The Reading Bud

• Plot | Story- Pet Sematary is undoubtedly one of Stephen King's finest works. I tend to be speechless when it comes to writing a review for his books so forgive me if I write less than necessary, because, nothing that can be said will ever be really enough to praise this book. The story takes you very slowly through the life happenings of Louis Creed and his family. Story progresses subtly and ever so slowly. You start to feel a very strong connection building between you and all the characters. You start liking each and everyone and everything seems good, but slowly you start to get a feeling that something is going to happen... something very wrong. And then it happens! You start to feel sad... very, very sad and right then something else happens that make you feel something more than normal sadness, a feeling of darkness that comes with death! Then comes a point where you just can't take anymore and you stop reading it. But within a day or two you feel a strange pull and you start reading again! That's when you find out that there's more creepy stuff going to happen, and happen, yes, it does! You can't stop yourself from reading, you push yourself to read and get done with this book ASAP and then something happens in the end that leaves you sleepless for nights. 

No, it's not a scary story, but it's a really dark story that plays tricks with your mind and makes your skin crawl! It's a Stephen King's story.

• Characters- The characterization is Stephen-King-perfect. All the characters are so full of life that one can never really get them off one's mind. The character-connect was built very slowly and steadily yet very, very strongly. Each and every character has the potential to make you smile as well as cry.
• Romance- None! But a hall loads of love!
• Writing- Abso-fuc***g-lutely brilliant writing. You'll loose yourself in the writing so much so that you'll loose all sense of time and space while reading this book. As usual, the writing is simple and easily understandable, full of sarcastic remarks which are really good and hell loads of irony which will leave make you think a lot.
• Beginning- Slow-paced and subtle. As King's reader, the easy and happy flow of the book in the starting pages kept the anticipating part of the mind on high alert!
• Ending- Couldn't have been any better. Left me sleepless for days!
• Cover Art- I loved the cover of the edition I read (see above), but otherwise some editions look very old, creepy  and even immature!
• Blurb- The blurb definitely managed to be transparent enough to pique the reader's curiosity and at the same time without giving much away!

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Positives
Shadow Cursed is a beautiful tale of a thief named Bolen and how he lands in an unexpected situation and ultimately overcomes it. The character of Bolen is developed beautifully and I felt the connection with him almost instantly. The plot is quite simple but it's simplicity is quite mesmerizing! It might sound weird but this book had an odd satisfying feel to it, the way fairy tales have on children. It made me feel that the world is a good place and that it's not as wicked as we believe it is. This book made me feel like a child who is just hoping for a good ending throughout the entire read. I wanted to see Bolen happy at the end more than anything.
This book had me under it's spell and that too a really fine one! It has some really good surprises which makes it a must read for everyone.

Negatives
None.

Conclusion
Shadow Cursed is a powerful short and simple read. I'd recommend it to everyone who loves to read a fine book.


You can also read this review at The Reading Bud.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Positives

The Mine is the best time-travel book I’ve read in a really, really long time! It’s a brilliantly written book and the strong and realistic characterization will definitely blow your mind. Joel Smith, the lead, is such a gentleman and is just so adorable that I really can’t praise enough. You can feel the connection, with Joel, develop over quite a few pages but once he time-travels and starts his new life, you’ll start understanding him better and better with every page you turn. Joel is my new favourite time-travelling character. He is everything a stud, time-travelling brilliant and smart guy should be. He handles the fact, that he has indeed walked into a time-machine and come 59 years before his time, pretty well and starts acting accordingly.
Among the other characters, Ginny really stands out. She is this amazing women whom you really idealize and start respecting instantly. John has left a lot of big authors far behind in the race when it comes to character building (atleast for me!)
The plot is amazing and develops slowly in a very subtle way. It ends beautifully and leaves you craving for more and more. From the historical point of view, as far as I know, John has paid very close attention to the details which is highly commendable.

Negatives

None!

Conclusion

The Mine is a beautifully written book and definitely a must read. I’d recommend it to everyone, particularly the fans of Time-Travel, Science-Fiction, Adventure and Historical-Romance. Trust me, you really don’t wanna miss out on a wonderful book like this one!

You can also read this review at The Reading Bud

This book is one of those rare classics that a person like me, can read and understand. I'm not a fan of the genre but Lord Of The Flies stand out! I read it once when I was in school, but I never quite understood it with the clarity that I do now. This book serves as a meditation on two extreme sides of human nature, one that is controlled and civilised and the other one that is savage or animal-like.
Though the biguns in the book are no more that 11-12 year old kids, they try to stay civilised but it does not take long for the survival-driven animal-like streak to kick in. Golding has very beautifully described the steady rise of the darker side of humans and how our mind, in crises, is a dark and twisted thing.

In this book, one's henchman behaviour is very delicately shown, how everyone wants to be on the stronger side and then how they start hunting the weaker ones. The only choice left with the smaller or the weaker group of Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric and a few littluns, is either to join the stronger side or die! The main protagonist, Ralph, the fair boy, who liked Jack, the antagonist, suffers just because of Jack's greater ego. He innocently failed to understand what turned their friendship around. He tries to ask Jack but as an answer is awarded with wounds, both internal and external.

The ending couldn't have been better. The intensity with which Ralph starts crying was so touching. He cried for everything right from the first adventure of exploring the island with Jack and Simon to the deaths of Simon and Piggy, his friendship with Jack and Roger and Bill, for being left alone, being hunted, failing to understand where things went wrong, not being bale to keep the smoke up and most of all for being away from the civilised life where the blood-thirsty hunters were choir members!

This book is worth all the praise, time and money!

I'd recommend it to anyone who reads, breaths and eats.

You can read this review (and a lot more) at The Reading Bud

Positives
Charmed is an emotional romantic novel, which takes you on a magical journey of love and sacrifice. Anastasia is a good witch who has the power to heal, but the cost she has to pay everytime she heals is very high. She takes the pain of others and experience it herself in order to relieve them. She is highly sensitive to emotions and cannot stand negative ones due to her fragile heart and her susceptible magic! After facing the pain of rejection from her love, she starts taking comfort in a life of solitude, with only her family as a source of love. She was happy in her life.
Boone Sawyer buys the house next to Ana and settles there with his daughter, Jessi and her pup. He sees Ana and starts experiencing something that hasn’t happened to him in his life before, true love! He starts falling for Ana and vice-versa. Jessi and Ana also love each other. So the only thing that’s stopping Ana to accept a proposal from Boone is her Legacy, that is magic!
Though Boone is a writer of children’s books, fairy-tales and stuff, Ana knows that accepting the fact that she is a witch won’t be easy for him, or for that matter for anyone! Read the book to know how he’ll accept this truth or whether he does or not!
This book has a lot of romance, magic, love, healing, faith and belief. What is not there to like! And I’m very eager to read the fourth part.

[Yea, I know, I wrote the synopsis under 'positives'! That itself is the best part of the book (no-pun intended!)]

Negatives
The last 25 pages were a bit of a slog.

Conclusion
An easy read. Will do you good as a breather from all the sci-fi, horror and thrillers. Recommended to all the Nora’s fans and anyone who can put up with a genuine romanticism.

You can read the original review at The Reading Bud

Squirrel Of Magic is a contemporary-YA book (don’t let the cover deceive you!) It’s a very refreshing read. Darya is a modern witch who is the witch-protector of her city, Vancouver. She lives the life of a common girl in Canada and has a squirrel, Beatrice (who is her familiar.) Darya and Beatrice share a magical bond which enables them to communicate through telepathy. Darya is kind-hearted, good-natured and loves helping everyone using her magical powers.

Beatrice is funny and adorable. Her sarcastic comments made me laugh throughout the book. Her sense of humour is better than any squirrel! She loves mango and walnuts and of course male squirrels. Together, Darya and Beatrice solve a series of interesting mysteries. Squirrel Of Magic is a collection of some of their adventures.

It’s one of those books which make you smile to yourself after reading. I really don’t know why, but this book made me feel joyous and delighted. This book has made it’s place among my favourite ones and I’m sure as hell reading it again very soon.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Read all my reviews (including this one) at The Reading Bud

Positives

Tomorrow Wendell is an excellent read with a well-developed plot and strong characterization. The lead character, Jonathan Alvey is so well designed that you start to connect with him right from the start of the book. With each and every page you'll be able to understand him better and at some point, you'll start thinking about the entire situation like him. After reading the book, I can say that he is one of the best PI I've ever read. And the best part of the book is that Alvey is a practitioner of magic!

For a paranormal lover like me it was a breather to read something other than Vampires and Ware-wolfs for a change. Alvey's magic seemed so real that for the entire time I read the book I was spell-bounded by whatever he did and literally adored his talent and also felt very bad for it's after-effects on him! yes the aftermaths of using magical energy is the reason why everything seemed so real. Mr. Ridley did a fantastic job by not making magic look easy. He made it look like a science of energies which had some serious repercussions.

Like a lot of books you won't find a man whose just perfect in everything he does. Like everyone, Alvey has made some mistakes in his life and tries to run away from dealing with them (unlike the all-perfect detectives you really wanna slap!) He drinks and also smokes a lot but the reason for it you'll find satisfying.

There were a lot of unique creatures that will make you recoil at times. The entire book was like an adventure and din't even realise when it got over. There was not even a single dull moment!

Negatives

The ending was a bit offhand! It was so sudden, that I felt a bit confused. And some of the questions were left unanswered, the biggest being WHY and Who? The negatives, in this case, can only be justified by a sequel. And like hell I'm looking forward to it.

Conclusion

Tomorrow Wendell is a brilliant read and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves reading. It has something or the other of everything, suspense, drama, emotions, magic, thrill, a bit of a romance (only a pinch), and a lot more. If you are looking for a breather from whatever you are reading, I'll say read Tomorrow Wendell. And I'm sure you'll be happy that you read it.

Read the original review at The Reading Bud.

Being a Stephen King's fan, I knew even before starting the book that I'm in for another horrific journey. And believe me when I say I wasn't disappointed! King is one of the best authors I've ever read and this book is yet another masterpiece. The characters were very well built and so was each and everyone's background story. I loved Tad, Vic and Brett and of-course Cujo (just as an individual character and not personally.) The story establishes and takes direction slowly and steadily and prepares you well enough for what comes next, an unexpected emotional roller-coaster ride. As the story progresses, and as it's King's speciality, you come to know each and every character personally and can very well understand their psychology, actions and reactions, in this case, including a dog (Cujo). That said, King's description of Cujo's emotional state and things from his point of view, are the best things about the book. At the end I started to feel sorry for his condition and also the end.

The only thing wrong about the book was the ending. It ended on a very bad note. I'm not disclosing the end here, as it will spoil the end for some readers, but I'll just say that the end really freaked me out! And for that only I'm cutting back on 1 star.

Cujo is an amazing book with lots of drama, thrill and horror in equal proportions. It'll be an excellent read for the genre's lovers but if you hate strong emotional and bad endings, then you'll better do without it!

You can also read this review at The Reading Bud.

#GIVEAWAY: Win the 3 #NewAdult #Romance ebooks in the Forever Series by @DeannaRoy (INT) via @JenniferBielman …http://readingandwritingurbanfantasy.blogspot.in/

The book starts with Captain Darin Barclay saving a women (a witch) form a bunch of cleaners in a fair in Coll, Talaria. Talaria is an imaginary kingdom whose borders are bound by a spell that prevents magic to enter inside the kingdom. Anything that has magic or anyone who can perform magic (elves and witches) can not enter the spell-bound boundaries of Talaria. Darin Barclay is a courageous 24 year old, dangerously handsome, captain of the Eagles, who has sworn to protect the people of Coll, Talaria. Cleaners are a nasty bunch of people who are against magic and all the magical people and want others to follow their Gods and believes. A few elves and witches who live in Talaria can never leave it’s borders because if they do so they’ll never be able to return because of the spell. These good-natured elves and witches are constantly haunted by the cleaners to leave Talaria.

This books takes the reader through the adventurous journey of Darin Barclay in saving elves from cleaners and in doing so, saving numerous lives, including that of his daughter Leatanis (who is half elven) and his love Ana.

Olga Godim captures the reader’s imagination effortlessly. This light-hearted story has just the perfect amount of adventure, magic, emotion, drama, morals and most of all courage. I would like to quote this book as a “no-nonsense adventure”. Right when you think something is going to go wrong with Darin’s plans, he successfully pulls off each and every plan neatly. This really made me wonder about a reader’s unnecessary need for twists and turns, just so that they have something to think about. And this is where Olga Godim, for me, has given this book a new, very positive, direction. The story runs smoothly and at a quick no-fret pace.

I loved this book and I'm eagerly waiting to read all the books in this series. Breath Of Aoles has a lot of things in store for a fantasy-lover. A great adventurous journey, an intelligent and receptive lead character with a great sense of moral, faithful companions, bizarre animals and beasts and numerous magical elements.

This book has a a great narrative and a really strong storyline which makes you believe in it and fall in love with it. Pelmen is a brilliant character, that eventually grows on you, and you start to accept and respect his view of the world he lives in. You will feel the connection between you and Pelmen getting stronger with each chapter. I absolutely loved Pelmen and was able to feel his emotions very-well. At times some of the names seem strange to pronounce, but that really doesn't affect the overall magical effect of the book.

I liked Xuven and Fekkar also, and was able to connect with them easily. All other people and beings introduced, were also quite fascinating.

I'll be cutting back on half a star because of above said difficult pronunciations and some grammatical and spelling mistakes.

I'll recommend it everyone who loves reading adventure and fantasy, even suspense! I've already read it twice and will be happy to read it again.

It’s the best book I’ve read after A Song Of Ice And Fire! The characterization and the narration is incredibly amazing. It catches the reader’s interest from the first line to the very last word. Yes!

The story starts minutes before The Pulse occurred and takes us through the entire scenario in perfect detail. You’ll get a feeling that you are right next to the lead, Clayton Riddell and are experiencing each and everything. The craziers or the phone-crazies are easy to picture and seem scary. Clay’s allies, Tom and Alice are perfect and the way they survive is really intriguing. The major part of the book is about Clay’s journey to save his son and that he does! Or not! Well, the best part (as far as I’m concerned) is the open-ending, which is a treat for read’s imagination.

This book is amazing. I love it and I guess now I’ll be on a Stephen-King-reading-spree… It very well satisfied my hunger of always wanting more from any post-apocalyptic (specially Zombie) movie. From now on, I’m gonna switch to apocalyptic books instead of movies cause in movies you just get to watch stuff but in a book, specially by King you really get to feel the intensity.

Throughout the entire book and it’s events, I was right there with Clay and the gang and I’ll tell you what, I was so involved in the happenings of the book that yes, I did hesitate to pick up my cell when it rang!

It’s not a book it’s an experience and I really can’t have enough of it!