daly finally found someone whom she can trust? Will the women recognize their common bonds before the relationship is broken beyond repair?

Review:

Loss of a person you love can leave one devastated, some overcome those disaster becoming strong for good, while some shut them up in a shell ,away from others help and reach there by inviting more suffering to oneself..Torn together is a beautiful example of people coping up with loss, giving in to catastrophe of destiny and life and overcoming them....

Emlyn's strength is in making the character very real..Emlyn paints sharp contrasts of attitude through characters, Liane absorbs into her shell , shooing away her daughter becoming stranger ...Loss of Oliver brought different strokes in his family, Daly chose her art- painting to get away from it, while for Liane his wife it was books and charity center...But none face it but letting the pain eat them up...There are few tale that stays on even after reading this one is a sweet one with lot of depth and life into it..

Daly is an aspiring artist with a real talent in painting, pencil sketch while her mother Liane has plans of getting into some professional course, real thing she calls it...Torn apart from her mother after her fathers death , mother and daughter share a chemistry that of strangers, they avoid everything in their hands to be with each other, only if they knew that it takes two people to make a relation, they would have been in a better swing altogether...A cheating boy friend caught red hand only makes Daly's life worse...Meghann a pregnent teenager enters the life of these women showing Daly and Liane how to cope with adversity with dignity and faith...When Akash Malhotra, Kashi a handsome , charming young man becomes Daly's soulmate in a short span , Daly learns to live life in moments of life... Kashi tells Dally that life goes on no matter what, and ironically Dally is faced with that twist of fate but this time she knows how to handle it without being hard on her..

When Kashi and Daly are the focus of the plot it is warm to read them, be it an unlikely romantic place such as Zoo or finding Dally's space in Kashi's family...Kashi brings the best in her making her see the good part of life in spite of the grey..Liane who reaches out to other girls in the center helping them to overcome their trouble fails to reach out to her own daughter, yet she stands by her daughter when she needs her by the closing of the novel...Kashi's family in India and their reciprocation to Daly showed beautuful example to highlight the contrast of culture and tradition... Emlyn amazingly accompanies nature draw parallel to human mood brightening the horizon like a warm mid spring day...Rage, disappointment, hatred are part of human emotions yet if we can have a grip over i,t they would help us to be a better person..This book is a wonderful read for anyone who loves to read..Just sit back and relax...

Book 22 for SAC

About Author

Emlyn Chand emerged from the womb with a fountain pen clutched in her left hand(true story)..When she's not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm Novel Publicity...Best known for her YA novels, she is also developing a small but devoted, following to her children's book series and is beginning to dapple in other genres as well...Emlyn enjoys conecting with readers and is available via almost every social media site in exixtence. Visit EmlynChand.com for more info.Don't forget to say hi to her son Conure Ducky!!!!

Contact
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Disclosure: I am a member of Reading addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me for my honest opinions..

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Best kept secret by Amy Hatvany

This is my 12th book to New author reading challenge 2012

Friday, August 31, 2012

The restaurant by Linn B Halton

Title:The restaurant@ the mill
Author: Linn B Halton
Publisher:Saphire publishing
Pages:302
ASIN: B008RP5KUU
Genre:Contemporary Romance/Woman's fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Source:Review copy

Buy The restaurant @ the mill from amazon

Summary:
Six different stories linked by The restaurant @mill owned by Hillary Mark and Ben Adams...As the restaurant thrives the atmosphere is alive with coversation, snapshots of lives unfolding, each one a personal journey...

Review:
The restaurant @ Mill is a wonderful tale of people who lives are at the focus @ the Restaurant...The whole plot is engaging, hard to ignore...Initially my take was OMG, with so many chracters around how the plot is going to appeal?? And that is the beauty of the whole novel, there are layers of human characters whose life track converse and come together then move apart carrying their own vantage to go ahead..Human fear of lose ,of being left alone, betrayal are all just not preached but carved neatly by various characters..Hilary is a strong head with a failed marriage with not so good career, from there on she steered her way to a strong career with greater vision finally with Ben to hold on to..Whenever she speakes she makes sense, even through her fear she holds on to her faith in her fellow human.. I completely loved Hilary, be it managing the restaurant, renovating from the Mill , getting burned up in oven ( I am sure I found that amusing apart from Ben)..I loved this particular quote from her...
"Life throws all sorts of things in our path and sometimes it's hard to cope. You survived and that's what counts . Remember that life is short, and you can't afford to have regrets."
Ben on the other hand is shy and always short for words for expression, initially unsettled later Hilary learn to barge through the silence to understand even when he builds a wall between them, which is later revealed to be largely due to his own insecurities and confusions...I loved the way Halton brought about the renovation of Mill to a wonderful restaurant, every minute detail is seen through, I found myself with Hilary and Ben finishing up the job enjoying the country side, their small get together, local stories and their company....Mya is a charmer though only next to Thomas Quinn..Mya is vivacious and goes the restaurant taking up the orders, making merry .,hiding in her loss and struggle to solve a complicated relationship with Sam...Grace and Lawrences' love that has been stripped off them by parental pressure that has been finding new dimension after years highlighting age is not a barrier when it comes to love.. Nick and Charlotte are an unlikely couple who meet and find their little space of togetherness that lasts forever..I also liked the dash of ghost's presence time and again...All characters are believable characters, you might come across everyday , they are not dramatic but very much in sync with life...This book emphasis that life may not pump in happiness all through, yet through every bump.,love and faith can create lots of happiness to fill in for a life time..Halton has taken care of every aspect., the book opens up in Autumn symbolically representing that fact that ., things are yet to be sorted out ., slowly and steadily every bit is placed together solving a jumbled puzzle...This book would be an absolute treat to anyone who love to read about different human attribute with all shades put in perfectly...

About the author

Linn B Halton lives in the UK, in the small Gloucestershire village of Arlingham, on the banks of the River Severn with her adorable husband and cat with attitude – Mr Tiggs! She writes romantic fiction with a psychic or astrological theme and many of the paranormal events that feature in her books are real life experiences.

Linn is also a featured new Author on http://loveahappyending.com/ and Editor of the feature ‘Author & Associate Catch-Ups’ including ‘Reader/Author Team Reports’ on the website’s magazine-style blog.

Excerpt:

The first time I walked around the flour mill at Huntingbridge in Gloucestershire turned out to be a life-changing moment. Reminiscent of the first time I met my business partner, Ben Adams. The initial thought that struck me on both occasions was “Great, not perfect, but I can work with this.” It was enough to clinch the deal for me.You see, I thought I had a “perfect” life once a long time ago. I married Josh, the man of my dreams, only to find out one failed marriage and a broken heart later, that everything can change in an instant. What you see depends upon where you’re standing when you admire it. If you’re on the outside looking in on someone else’s life, it’s only natural to form an opinion based on the façade you see. What I would eventually discovered was that even when you’re on the inside looking out, it’s easy to be fooled into thinking everything is fine. On that fateful day many years ago, what I hadn't appreciated was that what we had was in fact a love triangle, and knowing that would have given me a whole new perspective.

DISCLOSURE –

I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review.