A Drop of You-Krishna Chhetri

Book: A Drop of You

Author: Krishna Chhetri

Publisher: Quignog Books

Forever Love; is it a myth, a reality or is it something else?

A Drop of You by Krishna Chhetri explores this concept. It is the story of three very closely-knit people, Karma, Diana and ghazal who meet at the crossroads of life, unaware of the game of life being played with them. Sailing on the tides of emotion, they encounter multiple emotions such as deceit, bliss, love and many more. How they deal with it forms the plot.

A Drop of You by Krishna Chhetri has been developed on a wonderful concept of multiple levels of love. The story explores the different types of love that each of us has and each of us crave. Karma, Ghazal and Diana represent three different stages of love. Karma is the unadulterated love, that sees no deceit and exists for the person he loves. Ghazal is the love from the heart, which can be manipulated by emotions and finally Diana who is the love that we all crave for and yet she is the once who’s never gotten true love. The plot examines and moves as the relationships between Ghazal, Karma and Diana mature with times. The story is good, but the excessively lyrical prose makes it very difficult to consider it as a novel. It seems that we are sitting through a musical and it would be an absolute delight to consume as an audiobook, but in prose and printed form, it seems excessive. Another point that brings down the book is the author’s excessive use of thesaurus to insert longer words to make the characters sound intelligent, but in reality, they cause the conversations to look fake. The switching of perspectives in between chapters is very hazy and it is a task to understand who is speaking. The climax seems hurried and makes truly no sense with the concept of the book.

Talking about the characters, Diana’s character has been dealt with in detail but for all other characters, the same cannot be said. Karma, as a character was very amazing but the author’s treatment of him in the story towards the end was pathetic. This broke the flow of the plot completely. The characters move in and out and do things out of nowhere which again is very implausible.

Overall, a confusing read and this one scores a 2.5/5 for me.

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The Chronicle of Golgotha Days-Sujith Balakrishnan

Book: The Chronicle of Golgotha Days

Author: Sujith Balakrishnan

Publisher: Frog Books (Leadstart Corp)

The patriarchal society we live in treats women as commodities and we have multiple examples they have been mistreated.

The Chronicles of Golgotha Days by Sujith Balakrishnan is the story of Abhaya, a sixteen-year-old girl, who is abducted and forced into a life of endless torment. Living in a new hell each day, she swings between torture and death, but living with a hope that she’ll find her way back home one day. The book explores her story and her journey as it progresses. Is she able to do that and escape her captivity, or is she doomed to spend the rest of her life like this, read the book to find out?

The Chronicles of Golgotha Days has been written from a first-person perspective of Abhaya and how the world seems to her from a sixteen-year-old girl’s perspective. How gullible a person is at that age and how her own follies lead to her pitiable state forms the story. The plot moves on to describe her experiences and how she faces torture through hands of men, and whether such people are worthy of being called men. Moving from place to place across towns and states, we journey through the transformation of an innocent girl to a tortured woman. The plot of the book is interesting but the length of it seems to drag towards the end. The concept of the book is good, but the hold over the reader is missing and thus it fails to amaze in that context. It is tagged as a thriller and a suspense book but again, that part does not show up in the story. The torture part is described vividly and that will make you cringe at points and that is one good point in the book. The climax was not effective and deserved a better treatment than what was given out.

Talking about the characters, the character of Abhaya goes under a transformation throughout the book and that has been taken up nicely. The character of Guru has been created in detail and we can see how the author has taken time to imbibe the necessary traits in him. The other characters are made nicely as well, but while some of them are memorable, the others fade off the moment you turn the page.

Overall, a good read and it scores a 3.5/5 for me.

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The Infinite Road-Shefali Arora

Book: The Infinite Road

Author: Shefali Arora

Publisher: Locksley Hall Publishing LLP

Obstacles can manifest themselves in many forms, be it physical or mental. How you deal with them is what makes the story of your life.

The Infinite Road by Shefali Arora is the story of how you tread the path of life covered with obstacles. Alunkrita can go to any extent to get Anokhi’s life sorted-the disabled girl she found on the streets of Chandigarh. Her startup idea holds the key to all her dreams and Anokhi’s bright future. She plans to send Anokhi to a boarding school once she gets her feet operated upon. Parth, who broke her heart years ago, offers her a deal for the startup. Fighting between her past and her fondness for her new neighbor Siddarth, this is the story of Alunkrita and Anokhi as they make choices and tread on the path of life.

The Infinite Road by Shefali Arora has a very different plot from a conventional love story. The book takes up a myriad of topics in which love manifests itself in many forms. Alunkrita’s love for Anokhi is the major highlight of the book and how that changes with time is the crux of the story. Alunkrita’s equation with Parth and Siddarth is another emotion that the author explores and crafts a graph to show its evolution. Another interesting angle that Shefali explores is showing parts of the story from Anokhi’s angles and how she feels about the multiple events in her lives and how physical and mental roadblocks affect a person. Towards the end, I loved how she has managed to bring all the different tracks to a single station where each of the character gets his or her closing. The maturation in the emotions of the characters was a cherry atop the cake.

Talking about the characters, Shefali has kept her characters quite simple which is a very good point for the book because of the complexity of the emotions in the plot. Alunkrita is created as a character who believes in doing good for the society and believes in the power of love. A fiercely independent woman, it is also shown that she holds grudges for a long period, but if reasoned, forgives quickly. The character of Anokhi is interesting as she portrays a person who has been dealt a blow by life yet perseveres on. The slow unfurling of the character of Siddarth was interesting and was a nice touch to the plot.

Overall, a good read. The book scores a 3.88/5 for me.

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Fear of God-Vadhan

Book: Fear of God

Author: Vadhan

Publisher: Treeshade Books

Do you think Vigilantes can change the society? Do you believe a mortal can instill a Fear of God in the people indulging in corruption?

Fear of God by Vadhan opens with a brutal murder of a Member of Parliament in the capital, the reason of which is mind-boggling. This was one of the series of bodies that start cropping up across the country, each with a different modus operandi, but they had one thing in common. The videos of the slaughter of these corrupt politicians start going viral on social media. A vigilante is on the loose and he declares his next target as a war hero and a top constitutional lawyer of the country. Jagan Jigyasi and his team of the Special Crimes Division of the CID are assigned the task of finding the vigilante and bringing him to justice. The cat-and-mouse game of chasing the killer begins. Who will be the last man standing in this faceoff is the story of Fear of God.

Fear of God is a wonderful crime thriller. The plot of the book is wonderfully crafted with the story taking many twists and turns. The theme of vigilantism in the book has been dealt with quite deftly. The suspense part of the book is maintained till the last page and that is what makes this book an unputdownable read. The author has chosen each of the victims in detail and the back story of each of them is narrated so that the reader gets to connect with the protagonist easily. The description of the crimes is in detail and at times, is quite gruesome. The legalities in the book are quite nicely done which adds to the beauty of the storytelling. The chase of the vigilante and the smokescreens are amazingly done and put at strategic locations to keep the tempo up. The climax of the book is quite unexpected, and the last part of the book just blew my mind away.

Talking about characters, being a suspense thriller, the character buildup of each of the characters was very crucial. The protagonist, FOG, has been created as an enigma initially, a person to be feared, a ruthless vigilante. As the story progresses, and things start getting clearer, we get the character arc of FOG and I loved the way it was unraveled till the last page. The character buildup of Jagan Jigyasi was interesting as we saw multiple shades of him. I specially loved the character build up and the back story of ACP Vel as his development was a surprise element. The other characters are developed in quite detail as well and they add their own flavor to the plot.

Overall, Fear of God, was a wonderful journey through the mind of a Vigilante and how society can change the personality and the mindset of a person.

The book scores a 4.5/5 for me.

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Curse of Suspicion-Dr. Sujay Kantawala

Book: Curse of Suspicion

Author: Dr. Sujay Kantawala

Publisher: Leadstart Inkstate

How many times have you taken a hasty decision based on your suspicions?

Curse of Suspicion by Dr. Sujay Kantawala is the story of Duryodhan, a middle-aged lawyer, who suspects his wife of cheating on him and wants to get rid of her. Being from an affluent family, she was the owner of the house in which he lived; hence he could not divorce her, and thus decides to kill her. He employs a snake handler to place a venomous snake in her bed to do the job. Unknown to him, his son has the skill to talk to snakes and is arrested for the crime of murdering his mother. Will the truth ever come out or will the son bear the punishment for the father’s crimes?

Curse of Suspicion by Dr. Sujay Kantawala is based in Mumbai and the author has used his extensive legal experience to craft the storyline. While the blurb of the book makes it out to be the story of suspicions, revenge, crime, the storyline is quite different. The crime part of the book ends somewhere halfway and after that it is just a story of repentance, spirituality and love. The plot of the story has a very strong beginning but halfway through, it gets slumped down a bit due to changing of gears. The change in timelines is also not very apparent and the time gap between incidents is not that easy to grasp. The idea of the son talking to snakes has also been very briefly explored and thus the concept and the execution do not match much. Parts of the story seem to be hurried and the ending of the book was not very satisfactory.

The character development is also quite weak as we do not get much information as to why the characters behave the way they do. The character of Duryodhan is the one most explored in the book and we get to see his life as it moves, but any incidents that lead to his nature of being suspicious is not present. Same is the case with his son, where we get no information as to how and why did he start speaking with snakes. This development after his arrest has been covered extensively but that is too little, too late. The love story in the plot seemed unnecessary and felt like a parallel story that added no substance to the main plot.

Overall, a good read, but the blurb of the book needs to be revisited to make it suitable as per the plot.

For me, the book scores, 3.13/5.

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Freedom (Human Trafficking and Encounter with Soul)-JNK

Book: Freedom (Human Trafficking and Encounter with Soul)

Author: JNK

Publisher: Notion Press

There are some moments that hit you immediately and change the way you look at things. This can happen at any point in one’s life, all it needs is a trigger.

Freedom (Human Trafficking and Encounter with Soul) by JNK is a collection of 2 stories. Human Trafficking is the story of Honey, who works with Ahmedabad’s most famous and intelligent detective. Through happenchance, she ends up investigating a case of human trafficking and her interactions with them are terrifying. While working on this case, she gets exposed to the dark underbelly of human trafficking and related crimes. Encounter with Soul is the story of Rasbeen, who is an intelligent, smart and ambitious girl. She has her own dreams but is subdued under filial pressure. One day, she encounters her soul and her life changes. The question is, will the soul lift her from heath and make her confident?

 Freedom (Human Trafficking and Encounter with Soul) by JNK is a book that disappoints on many fronts. The language used for the book is very dry and it seems like reading an essay, as opposed to a story. There are multiple grammatical errors that add to the woe of a flat storyline. Talking about the first story, Human Trafficking, the plot is quite shallow and not much thrill is built into it. The story starts abruptly and ends abruptly. The happenings in the story are too vague to actually grab sense out of it. Every time the protagonist asks for something, she gets it in the next instance, and thus no conflict actually arises that can push the story forward. Everyone in the story seems to be smitten by Honey because there are no instances, where you can actually corelate things with reality. The ending does not excite much as well. Encounter with Soul is a story that again falls flat because of the tonality. The situations in the plot are not properly framed as to why something is happening, and it feels that anything that happens is taking place just because it has to. Finding a storyline here was quite difficult, apart from the premise of the cause and effect of depression and mental health.

Talking about characters is not very fruitful here because both the stories revolve around a single character who is setting up the premise, is the aggrieved person, is the protagonist and the problem solver which actually seems implausible. The character building is done without any substantial idea as to why the characters are behaving the way they do. There is no history provided and thus the character build up also fails to deliver.

Overall, the premise of the story was good, but it lacks in execution.

The book scores a 2/5 for me.

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The Patriots’ Legacy (Forbidden Treasure)-Apurva Bhuta

Book: The Patriots’ Legacy: Forbidden Treasure

Author: Apurva Bhuta

Publisher: The Write Place

Imagine you get a letter stating that you are the descendant of a group of people who were guarding a treasure and now you are destined to now follow the trail. How would you take it?

Somewhere on the planet, lies a treasure of unimaginable value, amassed over the years by the rulers of the Kingdom of Allegiance. The treasure can only be found by following a trail of clues spread across continents, hidden by the protectors of these treasures, The Patriots, which is a secret group of architects and archeologists who were once the loyalists of the Allegiance. As fate would have it, the seven descendants from these patriots come together and unravel these clues, unaware that a notorious underworld kingpin is also behind the treasure.

The Patriots’ Legacy: Forbidden Treasure by Apurva Bhuta is written in an interesting manner in which we travel across countries from Petra to Machu Picchu and to China and many more countries. The plot of the book is captivating and the manner in which the story unravels is very good. The twists and turns in the story keep the pace of the plot alive. The various obscure facts about many of the wonders of the world are good and are a wonderful part of the book. The climax of the book is unexpected and is a wonderful end to the book.

Apurva has created some really interesting characters for the story. Be it Michael, Vishal or Aaron, each of the characters have a certain role in the plot. The idea that each of the characters come from a separate country and that each of the plot points conclude in that country and thus the nationalities become important in the story. The back story of each of the characters is a critical aspect of the plot and is a motivator for our protagonists for the treasure hunt.

Overall, the story is an interesting and is an unputdownable read.

The book scores a 3.5/5 for me.

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