Ten Yakshi Facts by author Neelima Vinod

Hey guys!

Today we have with us Neelima. She's a writer from Bangalore and her novella Unsettled has been published by Indireads, a publishing company based out of Toronto. She's going to be sharing her ten yakshi facts with us. Let's get to it!

Summary-

The hundred-room house is a rich tapestry of memories and hidden secrets, a dark, forbidding place, rumoured to be haunted by a vengeful Yakshi. Propelled by a desire to save their marriage, Divya and Raghav journey to the haunted mansion in search of the mythical Scrolls of Love.

Written five hundred years ago by the banished court poet Shankara, they are fabled to have the power to heal and reignite lost love. Is this just a legend, or are the couple heading towards a chilling destiny?

Indireads

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Amazon

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Ten Yakshi facts

I’m sure many of you have heard of the Yakshi. She’s the lady in white, the femme fatale of South Asia, the blood sucking vampire of the South. My ebook Unsettled published by Indireads is a story that combines the mythical with romance.

1. The first successful Yakshi novel that was written and adapted as a movie  is the Malayalam novel titled Yakshi by the amazingly competent Malayatoor Ramakrishnan.

2. A yakshi is a female earth spirit.

3.She's a fertility symbol by the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain faiths. She is so fertile that she can make a tree bear fruit by sheer contact.

4.She is extremely desirable- quite a catch as far as female vampires go.

5.You might have seen sculptures of this wonderful woman playing balancing acts on stupas or temple walls.

6.Yakshis do not have a spine- in fact they are ‘back less’. Their long ebony hair hides that reality.

7.Yakshis hover. They don't touch the ground.

8.Yakshis were maternal figures at one point, but somewhere down the line they have become immensely bad- tempered. They shriek and deliver powerful curses, giving a very Indian touch to the universal concept of female hysteria.

9.Yakshis are shape shifters- the seductress slides down the palm tree and  woos the male walker through woods. She asks him if he has a betel leaf and if he does, they become lovers. The next morning nothing is left of the man but a pile of bone, a clump of hair and teeth. Apparently the yakshi devours her prey- isn’t this a fantastic inversion of desire?  She’s  a blood thirsty vampire, her beauty a mask  she throws off at will.

10.There has never been an ebook about a Yakshi until Unsettled....

About the author:

Neelima Vinod spent her childhood in the Persian Gulf, with holidays in the warm, dreamy climes of southern India. Writing about the supernatural is an inevitable outcome of her exotic background. She has acquired her M.Phil in English literature and worked as editor, teacher and writer. She now lives in Bangalore, India. Her current obsessions are her twin sons, the books on her shelf and off it, and her poetry blog.

You can read her poetry athttp://neelthemuse.wordpress.com, join her writing group at facebook called All Things Writing and follow her on Facebook facebook.com/neelimavinodauthor

You can check out and read an excerpt of Unsettled here.

Thank you so much Neelima!

Happy reading :)

Review- Once in a Lifetime by Jill Shalvis

Summary-

SOMETIMES WRONG IS OH-SO-RIGHT

After a wrenching loss, Ben McDaniel tried to escape his grief by working in dangerous, war-torn places like Africa and the Middle East. Now he's back in his hometown and face-to-face with Aubrey Wellington, the hot-as-hell woman who is trouble with a capital T. Family and friends insist she's not the one to ease his pain, but Aubrey sparks an intense desire that gives Ben hope for the future.

Determined to right the wrongs of her past, Aubrey is working hard to make amends. But by far, the toughest challenge to her plan is sexy, brooding Ben - even though he has absolutely no idea what she's done . . .

Can this unlikely couple defy the odds and win over the little town of Lucky Harbor?

Review-

I was eagerly waiting for my arc of Once in a Lifetime because firstly, its a Jill Shalvis book. Secondly, it's a Jill Shalvis book! I was really excited to get started on it even though I wasn't that sure about Aubrey and Ben as a couple. But Lucky Harbor is one of my favorite series and all my doubts were for no reason. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Ben suffered a great loss five years ago. Since then he has been burying himself in work, taking on dangerous missions and going to godforsaken places all to keep his mind away. Now he's back in Lucky Harbor. What he doesn't expect is to be pulled in towards the town't troublemaker, Aubrey. I liked Ben. He was the quiet guy but he saw Aubrey for who she really was unlike others.

Aubrey knows she's made a number of mistakes in the past. Now all the wants to do is right her wrongs so she can move on in her life with a clear conscience. I hadn't liked Aubrey in the previous books but I found her so much better in this one. She was not irritating or snobbish like she pretends to be. Aubrey was actually pretty vulnerable and the only one who gets to see it is Ben.

I loved the romance between Ben and Aubrey. They understood each other even if they didn't want to. They are both not looking for a serious relationship but they have undeniable chemistry. In signature Jill Shalvis style the romance goes. I loved seeing two people fall for each other against the odds.

We also get updates on Luke and Ali and Jack and Leah. Their friendship is so deep and true and it just adds more richness to the book. I am extremely happy that there are going to be more books to the Lucky Harbor series. This series is a definite must read.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided through Netgalley by the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.

Waiting on Wednesday #73

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira 

Publication Date- April 1st 2014

Goodreads Summary:

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

Everything about this book screams READ ME! And that's exactly what I'll do once it's out.  

What are you waiting on this Wednesday? Link me up to your posts in the comments! 

Top Ten Tuesday #19

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is: 

Top 10 Books that will make You cry

Okay, let me just say this. I'm NOT a crier. I tend to sway towards books with happily ever afters. So I'm just gonna list the books which had an emotional impact on me :)

 

  

 

 

What's on your list?

                               

Review- Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Goodreads Summary:

This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance.

When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right.

This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world.

REVIEW:

I have lost track of the amount of time since Boy Meets Boy has been on my TBR. When I finally had the book in my hand, I couldn't wait at all to get to it. I hadn't read any epic and soul shattering book in 2014 and Boy Meets Boy seemed like the perfect choice to break that rather plain start to my New Year reading. Being the person that I am, I went from backward to forward and ended up reading the short story for Infinite Darlene and David Levithan's interview which features as part of the tenth anniversary celebration of the book before actually starting the story. And I loved those two bits! 

I have read quite a lot of LGBT books and the reason why I keep searching for more is because I love reading books that fall under that category. While most of the books I've previously read take up the issue very seriously, David Levithan has actually created a utopian town in Boy Meets Boy, where being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is nothing but normal. Of course there are families who have problems with it, but it was great to see that these families were clearly in minority. While I did love this whole concept and it gives me hope that someday, town by town, the whole world will be cool about seeing and most importantly, accepting everyone as human beings and giving love all the freedom it deserves, I did miss that drastic and serious issue that's always taken up in such stories. 

The protagonist in Boy Meets Boy, Paul, for me, had a very uncanny resemblance to Stephen Chbosky's Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and I actually liked it. Paul was a soft and sensitive guy who was just trying to figure himself and his life out by trying to establish a sort of stability in the many friendships and relationships he has previously had and is currently having. I liked Paul. He seemed normal and ordinary with his daily problems and his own way of getting through with them and that makes it so easy to relate to his simple personality. I loved how involved everyone was in everything in this beautiful town. The many characters tended to get a little confusing for me but I had fun reading about each one of them nonetheless.

While Boy Meets Boy wasn't as moving or as epic as I thought it would be from the many positive reviews I've read for it, I still loved every bit of this cute, funny, inspiring, neat, sweet and tender book. Author David Levithan's writing is simply amazing and beautiful. He's definitely one of the most promising writers I've read and I'm going to read practically all his books I can possibly lay my hands on. For a book that was written in 2003 and that shines like a bright star ten years after it's release, Boy Meets Boy lacked that something which is something I'm yet to figure out but like it did with most readers, it's definitely going to stay with me. 

RATING:

Review- Vain by Fisher Amelie

Summary-

If you’re looking for a story about a good, humble girl, who’s been hurt by someone she thought she could trust, only to find out she’s not as vulnerable as she thought she was and discovers an empowering side of herself that falls in love with the guy who helps her find that self, blah, blah, blah...then you’re gonna’ hate my story.

Because mine is not the story you read every time you bend back the cover of the latest trend novel. It’s not the “I can do anything, now that I’ve found you/I’m misunderstood but one day you’ll find me irresistible because of it” tale. Why? Because, if I was being honest with you, I’m a complete witch. There’s nothing redeeming about me. I’m a friend using, drug abusing, sex addict from Los Angeles. I’m every girlfriend’s worst nightmare and every boy’s fantasy.

I’m Sophie Price...And this is the story about how I went from the world’s most envied girl to the girl no one wanted around and why I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Review-

I had read so many amazing reviews of Vain and I was seeing so much that it was a different new adult read that I finally picked it up. I am happy to say that Vain was a very unique read and I really liked it. It is difficult to make me love a character whom I hate in the beginning but Fisher Amelie has done that. Vain was a really good read.

Sophie Price has it all. She's the girl all boys want to sleep with and all the girls want to be friends with but secretly they hate her. And Sophie knows it. She knows how beautiful she is. She knows she is rich enough to do whatever she wants and buy whatever she wants. In one simple word Sophie is a bitch and for the first 20% of the book I hated her.

But Sophie is not only a bitch. She has more going on inside her head and the facade she puts on is to protect herself more than anything else. When Sophie gets in trouble she can't get out of, she is sentenced to spend six months in a remote village in Uganda and help in an orphanage. That's when things change.

Vain opened my eyes to a lot of things. The comfortable world we live in means so little when we see real suffering. We are just so ignorant and missing the real importance in life which is humanity. I loved seeing all this through Sophie's eyes. It also helps when she meets the sexy, Ian. The romance between Sophie and Ian was surprisingly clean for a new adult book.

I loved how Fisher Amelie portrayed the world Sophie lived in. Her writing style was clear and descriptive and beautiful. Vain is a really good book but it wasn't mind blowing for me. The ending happened a bit too fast for me and some things are left open. Still I would recommend Vain to everyone looking to read something different.

Review- Destroyed by 'Ishq'.. by Mr. Invisible

Goodreads Summary:

Its not just a cold February morning that freezes all activity at IIT. The topper of the Computer Science batch is found hanging inside his room locked from the outside. A day later, in a fit of anxiety, his best friend erases his suicide note from his laptop, thereby obliterating the only way that could have led to understanding the reason behind such a catastrophe.

The smartest among the group of software experts asked to retrieve it finally gets hold of it, but silently gives up on finding it and withdraws with the stolen suicide letter. What is it about the letter that makes him hide it from the world? Why does he lose himself in the amaranthine ocean of agony and forgets all else on reading it? Love is life giving, but Destroyed by Ishq explores the other side of love. Are you ready to turn the page?

REVIEW:

*NOTE: We (The Readdicts) received a copy of Destroyed by 'Ishq'.. by Mr. Invisible from Srishti Publishers & Distributors in exchange for an honest review. we thank the publishing house for the book! 

Like everything, there are two consequences of first impression as well- it can either turn out to be the best or the worst. When I first came across Destroyed by 'Ishq'.., I was really intrigued by it. The titled sounds apt and is very true. Like we all know and have learned, love destroys. There was an air of mystery surrounding Destroyed by 'Ishq'.. what with it being written by a certain Mr. Invisible which, come to think of it, sounds really lame. I had thought that the book would be highly intense as every book I've read on suicide has been. But somewhere, I had a feeling it wouldn't be as great as I was expecting or hoping it to be. 

When I read books that have suicide as the main theme, I only look for one reason- whether the said suicide is justifiable or not. And in this case, it clearly wasn't. I get that love has a very uncanny way of making us suffer and feel like all the pain that we're going through is unbearable and will see no end. It sucks when you try many times but fail in love and it's simply stupid when you try hard with one person many times knowing it's going nowhere. While giving up on love seems like the best option here, giving up on life is clearly stupid and absolutely silly. Till the very end, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't connect at all with anything in Destroyed by 'Ishq'.. It was neither deep nor emotional. What this book managed to do is to give a nice wake up call alarming me that it's time I stay away from stories set in IIT or any engineering college for that matter. I just don't get the point of life there. Anyway, I'm not interested in saying anything against any students, so that can be left off. 

While Destroyed by 'Ishq'.. has a very interesting and exciting narrative technique, it would have been highly convenient to  mention at the beginning of a new point of view whose pov it is that the reader is reading from. I was irritated by the excessive use of punctuation marks, the sudden change of font for no reason whatsoever, a melange of English and Hindi and most importantly, the characters, who are what connect me to books in the first place. Sadly, if it's not clear already, I didn't like Destroyed by 'Ishq'.. to the point that I don't care about it. 

RATING: