Guardian of the Flame by T.L.Higley

Title: Guardian of the Flame
Author: T.L.Higley
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: B&H Books (October 1, 2009)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

About the book:
Guardian of the Flame is book three in the Seven Wonders series of novels transporting readers back to the Ancient World. Characters struggle to find meaning in a pagan society and are confronted by the one true God and His message of redemption.
The year is 48 BC. Sophia, a woman hurt by past loss, guards the famous lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt, in order to hide herself away from a world she deems cruel and unloving. But there is no escape. Political turmoil swells as Roman general Julius Caesar and his legion storm the city, and Cleopatra, Greek queen of Egypt , fights to retain her country against both Caesar and bloodthirsty rivals within her own household. Sophia is caught in the middle between a loyalty to Cleopatra and her maddening interest in Bellus, the Roman soldier whom Caesar has instructed to overtake the lighthouse.

My thoughts:
Guardian of the Flame takes us to 48 B.C Alexandria, Egypt. It’s the time when Julius Caesar and his troops have taken control of Alexandria and Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemy are in exile.

But…this is not the story of Cleopatra, it’s the story of Sophia who is Cleopatra’s tutor and is the keeper of the strategic lighthouse.

Sophia is a woman who has made the lighthouse her refuge and has refused to mix and mingle with the town people. She has closed her heart to every possibility of love in every form for the fear of causing her more pain. This fear has a history of course which is revealed in due course of time. In this fortress of hers enters Bellus, a Roman General, who is given the task of guarding the lighthouse considering it is the most strategic location in Alexandra.

Bellus, who although is a great warrior, is very interested in knowledge and books as well. He is attracted to the mystery that is Sophia and in the end tries his best to guard his heart against what he sees as an obviously wrong and fatal attraction.

Guardian of the Flame is essentially a historical romance, both aspects of which the author T.L.Higley can write very well. The romance between Sophia and Bellus was so well done. She definitely knows how to build a convincing romance while also describing the turbulent conditions in Alexandra during that period. She has a rare skill of not letting one aspect of the story overshadow the other.

That brings me to the history. Honestly I didn’t know much about Cleopatra and Caesar and I got to know so much about it through this book. Of course I did Google a little afterwards just to find out how much was fact and fiction. She describes the hub of knowledge and discovery that Alexandra once was and builds a story around it too. Also the incident where Cleopatra hides inside a carpet and then rolls out of it in front of Caesar was priceless. The author describes what Cleopatra must have gone through during that time. I had a hard time believing it actually happened and that it was not the author’s creation.

T.L.Higley knows how to convincingly mix history and fiction and make it appealing to an average reader too. If you haven’t tried one of her books, you really ought to. Start with Shadow of Colossus, a book, I absolutely adored but then do read Guardian of the Flame too. Both these books are part of the 7 wonders of the ancient World Series. The beauty of the series is that each book stands independently so you can start with any book that appeals to you.

Note: This book is also categorized as Christian fiction but it’s not in the face, so non-Christians like me can enjoy it as well.

Meridian by Amber Kizer

Title: Meridian
Author: Amber Kizer
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (August 11, 2009)
Rating: 4 stars

About the book: (From Amazon)
Half-human, half-angel, Meridian Sozu has a dark responsibility.
Sixteen-year-old Meridian has been surrounded by death ever since she can remember. As a child, insects, mice, and salamanders would burrow into her bedclothes and die. At her elementary school, she was blamed for a classmate’s tragic accident. And on her sixteenth birthday, a car crashes in front of her family home—and Meridian’s body explodes in pain.
Before she can fully recover, Meridian is told that she’s a danger to her family and hustled off to her great-aunt’s house in Revelation, Colorado. It’s there that she learns that she is a Fenestra—the half-angel, half-human link between the living and the dead. But Meridian and her sworn protector and love, Tens, face great danger from the Aternocti, a band of dark forces who capture vulnerable souls on the brink of death and cause chaos.

My Review:
I was really confused about this book. There were some things that I absolutely loved about it and some things I didn’t. Let’s start with the plot shall we?

Meridian Sozu, a 16 year old teenager, has never fit in. She has always felt different and weird. Death has been her companion right since her birth. She finds dead animals and insects wherever she goes, it’s as if the dead are calling out to her, or worse still, they are dying because of her. As Meridian cannot make sense of this, she finds herself as a recluse at 16.

One day, as she barely misses being involved in a terrible accident, she witnesses it nonetheless, and finds herself being moved from her house and her family to her great aunt with the same name Meridian-Merry. She has never met her or even heard from her except for the quilts she gets as birthday presents every year.

When she reaches her great aunt Merry’s place, a huge castle like home, she finds Merry very frail and tired. A guy called Tens is taking care of her. What Meridian learns about Merry and herself is shocking and unbelievable to her.

Meridian Sozu is half human, half angel. She is the medium of the dead to heaven. Unique isn’t it? As Meridian learns how to be the medium and learns more about Fenestra’s and the threat that she is under, she has to be strong and find a way to defeat an enemy who’s strength is way beyond her imagination.

I loved the plot and loved the whole concept of Fenestra’s. The first half was a little slow for me but it really picked up after a 100 pages. I felt no real attachment to Meridian or even Tens for that matter. I would have liked a little more background on Tens instead of a sketch. But I loved the great aunt Merry. I felt her fear, her frustration and her desperate need to teach Meridian everything she could while there was till time. That shows that the author Amber Kizer is more than capable of great characterization.

I also loved the whole Church thing and the villain, Pastor Perimo. Without giving spoilers, I loved what he did to the town. Again, I would have loved if his character was more fleshed out. There was very little Chemistry between Tens and Meridian except at the end. The writing was normal in parts and brilliant in others. I feel the author has a lot more potential than we get to see in Meridian. The book was a quick read and I couldn’t put it down for most of the part.

Having said all this and having written and thought about all the positives and negatives, I have to tell you one thing. After finishing the book, all I can think about are the positives. There are scenes and moments from the book that have stayed with me long after finishing it. Meridian definitely has an edge over so many other YA fantasy novels released recently and I will definitely recommend you to read it.

About the author:
Amber Kizer is not one of those authors who wrote complete books at the age of three and always knew she wanted to be a writer. She merely enjoyed reading until a health challenge forced her to start living outside the box. She lives in the Seattle area on a veritable Noah’s Ark—without the big boat and only some of the rain.

Defenders of the Scroll by Shiraz

Title: Defenders of the Scroll
Author: Shiraz
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: iUniverse (June 29, 2009)
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5

About the book: A teenage boy.A dark wizard.A mystic scroll. And the fate of a world hangs in the balance. . . When Alex “the Axeman” Logan is pulled from his world to help young princess Dara save her kingdom from the Shadow Lord, he thinks there has been a mistake. He’s a teen guitar player close to failing 11th grade, not some defender of the realm. All he has are some school books, his wits, and his love of fantasy movies. Overnight his life is history. Alex must confront the Shadow Lord and his minions when he is thrust into a land that has changed from a magical paradise to a barren, hopeless, helpless realm invaded by a dark army. But Alex is not alone. He has the help of Dara, a magic scroll, and a band of unlikely companions drawn from his own history books: a hardened Roman Legionnaire, a swift Japanese Samurai, a mighty African Warrior, a fiery Amazon Archer, and a spirited Shaolin Monk. Can Alex become more than he believes and lead his small band of Defenders to the Hall of Shadows, the birthplace of the Shadow Lord? The fate of the realm and everyone in it rests on him.

My Review:
In Short: What an awesome book!!! It’s got action, lovable characters and a superb plot.

As we enter the fantasy world created by Defenders of the Scroll, we are introduced to 2 main people. Alex, a teenager who is bored with his life, who plays video games having ogres and wizards and feels that his calling in life is different than just going through another torturous year at school. He also leads a rock band called ‘Axemen’.

In another parallel universe, we meet 9 year old Dara, the daughter of a powerful wizard and King of Mythos-Mornark. Mornark is not only powerful but also just and kind. He creates a place called Shadow Hall where all the evil in the Kingdom is banished. This hall lies in the heart of the Shadow forest. But one day, all hell breaks loose, The Hall takes on a life of its own, Mornark is captured and Dara is left alone to find safety and a way to release her father from the prison.

You ask how these 2 worlds meet? There is some goof up with Dara’s magic and instead of summoning the head of their army, Dara summons Alex. What ensues next is a ride through hell- with dark forces, magical creatures and even pirates. We also get to meet many other characters summoned by Dara to help Alex and her with the journey.

Honestly, I don’t remember when I had so much fun reading an action packed fantasy novel before. Every chapter is an adventure and every page has a danger waiting to pounce. It’s like a rollercoaster ride. And all these characters were soooo good, I mean loved them all, even the villain. I loved Dara, Mornark, Alex, Bantu, Tenzin, Scorpius, Maya…and so many more. Is it possible to love so many characters from a book?

One more thing I loved is Alex’s sense of humor and how his usage of slang confused other warriors. Defenders of the Scroll is a fun book, one that will pull you in and make you forget your surroundings. I love how in the beginning I could totally switch my mood from Dara’s world to Alex’s world within minutes without getting confused.

But then again, the 1 star less in the rating couldn’t be for nothing right? One very minor problem I found towards the end was how the warriors used language that was a little…let me say modern, language that I wouldn’t expect from an Amazon Archer or a Roman warrior. But that did not disturb me much, as I said it was a minor complaint. Also a little editing would have helped, as in to shorten the book a little.

The major complaint was the ending of the book. It doesn’t have one. I am okay with leaving enough scope for a sequel but this story kind of ends abruptly. It wouldn’t have bothered me much if this wasn’t an action-packed fantasy novel, but it is, and it has a lot of characters and lots of explanations of why things are the way they are. I’m just afraid that until I get my hands on the second book I might forget all. But I know that’s not the problem everyone has.

Finally, I would say that Defenders of the scroll is a book that men and women, adults and children will enjoy. This book begs to be made into a movie, I would be the first in line to see it. Can you tell I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book? When is it coming out Mr. Shiraz?

Oh wait…I forgot to tell you that I LOVED the beautiful artwork inside. It really is gorgeous.

This book has won the following awards and recognitions.
Winner in the Fantasy and Best Editing Fiction categories, and Finalist in the Action-Adventure and Young Adult Fiction categories of the 2009 Indie Excellence Awards
Honorable Mention in the Teenage category of the 2009 Hollywood Book Festival
Honorable Mention in the Science Fiction and Teenage categories of the 2009 Beach Book Festival
Honorable Mention in the Science Fiction category of the 2009 New York Book Festival
Finalist in the Multicultural Fiction and Best Overall Design Fiction categories of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Honorable Mention in the Wild Card category of the 2009 San Francisco Book Festival

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Hush Hush
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing (October 13, 2009)
Genre: Young Adult
Rating: 4 out of 5

About the book:
For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along.
With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.
But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

My Review:
After her father’s murder a year ago, Nora stays with her mother in the same old farmhouse just outside the city. As they have to come up with the maintenance cost for the farmhouse, her mother has to work after her father’s death and Nora is mostly home alone with her mother traveling for her job. Nora is a sincere student and none of the boys in her School provide any attraction or distraction for her.

Enter Patch. Patch is a new transfer and is usually quite and detached. Of course Nora and Patch are coupled for biology Assignment and part of it is getting to know each other and then making a report out of it. In spite of the fact that Nora knows something is wrong with Patch, she finds it very difficult to stay detached from him. Without giving much away, what ensues later is unraveling of mysteries, of Patch and of some other guys that enter the picture later.

I started the book thinking it would be heavy on fantasy but it was focused on the mystery aspect of the story for most of the part. But the mystery was so good that I did not mind. The characters were great. Patch was sexy and attractive and dangerous. Although I didn’t like Nora much she wasn’t some dumb female attracted to the dark and dangerous kind and acting on it just because she could (Read Bella from Twilight). She was intelligent and had a mind of her own. Nora’s friend Vee was the most entertaining of the lot. I almost waited for her to come in the picture. She was entertaining even when she was discussed in third person.

The one thing that I do find myself complaining about is the lack of atmosphere. I’m not saying it wasn’t there, just that I didn’t feel it much. Although I enjoyed Hush Hush thoroughly, I wish I could be transported to that place while reading it. I would have enjoyed it even more than I did. But then I haven’t seen this complaint in any other reviews so it could just be my mood. I am not sure.

In spite of my minor complaint, the fact remains that Hush, Hush is a great debut novel and I will definitely be looking out for books by Becca Fitzpatrick in the future.

Highly recommended if you like Young Adult or Fantasy.

After You by Julie Buxbaum

Title: After You
Author: Julie Buxbaum
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: The Dial Press; 1 edition (August 25, 2009)
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

My Review:
I have been sitting on this review for a long time. I tried writing it a couple of times but I just couldn’t do it justice. But I’m going to try and tell you how lovely this book is. Ellie’s best friend Lucy is murdered in broad daylight and Ellie goes to London to take care of her 8 year daughter Sophie. Lucy’s husband Greg is coping with his own grief and does not really pay much attention to Sophie or what’s going on in the house. He’s more than happy to hand over the ropes to Ellie for a while.

Sophie is understandably going through a shock and has stopped speaking at all. Ellie and her husband’s relationship is strained because Ellie lost her child some time back. Instead of working on it, Ellie goes to London to take care of Sophie and figure out what’s going on with her life and her relationship.

As you can see, After You is not strong on plot; it’s more focused on the relationship aspect of it, relationship between friends, between mother and daughter and between husband and wife. Ellie tires to get Sophie out of her shock by reading aloud The Secret Garden to her every night. And even though most of you know what I think of The Secret Garden, I really enjoyed how the author used the book in the story. I disliked Ellie sometimes because of the way she handled her relationship with her husband, the way she even refused to try. Why does a loss of a baby have to result in the loss of your relationship with your husband too? Is having a child or not the only basis for the marriage?

As Ellie comes to terms with these things and more, we get to see the transformation in her and as well as Sophie, who is a real sweetheart by the way. Everyone in this book has their own problems and in the end however everything is not resolved, there is an effort to mend what they already have instead of being distraught over what was lost.

After You is a story of loss, hope, grief, regrets, family, finding happiness and most important, finding a place where you belong to . After You is a brilliant look at relationships with beautiful writing from Julie Buxbaum. Although the book may sound really sad, it is actually quite funny most of the time.

Highly Recommended.

My favorite passages. They are probably understood best with context.

Time and place fall away. We dip into the book, as if bathing. There will soon be a garden. A buried key. A hidden door. We keep reading, and we can almost forget everything that has been lost and taken.
*****
“Can you at least try to understand?”
“Okay, I can do that. I’ll try.” And here’s the thing about Philip. Just when you think you may stop loving him, that you can give him up for good, that enough distance has grown between you that there is no climbing back into this thing, that he’s become more stranger than husband, he goes and says something that makes you forget why you could have ever doubted him in the first place: “Of course, I can try for you.”
*****
I want to be eight years old again, sit in a desk that wraps around on the right side even though I am a lefty, and I want to store my already made lunch and floppy school-books in its belly. I want to laugh when my teacher gets chalk on her back and get called on to recite my multiplication tables. I want my responsibilities clearly laid out: to go to school, to do my home-work, to go to bed at bedtime, and to brush my teeth twice a day. I want to surrender all of my decision-making power, the cruel weapon of too much freedom, and hand in my adulthood badge. I don’t want to keep falling up.

I’m so glad I’ve already ordered The Opposite Of Love by the same author, now just keeping my fingers crossed that it arrives

Between Me and the River: Living Beyond Cancer by Carrie Host

Title: Between Me and the River
Author: Carrie Host
Genre: Non-Fiction-Memoir
Publisher: Harlequin; 1 edition (August 1, 2009)
Hardcover: 304 pages
Rating: 4 out of 5

My Review:
Carrie Host, a mother of three, is diagnosed with a rare life threatening Carcinoid cancer.  Obviously no one thinks such things could happen to them and Carrie is devastated. This book deals with her journey through Cancer with all the up’s and downs. The River signifies the various stages in her life.

This book was a torture to read, torture as in scary. It could probably be because it reminded me of how fragile life is and anything could happen anytime, about how a seemingly happy family could suddenly plunge into darkness and uncertainty.

Carrie Host gives every detail of her treatment and healing process, mostly about her personal journey as opposed to the medical details. She expresses her fears about her children, her future and the fact that there might not be a forever for her and her husband. She is also a poet so that kind of makes the prose a little flowery unlike the usual straightforward tone you find in memoirs, which is not a bad thing.

Take a look at this passage; it gives an example of the flowery writing that I was talking about.

Cancer is like that. At first, you can’t believe that you are in the waiting room of a cancer center. It’s not like the waiting room anywhere else, because all these people are in some way affected by cancer. You don’t want to be one of these people. You don’t want to believe this. It’s the person next to you in that waiting room, looking like he is doing well, who helps you see the first piece of tangible evidence that there are people who survive this. One moment you are spiraling down, sure that you are utterly alone, and then circumstances reveal that you are not. This is where hope comes and puts an arm around you.

This book is not just a memoir, it is in small parts a self help guide too. And although I might not understand the full extent of help her words provide, I do have an idea of the comfort and support they might offer to those who need it.

While I could see how difficult it was for Ms. Host in spite of having loving family and friends, an incredible support system, financial stability and not to mention a very loving husband, I can only imagine how it could be 10 times more difficult for someone who does not have even one of these.

Although a lot difficult to read because of the emotional aspect of it, I do recommend it if you are looking for stories of people who suffer through a deadly disease and see life through their eyes.

Carrie Host and her Family

Thank you Lisa for the book.

Wait Until Twilight by Sang Pak

Title: Wait Until Twilight
Author: Sang Pak
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (August 4, 2009)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Review:
Samuel is a teenager who has lost his mother a year back. He lives in a small Georgia town with his father who owns a hardware store. One day he and his friend David decide to film 3 babies that are said to be very odd. Some say they look like the devil. Samuel wants something cool and different for their school project, so on a hot sunny afternoon they head off to the “Underwood”. That’s the place where the triplets live with their mother.

Samuel has a very strong reaction after he sees the babies, to the extent that he pukes. Look at the description:

Their heads are way too big, and their arms and legs are all different lengths. Some long, some just stumps with little fingernails stuck in a semicircle. Even their eyes are different sizes, one larger than the other, and their twisted little noses are hardly there.

The mother is angry and drives them out of the house. After this incident Samuel spends his days as before. But the babies’ faces keep haunting him. They are all he thinks of day and night. Their faces keep on haunting him in his dreams and even when he is awake. He knows he shouldn’t return to the house but he does. The mother of the babies has an older psycho son called Daryl whom Samuel should have probably stayed away from. But as days turn into months he becomes so obsessed by the babies that he keeps going back. He wants to do something to save the babies to find peace within.

Wait Until Twilight is mostly a coming of age story but it’s also a story about overcoming the demons inside you and taking charge. The prose was very simple and hence the book was a quick read. But that was exactly what made the horror and the danger that Samuel was in seem so real. The story grows on you slowly and takes hold of and doesn’t let you go till the very end.

The descriptions of the small town were bang on and I could also feel Samuel’s thoughts, his guilt and his fear seeping through the pages. As the book progressed I grew to really like Samuel and the choices he made. And although I sometimes wanted to tell him that what he was doing was very wrong and dangerous, I also knew that he had to do it.

Conclusion: Wait Until Twilight is a great debut novel and although it’s a YA, it’s one of the books that is without doubt a cross-over.

It happened in Italy: Untold Stories of How the People of Italy Defied the Horrors of the Holocaust

Title: It happened in Italy
Author: Elizabeth Bettina
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (April 21, 2009)
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

My Review:It happened in Italy shows a different side to Holocaust and the concentrations camps. Only the camps mentioned in this book are not located in Germany but in Italy. I don’t know about others, but I had no idea there were concentration camps in Italy. Neither did author Elizabeth Bettina.

The research starts when the author discovers her Catholic parents wedding photographs outside a church with a priest standing next to a Rabbi. Since the author’s grandmother was from Italy, she is surprised that she never heard about Jews send to concentration camps in Italy. So she decides to dig further and stumbles upon many stories of Jews who were given shelter in Italy and saved from Hitler’s madness.

Elizabeth attends a lecture given by a holocaust survivor Walter (name?). She is surprised when she learns that he was in Campagna, small Italian town during the World War. Together with Walter and then Vince, who is an encyclopedia in everything holocaust, Elizabeth embarks on a journey to find and record the lives of all those who were in Italian concentration camps and were still alive.

Some parts of the book describe Elizabeth’s search for those people and then talking them to Italy to revisit those camps and the people who had once sheltered them (she also managed to meet the Pope in the process) and parts of it deal with stories from various survivors. The book is filled with many photographs and documents that prove the story.

The stories were all very repetitive and after a couple of them I could tell what was going to come next. The gist is that Italians were very good to the Jews at a time when everyone else was throwing them in German concentration camps. They defied official orders, hid the Jews in their homes and basically helped them survive and escape. The story needs to be told, yes, but frankly after around 150 pages I was bored. I rolled my eyes every time the author said ‘Amazing’ and ‘Unbelievable’. Yes, I get it. It was amazing but saying it on every alternate page was a little too much.

The tagline says ‘Untold Stories of How the People of Italy Defied the Horrors of the Holocaust’. But I found this book to be more about Elizabeth’s journey and her story about finding these people. I would have liked a more personal account from the survivors. Also, there were so many names just thrown in for no reason. First of all, they are Italian names and are difficult to remember. So why throw in the name of a person who had nothing to do with the main story and who was not mentioned more than once? It was a little annoying. Also, a little modesty would have really helped.

Finally, as I said, the story needs to be told but in a better way.

Screw Cupid: The Sassy Girl’s Guide to Picking Up Hot Guys

Title: Screw Cupid: The Sassy Girl’s Guide to Picking Up Hot Guy
Author: Samantha Scolfield
Publisher: Experiment, The (September 1, 2009)
Genre: Self-help

About the book: Screw Cupid is the guide for every woman ready to take her dating life into her own hands. Samantha Scholfield has many years of dating experience, and the techniques and strategies she reveals here were developed via extensive trial and error – and by consulting and collaborating with hundreds of women (and many men), and by refining the best of the extensive pickup advice that already circulates among men. The result: perfectly calibrated guidance on how to initiate a conversation – anytime, anywhere – and get right to a date, all without the guy knowing he’s being picked up.

I don’t usually read self-help books, but something in this book made me want to read it. I never thought I would ever rate a book on how to pick up hot guys, but here it is – 4 out of 5.

I decided to try a different approach with the review and so I asked my lovely readers to ask a few questions. I’ve answered them as best as I could and without spoiling the book too much.

Veens: Can teens [in college] really use the advice? If so, I would like to see a few examples of advices
I don’t think this book is aimed towards college going teens but then you can always customize right? The book mentions how to initiate conversations in bars or say bookstores. But there is a section at the beginning where the author mentions a mistake she did in high school. Something on the lines of ‘do not stalk the guy you like’ which I feel is the mistake so many of the girls do But as I said one can always customize and adapt.

Stacy: would be curious about what they say about where to meet someone these days. I have so many friends finding dates (sometimes souses) online.
It mentions a lot of places actually. Bars, bookstores, parties etc. In fact, there is a list of places that tell you where to meet guys. Obviously not all are feasible, but most are. The author mentions online dating too and she also gives a very good way to contact guys through dating sites which would help them notice your message among the many others they might get. I really liked that advice which in spite of falling on the “common-sense” side is overlooked by many girls.

Care: DO tell us the sug that seems the most daring idea and the one that is the most ridiculous! Any that you will/want to try and then you MUST go apply that knowledge, come back and report EVERYTHING — we want to know all the juice details!
I don’t think there was any ridiculous idea but for me approaching a group of guys that also had a girl in it would be daring. But then the author also says it’s an advance step I’m actually going to give this book to a friend of mine who is desperately looking out for a descent guy. I could ask her for a guest post to fulfill our needs of gossip and juicy details

Jackie: I’d want to know if this was funny and if you tried any of the tips – did they work?!! I love a bit of gossip!
Oh well, I’ve just read it, so you’ll have to wait for the gossip. But yes, this book was funny at times and always entertaining. Even if you are not looking to pick up hot guys, you will definitely find yourself nodding at mistakes you did once or have seen someone else do. But the author has tried every tip she has mentioned in the book and vouches that they work if tried correctly.

Trish: How does one gain the confidence to ask a guy out? Should she be straight forward or try to be friends with the guy first? (And I’m part of that camp that thinks girls and guys cannot be just friends!). Anything NOT to do?
Definitely a lot of do’s and don’ts here and also a lot of busting of myths. This book is basically intended towards picking up guys for a date. But she also tells us how to approach a guy without actually suggesting anything and gradually going ahead from there. I think the best “NOT” was to not stand with a group of girls and wink or smile at a hot guy across the room and expect him to approach you. However absurd it may sound I have seen this happening. And it almost never works. Guys will rarely approach a girls group just because you seemed interested in him.

Eva: I suppose I want to know what you thought the five best suggestions from the book were
–>Never settle for a guy. If you don’t like a comment he made, loose his number.
–>Have a lot of guys to go out on dates, so that you always have options and in turn don’t think you have to settle. But then, I’m really not sure how feasible this advice is.
–>How to approach a guy in the first place without it being too awkward for the both of you. The opening lines examples were great. Some were weird (I would never try them), but they do give you a good direction to start with.
–>A huge list of places to find guys.
–>A small but superb suggestion for online dating. I wish this part was covered more in detail though.

Ceri: What do you think would be the most important lesson you’ve learned from the book?
Number one in Eva’s answer. I think it’s very important not to “settle” thinking you’ll never find a better guy. There are a lot of guys out there. You just need to put yourself out there and approach as many guys you like and then filter. And don’t forget to have a blast in the process. The initial rejections will hurt but you learn from the process and move on.

Melody: What do you think of the advice given? Would you recommend this book to your readers?
I thought the advice was very practical and definitely something that can be used. And the author’s voice comes off as friendly without sounding full of herself. I guess if women could customize certain things, this advice is definitely the best I’ve seen around. I recommend this book to anyone who is willing to take things in her hand instead of cribbing that there are no good guys around. May be that’s true, but at least you could say that after trying. Read this book, try out the advise and if it still doesn’t work, I guess email the author. At the end of the book, there’s an FAQ section with questions from women who have tried the things in the book but are still unsuccessful. The author explains exactly what went wrong with the approach, pointing out the small mistakes that might get overlooked otherwise. But having said that, I’m not really sure the advice could work everywhere. It seems to be targeted for big cities where you probably won’t run into the same guys over and over again.

So yes, it’s definitely worth trying out with a little caution and adapting it to the situation you are in.

Thank you Lisa for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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Jasmyn by Alex Bell

Title: Jasmyn
Author: Alex Bell
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (June 18, 2009)
Rating: 4.25 out of 5

About the book:
One day, without warning, Jasmyn’s husband died of an aneurysm. Since then, everything has been different. Wrapped up in her grief, Jasmyn is trapped in a world without colour, without flavour – without Liam. But even through the haze of misery she begins to notice strange events. Even with Liam gone, things are not as they should be, and eventually Jasmyn begins to explore the mysteries that have sprung up after her husband’s death …and follow their trail back into the events of his life. But the mysteries are deeper than Jasmyn expects, and are leading her in unexpected directions – into fairytales filled with swans, castles and bones; into a tale of a murder committed by a lake and a vicious battle between brothers; into a story of a lost past, and a stolen love. She’s entering a magical story. Jasmyn’s story.

My Review:
Jasmyn is a story built around a fairy tale that involves castles and swans and a certain secret something that makes the entire story revolve around itself. And that certain something is very unique and mystical.

The book jumps into action immediately, without wasting any time, at the end of the first chapter itself. At the end of Jasmyn’s husband’s funeral, 5 black swans fall from the sky. Everyone dismisses them as a consequence of some natural disaster or a disease (?, sorry don’t remember), but then things start to get more mysterious and confusing. Jasmyn comes to know things about her husbands past which she never knew existed. She goes on a journey with Bill, her husband’s brother, to find out the truth for herself.

Jasmyn is very different from the many fairy tale retellings I have read. But wait, Jasmyn is not a fairy tale retelling; it’s a story that revolves around a fairy tale, something so different and unique that I have to applaud the genius behind the story.

I really don’t want to give away much because I know that I enjoyed discovering a new secret, a new mystery after every few pages and I don’t want anyone else’s experience to lessen even by 1%. I thought there were a few loop holes in the story for almost 3/4 of the book, but trust me it all comes together in the end. And the end is as dramatic and grand as any action packed fantasy movie.

Read it if you enjoy fast paced mysteries and fairy tales. I’m not sure if I should tell which fairy tale it is for the fear of spoiling the book for you. Because as far as I know, it’s not a very well known one, it could be called more of a myth based around real places and people. But yes, this book will make you want to finish it in one sitting.