Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Erotic fiction, Fiction, short story

The Unexpected by Avril Sellin|Book review

41xoN791ppL._SY346_

Two strangers in the night are joined by audacity and danger.

On a dark, deserted beach in Los Angeles, a wealthy man in an Armani suit and sleek Bugatti is approached by a wandering twenty-something woman in tattered leather. She boldly interrupts his brooding, refusing to leave as he urges her to move on. In an effort to get rid of her, he promises to take her where she needs to go.

However, a trip intended to be quick ends up turning the night into something out of a nightmare, and the two strangers become linked by an unexpected bond.

My review

The Unexpected is the tale of two strangers. They are drawn into each other’s company by some unexpected circumstances. Garret, a wealthy businessman who was brooding in a deserted beach is approached by Rhea, a homeless twenty-year-old girl, rather fearlessly. He tries to get rid of her but some unexpected turn of events pushes them to spend more time together than they thought. One thing leads to another and they are now all set to start a road trip. But both these characters have their reasons to justify these situations. They have their justifications. Both of them are escaping from some mysterious past. They are met in the way of escape. They are connected by a mysterious bond.

The author carefully builds up a dark mystery on both characters. Both of them are in pain. The pain that they are trying to escape rather than facing them. The story doesn’t give any hint about the character’s background. This makes the plot even more mysterious. The story has much potential to develop into a thriller or horror considering the various events that took place in the plot.
Overall it is a very engaging short read which leaves you with questions at the end.

Rating:5/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, non-fiction, Self-Help

Say So by Marian Hanna MPH| Book review

415soOjdMCLDelving into loss, empowerment, and despair, this is a unique, page-turning art of nonfiction with real-life stories. This is a compilation of gorgeously written stories about daring to be more, transcending expectations, and generating opportunities for yourself when doors are being slammed in your face. This book will provide the road back to yourself when you’re lost and teach you how to stop doubting the greatness in yourself and act with love, as the absence of love is fear. This is an honest, blunt, sassy, unapologetic and raw account of life-changing insights of hope, faith, and personal transformation.

As the reader discovers the depths of courage in vulnerability, you learn along with her that in forgiving your past and moving toward your truest selves, you will flourish in the chaos of life.

My review

Say so is a collection of stories about real-life experience and the lessons learned from it. The author has narrated a piece from her own life through simple words. The author never tries to sugar-coat the harsh realities. She put down the raw face of real-life realities as it is. This helps to take responsibility for our actions. This encourages us to create our opportunity and carve our life in our terms.

The author includes her personal stories to convey each lesson. Why she included her personal stories in the book is explained in the first chapter itself. It is a powerful medium to connect with our audience. Because the author herself has gone through all these difficult situations and realized her faults. She talks about her life lessons. This helps the readers to connect with the lessons.

The author has dedicated more than 50% of the book to only one topic: how to understand and manage fear. For me, all the chapters dealing with fear was empowering. They help to understand myself and my flaws. Fear creates doubts about our capabilities. This doubt hinders us from reaching our goal. To be courageous is no small feat. We often find us in our shell of comfort. These lessons teach us to be more courageous. Just like the saying, everything you want is on the other side of fear.

The rest of the chapters talks about some other great points, such as facing criticism. We never want to hear criticism. We hate it. Because it shows our vulnerability, our flaws. But if and only if, we can accept our flaws then only we grow ourselves and use it for our advantage.

Altogether, this book was a great learning experience for me to understand and renovate myself to face more challenges.

Rating:5/5

 

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fantacy, Fiction, Poems, poetry, Self-Help, Young-Adult

No Damsel by Marian Hanna MPH|Book review

41G9puE4ouL

No Damsel is a eulogy to the beauties with curly hair and a song of praise to the naturally confident woman who wades through life, armed with her true sense of self as she paves the way for her successes.

Hanna carries carefully weaved words that captures the strength of women who confidently make their demands, and get served by life without fear or favor.

A woman’s strength is a virtue that is scarcely understood, and this strength is central to the ideas captured in No Damsel.
Sadly, the only response they have for their fear of strength is resorting to labels and hasty generalizations. They call strong and vibrant women – bitter feminists. These labels can never dampen down the strength of women, they only lend more credence to women’s voices and demands of equality and equity.

My review

All the writings from Hanna has one common quality, she advocates for unity in diversity. She writes for breaking barriers and preaches to stay true to oneself. Her writings, empower the readers none like others. The carefully chosen words convey the underlying idealogy beautifully. It was a great pleasure to witness this creativity of conveying ideas, only through very few words.
“No Damsel” basically encourages you to rise above your inferiority mindset. It is about empowering yourself to maximize your potential. The author sees all the women as one. She uses the power of sisterhood. Not to believe everything you hear, but to find out everything your own. That’s how we develop our personality and bring ourselves to a step closer to equality.

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fiction, Poems, poetry, Self-Help, Young-Adult

Coiled by Marian Hanna MPH|Book review

41PsdKaLngL

People often confuse self-confidence to mean pride and vice versa but, the truth is pride and self-confidence are poles apart. The difference between pride and self-confidence is made clear in Coiled.

While self-confidence helps you to understand your strengths and makes you aware of your truth, pride is a brash covering for inadequacies; it never lasts. Self-confident people don’t need to brag about their strengths before you will notice their strengths, as they are conspicuous and accommodating.

The difference is crystal clear for all to see, like the ravishing beauty of a girl with curly hair that twirls. Hearts melt when the sun emblazons its natural light on their coils of confident people, but they are never one to make noise about their beauty because they know that loud talk never validates their beauty.

My view

Coiled is the celebration of curly hair! I came across this topic for the very first time. I have read many writings about breaking gender biases and stereotypes. But this author has chosen a very different topic to address these issues, curly hairs. This beautifully written poems are about celebrating the differences and ethnicities by accepting them. Although the poems gave importance to curly hairs, it also carefully acknowledges all others. This is the underlying message that every reader should accept from this book.

I have read Curse of curls from the same author before. So I felt that this is the continuation of that book. Here the author gave emphasize on developing self-confidence and mutual love. This message is presented through the close-knit bond of sisterhood and friendship, addressing little girls. As always the illustrations also contribute to the beauty of the book.

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fantacy, Fiction, Poems, poetry, Self-Help

Curse of Curls by Marian Hanna MPH|Book review

413zDFHyM6L

Curse of Curls is a probing piece that mirrors the inherent biases in our diverse world and rightly deciphers them.

Using curly hair as a symbol, Hanna understands the prevalence of stereotypes, which constantly dislodge the truth and forms our judgment of what is right or wrong.

Curse of Curls asks vital questions such as – Why are we naturally averse to something we do not know? Why do we deny ourselves the chance to learn, grow, and embrace new perspectives? Why can’t we embrace other outlooks to life? Why must one be looked down with disdain for the other to be rated highly?

My view

Curse of Curls addresses one of the most important issues of modern society, stereotypes. Judgment and body shaming is one of the most prevalent virus in our society. Instead of accepting the diversity, we have made a class difference with them. This narrow mentality is the root cause of every problem in the world. The author is trying to preach about the essentiality of a broader mindset that accepts everyone by acknowledging their difference. The best example that the author has been chosen to express this issue is the biases towards curly hairs. The author presents both sides of the story addressing the little girls who are prone to these stereotypes from an early age.

This beautifully written writing piece talks about empowerment through embracing our differences. Through addressing children’s the author is trying to eradicate these stereotypes from its roots. Apart from the writing, I also liked the illustrations included in the book.

Rating 5/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fiction, Young-Adult

Flag Day Camping (Takari and Little Sparrow Book 1) Kindle Edition by Randa handler|Review

5170OOudmHL._SY346_

Takari, a Japanese American eight year old girl and her best friend, Little Sparrow, a Native American boy go camping, embrace each other’s differences while learning about Flag Day, flag folding and why we need to follow rules even though we’re free.

My review

Flag Day camping by Randa Handler is a beautifully illustrated book that emphasizes education and friendship. Takari and Little Sparrow are best friends from day 1 of their school. They are going camping on Flag Day. The story beautifully conveys the importance of freedom and why we have to respect the hard-earned freedom. The story also talks about the inclusion of various ethnicities and why we have to stand together amidst diversity. However, the main message from the story is, although we respect our freedom, it is also important to obey certain rules to sustain and enjoy that freedom. Accountability is essential for maintaining everyone’s freedom. This little book has expressed these invaluable insights through this adorable story.

Rating:5/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Fiction, Poems, poetry

The Big Game: Volume 1: Spirituality and Love by Bethany James|Book review

43208510._SY475_

Title: The Big Game: Spirituality and Love

Author: Bethany James

Pages:119

Genre: Poetry

The Big Game: Spirituality and Love is a short collection of poems by Bethany James. This artistic expression ranges from free verse to rhymed poetries. The author also takes advantage of her creative freedom to experiment with words. This volume is dedicated to poems written on spirituality and love. If I look superficially, I can argue that this is a blend of various emotions. But if we look closely, we can find love and spiritual sense in everything little thing around us. That inner meaning is conveyed through these poems. She appreciates all emotions and every materialistic desire through the words. She is trying to find meaning in everything in and around us.

I have never read a narrative style of poetry involving romance and dessert recipes. For me, those dedicated sections of poems were a new experience. She has mixed dessert recipes with love and bridged through words. Along with that, a section of poems that ends with “I’AM” was also a unique experience. Her rhymed poetry section also has an original and refreshing style.

Overall, this is a must-read for every poetry lovers.

Rating:5/5

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Erotic fiction, Fantacy, Fiction, supernatural

KROVS: Into Darkness by M. Lee Woe| Book review

54772378._SY475_

Title: Krovs: Into Darkness

Author: M. Lee Woe

Pages: 309

There are not so many books out there which felt to me as unputdownable while reading. Krovs: Into darkness is one of its kind. Everything about this story fascinates me when I read through. The story is set in a world that is divided into two, dark, and light sectors. The light sector has strict rules and laws made to oppress its inhabitants. Whereas the dark sector which is also known as the free sector has no rules to follow which eventually drips into a city of crime. Tristan is a beautiful charismatic businessman who is drifting into depression at the beginning of the story. He is used by a group of superhuman women known as Krovs for pleasures. In fact, he is secretly recruited and trained for solely this purpose. He didn’t have any friends from his own kind.

But one day he met Serene, a young naive girl from the light sector unexpectedly. He is quickly drawn into her mysteriously. But both are coming from two largely contradictory circumstances and the thing that attracts them to each other is their curiosity. This curiosity turns into deep mutual love in no time. But what will happen if Tristen’s ex-girlfriend Kamilla, who treats him as personal possession finds out his newly found interest in humans, that may threaten to expose their secrets?

The story is quite mind-blowing. The plot is constructed perfectly. Every small detail about this paranormal world is perfectly explained. This makes the readers get engaged in the storyline until the end. All the main characters are developed really good. Their emotions and mannerisms are accurately included. This helps the readers to judge their decisions on various circumstances. I really liked the character of Serene in the story. She has a multilayered personality. Her decisions and character changes throughout the story. It was a great experience to feel this character’s transformation from a shy innocent nature to a bold and strong personality.

I really liked the way the author has ended this first book of the trilogy. Because it was a real cliffhanger. The revelations in the epilogue are the best twist in the plot.

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, Memoirs, Motivational Quotes, Self-Help

The Ultimate Love by Sherine Anniruth| Book review

41CUHvbDCEL

Title: The Ultimate Love

Author: Sherine Anniruth

Pages: 125

Blurb

A remarkable and inspiring journey of a grieving mother, “The Ultimate Love” will make you shed a few tears. But it’ll also remind you to value every second you have with your loved ones and treasure the memories of those who passed away.
It is about the author’s loss and can serve as a cathartic release for your own grief. As you read about her experience and how she tried to deal with this insurmountable loss, you will discover ways to cope with the grief and pain of losing your child and how to find the inspiring journey to go on with your life.

Grieving is a journey that teaches us how to love in a new way. Let “The Ultimate Love” show you how.

My review

There are not many books that can touch your heart and fill it with emotions after reading. For me, pain is the greatest emotion one can ever felt. Because pain can either lead you to wisdom or destruction. After reading this book, I felt that wisdom. The pure emotions of a grieving mother are flowing through words on every page.

Grief is a very hard emotion to manage. There is almost no single solution to escape from it. But it is also a learning opportunity. It is an opportunity to analyze and understand the root cause of grief. It is a path to our own redemption. Going through this path is very hard, but in the end one will learn to live with our grief. We will learn to love more than ever in the end.

The author has gone through the bitterest days of her life because of the demise of her beloved son. This is a heartfelt essay on how she has managed to control the pain and overcame struggles eventually. I appreciate the author’s effort to pen down a harsh journey in order to help others who are going through the same situation.

Amina Thajudeen Book Review, non-fiction, Quotes, Self-Help

Mental Toughness by Nicola Jeremy Baehler| Book review

 

51m6rW0LGYLTitle: MENTAL TOUGHNESS: “How To Build Mental Strength Like A Spartan – Guide On How To Improve Your Self-Confidence, Build Unbreakable Discipline, Become Emotional Resilient And Overcome Your Fears.”

Author: Nicola Jeremy Baehler

Pages: 119

Genre: Self-help

My review

Mental toughness is everything. Almost all the competitors have the same set of skills, efficiency and knowledge. What makes one another different is their level of mastery in mental toughness. Believe it or not, it is the single most aspect, that differentiates a legend from a winner.

I have read many books on personality development until now. From my experience, I must say most of the books lack original ideas. Thay has either copied or paraphrased contents. But this book surprised me from the beginning itself. It has astonishingly original ideas and practical techniques. The major difference that I have spotted while reading was, the author has been constantly pushing the readers to take action rather than consume more information.

The presentation of the contents in the book is remarkable. It is structured as a complete package. The author explains the theoretical aspects of mental toughness in the initial chapters, then gradually proceeds to tools and habits needed to rewire our existing life and mindset. The book concludes with providing two bonus chapters. I really liked the second bonus chapter on the spartan morning routine which contains refreshing techniques.

Altogether, this short book has very promising and helpful ideas that can surely transform one’s life. A must-read for everyone.

Rating:5/5