Kim's Review : Imdalind Series - 5. Burnt Devotion

Burnt Devotion by Rebecca Ethington is the 5th in her Imdalind Series that was released on March 22nd. Her books are still primarily available as ebooks rather than printed copies.

I had pre-ordered my copy on kindle and was quite impressed to see it pop up on my screen by 12:05am on 21st night/22nd morning. I'm not yet converted into a digital book aficionado, but I was impressed. (The current spree of ebooks that I'm reading is to lighten the load of my back when I travel by tube, for my favourite books and authors, I still prefer printed paper)

Burnt Devotion follows along the lines of the previous 4 books. The first half covers the same timeline as Book 4. - Soul of Flame, but this time from Wyn and Ryland's perspective and frame of reference. It was good to read about Wyn's background from herself and to finally understand from Ryland what is going on inside of his mind. The chapters on Ovailia really provided insight into her motivations for her behaviour.

Joclyn's voice comes back in the second half and the story moves forward from there, returning back into Prague, where there are quite a few surprises in store for the characters and for the reader. This part of the story is told through Joclyn, Wyn, Ryland, Ovailia and even Sain.

If you buy the book right now, there area couple of bonus chapters available as told by Ilyan and Rosaline. The Rosaline chapter is worth buying this book "right now".

Now its just a matter of waiting another 3 months for Book 6 - Dawn of Ash to come out.

Until then, I thought you may like this picture that I found on pinterest It doesn't have ribbons running through it and the roses are made from hair itself, but it did bring the book to mind.

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Kim's Review : Imdalind Series - 1. Kiss of Fire, 2. Eyes of Ember, 3. Scorched Treachery 4. Soul of Flame

I was introduced to the Imdalind Series courtesy a free download of "Kiss of Fire" on kindle. It was so amazing, that after finishing Book 1 by Rebecca Ethington, I promptly bought Eyes of Ember (Book 2), Scorched Treachery (Book 3) and Soul of Flame (Book 4) in the digital form because I couldn't wait for the paperbacks to reach me.

Burnt Devotion (Book 5) is due on March 22nd - already pre-ordered and Dawn of Ash (Book 6) is due in June 2015.

If you are the type who cannot teeter on the edge of suspense while waiting between books, then I heavily recommend that you wait until they are all out. I read the first 4 books in 2 days flat and can't wait for the next 2.

The Imdalind Series is fantastic. The first time I got a feeling was when I read Harry Potter, the next was Hunger Games, the Immortals of Meluha, then Samit Basu's Gameworld Trilogy, and now this one. The feeling I got was that these books would be phenomenally popular (I had read them much before they exploded on the scene) Samit Basu's Gameworld Trilogy is still waiting for its big break, but once it is "discovered" by the right people, there will be no stopping it.

The Imdalind series is in the same league and will soon become a phenomenon. Mark my words.

The series is much better written than "Twilight" and will connect instantly with most Young Adults. All the standard plot staples are very much present.

A teenage girl who feels alienated from the world around her, except for one special friendship. The discovery that she is special with paranormal abilities. Early loss of parental figures. The discovery and training of her powers. An impossible love triangle. A terrible persecutor who is bent on destroying the world. While these might seem like staple plot lines, they are woven together beautifully.

Well etched characters, well thought through plots (though I do have a few minor issues that haven't been explained yet, like if Ryland knew he was being watched through cameras, why did he take Joclyn to his room where he knew they would be watched. If they didn't realise who Joclyn really was, why was Cail watching her apartment for over a year) and an engrossing style of story telling.

The first 2 books are from Joclyn's perspective. But in Book 3, Rebecca switches to tell us the tale from Wyn and Ilyan's perspectives. So a part of the story is a repeat of Books 1 & 2, but with more insight and information from a different point of view. (so its not pointless, unlike Four - A Divergent Collection). Book 4 goes back to Joclyn's perspective and while its all set in one location, the story does move forward. I however did feel that book 4 is the weakest of the lot and could have been made shorter, maybe combined it with book 5, but since book 5 isn't released yet, we'll just have to wait and see.

Pick these up as soon as you can. As far as I know, the author is self publishing, so its quite hard to get your hands on paperbacks, but the e-versions are quite easy to download. Kiss of Fire is currently a free download on flipkart too.

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Kim's Review: I Spy A Slenderman and Other Dark Tales

In the interests of full disclosure, Deepti was one of my first online editors (at desicritics), and though the website has been retired, our relationship steadily grew into a friendship over a shared love of travel, cats and books.

While I have been content writing the occasional blogpost and a couple of articles, Dee has gone on to publish FOUR ebooks - 2 novellas and 2 books of short stories. I Spy A Slenderman and Other Dark Tales is her 4th ebook.

The 7 short stories in I Spy A Slenderman, all revolve around  things that go bump in the night: vampires, succubuses, mischievous Greek Gods and werewolves.

While all the tales have slightly unexpected endings, Tryst with a God definitely goes in directions that I would never have predicted and I Spy a Slenderman has a mounting build up of suspense.

The book is an easy read and since its a book of shorts, its ideal for reading on your digital device while sipping a coffee, waiting for a flight, or whenever you have a few minutes free. If you like the genre that is not really Hitchcockian horror, but the Vampire Diaries/True Blood/Buffy version of horror, then you will love these stories.

I promise you won't be disappointed.

Rating : Dee is a friend & in the interests of friendship, we don't rate books written by friends :)

Update on 1st July 2013:
I Spy a Slenderman is now available in hard copy on Amazon and it also has my first review printed in the book being reviewed :)

 

Kim's Review: Tradewinds to Meluhha

Trade Winds to Meluhha is set in the Bronze Age of which little is known except for the bits and pieces of archaeological evidence gathered from sites in Mesopotamia (Sumer= Iraq  & around), Egypt and the Indus Valley (Meluhha - India + Pakistan).

Vasant Dave first came upon such a site, when visiting the 4,000 year old port at Lothal near Ahmedabad and storm channels at Dholavira in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat and that was the starting point for this Bronze Age Novel.

Set during King Shulgi's reign in Babylon, the story is supposed to have taken place around 2138-37BC, three centuries before the great King Hammurabi founded the first Babylonian empire.

The tale follows Samasin, a stable boy in the house of the wealthy Babylonian Nergal. One day he is falsely implicated in the murder of a visiting Meluhhan businessman. Tipped off by Nergal's divorced wife Elati, he flees to the distant land of Meluhha in search of Siwa Saqra whose name the dying Meluhhan had uttered. During the course of the voyage, he falls in love with Velli who is still devoted to a man who jilted her. He also meets Anu, a Sumérian hairdresser in Meluhha, who conceals her true nationality until she can exact her revenge.

Circumstances bring all the characters together in Babylon when they discover the truth about the trade between Meluhha and Sumér, and the identity of the brain behind the operations. A trial before Babylon's Council of Elders ends in a serious counter-allegation that jeopardizes the judiciary itself. After a hot pursuit beyond the Lower Sea, the culprit is brought to book and sentenced to death.

Vasant has taken great care in adhering to historical accuracy as far as possible. He got Dr.Ratnagar an expert on this era to whet the book and took her feedback seriously. He had assumed wide use of camels as means of transport in Meluhha & had timed the hero Samasin's travel accordingly. Dr. Ratnagar pointed out the rarity of the camel in the Indus Valley during the time period of the novel. Single-humped Dromedary camels were not yet domesticated and double-humped Bactrian camels were rare. Ox-carts were the common mode of transport. The change resulted in rescheduling the entire travel plan which had to be completed before trade winds changed direction and the voyage back to Sumér was made impossible.

The Tradewinds of Meluhha is quite a page turner. The names initially are a bit of tongue & brain twisters, but once you get the hang of it, its much easier to keep pace.

Given that the names of places used in this story are ancient ones, I really wished I had this book in hard copy so I could keep referring back to the map. However, taking a printout of that single page, solved that problem for me.

The book needs a good editor to tighten the grammar, sentence structure, long winding sentences and spelling errors, but this is a problem faced by a lot of authors who self-publish.

The author has remained true to facts as far as possible, but in some cases (like laws that actually came into play during the later reign of Hammurrabi, rather than Shulgi during whose reign this novel is set) he has taken a few liberties which are perfectly acceptable for a writer of fiction.

While the setting may be pre-historical, the emotions are real. The reader can empathise with the hero and the emotions that he goes through although at times I wonder if he was so blind that he could not recognise people in front of him. He shows great logical skills in certain tasks and seems completely idiotic in not recognising the man who tries to kill him multiple times in various guises.

Its quite an exciting story and unique in its settings both in terms of time and space.

I have my fingers crossed that Vasant may find a good publisher to help him edit and bring out this book in hard copy.

Find out more about the author at Smashwords where you can download the free ebook, How I Wrote A Pre-Historic Novel.

This post is a part of Vasant Dave's blog tour:

1. Book Cover Justice   ...     ...     http://www.bookcoverjustice.blogspot.com/
2. Indie BookSpot       ...     ...       http://indiebookspot.com/
3. Journey Reader       ...     ...       http://journeyreader.blogspot.com/
4. Kim & Brajesh's Bookshelf    ... http://whichbooknext.blogspot.com/
5. Kindle And Me        ...     ...       http://www.kindleandme.com/
6. Life of an Intimate Flying Object  http://haleymathiot.blogspot.com/
7. So Many Precious Books, So Little Time       http://teddyrose.blogspot.com/
8. Susan Russo Anderson ...     ...   http://susanrussoanderson.com/
9. Writing Sleuth       ...     ...           http://writingsleuth.com/

Trade Winds To Meluhha by Vasant Davé is available as e-Book in various formats from the following web-sites:



Amazon-Kindle
Barnes & Noble
Apple
Kobo
Sony
Smashwords

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

Crystal Blur's take on the Mahabharata

Prologue

Vyasas' Dissertation


Chapter 1

The 60 Year old Virgin


Chapter 2

Indecent Proposal


Chapter 3

Bride and Prejudice


Chapter 4

Meet the Focker


Chapter 5

The Very Secret Diary of Amba


Chapter 6

Forest Hump