Kim's Review : The Duchess War

Set in 1863, The Duchess War could easily be mistaken for another wannabe Historical Romance in the Georgette Heyer fashion, but Courtney Milan's (pseudonym for Heidi Bond) novel is much more than that.

Ms Wilhemina Pursling / Minerva Lane is quite a solid heroine. She is a much stronger heroine than most of those in novels set in this time period. Her history - as it is revealed is quite unique and interesting. So there is obviously a Duke - in this case, Robert Blaisdell, the Duke of Clermont - who is trying to unravel her story.

What is interesting about this novel is that historical events like the workers rights movement, founding of food co-operatives, civil unrest due to suspicion against vaccinations, Gregor Mendel's early discoveries in the field of genetics are woven very well into the story itself.

The author has made a few tweaks to history to get a better flow for her story, but she owns up to each one of them in a note at the end. Quite an interesting read.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Kim's Review : To Catch a Bad Guy

To Catch a Bad Guy by Marie Astor is a very straight simple story masquerading as a detective novel.

Within the first few pages, you know which way the story is heading, who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. No surprises at all, other than the fact that I actually read until the end. Sigh!

And to think she made this a series (Janet Marple Series - hoping to cash in on Agatha Christies Miss Marple?)

This books is fine if you want a bit of summer fluff to read on the beach without taxing your mind, otherwise, don't bother.

Rating : 2 / 5

Kim's Review : Half Love, Half Arranged

As followers of this blog can tell, this isn't a genre that I normally read, but then this was a book written by a friends wife and we almost always buy books written by friends and family. At some level it is obviously to do our bit in increasing their sales / circulation, but I think there is also a thought at the back of the mind, that we hope to get an "inside look" into our friends and their minds and maybe their lives too.

Half Love, Half Arranged is Itisha's first novel and its quite a quick and easy read. Its not a typical Mills & Boon type story. Its more a Discovery of self. Somewhere between a Bridget Jones Diary and Confessions of a Serial Dieter.

Rhea Kanwar is Punjabi, 30, unmarried and tending to fat. A situation, completely unnatural and in quick need of correction for her concerned mummyji & daddyji. The pressure gets to Rhea too and she decides to do anything necessary to be married before her 31st birthday, including registering herself on shaadi.com

Her elder sister Pia is "happily" married with a kid and another who gets delivered along this book. Her younger sister Sia moves from Gothic to Minimalistic in the same time frame. And Rhea meets guy after guy, hoping and wishing and praying that "this is the one"

The cast are all easily identifiable characters for anyone who has lived in Delhi, or has watched Queen / Monsoon Wedding / Khosla ka Ghosla etc.

Half Love, Half arranged is a quick read. LOL funny in places and deeply sensitive in the questioning of her own identity. There are quite a few twists and turns along the way. But Rhea's happy ending comes with the guy whom I liked best among all the ones she meets through matchmakers and websites. I also identified much more with him because of the traits he shares with the guy that "I" married.

Its a beautifully, easy read, while also a voyage of self discovery. Its not painfully soppy, but quite "slice of life". Pick it up for yourself or a gift for friends who enjoy this genre - fans of  Helen Fielding, Anuja Chauhan, Koel Puri and the like.

No Rating as it is written by a friend.

Kim's Review : Bath Tangle

The number of reprints (the various covers above, are just a sampling of the editions) of the Bath Tangle are a testimony to the popularity of this title by Georgette Heyer.

Bath Tangle opens with the death of the Eccentric Earl of Spenborough, leaving behind a headstrong daughter Serena and a wife Fanny younger than his daughter. While most of the land, the title and holdings go to a distant cousin (according to the law of those times, where property and titles went to closest male relatives), he does set aside some money in trust for his wife and daughter. However, Serena is to receive a small amount as allowance each year under the trusteeship of Ivo Barrasford, Marquis of Rotherham. She will gain control over her small fortune when she marries, but only if the marriage has the consent of her trustee. To complicate matters, Serena was once engaged to the Marquis and had cried off from it as she felt they wouldn't suit.

The Earl had brought up Serena more as a son than a daughter, so she is quite independent in her thinking and comportment and an excellent rider to boot. She used to manage her fathers affairs and is more comfortable taking care of his holdings than his household. Unable to bear the changes being wrought on her fathers property by the distant cousin who is now the new Earl, she and her step mother head to Bath, for a change of scenery and to wait out their period of mourning.

Here Serena bumps into an old suitor Major Hector who having remained unmarried begins to woo her again. The Marquis in the meantime gets engaged to Emily, a pretty but naive girl whose pushy and domineering mother will do anything to arrange a socially upward match for her.

The last few pages of the book are the funniest, where "who loves who" is a major tangle that needs to be sorted out with everyone seeming to be at cross purposes with the other.

The book is written in the normal Heyer style. A lot of her fans feel that the lead pair are not as endearing as some of her other characters, but not for me. Georgette Heyer's female leads have always been strong women or girls. While they may not all be as outwardly strong as Serena is, they all have an inner strength. The language is not as smooth to read as a modern day novel, but its not half as tough as The Conqueror either.

Rating : 4 / 5

Kim's Review : All That Glitters

I bought Aita Ighodaro's - "All that Glitters" just before visiting Jaipur for JLF 2013, as she was one of the authors scheduled to visit during the fest. The synopsis of "All that Glitters" was great and it seemed like an interesting whodunnit.The 1st chapter that I read on Amazon via "Read inside" was also quite gripping.

Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations. More than half of the book consists of parties at Oxford,debates, fashion shows and art shows. The plot development is heavily skewed, as nothing of significant import happens until the end and then the book concludes in a rush.

Other than the character of Isabel, none of the other characters were developed at all. "All that Glitters" would fall in the chiklit rather than the whodunnit genre, so its not the kind of book that I usually enjoy. But I'm sure it must have a large readership of its own.

Rating: 2 / 5

Kim's Review: The World Beyond

"The World Beyond" is author Sangeeta Bhargava's debut novel, but not her debut book. That honor goes to "Letters to My Baby", a book on pregnancy and baby care. Her 3rd book - "After The Storm" is also a novel of Historical Fiction but set in 1941.

The World beyond is set in the run up to the First War of Indian Independence in 1857. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Lucknow is ruler of Awadh and Prince Salim is his adopted son. Lucknow has just past its peak as a center of culture, music, dance, food, art and learning.

Rachel is the English daughter of Colonel Felix Bristow who looks down his nose upon all Indians (as most of the other English do) and Mrs. Margaret Bristow (who just cannot wait to go back to England permanently).Rachel however is an Indophile wanting to learn Indian music and in this pursuit she chances upon Prince Salim.

Prince Salim cannot be made heir because of the British law prohibiting adopted children from inheriting the throne, so he has no pretensions to the crown, but that does not make him any less of a Prince.

The backdrop of a glorious Lucknow makes the events that follow so much more horrendous. The history is well researched, but in the end the city and its history is a backdrop to the improbable love story.

I quite enjoyed the historical bits of the novel. As I said before, they are well researched. I have visited Lucknow a couple of times and now am slightly more aware of bits of history associated with the ruins I've chanced upon.

There are glimpses of perspectives  on the 1857 war from the English, an Indophile, the Nawab, his wife, his adopted son, Ahmed (Salim's cousin who is not in as comfortable a position as Salim), women in the zenana, Salim's daima (wet nurse), her daughter Chutki who loses her husband in the war, and Nayansukh (daima's son who was initially with the Nawabs army, but became part of the English army when the Nawab was "coerced" into dissolving his own army.

Sangeeta's blog actually has a few entries from Chutki's perspective and also Nayansukh's perspective that make for some interesting reading and I wish she had more of them. However, I guess she got busy with the new book and new characters took over her time.

I'm not much of a "Romance" reader, so I really can't comment on the love story. However the frequent "Pray, tell me"s and "Ya Ali's" in the dialogue irritated me after the first few repetitions (but this is a personal peeve)

"The World Beyond" is way better than the Kama Kahani series in its historical authenticity, but its not as engrossing as Indu Sundaresan.

Its a good book for a first time novelist and I will definitely pick up "After the Storm" too. I hope to see Sangeeta improve with each book she writes, because she seems quite prolific.

Rating: 3 / 5

Kim's Review: The House of Night Series

Guilty Confession: Ever since "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" aired on Indian TV screens over a decade ago, I have been a sucker for vampire stories (pun intended). In those days, we even had debates as to who was a better female ass kicker and Xena won over Buffy, but Spike & Angel were my 2 main reasons to keep watching the series. Since then there's been a flood of teen fiction involving vampires ever since Stephanie Meyer burst on the screen with the Twilight Series followed by True Blood & the Vampire Diaries. And I guiltily pick up the e-books.

My sister told me about The House of Night series, so I downloaded the whole series (8 books, the 9th one will be out on 25th October) and with the husband traveling on work, I read them all back to back in 2 days :) So I really can't review them seperately and will have to do it in one post.

The premise that the series is based upon is that Vampires are born because of a junk DNA presence. They live life as normal human beings until somewhere in the middle of teenage, a tracker (vampire who identifies humans who have the vampire DNA) finds them and touches their forehead creating the outline of  a blue crescent tattoo.

Once they (fledglings) have been so "marked", they have to head to the nearest "House of Night" kinda like a vampire finishing school where they spend the next 4 years learning a more relevant curriculum like vampire sociology, horseriding, fencing, acting music. If the fledgling is lucky, they will make the change to a full vampire by the end of 4 years, if they aren't and the body rejects the change, they die.

Vampires and humans know of each others existence and co-exist. These vampires belie most stereotypes, They are sensitive to light, but don't fear it. Sucking human blood is pleasurable for both the vampire and the human and its never with the intent to drain or kill. Vampires have a moral compass & know the difference between good & evil & darkness & light.

The series starts with the main protagonist Zoey Redbird being marked. Zoey has Cherokee blood in her and when she is marked - Nyx the Goddess of vampires - appears to her and tells her that she has been chosen to help the Goddess on Earth. Nyx gifts her followers, but never takes any of the gifts back and completely believes in "free choice" and giving fledglings and vampires the freedom to choose their own paths.

The first 6 books are in the voice of Zoey, the series actually becomes more interesting after that when other perspectives are introduced.

The first book - "Marked" is quite simplistic and doesn't really reel you in (more of a 90210/gossip girl with vampires), unless you are a devourer of vampire fiction. The books and the story line do improve after that.

The language is very simple. Although the characters complain that Damien (one half of a vampire gay couple) uses very complicated language, even that is very simple and isn't difficult to comprehend. This makes me wonder at the target age group for the series. The language is simple enough for a 10-12 year old child, but the subject matter - blood, gore, sex should be at least PG 13?

The series doesn't really leave you with a sense of closure at the end of each book like the Harry Potter series did. It leaves you on a bit of a cliffhanger like the vampire diaries tv episodes. Each novel literally spans around one month or so and there are a lot of story lines that are left hanging at the end of each book. I wonder how long they plan to stretch out this series?

PC Cast has been writing novels for quite awhile. What is unique in this series is that she felt that the voice of the teen vampires wasn't really modern enough and so she roped in the help of her daughter Kristin Cast to help with the dialogues. The partnership seems to have worked quite well. However when I came to book 8, I did wonder how it felt for a daughter to edit the sex scenes written by her mother. Wouldn't it feel a bit weird?

"Destined" - the 9th book of the series is due for release on the 25th of this month. Until then I think I will go ahead and read the 3 other associated books with this series - the fledling handbook - a first year sociology & history textbook at the House of Night, Nyx in the house of night - a look at the mythology and stories behind the stories and Dragons Oath - a novella about the fencing professor at the Tulsa House of Night. Lenobia's vow a novella about the equestrian professor at the Tulsa House of Night is also due to be released on the 31st of January next year.

Rating : 2.5/5

Kim's Review: The Heretic Queen

 

I was browsing through flipkart last week and saw a link to Michelle Moran's- Heretic Queen which was supposedly based on the life of Nefertari. Having just finished Christian Jacq's 5 part series on Ramses which had a large part of it dedicated to his realtionship with Nefertari, I thought it would be interesting to read another historical fiction authors take on the same.

The difference was like chalk and cheese, except for perhaps the character of Ramses who just has varying degrees of rashness. If Jacq's Tuya was an intelligent, delicate Queen who helped Seti rule Egypt according to the rule of Ma'at, Moran's Tuya is an overindulged, overweight indolent queen only interested in her iwiw (pet dog)

If Jacq's Seti was a Pharoah with deep insight and who could see into each man's soul and beyond, Moran's Seti is easily led astray by his sisters. Jacq's Isis is a woman of noble birth, completely in love with Ramses who quietly acknowledges her position as secondary wife to Nefertari. Moran's Iset is granddaughter of a harem child whose father is unknown, who is easily led astray and whose only interest in marrying Ramses is to be queen, even though she is in love with another man. Jacq's Uri-Teshup is a violent Hittite forced to seek refuge in Egypt but who continues to plot against Ramses while being his guest. Moran's Urhi is a gentle 17 year old Prince.

Moran's book feels less like a book of historical fiction, and more like a book of fiction with names of historical characters. From whatever I have read on Pharaonic Egypt, Moran's depiction of the court and courtiers is more akin to the English and French courts, than the Pharaonic Egyptian court.

She herself confesses that since so little is known of the actual history, she has played around a lot with the accepted facts. So in her version, Nefertari is the daughter of Queen Mutnodjmet who was the sister of Queen Neferatri. After the death of the heretic king Akhenaten and his Queen Nefertari, their daughter Ankhesenamun who married her half brother and Akhenatens son Tutankhamun came to the throne before his early death. Next it is Neferatri's father Ay, who was Vizier who became Pharoah. General Horemheb, kills them all, sparing only Mutnodjmet who is pregnant with a child from her first husband General Nakhtmin. He keeps her alive and forcibly marries her to claim a right to the throne of Egypt. Queen Mutnodjmet dies giving birth to Nefertari.

After Horemheb's death, his general Ramses I - an old man is named Pharoah. His son Seti is Pharaoh after him and his daughters Henuttawy and Woserit are High Priestesses of Isis and Hathor respectively. Nefertari as a Royal Princess is brought up with Seti's children Ramses II (3 years older to her) and Princess  Pili who is the same age as her. Unfortunately Princess Pili dies at the age of 6, but Ramses and Nefertari grow up as brother and sister. But as a niece of Nefertari who resembles her in looks, she is always under the cloud and suspicion of being a heretic.

At the age of 17 Ramses is crowned co-regent and with the machinations of Henuttawy, he is married to Iset. Woserit takes Nefertari under her wing. The book then deals with the power struggles between Iset and Nefertari, Henuttawy and Woserit, the struggle for freedom of the Habiru (Hebrews) under Ahmose (Moses), the struggle of the Egyptians to survive after 4 years of failed flooding of the Nile.

The book is a page turner. It was very difficult for me to put down, but at the same time I was also questioning what I was reading. "Could it really have happened like that?"

Given the lack of finer details of Pharaonic Egypt, there will always be 100's of theories about the details, the trick for any writer, writing fiction about this age is to come up with a new angle and keep it interesting. Moran  has definitely succeeded in doing that. But saying that, it also veers more towards the chicklit and Romance novel genres than historical fiction. I think what I'm trying to say, is that Heretic Queen is a good story with a good plot but lacking in the depth of content that would truly make it a work of historical fiction.

I already have a copy of her Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution, and I'm quite looking forward to reading it. After that I will decide whether I want to buy the rest of the books in her Egypt series.

Rating: 3.2/5

Also check out my detailed reviews of Christian Jacq's series:
Ramses - The Son of the Light
Ramses - The Temple of a Million Years
Ramses - The Battle of Kadesh
Ramses - The Lady of Abu Simbel
Ramses - Under the Western Acacia

Kim's Review: Random House's Kama Kahani series

Kama Kahani is a new series by Random house for Historical Romantic Fiction set in India. Growing up, I wasn't much of a Mills & Boon Reader - a phase most girls go through (for some the phase just lasts longer than others), but I did enjoy the Georgette Heyer novels.

I now realise that I relished Heyer's books because they took me to another time and place. They helped me explore a different era - bringing it to life more vividly than any history textbook could. It coloured my imagination. The description of the dresses, the gardens, the tea parties, the societal structure, the place of women in that society, the tricks the women employed to exert influence on events - all these made very interesting reading for me.

Mills and Boon on the other hand were like Romantic Hollywood movies. Straightforward and repetitive in the linearity of their stories. So the news of Milan Luthria becoming the first Indian woman to pen a Mills & Boon wasn't very exciting to me and didn't make me rush out to buy her book.

However while I was browsing flipkart the other day, I chanced upon the half price on flipkart section and this offered up 2 titles from this Kama Kahani series at 75Rs. The series has been around for almost 2 years, but this was the first I had heard of it (I admit, I just walk past the Romance sections in bookshops)

The Kama Kahani in the title intrigued me enough to click on the link which detailed Was the first man you fell for a brooding desert prince? Or better still, a cruelly handsome feudal lord? Are you a spirited beauty, your fire contained—but only just—by the clinging brocade of your lehenga’s choli? A delicious Kama Kahani is sure to strike your fancy.

150Rs seemed negligible to check out if I could find the Indian answer to Georgette Heyer. Of the 4 titles :
Kama Kahani: Passion in the Punjab
Kama Kahani: Ghazal in the Moonlight
Kama Kahani: The Zaminder's Forbidden Love
Kama Kahani: Mistress to the Yuvraj
Ghazal in the Moonlight and Mistress to the Yuvraj were the most heavily discounted (50%), so those were the books I started with.

They arrived in 2 days and I finished them both in a couple of hours. These purdah-jhadoka romances (as they are called inhouse)  are definitely easy reads except for a few unfamilair terms regarding their clothes like poshaak, odhna etc. Not terms that a non-native Hindi speaker is familiar with.

On googling the books I learnt that the brief to the authors was to set a Romantic novel in ‘Jodhaa-Akbar’ Rajasthan, Parineeta-era Bengal, White Mughal Lucknow and Ranjit Singh’s Punjab.

While I am no expert on history, the books did have a historic feel to them. As to how historically accurate they are in the details, I am not sure. Some of the food/feast details in Mistress to the Yuvraj did not seem right to me, given that the setting was Rajasthan with connections to Himanchal. For eg: the Rogan Josh is Kashmiri in origin - I'm not sure if it would have been on a Rajasthani menu in Jodhaa Akbar era Rajasthan.

The dialogues especially in Mistress to the Yuvraj between Devika and her mother and the women of Rajasthan behind their latticed screens is not what I would have expected for that era, but what do I know? :) It does make for interesting reading though.

Other than these minor quibbles, the books are easy reads and interesting in their novelty. Only 4 have been published so far and I'm not sure if there are plans for any more in this series. Pick these up for a change, you won't be disappointed.

Kim's Review : Wildwood Dancing

This book by Juliet Marillier was left behind by an American friend who was visiting. Its teen female fiction.

Fantasy and Romance all mixed into one.

I found it way more interesting and the story telling style was far superior to Stephanie Meyer (I admit I read all 4 parts of the Twilight Saga in 2 days). Its a wonder that Juliet Marillier hasn't got more acclaim.

Wildwood Dancing actually had a story to its name. Teen angst and young love is portrayed way better in this book than any of the Twilight books. One of the heroes here is also the bad boy who is actually good.

Wish they would make this into a movie. It would be so beautiful. I can just imagine the fun the costume designers would have.

If you have teenage sisters or daughters, I would highly recommend the author. I'm trying to get more of her books but they don't seem to be sold in India. Oh well, will wait for a foreign trip or a visiting friend.

Kim's Review: The Poison Tree - Planted and Grown in Egypt

A friend sent me the link to this yesterday. The book is legally downloadable for free from Marwa Rakha's own website. While currently available in English, she promises that the Arabic translation too will soon be online.

The book is written in a semi disjointed "part blog-part diary-part letter" fashion and someone who is used to a structured flow when reading, may start out feeling a bit disconcerted. But if you persevere you can gain some insights into Egytian culture, sexuality, morality and society. The unifying theme of the book revolves around gender stereotypes, dating and marriage and how men and women are held to different standards in society. While this may be true across the world, it is more pronounced in Egypt.


I often wondered how so many Egyptian friends and acquaintances kept ending up divorced within barely a year or two of marriage, sometimes with new born kids who were not even a year old. Some have ended up remarrying men who had been unfaithful to them during their first attempt at marriage. This being a very sensitive and private matter, I have never felt comfortable enough to actually ask them the question directly. But Marwa's book has shed some light on at least some of the reasons, which seem to lie in Social Conditioning.


There were parts that I skipped over, but there were also parts that are really insightful.


This book is worth reading if you are interested in human behavior or are visiting Egypt and would like to know a little more about people you will encounter.

But, I would highly recommend the book to any non-Egyptian girl/woman/lady planning to get herself an Egyptian boyfriend or Egyptian husband. Most Egyptian men think and operate differently from "Western" men and its important for a female to know what she is getting herself into before she gets in too deep.


While the book may also be guilty of stereotyping men and women, there are a lot of grains of truth behind the characterisations.


The book could be classified as chick-lit, but there is a lot you can begin to understand about Egyptian society and how it operates through the eyes of a Single Independent Woman


If you would prefer to read the book as a paperback or on kindle, they are both available via Amazon.



Also published on desicritics.org

Kim's Review : Everyone Worth Knowing

Picked this one up because I found the "Devil Wears Prada" good for a light read when traveling.

The cover of Everyone Worth Knowing touted the fact that is was written by the same author in almost the same font size as the title.

That should have warned me : Be wary when someone is trying too hard.

The theme here is vaguely similar to the original bestseller, Bette the main protagonist is sick of her job in banking, her boss and his daily inspirational emails with quotations. One day she quits her job in disgust and then spends the next couple of weeks vegetating in her house.

Her well known columnist uncle, Will uses his connections to get her a job at an up and coming boutique PR firm where partying hard is part of her job.

The rest of the book is a constant whine of how terrible Bette's life is and how she isn't happy with what she is doing but still keeps doing it anyway.

This book has none of the humor of the first, or something enlightening like a window into the fashion magazine industry that the first book provided.

This book just talks about the parties the PR folks attend where they drink, do drugs and have random hookups with barely any insight into the inner workings of the PR industry.

This book is a combination of gossip pages, Harlequin romances (which Bette incidentally favours and even has monthly book club meetings to discuss them) and poor me whining.

The book is barely passable as chicklit. Guys don't even bother starting to read it.

Rating: 0.5/5

Also published on desicritics.org

     

Kim's Review : Cherry Bomb

The entire title Reads - Cherry Bomb : The Ultimate Guide to becoming a Better Flirt, a Tougher Chick and a Hotter Girlfriend, And to Living Life like a Rockstar


I don't read "how-to" books, but the title for this one by Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna had me intrigued and itching to get my hands on it, to read more.


Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna has been a music and entertainment journalist since the last 20 years and is best known for her books on Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, her sex and relationship advice column “Dr. Love” for the Gene Simmons Tongue magazine and her music related articles in People, Billboard, Spin, RollingStone.com and Alternative Press magazines.


The title "Cherry Bomb" comes from the song by Joan Jett of The Runaways. Carrie says "Joan Jett's attitude, style and music has always inspired me so I'm happy to reference the Runaways song (in the title) even if some younger people won't know what it means right away. That's ok because cherries are sweet and bombs are badass and the book is all about being a sweet badass! To me, those two words, sum up the book nicely and it's a killer song to boot!"

Cherry Bomb is an alphabetized reference from Absinthe (the new Drink of Choice for the Rock and roll set) to Zig Zags (The Cool Way to Roll a Joint) with Celebrity Pick-up tips, Fetishes, Infidelity Pacts, Orgasms, Piercings, Strip Tease and Tour Bus Etiquette in between .


The tips and techniques are invaluable to a rock chick. There are tips and detailed instructions on how to tie a cherry stem into a knot (using just your mouth- no hands), how to get backstage without being a whore, using bottle service to buy VIP status at the hottest nightclubs, how to perform a striptease (by Burlesque star - Ditta Von Teese) The tips are practical and easily doable, no matter who you are or what kind of budget you are on.

Being in the music industry as a writer and as a wife to a Grammy winning Rockstar - Chris Vrenna who plays keyboards with Marilyn Manson and drums with Gnarls Barkley- Carrie is more than qualified to write this guide. Most of the tips come from her own real life experiences. For the few areas that she did not have first hand experience with when she started writing, she enlisted the help of her celebrity friends including

Cherie Currie of THE RUNAWAYS (on "Cherry Bomb," the song that influenced the book)

Tori Amos (Life Advice)

Betsey Johnson (Breast Cancer Awareness and Personal Style)

Anna Sui (Fashion Inspiration)

Dancing with the Stars' Cheryl Burke (Dancing Tips)

Celeb hairstylist Dean Banowetz (Rockin' Up 'Dos)

Master Chef Dave Rubell (Black Vodka Recipes)

and Stylist Cynthia Freund (Rock Chick Style Tips) among others.


My favorite guest how-to chapter is the one by Peaches' drummer Samantha Maloney on how to play the Drums. It re-ignited an old flame and I just might be inspired enough to go out and get myself into classes and buy myself a drum set. My favorite chapters by Carrie are Jet Setting, Jobs, Money and Networking.


I always thought I had a more than fair knowledge about rock music and rock stars, but on reading Carrie's book, I know I have a lot more to learn and a lot more musicians that I need to listen to at least once. Her list of songs at the end of some chapters seems to be a good place to start. The lists are mood based - songs to Vacuum fast To (the Anger Stage), songs to Eat a Pint of Ice Cream to (the Depression Stage), Funk Fixers etc.


For the Relationship kinda quiz addicts, there are a couple of quizzes as well, to check if you are rockstar girlfriend material and which rock chick you are most like.


The illustrations by Liz Adams are apt and cute (not a word you would associate with rock, but thats truly what they are.)


There is something for everyone in this book. Men can find a lot of the chapters interesting and relevant too. The title hooked my husband and he browsed through the book and loved what he read.


You don't need to be in the rock industry or dating a rock star to use these tips. These tips are great for any independent, confident woman who is comfortable with herself and who she is. From a gangly pre-teen to a grandmother in her 60's, any woman with self assurance can find something of value in this guide and for someone who lacks self assurance, Cherry Bomb is a great place to start.


This book is due for release on the 5th of August 2008 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon. For anyone who has ever been interested in the lives of Rock Stars and been envious of their lifestyle, this book is a definite must-buy as it shows you step by simple step how to lead their life with panache and confidence. Cherry Bomb delivers on all its promises and does impart relevant and easy to follow tips on how to become a better flirt, tougher chick and hotter girlfriend.




Published on desicritics.org