Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fiction, Indian Authors, Thriller

The Red Line by Tanmay Dubey

51W5pl2PFcL

Book title: The Red Line

Author: Tanmay Dubey

Language: English

The Red Line by Tanmay Dubey is a thriller story inspired by true events. The story starts with the sudden demise of  Rakesh Kumar at Red line metro station in Delhi. At first, everything seems to be normal about death. But an honest police officer Hanumant became suspicious about the death of his superior officer and starts investigating. The story becomes more curious and twisted when Hanumant finds out that all the fellow passengers in the train are either murdered or attacked. Who is behind all these dreadful crimes. The rest of the story is the journey of Hanumant to unveil the mystery behind all these murders.

From the cover to the last page it is a thriller genre book. The suspicious title and splash of red color in the cover is too good. If you closely look at the cover, you can see all the plot-making factors in the cover. The cover design is apt for this book.

For a 300+ pages book, there should be a gripping tale to make the reader stick. And here it is. The story has every element consciously embedded to create curiosity. You can’t help to think constantly that “what happens next?” every time you turn a page over.

The plot twists were unpredictable. I think that twists were the core of this story. The author has cleverly placed them at appropriate sections. Another highlight of the book is its take on the life of an honest police officer. The author attempted to show to the readers that what are the sacrifices a police officer has to do for keeping his moral and ethical values. The braveness of the protagonist is commendable. He gives first priority to his ethics let alone his family. His sacrifice has to be mentioned.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Highly recommended for the readers. This story will not disappoint you.

Rating: 4/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fiction, Thriller

Yes, I Met Maruti by Daxesh Trivedi

51C4S33VKAL.jpg

Book Title: Yes, I Met Maruti

Author: Daxesh Trivedi

Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers

Language: English

Blurb: Its a story of Jay Jani from Vadodara, who firmly believes in the power of imagination. During his graduation at the ms University of Vadodara, he falls in love with beautiful Preeti Chauhan. Things become interesting & surprising when Maruti, the God arrived in his dream, Jay asked Maruti that he wants to become a very famous & successful person, Maruti said yes but I will take something in return from you & Maruti disappeared. Jay started his MBA study in Rajkot, where he met gorgeous Deepika. Suddenly zoom tv announced a storytelling competition, where the winner will get an opportunity to work as an assistant director with the living legend Shyam Benegal sir. Jay participates in it. To find what actually happened with Jay Jani, read the entire book.

My Review

“Yes, I Met Maruti” is a story written inside a story. The first thing I noticed is the unique name of the book. Second is the cover and blurb. These things are perfectly designed to create curiosity about the story. The blurb itself makes every reader to immediately starts reading to find out what happened for Jay at the end.

As a reader, I always interested to find out new styles used in the storytelling. In this sense, the narration used in this story is quite good and innovated.
The story is essentially based on a wish most of us have, to meet God once and demand something important in our life. This may be the shortcut to happiness. But nothing comes easy and everything has its own prize. What will be that prize? This paves source for wildest imagination and became the backbone of the whole story.

I found this story as quite unique and I’m giving 4 stars for that “power of imagination” alone. Though the book contains numerous typographical mistakes, it narrates a good story amidst them. This clearly shows the potential of the author.

Overall this is a good read with a strong message at the end.

Rating: 4/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Thriller

Divyastra by Nimish Tanna

 

43531831.jpgBook title: Divyastra

Author: Nimish Tanna

Publisher: Become Shakespeare

Blurb: Thousands of years ago, Indian Yogis possessed the knowledge to obtain the weapons of the gods. However, this knowledge could only be transferred from a Guru to his disciple by word of mouth. In today’s world, one mystic, who calls himself Guruji, still possesses this knowledge and is using it to empower an innocent person’s life. Only, this empowerment could be a deception and the innocent person is a thirteen year old boy with a stutter…

In this intertwining tale, an ambitious yet unsuccessful Shankar, in search of his identity, is manipulated to embark on a never-told-before fantasy tale; only to rediscover the father he never knew and unmask the mystical Guruji.

Amidst this confounding concoction of ancient myths, deluding personas and dispersed emotions, will Shankar ever be able to separate fact from fiction and find his true identity?

My review

5 star read

The combination and the story is unique and I’m experiencing this blend for the first time. The tale is based on the mythical period in the beginning. The story talks about the 10-11 different weapons or divyastras used in Hindu mythology. But when the story moves forward, the mythological genre slowly turns into sci-fi. The author has included the sci-fi touch very brilliantly in this tale. Because he justifies the characters of rishis who are not simply mythological but they actually experimented scientifically everything before believed. The story is a combination of emotions and knowledge. But the ending is a cliff-hanger. The author left some things unanswered. Maybe it will be good in that way.

The characters are developed in a manner to drive the story. I really liked Dr. Vyas character in the tale. His ways of explaining things with valid scientific points but infused with mythological references are a very interesting feature to note.

The best thing about this book is, it has an amazing plot but it is written in a simple way without any harder plot twists.  The blending of mythology was very good in the narration because in the halfway its signs totally vanish.  This is a perfect entertainment read because the touch of humor is unlikely in sci-fi or mythological genre books, but the author has incorporated it in the story excellently. The cover is catchy and unique. It is enough to generate curiosity about the story with a single look.

 

 

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Thriller

ENDURER A Rape Story by Kapil Raj

41568252.jpg

“The deepest cuts are given by the people who are nearest to you. Why? Because they can.”

Book title: Endure A rape story

Author: Kapil Raj

Publisher: Write India Publishers

Language: English

Blurb: Life was a fun fed roller coaster: New found love, drugs, cat-fights, patch ups, crushes, night hangouts, and unplanned trips. Like any girl, not in the wildest dream, Palak could imagine that after attending a Rave Party, she will wake up to the horror of finding herself raped.

In traumatic conditions and struggle between sanity and hallucinations, she is compelled by the circumstances to leave her world. Already fighting a war within, her stances takes a toll witnessing horrifying tales of women and girls. Little did she knew that this catastrophe was not enough for one lifetime, and a storm – was just cooling its heels.

Will she be able to carve her path while facing the rapists, her tyrant father, appearances of her passed away mother? Should Palak let her life to be decided by people, society, and taboos? Would justice return her life or revenge lend her peace?

A heart-rending story of a girl, whose beliefs and honor has been battered, stands up to make choices, rediscovering the meaning of life.

My review

A really insightful and gripping tale. A story that has to be told over and over. The biggest power a pen is it holds the capability to bring untold or so-called untouchable stories to the common readers. The author has taken an applaudable initiative to write a very realistic story that we all are heard through mainstream media but refused to discuss openly.

The story follows Palak, a girl who loves to enjoy life. Her life is normal and she goes with all teenage fancies. But her life suddenly takes a twist when she wakes up to the horror of finding herself raped.  Easy to say but a hard or hardest to experience. At this point, we will think that the rest of the story will be around her survival and justice. But really the story speaks more volume than that. This story gives an insight into the life of rape victims and how their life and life of people around them changed after a single incident.

The characters in this story are written quite beautifully. Story with a strong female lead is the type of books I enjoy most. A change of perspective is essential in an ever-changing society. The female characters in this story also convey a positive message and the author has written this story on victims perspective. This will give an overall view of how the society around a single human being changed after an overnight incident. The success of every story lies at one point, whether it will leave you in an emotionally disturbed state or not. This story will make every reader, change their perspective to such incidents.

As an entertainment point of view, I really enjoyed this book. A good story with charismatic writing skill is enough to enjoy this book.

Rating:4.5/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Thriller

Done With Her… by Chirasree Bose

41rdc2hch6L.jpg

Book title: Done with her…

Publisher: Evincepub Publishing (2019)

Language: English

Blurb: A gripping tale of love, lust, obsession and murder. It’s a kick in the guts. Love that’s raw, lust that’s insane and obsession that’s frantically irresistible. Twists will keep you on the edge while the truth will stab at your subconscious.

Avesh Mathur, a techie stumbles upon the enchanting and sultry Spreeha at work. Every man in his office wants to have her. But he is struck with horror. She happens to resemble a girl from his past. The past that he’d do anything to keep under wraps.

Spreeha lives next door to Avesh. She watches him furtively day and night even though she has a lover. He intrigues her, however, she’s not done with her lover. She wants them both because they remind her of someone.

What tragedy awaits Avesh? Is the girl he’s madly falling for as beautiful on the inside as on the outside? Will he finally have to face the frightening truth that he’s been stashing for two years?

My Review

This is a perfectly concise story which is told through just more than 50 pages. What I like most is the author was not dragging the reader by spending too much time on unnecessary details. Building an environment to tell a story is essential for sometimes, but here this story can stand alone with its own strength.

From the blurb, it is evident that this is a thriller. But this thriller is based on a socially relevant story. A story which has to be told over and over until it reaches everyone’s ear. The execution of the story can be rated as good because the character of protagonists is well built. Main characters are built in a way that they all have a dark past and they don’t know how to deal with it. They are unable to make peace with their past and this directly affects their decision-making skills in the present and future. This touch of realistic characters is always successful in making connections to the storyline. In this story too, these emotions have a large role to play. Hence I can say, the storytelling capability of the author is exceptionally well. Though at a certain point towards the end, the story doesn’t meet my expectations.

A special mention has to be given for the cover. I can simply pass the time by staring at it over and over. The cover is so haunting, perfect for a thriller.  The dark theme of the cover truly expresses the core of the story.

Rating;4/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fiction, Thriller

Day of Reckoning by Jack Higgins

 

51D5WNG1NYL._SX293_BO1,204,203,200_.jpgSynopsis: A death in Brooklyn sends reverberations around the world in Jack Higgins’s thrilling new adventure.

Higgins’s novels of honor, bravery, and irresistible intrigue delight millions of readers every year, but few of his books pack the sheer narrative power of Day of Reckoning.

Journalist Katherine Johnson made the mistake of getting too close to the secrets of international crime boss Jack Fox — but Fox made the mistake of killing her. Katherine’s ex-husband is Blake Johnson, head of the clandestine White House department known as The Basement, and with the President’s permission, the former FBI agent is about to take revenge. Wherever the money trail leads — New York, England, Ireland, the Middle East — Johnson and his Irish colleague, Sean Dillon, plan to hit Fox where it hurts the most, by cutting his illegal businesses to shreds, until Fox stands defenseless before his enemies.

But Fox did not become powerful by letting his enemies get that close. If Johnson and Dillon want to take him on, they will have to face his own brand of revenge. And it is a revenge every bit as deadly as their own.

Day of Reckoning is brilliant suspense — the master working truly at the height of his powers.

Mini Review

Jack Higgins is a master craftsman of crime thrillers. But often his many plot-lines are found to be repeating. This book is also a creative crime thriller with a suspense twist. The climax has a very good twist and the action-packed narrative makes this book a good entertainment. The backbone of this story is strong characters. Since this is a character-driven book, he made the plot so. Overall it is a good weekend read.

Rating; 4/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fiction, Indian Authors, Science Fiction, Thriller

Captain Elephant: The Mystery of the Bomb by Aseem Mahajan

516FpalGw4L._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_

Book title: Captain Elephant: The Mystery of the Bomb
Author: Aseem Mahajan
Publisher: Petals

Blurb

Mayas Tondlulu is born with a medical condition due to which his parents are extra careful with him. Mayas is precious and they did everything possible to make sure that his health would not suffer because of their carelessness. After living an overly protected life Mayas discovers that he has a special ability and his alter ego “Captain Elephant” is born, but he soon invites trouble for himself and is wanted by the police of Pinzoora city at the tender age of 10! At the same time the dreaded terrorist Popananda escapes from prison and threatens Pinzoora with a nuclear bomb. He warns people against leaving the town. The only clue he gives is a riddle that haunts everyone. Panic grips Pinzoora. Masks fall and hidden skeletons come out. During this adversity when everyone fails, it is upto Captain Elephant to face the ruthless Popananda and unravel the murky mystery that will change the history of mankind and Pinzoora forever. What is the meaning of the riddle? What is the dark mystery looming over Pinzoora?

My Review

The story revolves around the protagonist, Mayas, who was born in the small Indian island Pinzoora, with a physical disorder. Mayas were born with his heart placed at his rear. The story covers the incidents that Mayas has been facing in a certain time. Due to this special condition, Mayas has been restricted by his parents from his childhood. They are always determined to protect him from his condition. But all these restrictions are often mocked by his classmates from time to time. They are also quite jealous of his certain privileges. This makes Mayas to became independent in his life and to live his life according to his terms.

Suddenly he finds out that, his disorder is not a curse like he thinks in most of his life but a boon. Next thing, we saw is how a superhero is born and became useful to the entire city. Mayas, the Captain elephant with supernatural powers, proves his power when there’s a massive terrorist attack in his city Pinzoora.

I believe every children’s book ever written is also for all adults. Because there is always a child within our mind. I often pick up children’s book as a change of genre. In fact I’m quite fond of them. This book also never disappoints me. Because it is all that I expected from the cover, title, and blurb.

The plot is really unique, and the author made a really commendable approach in creating this. Because creating a superhero from nowhere needed a great extent of creativity. Also creating an absolute fiction background demands much more skill than writing in other genres.

The first part of the story revolves around describing the medical condition of Mayas and the difficulties he faces in school and everywhere. After the superhero is born, the story picks up pace and energy and describe the terrorist attack by the dreaded terrorist named Popananda, and how Captain Elephant has saved the city from the bomb attack.

There were a limited number of characters and the author builds every character beautifully. The narration is really good. The author also gives a touch of humor from time to time. This also makes the narration really interesting.

The climax was a little disappointed in nature because it was abrupt and lacks explanation at some points.

Altogether, this is a good superhero novel which is built excellently.

Rating: 4/5

 

Amina Thajudeen Book Tour, Fiction, Thriller

[Book Tour] The Sanctity of Sloth by Greta Boris

About the Book

Title: The Sanctity of Sloth

Author: Greta Boris

Genre: Suspense, Mystery

Series: The Seven Deadly Sins

There’s one thing more dangerous than testifying to a crime—staying silent.
Locked in the ruins of a California Mission, Abby Travers watches helplessly as a girl dies outside her window. As she struggles between her moral obligation to come forward as a witness, and her commitment to a Medieval religious practice that requires her to retreat from the world, the situation spins out of control.
Abby’s hesitation starts a series of catastrophes. She finds herself at the center of a deadly cover up where every minute counts and indecision could be fatal. She questions all her beliefs and everyone she knows becomes suspect. To save herself and those she loves, she must break free from her self-imposed prisons of stone and fear.
The Sanctity of Sloth is a taut, psychological thriller that answers the question: What happens when a good woman does nothing? Fans of Paula Hawkins and A.J. Finn will enjoy this third book in Greta Boris’s Seven Deadly Sins Series.

Purchase from Amazon

Excerpt 

The irony of her position struck her. She had willingly shut herself into a room with much the same dimensions as this one. It had only one small window, like this one. It had no door, however. But even without a door, sheʹd had freedom. The anchorites of old willingly consigned themselves to a cell which would eventually become their grave. They had a funeral service before they entered. Yet, they were freer than Abby was now, because it was their choice.

Would this room become her grave?

Autonomy. Sheʹd never realized before how beautiful that word was. When one was stripped of the ability to rule themselves, to determine their own fate, didnʹt they cease to exist in some way?

Sunlight streaked the gray floor with gold. By its slant, she guessed it was at least 1:30. She still had one hour of freedom, one hour to be Abby. She wanted to experience every moment she had left. When the sun reached her and warmed her skin, that would signal the end of her time in this new anchorhold. But she couldnʹt bear to watch the minutes move across the floor. She closed her eyes.

Author Bio

Greta Boris was raised in Greenwich Village, New York by an opera singing, piano playing, voice coach and a magazine publisher. Her original life plan was to be a famous Broadway actor, singer, and dancer, but when she moved to Laguna Beach, California, she changed her plans due to the commute. Today she writes to inspire, entertain, motivate, and so she can afford nice wine.

Links

Facebook Author Page

Twitter

Website

Goodreads

Amazon Author Page

 

 

 

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fiction, Thriller

Tarikshir: The Awakening by Khayaal Patel

IMG_9490.JPG

Name: Tarikshir The Awakening
Author; Khayaal Patel
Publisher: Westland Books  2018.

I received a copy of this book through the BOOK GENIE REVIEW PROGRAM

Tarikshir: The Awakening by Khayaal Patel is a rare genre novel which is a mix of historical fiction, mythology, thriller, fantasy, and horror. First thing first. I have to praise the cover design first. Whoever picks this book at first, will surely be curious about the mysterious cover design. This makes every reader turn the pages to find it out.

The story was written as a mythological fiction at the beginning, but the tone quickly drifts into historical fiction after sometimes. After that, it changes between various interesting genres such as mystery, fantasy, and horror. This will make it a sure pick for all age groups.

In this novel, the author has connected two entirely different time periods which are Ramayana Period and another which is of the beginning of British rule in India. The hardness of writing historical fiction is you have to research a large amount to fill all the loopholes in history before connecting various historical events to frame a story. Throughout this novel, this wonderful effort of the author to craft an accurate historical fiction is evident.

The story begins in the Ramayana period, at the castle of Ravana where a Vanar Valikesh, of Hanuman’s vanarsena, finds a beautiful but dangerous gem in Ravana’s palace. It is the key to Tarikshir’s awakening. Tarikshir is the name of a dark entity which resides in the castle of Ravana. The dark shadow of this mysterious creature has created high-end suspense throughout the story and this is the main factor which causes readers would be hooked to the end of the story. Tarikshir has been hidden for years and his one true desire is to come alive and wreak havoc in the world.

The story then switches to the year 1826 where the Kingdom of Devangarh is under threat from the British India Army and their king Raja Ravindra decides to fight for their honor instead of bowing down. Suddenly the king is assassinated and Rudra- the young prince sets on a path to unravel the mystery behind his father’s death and other mysterious deaths happening all over the kingdom in the dilemma of ever-increasing threat of invasion from Britishers. The rest of the story answers the fate of Rudra and how all these events are connected. The end part of the story is well written to make sense of all the incidents from the beginning and it is unpredictable.

The language used is simple. The flow of the story is straight. Almost every scene is described to each inch which will be enough to form a clear visualization of the plot. If you are a reader who enjoys historical fiction, this will be sure-shot read.
Overall, the way of storytelling and plotting characters made this novel a good read.

 

Rating 4/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Indian Authors, Thriller

Unforeseen: A battle for his daughter’s life by Chandan Sen Gupta

51hke-NniUL.jpg

Name: Unforeseen: A battle for his daughter’s life

Author: Chandan Sen Gupta

Genre: Thriller

India became a medical hub for the past few years with quality services, treatments, and facilities which are comparatively cheap attract a large sum of people from foreign countries to avail these services. This thriller was written on the backdrop of this scenario.

Unforeseen by Chandan Sen Gupta is the story of  Yousuf, his wife Mariam, and their daughter Ayesha, who have traveled from Pakistan to a hospital in Gurgaon for a liver transplant for their daughter. She is been suffering from a congenital liver disease from birth, for which the only treatment left is a transplant of the liver. The donor is her mother itself.  Yousuf who is a teacher invested his all savings in this trip to make this surgery happen. But the unforeseen array of incidents which eventually makes the life of this family in a foreign land to suffering.

As they travel in Samjhauta express from Wagah near Lahore to Atari, Yousuf comes across Pakistani militants who are traveling on their own in an independent coupe. Yousuf accidentally witnesses their getaway and, thus, one of the infiltrators, warns him that he will come after Yousuf if he reveals this to anyone. Yousuf remains silent owing to the urgency of the trip as he has only one aim, which is the successful surgery of his daughter. However one of the infiltrators returns to silent the family forever as he cannot take any chances which will cause failure of his mission. Further to the horror of the family, Yousuf gets implicated for a murder in a hotel at Delhi. In addition to this, the family is accused of visa rule violation which causes a chase of local police and Pakistani militants for the lives of this family.

To clear his name, Yousuf travels to Kashmir to expose the infiltrators and the real culprits. But he gets caught by the conspirators instead. They drugged him and thrown Yousuf into the river Chenab to drown. Meanwhile Yousuf’s wife Mariam also gets attacked. The next part of this story answers the questions that whether this family survives this multiple attacks and whether the girl gets the treatment and live a healthy life.

Another good quality of this story is, despite Pakistan being imprinted as a hub of terrorism, the author describes it as just another country with common people who wants to live in peace. He also gives an insight into the historical facts which created unrest in Kashmir. The culture and lifestyle values of the people in different regions of India are also explored through the eyes of Yousuf.

The plot is cleverly woven with an accurate development of all the characters with adequate details. The emotions of the protagonist are explored to a next level by the author through the edge of his innocence. The hand of politics which turn the events to upside down are also described through this story. The way the story was told is enough to keep the reader on the edge of the seat all the time. After all, the author gives an optimistic message to reinstate humanity and love above all the hatred which will be the base of our co-existence and secular culture.