Kevein Books and Reviews

To Make the World Beautiful for You by Kalyani Singh is a riveting young adult (YA) fantasy novel. The scaffold of the plot is build around hate vs. love…it can be gauged by its title as well. The novel features Martia as a protagonist. However, some auxiliary characters such as Minver, Acastius, Arigue, and Prince are crucial to the overall development of the story. They from time to time nudge the story towards action, adventure, and sub climaxes. The author Kalyani Singh, right at the beginning, built an easy-to-understand introduction of characters and places. So, from the façade, we see that people under the King Zarek of Absyleous aren’t happy. In the kingdom are many villages. Some are neutral, some are with the king, while eleven villages including the Promapple village are rebels. At any cost they want to eliminate the king. They loathe royal people, palaces and their lifestyle so much so that their hearts brim with hatred against them. They need a warrior cum assassin to ov...

Scar on the Moon by Sandesh Raj is an absorbing crime thriller read. Backdropped against the chilly climate of Shimla, Sandesh Raj weaves a hot tale of a female police inspector caught in the personal life dilemma and the prejudice of her senior officers. Chandrika is the lead character. She is an example of fine human values with moral integrity. She is tall, dark, and beautiful. Her life takes backseat due to being a dark woman. In India, in our societies, people don’t reckon dark people as their equal. Some streaks of prejudices turn dark people inferior. Similar approach perturbs Chandrika. But you will be thrilled to take a sneak peak in her family roots. The novel is mostly narrated in multiple POVs, however, it shifts its momentum between past and present. Around 200 pages, this time the author Sandesh Raj emerged with finely chiseled and exceptional writing skills. Though he impressed with his previous novels, well this one is stunningly terrific, well-placed, and a crime thr...

On a Stroll by Nikhita Rao is a collection of twenty-one light and easy-to-read poems. Her poems are diverse in nature and capture the essence of raw emotions, flitting shades of life, and putting a ken observation of people she stumbled upon. The theme of “Life and its colours” is evident yet subtle throughout the collection. Someone said it right that poems are beautiful representation of our lives, culture, and values. In accordance with that Nikhita paints her world of thoughts and experiences in finest, rich, textured tapestry of wordsmithing. As mentioned in the blurb, the poems occurred to her while she is walking or strolling...Probably that is the best me-time for all of us. We get access to higher level of thoughts and imagination, however, a fewer poetic soul captures those precisely to come with a collection of prose and poems. She has got an amazing poetic mood and sense. Readers could sense that from the free-flowing contemporary life-oriented collection. This is one ...

Motherhood Made Easy by Sharu Mukund is an insightful book that sheds light on vital spectrum of pregnancy-related topics such as maternity days and preparations, how to be a new mom, pre and post pregnancy practices and tips in the Indian households. The author, in particular, has written this book for Indian mothers and parents. She insists that the online forums are full of questions and answers by Western or Non-Indian moms. This not only looks backward but also a matter of concern for our country, with such huge population and high birth rate. So the concern of the book is to educate moms on how to go in their pregnancy phases. Much of the information presented in the book is from author’s personal life; however, many tips and takeaways can be materialized by new moms who are often clueless about the entire process. Another thing that makes this book resourceful is its modern outlook. The author talked about traditional days and methods but that is non-existent today. So the ladie...

Never the Butterfly by Ankur Ashta is a remarkable novel on subtle romance. Likely set in late 90s and early 2000s, the story takes a deep dig in the psychic of a college student named Mohan, who pursues love with conviction, and it looks that his quest for true love is unquenchable. Not only love is a complex feeling but also a situation that many befuddle and fail to play with it. ‘Never the Butterfly’ is a subjective title. It’s about deeper aspects and vagaries of life and love that change one forever, but more imminently it brings to the table the concern of loneliness and loss of interest in youth. One can be young and have depth of thoughts but life cannot always be exciting. Anyway, the storyline features Mohan, Saanjh, and Aaradhya in the mainstream narrative. They are in the same college. Saanjh is conservatively tied, and Aaradhya is the modern girl with foreign roots. Mohan has affinity for English language – he cannot tolerate someone with its incorrect usage. He corre...

The 9PM Debate by Vivek Chandran is a fascinating contemporary novel that sheds light on one of the heinous crimes of our society: rape. Backdropped against the bustling Mumbai city, The 9PM Debate novel will not only shake you with its context but also nudge you for a revolution against the rapes of women in our nation. As the title suggests, it is about debate, well not the ordinary one. A rape victim and her perpetrators go live on a TV debate. Before the story could settle with its protagonists and antagonists, the author literally takes readers on the cultural tour of Mumbai. Not shinning with all aspects, the city is a gruesome chaos with its transit, traffic jams, shanties, and crime rate. The special coverage is about Mumbai’s local trains and the lurking danger for women commuters. The story is about Mumbai-Virar gang rape case of Sujata aka Durga. Radhika, an ace TV journalist with ABTV (Akhil Bharat Television) can be considered the protagonist. She is all stubborn to brin...

Pulling off a cross-cultural novel that is sea apart in various aspects is a work of great accomplishment. Kelly Unger understands the tiniest nuisances and differences that look small but create a rift as deep as ocean. In her debut novel ‘In a Time of Fools’, she sketches the grim shades of college life of abroad students and uncertain love bonding of Lena and Aakash. ‘In a Time of Fools’ is an objective title. The world despite a place of global localization still suffers from prejudices of caste, racism, conservative filial thoughts, etc. Two people fall in love, want to live together, want to have children and family but their societies aren’t agreeing. What kind of the world is that we are living in? Isn’t we are tech advanced but mentally backward. Kelly weaves a careful tale of heartbreaks, differences of culture and countries, and grooming. Her travel experience is evident in her prose-like narrative, which is not only detailed but also deep. No action or adventure, yet th...

Amitav Ganguly is a terrific regular writer of short stories spanning across various genres. I have been reading him for last 4 books, which were collection of short stories. His ability to wind up the climax, sub themes, and character sketching in one story is superb, unmatched. For this reason, I strongly support him and feels that he is the best short story writer in a genre that is subtle horror, spooky, eerie, supernatural and of course thriller. Also, he writes with a finesse that matches with ghost stories of Ruskin Bond. The only difference is that Ruskin places his stories in the Himalayan region, while Amitav takes them across India i.e. West Bengal, Assam, Mumbai, Jharkhand, and so on. Biswas Kora Jae Na is a Bengali title, literally meaning cannot be believed . It is apt and true, as each story unfolds and draws towards end, with it brings the ultimate confession, conclusion, and secrets unveiled – in one sigh you ought to say can’t believe. The collection commences wit...