Book Review Tours

Sunday, 11 May 2014

#TourAnnouncement :: Whole Latte Love by Rachelle Ayala

Investment banking intern Carina Chen doesn’t need any distractions - especially the sexy, guitar-playing barista she rooms with for the summer.
Free spirit Dylan Jewell appreciates the delightful universe of women who vie for his attention. His goal in life is to do good, make happy coffee, and help the homeless.
When Carina moves in, she insists on rules of conduct to quell her instant attraction to Dylan. But when her boss asks her to turn Dylan into a businessman, she can’t think of a reason not to take advantage of his hospitality.
Their chemistry is white hot, but Dylan refuses to play Carina’s game, unable to understand how he can fall in love with a woman who puts profits in front of people. When Carina realizes Dylan isn’t budging, she risks all to gain a single night with him. Will her gambit backfire or will Dylan discover Carina’s true heart before she runs away with his?
Set in Berkeley, California, Whole Latte Love is an opposites-attract romance mixing bluesy rock music, hot, steamy love scenes, and financial shenanigans.

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About the Author

Rachelle Ayala was a software engineer until she discovered storytelling works better in fiction than real code. She enjoys writing love stories and has always lived in a multi-cultural environment. The tapestry of characters in her books reflect that diversity. She is an active member of online critique group, Critique Circle, and a volunteer for the World Literary Cafe.
Check out her four romantic novels. Michal’s Window is a powerful, emotional journey as lived through the eyes of Princess Michal, King David’s first wife. Broken Build is a story of healing where a man learns to love and trust the woman who destroyed his life. Hidden Under Her Heart is a heartfelt love story combined with controversy over difficult decisions, and Knowing Vera is a suspenseful, cross-cultural romance mixing an unsolved murder, adventure, and hot, steamy love scenes.

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Wednesday, 7 May 2014

#GuestPost :: Girls, Math, and History by Nandini Bajpai

Book Review Tours 10:05 am 1 Comments

In the ancient city of Ujjayani, the planets align to decide the fate of two starcursed lovers. Born under the curse of Mars, brilliant and beautiful Leelavati, daughter of the famed astronomer Bhaskarya Acharya of Ujjayani, knows she can never wed. But when her childhood playmate, the handsome and rich Rahul Nagarseth, returns from sea, their attraction is rekindled under stormy monsoon skies. As Leela, forced by fate to relinquish Rahul, tries to find solace in teaching at her fathers observatory, a fleeting alignment of the stars is discovered that can help overcome her curse. But Rahul is called away on a war to defend his kingdom. Can he return in time or will she lose him forever to the will of the planets?

Set in turbulent twelfth century India, against the backdrop of the savage wars waged by Muhammad of Ghor and his band of Turkis, Starcursed is a sweeping tale of science, romance and adventure that will transport its readers to another world.

Guest Post by Author Nandini Bajpai

Girls, Math, and History

Thanks for having me on your blog, Debdatta. And thanks also for hosting a review tour for Starcursed!

In my novel Starcursed the main character's name is Leelavati. I have a really strong emotional connection to that name because my grandmother’s name was also Leelavati and I've always loved it.

The incident that inspired me to write the book also has to do with this name. It started with a trip to the Museum of Science in Boston. I live in the Boston area and we take our kids to the Museum of Science quite often because it’s a nice Museum (in spite of what I’m about to say next, it IS a nice museum!)

So they have a really massive Mathematica display which shows the history of mathematics. It takes up a whole wall and one of the entries they have is about an Indian mathematician called Bhaskaracharya. This is what it says:

A page from Bhaskara’s Lilavati

Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary algebra of his predecessors Aryabhatta (the first) and Brahmagupta. His book Lilavati, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers but does say the square of a negative is positive. Bhaskara’s one word proof of the Pythagoras theorem was known to the ancient Chinese though his clever way of generating solutions to the Pell Equation – rediscovered by Euler - seems to have been his own.

This is a pretty dismissive write up about a mathematician who deserves much more credit, but this display was probably made in the 1960s, when people were still in denial that the number system was even Indian, so I was like okaaay.

What really caught my attention though was the name of the book!

As I said earlier, this was my grandmother’s name, despite the different spelling, so just think how it read to me. It might help to imagine reading the same text with her name replaced by a name we can all immediately recognize as a woman’s name.

For example, Caroline. It would then read (please imagine a professorial tone here!) thusly:

1114-1158 AD

A page from Bhaskara’s Caroline.

Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary blah blah of his predecessors blah. His book Caroline, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers but does say that the square of a negative number is…etc.

Doesn’t that immediately make you stop and wonder who Caroline was and why on Earth he’d call his book on math Caroline?

Or try Susan. (Again, the professorial tone.)

1114-1158 AD

A page from Bhaskara’s Susan.

Bhaskara is remembered for transmitting the rudimentary blah. His book Susan, the beautiful, looks askance at negative numbers…etc.

I mean, you have to be completely without curiosity or imagination not to wonder who this woman was, right? But apparently no one who made the Mathematica display wondered about it. And by the way I should mention that this entire Mathematica display did not have one single woman in it. Not even Ada Lovelace and definitely not Hypatia.

Since I am neither without curiosity nor imagination, whatever my other faults, I did wonder about it. I looked it up and here’s what I found.

The book Bhaskara wrote was very popular. It was the standard math book in India for ages, and it has math questions in it that are directly addressed to a girl, sometimes called Leelavati. There’s also a story, in a Persian translation, about Leelavati being Bhaskara’s daughter. It tells an amazing tale (not to give too much away...) about a wedding, and a bad horoscope, and a water clock that gets blocked by a jewel dropped by Leela herself. In other words, lots of material for a brilliant story.

Someone should write about that, I thought. Someone should really, really write about that! And I kept on thinking that for years until one day (just like the quote from Lily Tomlin!) I realized that I am someone.

A still from a documentary about Lilavati. Click to see the episode, though it's in Hindi only. Also, she's much younger in this version than in Starcursed.

Being a fiction writer and not a mathematician or historian I did not write a math research paper or a non-fiction history book, I wrote a novel.

It's taken some time and effort (gross understatement alert!) to find a publisher for this book since the usual reaction, I imagine, is something like: You've written a story about WHAT? Girls, Math, and History?! But for every good story there's a great editor who believes in it, and I was lucky enough to (eventually) find Sudeshna at Rupa Publications. So, happy ending!

One final word to readers who may have read my YA novel Red Turban White Horse. I know that Leela’s voice is very different from Mini’s voice in RTWH. That’s because Mini lives in the 21st century in Massachusetts and is into fashion, and Leela lived in the 12th century in Ujjain and was into math!! But they are both smart, confident, capable girls on the threshold of their lives and I really enjoyed being in both their heads—I hope you do too.

And also—this is important—there's Rahul! :)

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About The Author:

Nandini Bajpai grew up in New Delhi, India, one of four sisters and many cousins, in a family that liked to read. Although she dabbled in corporate finance, business analysis, and fostering shelter animals, her first love is writing. Her novel Red Turban White Horse: My Sister's Hurricane Wedding was published in 2013 by Scholastic India. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, kids, their dog Yogi and cat Rakhan.

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Tour Schedule

26th May

Samarpita @ Words' Worth By Samarpita

A'ishah @ Inksugar

27th May

Nikita @ Njkinny's World of Books

Nicole Hewitt @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Victoria @ Deal Sharing Aunt

28th May

Stephanie @ 100 Pages a Day

Namrata @ Redpillows

29th May

Jenn @ Book Reviews And Giveaways

Maniparna @ Scattered Thoughts

30th May

Sudeshna @ Proses, Verses and Conversations

Sanchit @ Musings of Immortals

# Guest Post

Friday, 2 May 2014

#TourAnnouncement :: Metamorphing by Kunal Pancholi

Book Review Tours 12:30 am 2 Comments

Title – METAMORPHING
Author – Kunal Pancholi (www.kunalpancholi.com)
Publisher – Leadstart (www.leadstartcorp.com)

About the Book
28THAPRIL, 2000: Flight No. 9x4876 bound to Srinagar has crash landed into the Everest Base camp. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the flight mysteriously went off the radar for few minutes and missed its landing. All passengers are feared dead… except for three bodies that are yet to be recovered.
8THDECEMBER, 2050:This, without doubt is the most gruesome murder in recent times. Early this morning, an unidentified woman was found mutilated at the western gates of the abandoned Victoria Terminus Station in Mumbai. Authorities report her head was … well … semi-decapitated and she was drained of all her blood. The shocking part - the crime scene was devoid of any signs of blood spatter…
ROHAN: He was shorter than the shortest girl in school; he had to be ahead in the game!
RUDRA:A man without a past, coaxed into a murder investigation; will he ever grasp the true nature of the crime?
A thrilling tale about two men bound by an untraceable yet undeniable fate - One running away from his past, another unaware of his own.

Author’s Profile

Kunal Pancholi graduated from SRCC Delhi in 2001. He completed his MBA from NMIMS Mumbai in 2006. Previously, in his professional career he has worked with banks, co-founded READO - an audio book publishing company and done a marketing stint with a film production company in Mumbai. Currently he heads Sales & Marketing at a technology start-up. He lives in Chennai with his wife, parents, sister and grand-mom.

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# Tour Announcement

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

#TourSchedule :: Starcursed by Nandini Bajpai

Book Review Tours 12:18 am 0 Comments

An Excerpt:

The lamp tower soared above me, quiet, inviting, deserted. I pushed open its heavy door and started to climb.

High up in the tower the sounds from the temple faded, leaving only the echo of my footsteps, and the tinkling of my silver anklets as I climbed. The steep, curved staircase could be treacherous in the dark, but tonight every niche in the tower was lit up in honour of the festival. I pushed the door open at the top and walked to the railing. There was someone there.

The clear night sky ablaze with stars framed his lithe form. His face looked serious in the glow of a single flickering lamp. I could see that the tender light of the other day still shone in his eyes—Rahul.

He’d been waiting.

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26th May

Samarpita @ Words' Worth By Samarpita

A'ishah @ Inksugar

27th May

Nikita @ Njkinny's World of Books

Namrata @ Redpillows

Victoria @ Deal Sharing Aunt

28th May

Stephanie @ 100 Pages a Day

Nicole Hewitt @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

29th May

Jenn @ Book Reviews And Giveaways

Maniparna @ Scattered Thoughts

30th May

Sudeshna @ Proses, Verses and Conversations

Sanchit @ Musings of Immortals

# Review Tour # Schedule

Monday, 21 April 2014

#TourKickoff :: ProtoStar by Braxton A Cosby

Book Review Tours 12:00 am 0 Comments

On the brink of Civil War, the Torrian Alliance continues with its mission to obliterate Star-children across the universe in order to suppress an intergalactic evil. Following the recommendations of his Council, King Gregorio Derry has agreed to send his only son William, on a mission to restore honor to his family. What starts out routine, becomes a lot more complicated as an inopportune crash landing delays the assassination. During this time, William begins to form a 'connection' with Sydney that challenges his inner being. But this conflict is the least of his problems, as a conspiracy back on his home planet Fabricius threatens the lives of those he loves and his father's royal legacy. Along with that, he must unravel a hidden threat here on Earth that seeks to secure a vested interest that threatens both his and Sydney's safety. Will William be able to complete his mission or will he choose love, sacrificing everything he stands for?

Find out More at the Website

ProtoStar is the Readers Favorite Book of the Year Award Winner for the Romance: Fantasy-Sci-Fi category.

About the Author

Braxton A. Cosby is a dreamer with a passion for inspiring others to love, in spite of circumstance and convenience. Braxton creates stories in his mind that he desires to put on paper and share with the entire world. His calling to pen a young-adult series that is smart, witty, and thought provoking, has challenged readers to answer the question: What would you choose, love or irrevocable duty? Braxton lives in Atlanta, GA, where he co-hosts a local radio show on WAOK which is a mash-up of current events and health and wellness. He also has a blog where he discusses everything from health and entertainment to spirituality and relationships.

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Tour Schedule:

21st April - Jenn @ Book Reviews & Giveaways

22nd April - Namrata @ Red Pillows

23rd April - Melissa @ Books are Love

23rd April - Maniparna @ Scattered Thoughts

24th April - Gayathri @ Blog of a Forbidden Dreamer

25th April - Kishan @ Levying Kishan

26th April - Jacquel @ She Reviews Everything

26th April - Rae @ Drunk on Pop

26th April - Monica

26th April - Sreejitha @ A Cinderella Story

Giveaway:

~ 1 Signed Copy of ProtoStar by Braxton A. Cosby

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# Review Tour # Tour Kickoff

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

#TourAnnouncement :: Starcursed by Nandini Bajpai

Book Review Tours 10:51 am 2 Comments

An Excerpt:

I didn’t stop running until I reached the lotus tank. The temple shone in the distance, its lights shimmering on the mirror of the water, music and laughter wafting from its crowded halls with every gust of wind. The lamp tower soared above me, quiet, inviting, deserted. I pushed open its heavy door and started to climb.

He’d been waiting.

My mind went blank. I was breathless from the exertion of the steep climb and shocked at finding him there. How had he known where to find me? Perhaps he knew I would try to avoid him, and guessed I might be here.

‘Leela,’ he said, coming towards me. ‘I beg leave to speak with you.’

I looked away, trying to think of a way to stall his words.

‘I’ve wanted to thank you,’ I said, buying time, ‘for saving Loky.’

He would not be distracted. ‘I came to see you,’ he said. ‘But you weren’t home. I sent a message through Loky, but you didn’t reply.’

I couldn’t deny it.

‘I don’t know if you are avoiding me of your own will or if you were compelled to do so…’ He took both my hands in his. ‘We started something on board that ship,’ he said, ‘and I’m determined to finish it. I can’t go away like this, not knowing.’

My lungs were burning before I realized I had forgotten to breathe.

A hand under my chin lifted my face to his ardent gaze. ‘You know how I feel, Leela,’ he said, ‘but do you return my affection?’

His question hung in the air unanswered.

Behind Rahul, the red glare of Mars winked at me like an evil eye, holding my tongue fast. But even its malevolent shadow could not stop my heart from pounding, yes, yes, yes.

Far below I could hear the maid panting loudly as she climbed up the stairs. Still he waited.

‘I know it’s a fine mess, with my betrothal, and you being a Brahmin and me a Vaishya, and a Jain, and a mleccha,’ he said. ‘But if it doesn’t matter to you, Leela, I promise I’ll find a way. Just say the word...’

None of that mattered. What mattered was Rahul. How could I put him in danger?

‘Shall I ask my father to speak with your Baba?’ he looked into my eyes and said, so softly I could barely hear him.

‘No!’

The word burst from my lips before I could stop it, stunning us both. I pulled my hand away and covered my lips, but it was too late.

He looked stricken.

‘Leela…’ he said, ‘you can’t mean it.’

I shook my head silently.

The maid had finally reached the door. She saw Rahul there and glared at him, but he was still staring at me disbelievingly.

‘In that case,’ he said at last, in a voice that broke my heart, ‘I apologize for… any misunderstanding.’ He bowed stiffly, ‘I wish you every happiness. Always,’ he added. And then he left, taking all hopes of my happiness with him.

‘Rahul,’ I whispered, but he was gone.

But I couldn’t shake off the look on his face when I had said ‘no’. I had to stop him, I had to explain. I paced back and forth on the narrow space on the observation deck. But how could I? Should I even try?

I stopped and smoothed a piece of birch bark I had carried for my notes under the light of the lamp. With my iron stylus I drew a rectangle and divided it with diagonal lines into twelve diamonds. Within them I wrote the names of the planets in the positions they had been in when I was born. I dipped my finger into the black ink, rubbed it over the bark, and then wiped away the ink so the lines stood out stark, etched against the bark. I handed my star chart to the maid.

‘Find him and give him this,’ I said. ‘Go quickly.’

‘Give who?’ she asked.

‘Rahul Nagarseth,’ I said. ‘Please, I beg you.’

She studied the desperation on my face for a moment, and left quickly.

I settled down on the cotton mat on the tower and started to write the observations, my hands shaking. Would Rahul be able to analyse the chart and realize my dilemma? I wanted him to understand, but what purpose would be served by telling him, when there was nothing he could do? My stars were what they were. I should not have sent it.

The maid came back soon enough, with the news that she had not been able to find Rahul. Did I want it delivered the next day? I did not.

I had refused him; that was all he knew. He would probably go ahead with his engagement now. I tore the bark up silently and threw the tiny scraps from the edge of tower, watching them float slowly down to the crowds below while the conches blew and the temple bells rang, signalling that Krishna had been born.

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# General Announcements # Tour Announcement

Monday, 14 April 2014

#TourSchedule :: ProtoStar by Braxton A.Cosby

Book Review Tours 2:24 pm 0 Comments

Find out More at the Website

ProtoStar is the Readers Favorite Book of the Year Award Winner for the Romance: Fantasy-Sci-Fi category.

About the Author

Contact the Author:

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Tour Schedule:

21st April - Jenn @ Book Reviews & Giveaways

22nd April - Namrata @ Red Pillows

23rd April - Melissa @ Books are Love

23rd April - Maniparna @ Scattered Thoughts

24th April - Gayathri @ Blog of a Forbidden Dreamer

25th April - Kishan @ Levying Kishan

26th April - Jacquel @ She Reviews Everything

26th April - Rae @ Drunk on Pop

26th April - Monica

26th April - Sreejitha @ A Cinderella Story

Giveaway:

~ 1 Signed Copy of ProtoStar by Braxton A. Cosby

# Review Tour # Schedule

Saturday, 12 April 2014

#TourKickOff :: The Crossover Year by Bhargavi Balachandran

Book Review Tours 7:00 am 0 Comments

About the Book

Meet Sri Anuprabha, aka Anu, a twenty-nine year-old banker who is terrified of entering her thirties. She dreams of quitting her job at the bank, sporting yoga pants and traipsing around the world. Her world turns upside down when things go awry and she is faced with the prospect of spending her days watching Tamil serials. She comes up with a five-point plan for reclaiming her life back before she hits the big 30. But things are never as simple as drawing up a flowchart in real life, are they? Especially with a ghastly recession rearing its ugly head…. Anu bumbles through the corridors of domesticity and travels on a funfilled roller coaster ride in a bid to discover her passion in life.Along the way, she meets new people, experiences crazy new things and learns some hard lessons in marriage, friendship, parenting and life. The Crossover Year is a funny, yet heartwarming story of a woman in search of her identity, and a chronicle of her hilarious quest for discovering her inner mojo. Bring out a platter of cookies and a steaming mug of chai, and join Anu on the ride of her lifetime.

About the Author

I am a part-time writer,a part-time entrepreneur and a full time mom.

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Tour Schedule

12th April - Sachin @ Smorgasbord Fantasia

19th April - Namrata @ Red Pillows

26th April - Shubham @ Youth Diaries

3rd May - DDS @ b00k r3vi3ws

Giveaway

1 Copy of The Crossover Year by Bhargavi Balachandran. Open to Indian Residents only

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# Review Tour # Tour Kickoff

Monday, 7 April 2014

#TourSchedule :: The Crossover Year by Bhargavi Balachandran

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I started writing the Crossover year a few months after my twenty eight birthday. In at way it was supposed to be my advance thirtieth birthday gift to myself. Though it is not my story, the premise of the book is very autobiographical: I had just quit my new job of three months as I had hated it thoroughly. It had never occurred to me before that there was life beyond a nine-to-nine job, working for someone else. We are conditioned to live our lives in a certain way – go to school, then college, get a job, get married , procreate and grow old. In our quest to remain in the rat race, we rarely pause for a minute to figure what we really want. I was exactly in this rut.

I can’t remember how the germ of the thought that I wanted to write a novel got planted into my head. Writing was not this fashionable back when I started writing. The Chetan Bhagat revolution had just begun, so I don’t think I wanted to jump on the bandwagon mainly because of the novelty of the idea. India has been blessed with a rich crop of talented writers, but writing had been restricted to the literature graduate. With Chetan Bhagat’s popular writing, many first time readers grabbed a book other than their study guides and text books. Chetan had somehow connected with a generation that was bred on video games and demanded instant gratification. My reasons were extremely selfish: I wrote the book because I felt compelled to. It seemed to me that unless I breathed life into the story that was masticating in my mind, I wouldn’t be left alone.

I started writing with no idea of how to write a novel. My plan was to just put one word next to another, and discover that one lakh words later, miraculously the book would be done. Or so I thought. The real work only starts after one finishes writing the book. Stephen King , in his tome for writers, On Writing says,“Kill your darlings , kill your darlings, even if it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s hearts. Kill your darlings.”I discovered the truth in these words only when I started on ‘Project re-writing The Crossover Year’. Most of the plot was re-vamped; I chopped off almost fifty thousand words from the novel and spent sleepless nights thinking about the characters in the book. It seemed like I was alternating between intense highs and equally intense lows during the period I was re-writing the book. This is what writing a book, autobiographical or otherwise is for me. It consumes my every waking moment that I feel antsy till I am done.

It is almost five years since I whimsically typed “The Crossover Year” on a word document without even having thought of the plot .The book is now in print. I am in the process of finishing up my third book that is giving me sleepless nights again, but I can still vividly remember the first time I fell in love with writing, nor can I never forget the bitter fights and cold wars I have had with the manuscript. The Crossover Year will always be my first baby. And every time I see the book sitting on my book shelf, my heart soars and everything in the world seems just fine.

About the Author