book blog by Heena Rathore-Pardeshi | Of Whiskers And Words
Author: Heena R. Pardeshi
Heena is the author of the award-winning novel Deceived. She works as the novel critic and the chief editor at a local publishing house in Pune, India. She is an animal lover as well as an animal activist.
She loves books, music and wine. Travelling and learning about new cultures is an integral part of her life.
She is presently learning Piano and French language.
She lives in Pune, India with her beloved husband and 6 cats.
Hello friends and bloggers! Yesterday was Raksha Bandhan but I spent most of my day sleeping as I had a severe headache. I was feeling a bit low (God knows why!) so I thought of doing something special for myself (Yes, I do believe in keeping myself happy.) That’s why today I went ahead and dug in the blogs that I truly adore and through and through I came across a new blog Spoonflower. It’s a creative blog for people who adore art. The folks at Spoonflower host a creative challenge called SpoonChallenge: A Month Of Drawing. This challenge is super fun as the folks at spoonflower gives the topics and the participants are supposed to draw that, in any interpreted form.
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I love drawing (if not, you can read about it here: Rediscovering My Love Of Drawing). I’m not a pro in drawing but some of the sketches really inspired me. And after a lot of struggle I’m finally over “what others will say about my drawing!” So I’m taking part in this beautiful challenge starting tomorrow. I’ll be posting my drawing here and I really hope that you all like them. I’m taking part in this challenge for fun and because sketching is my way of calming my mind.
If you also love doodling then join me in this fun challenge.
If you also participate, don’t forget to share it with me and also I’d love to see your drawings, so share the links to your posts in the comments section 🙂
Hi and welcome to Showcase Sunday, a weekly feature hosted by Books, Biscuits & Tea. It’s aim is to showcase our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders each week.
I have a lot to share and as I stumbled upon this feature I couldn’t resist the temptation!
Here’s the list of books I got approved from Netgalley for review:
With all the review requested books piling up on my virtual-shelf, I’m really not getting time to read the books that I’ve issued from my library. I’m constantly trying to have a strict schedule for each and every book, but with Rakshabandhan (Rakhi) on 10th August, I’m failing to do so. Though I want to read as much as I could, I’m still looking forward to 10th August as my family will be coming over to celebrate Rakhi in Pune. I’m hoping with all the cleaning and preparations, I’ll be able to make enough time for reading and reviewing the books I’ve already got my hands on.
To be honest, I love being busy, and being busy with reviewing books is really a dream come true!
Author: Olga GodimRelease Date: May 2014
Genre: Adventure | Fantasy
Edition: e-book (epub)
Pages: 271
Publisher: Champagne/Burst Books
Interest: Requested by author
Source: Author (Thanks, Olga!)
Buy: Amazon
Summary
Darin, a mercenary officer, lives in Talaria, a kingdom surrounded by a magic-resistant spell. While some people wish to break the spell and invite magic back into the country, the fanatical sect of Cleaners is determined to prevent the return of magic. Darin doesn’t agree with the Cleaners’ doctrine but he doesn’t dispute it either. He is a soldier, not a philosopher. Then he accidentally overhears the Cleaners’ hidden agenda to destroy all magic workers in Talaria, including witches and elves, and his orderly life is turned upside down. His sweetheart is a witch, his daughter is a half-elf, and he has many elven friends. He can’t allow the Cleaners’ murderous scheme to succeed, can’t allow innocents to suffer from the rabid zealots. But what can a lone mercenary do against a horde of extremists? His only choice lies in trickery and deceit to outsmart his enemies. And the anti-magic spell on the border suddenly becomes his only ally.
Review
**Spoiler Alert**
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.
My father gifted me a German Shepherd pup when I was 15 years old. I named him Tiger. He was my best bud and the best thing in my life and I was very connected to him emotionally. But after my parent’s separation, I had to leave Tiger with my dad and move to another city (it is one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to do!) I had a really tough time getting over this and swore not to get another dog until I was independent, so that no one can take him away from me ever.
After my marriage to Vishal, we were busy getting settled in our new life. Also because of Vishal’s work, we had to travel a lot. So finally, after 3 years and 6 months of our marriage, everything’s into place and we are planning to get a pup. My first choice was obviously German Shepherd but Vishal, being a cat-lover who never had a dog before, thought to get a small breed pup first. So we decided to get a beagle. I was happy with beagle too, but Vishal knows me too well to get trust my fake smile. After going through Tiger’s pics on my study room’s walls he told me that we can get a German Shepherd if I want. And so, finally we are getting a German Shepherd pup 🙂
I’m really happy to announce that I’ve joined JC’s Book Haven, a wonderful book blog run by Jaclyn Canada, as a book reviewer. I’m really looking forward to reviewing for her. As everyone knows that I love reading and reviewing, this is really huge for me. I’ll be helping out Jaclyn with the review requests that she receives for her blog. I’ll be doing around 2-3 reviews for her blog each month and will be posting the respective links here on TRB. Do visit them and share your thoughts. I’d love for all my readers to read my reviews there as well!
1. I prefer printed books over e-books. I like the feel of a book in my hand and also the old, subtle smell. In printed books I can use cute bookmarks and also I can puppy-ear a page, which is just out of question in e-books. In spite of a lot of advantages, e-books will never be able to replace printed books, atleast not for me!
2. I download a lot of e-books and don’t get time to read them. Right now I have around 70 e-books in my Samsung Notebook (II) and still I keep on downloading as and when I find a book worth reading. At times my e-shelves give me fits of depression, as to not being able to make enough time to read!
3. Sometimes I don’t feel like reviewing- This is purely cause of my obsession for reading (Surprise! I’m a bibliophile!) and at times I end up not reviewing the recent reads for over week or so. I like using all my time for reading and sometimes reviewing tends to take up quite a time, specially when I have some other great book in mind.
4. I’m hardly able to give any time to blogs that I really like- There are so many lovely blogs and great bloggers, but all this reading and reviewing leaves me very little time to visit these blogs regularly. I wish I can squeeze in some more time for other blogs too.
5. I don’t like classics as much as I like mystery and adventure! There, I said it! phew! Do not JUDGE me!
6. In the excitement of posting the reviews, I sometimes forget to proof-read my posts, but later, when I come to my senses I edit the post asap and curse myself royally for not proof-reading.
7. Sometimes maintaining all the social accounts gets onto my nerves- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Goodreads, Leafmarks, Booklikes, Amazon Reviews, JustBooks, WordPress, Blogger, Flickr, Tumblr…. God!!! I hate social networking (not really, but at times, yes!)
8. At times managing and sorting the e-mails is also a challenge!
9. I have more than 20 drafts of reviews, just sitting there waiting for me to do the honours!
Author: Stephen King
Release Date: January 24, 2006
Genre: Horror-Zombies, Post Apocalyptic, Thriller, Dystopia
Pages: 499
ISBN NO.: 978-0-340-92153-1
Publisher: Hachette India
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by the awesome authors of The Broke and the Bookish. Following are the things I like/dislike on the book covers:
Mel Sutherland didn’t need the help of a fraudulent psychic to find the abducted baby – and she wasn’t about to let a con artist exploit a grieving mother’s vulnerability.
Then all the leads dried up.
Reluctantly, Mel had to accept Sebastian Donovan’s aid. She was cynical about his powers and suspicious of his motives. But as the clock ticked, Sebastian unfailingly knew how to follow abductor’s tracks and Mel had to make up her mind. Was Sebastian’s gift real? Or was something far more sinister at work?
-Back-cover
Review
Entranced is an engaging story about a psychic and a cynic. Yes, the psychic being Sebastian Donovan, Morgana’s cousin. Sebastian uses his powers of “seeing”, to help cops solve twisted cases.
On the other hand, Mel Sutherland is a private investigator whose friend’s child is missing. She tries everything she could to get some clues about the kidnapper but like the cops, hits a dead end. Tired of waiting for her police to find her son, Rose enquires about Sebastian’s powers and then convinces Mel to take her to him. Being a cynic, Mel tries to stop Rose but ultimately gives in to the idea and meets Sebastian.
Accepting the fact that Sebastian might be her only chance to find Rose’s son, Mel starts investigating with Sebastian and makes him her temp. partner.She ends up falling in love with Sebastian and accepting the fact that there are some things beyond logic and reason and comes to accept and respect Sebastian’s gifts.
The story is predictable, but is adorably romantic. The characters in the book are full of life and you can instantly connected to them. Also we get a sneak peek in the lives of Morgana (who is pregnant at the time) and Nash Kirkland from Captivated, which really makes you feel like you are a part of the Donovan family.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday! This weekly event is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I’ve Read So Far This Year.
Welcome to the first week of the Summer Library Challenge! Check out the Summer Library Challenge page for all details of this awesome event.
Library Survey
1. What’s the name of your library and how close is it to where you live?
– My library is Just Books and it has 9 branches in my city. The branch that I visit is Just Books Wanowrie. It’s less that 10 minutes away from where I stay.
Summer Reading Challenge is hosted by The Book Monsters. This challenge encourages library reading. It will run from 1st June to 31st July, 2014. There will be a lot of challenges and twitter chats and being a regular library reader I really think it’s going to be one hell of a read-a-thon. I love my library and I owe this post to it 🙂
My Goals:
To read atleast 15 library books from 1st June to 31st July.
To review all those books on my library’s site and help them in the overall book ratings.
To try and get my hands on some genres I’ve never read before.
Hi guys, from June 9th – June 15th, Hannah at The Book Tower will be hosting the Sweet Summer Read-a-thon. To participate in this event all you have to do is make a post or a video saying what your goals are for the week and share your link on the sign up post over on her blog.
9-15 June’ 2014
My Goals
Read a classic.
Read 100 pages a day.
Review one of the books from requests sent by authors.
Visit a new blog everyday.
My TBR List
Entranced by Nora Roberts
Breath Of Aoles by Alan Spade (author’s review request)
Holding The Dream by Nora Roberts
So friends these are my goals and TBR list, feel free to share your own.
Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Top Ten Tuesday! This weekly event is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Today’s topic is Ten Books That Will Be In My Beach Bag This Summer.
Ten Books That Will Be In My Beach Bag This Summer:
1. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.
2. Looking For Alaska by John Green.
3. Holding The Dream By Nora Roberts.
4. Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams.
I am very thankful to Aishwarya of My Kitchen Moments for nominating me for Liebster Award. As all of you are well aware, this award means a lot to any blogger. I am truly honored and very grateful! If you haven’t already, please check out her blog; I’m sure you’ll love it. I always look forward to all her delicious and mouthwatering dishes!
For those wondering what “Liebster Award” is… Generated in Germany, this award is a beautiful way of recognizing lesser known blogs. And “Liebster” means, “dearest, beloved, sweetest, nicest, valued” etc.
The rules are simple and as follows:
Thank and link back the person who presented the award to you.
Have the award on your post.
Answer the questions that has been asked.
Award the same to up to ten other upcoming blogs.
Here are my answers :
1. Show us something you like around you or outside your place.
There are quite a lot of things that brighten my heart. Some of them are: my Arabian Jasmine Plant, Jalapeño Plant (and the cute lil’ budding Jalapeños), Palm Plants in my drawing-room, Sun-set from my balcony, etc. I’m more than delighted to share some pictures with you all 🙂
Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
I am to receive the delivery of the 3 books I ordered on Friday, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, The Fault In Our Stars and Looking For Alaska. I bought these books for 50% off in a sale on Amazon.
The Reading Bud 