Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Hell To Pay by Pamela Fagan Hutchins - Review


Hell To Pay
by 
Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Blurb 

USA Best Book Award-Winning Series, Cross Genre Fiction.
Third book in the Emily series, a spin-off from Katie & Annalise.

Big-haired paralegal and former rodeo queen Emily thinks she’s got her life back on track. Her adoption of Betsy seems like a done deal, her parents have reunited, and she’s engaged to her sexy boss Jack. Then client Phil Escalante’s childhood buddy Dennis drops dead, face first into a penis cake at the adult novelty store Phil owns with his fiancée Nadine, one of Emily’s best friends. The cops charge Phil with murder right on the heels of his acquittal in a trail for burglarizing the Mighty is His Word church offices. Emily’s nemesis ADA Melinda Stafford claims her witness overheard Phil fighting with Dennis over a woman, right about the time Phil falls into a diabetic coma, leaving Nadine shaken and terrified. Meanwhile Betsy’s ultra-religious foster parents apply to adopt her and Jack starts acting weird and evasive. Emily feels like a calf out of a chute, pulled between the ropes of the header and the heeler, as she fights to help Phil and Nadine without losing Betsy and Jack.



She says her first book came out in 2012 and that her latest, Hell to Pay, is the seventh book in the series. The books all have ties to Texas, with “an interrelated cast of kick-ass female protagonists.” She says the novel's heroine (“a former rodeo queen turned paralegal”) returns to her home town in west Texas and discovers an extremist cult has set up shop and is terrorizing the local townsfolk.


Review

This is the first book I am reading by Pamela Fagan Hutchins. I received this book from the author for an honest and unbiased review, courtesy TBC.
Once I started reading, there is an onslaught of characters and too much begins to happen around me. Since this is the 7th book in the series, I am assuming that a reading of the previous books would give a clearer picture, however that in no way affects the quality of Hell to Pay and this can be read as a standalone book.
The story begins and we realize that Emily is trying to find love in Phil even though they have plans to get married towards the end of the year. When Phil’s best friend Dennis gets murdered, he becomes Jack’s client and Emily has to face her arch rival Melinda, again.
All this affects Phil’s health and Emily’s troubles continue as there is delay and bad news in store for her with regard to Betsy’s adoption. Jack too seemed to be keeping secrets from Emily and she feels left out. Emily in her struggle to prove that Phil is innocent ends up putting her life on the line.
The story is fast paced and the characters are real and we feel for them in their struggles. The reader is in for a huge shock as Emily unravels layers of this mystery and we realize that there is much more than a murder mystery. There are no loose ends as by the end of the story yet nothing is predictable, so the reader is left satisfied.
I would definitely recommend this book to all mystery lovers who love books with a generous dash of romance.


Read a Teaser 

Chapter One Excerpt

Disco lights whirled around me, or was it the room? My inner party animal had atrophied, not that I’d ever been a real heavyweight. If it wasn’t for the fantastic people-watching—and the fact that this was the celebration party for the burglary acquittal of our firm’s client Phil Escalante the day before, and his engagement to Nadine, one of my best friends in Amarillo—I've bagged this shindig. Instead, there I was with tendrils of fake smoke floating past my face, ten

feet from a DJ dressed in a black latex fetish costume and spiked dog collar and A tall woman maybe ten years older than me appeared out of the low lights and sidled up to me, engulfing me in the odor of cigarettes. Her vanilla hair sported a generous dollop of dark chocolate roots, which was pretty funny to me since she had a body shaped like a cone. A waffle cone. A waffle cone with sparkly sprinkles from the spinning ball overhead. Behind her trailed a paunchy man of roughly her height. His eyes had locked on me in a way that made my skin crawl with leeches that weren’t there.

Rick James’s “Super Freak” ended. The silence in the cavernous L-shaped room was immediate and complete, but short-lived. A clamor of voices from the one-hundred- or-so guests resumed, their voices echoing off the bare walls and “Hey, Foxy Loxy,” the man mouthed at me. Or did he? Surely not. It was hard to tell with the lights playing tricks on my eyes.

The woman spoke past me. “You and your wife got any plans later?” Her bellow seemed to fill the room to its farthest corners, even with all the other voices. I winced and shrank under the eyes that shifted our way.

Not Jack, though. The horse rancher cum criminal attorney was nothing if not unflappable. His topaz eyes twinkled. “Emily’s not my wife.” 

The man surged toward Jack. “You’re not together?”

“I’m his fiancée,” I said through my recently tightened braces and painfully rubber-banded teeth, leaving out “and he’s my boss.” I waved my big, fat teardrop-shaped diamond at him to accentuate my point, then I pinched Jack’s arm where my hand was looped through its crook. I’d capitulated to the mouth gear when my childhood orthodontist saw the gap between my front teeth and insisted needed Invisalign then, filled my mouth with metal instead. Payback for never wearing my retainer, I guess.

The man and woman looked at each other and nodded. She asked, “Care to join us? We’ve got a room at a no-tell hotel nearby.”

Jack’s whole body shook and I didn’t dare look at him. I was a sucker for his laugh. In fact, I was a sucker for everything about him, from his lived-in boots to his permanent tan to his Apache cheekbones. Before either of us could think of an appropriate response, Phil interrupted.

“Millie, Pete, leave my poor friends alone.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me aside to clap his other onto Jack’s. “They’re not swingers. And this isn’t a swingers social. I’m out of the business.”

The space between Millie’s eyebrows narrowed and puckered as drops of

light rained down on her face. “It’s a free country, ain’t it?”



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ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes overly long emails, best-selling, award-winning mysteries (WINNER USA Best Book Award, Fiction: Cross Genre, Finalist) and hilarious nonfiction. The Houston Press named her as one of Houston's Top 10 Authors (2014).

She is a recovering attorney and investigator who resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and in the frozen north of Wyoming. Pamela has a passion for great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs, traveling in the Bookmobile, and her Keurig. Visit her at http://pamelafaganhutchins.com or drop her a note pamela at pamelahutchins dot com. 

And if you would like her to visit your book club, women’s group, writer’s group, or library, all you have to do is ask.

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Sunday, May 22, 2016

False Ceiling by Amit Sharma



FALSE CEILINGS 
by
AMIT SHARMA



Blurb

Born in the lush mountains of Dalhousie in 1930, Shakuntala is a pampered child of a wealthy builder. On her wedding night she is gifted a secret to use wisely when the time comes. 

From the green valleys of Dalhousie to a village in Punjab reeling under the communal violence of 1947; from the Delhi of 1950s with its intoxicating smell of freedom to the Delhi of 1970s soaked in the hippie culture; from the Delhi of 1984 smelling of burnt tyres to the Delhi of 90s raising its Frankenstein of urbanization, the cancerous secret breathes with her, infects her. It is accidentally passed down, hidden under insecurities and jealousies, locked in its meaninglessness and leaving a trail of ruin. 

When her great- grandson accidentally discovers the secret in 2065, he is perplexed by the malice that flowed in his family's blood. Was it just the secret or his family would have destroyed itself even in its absence? Why was their love never greater than their unsaid expectations from each other? 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Amit Sharma

Amit Sharma's first fiction book titled False Ceilings has been published by Lifi Publications. The book launch happened on 12 Jan 2016 in the World Book Fair in Delhi. 

Amit has been working in a Software Firm since the last ten years. He lives with his family in NCR. His wife is a teacher and they are blessed with a daughter who is in her terrible twos. 


Amit always keeps a book and a portable reading light in his bag (much to the amusement of his fellow travelers). His other hobbies include watching world cinema, travelling, digging into various cuisines, cooking, listening to music, painting, blogging, making his daughter laugh and helping his wife with her unnecessary and prolonged shopping.

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Monday, May 16, 2016

My Last Love Story - Spotlight



My Last Love Story 
by 
Falguni Kothari


Blurb 

Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes’s, Me Before You, My Last Love Story is a heartbreaking and poignant tale about the complexities of trauma and whether love can right a wrong.

***
I, Simeen Desai, am tired of making lemonade with the lemons life has handed me.

Love is meant to heal wounds.
Love was meant to make my world sparkle and spin.
Love has ripped my life apart and shattered my soul.

I love my husband, and he loves me.
But Nirvaan is dying.
I love my husband. I want to make him happy.
But he is asking for the impossible.

I don’t want a baby.
I don’t want to make nice with Zayaan.
I don’t want another chance at another love story. 




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ABOUT THE AUTHOR 


 Falguni Kothari is a New York-based hybrid author, and an amateur Latin and Ballroom dance silver medalist with a semi-professional background in Indian Classical dance. She writes in a variety of genres sewn together by the colorful and cultural threads of her South Asian heritage and expat experiences. When not writing or dancing, she fools around on all manner of social media and loves to connect with readers.

My Last Love Story is her fourth novel.


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Sunday, May 8, 2016

Encounters Someone's Always Waiting by Sumana Khan - Book Review



Encounters
Someone's Always Waiting
by 
Sumana Khan

Blurb 
ENCOUNTERS is a potpourri of five sumptuous stories involving a motley crew of protagonists. Skating along the borders of fantasy and paranormal themes, the stories track incredible and poignant journeys of self-discovery, tracing the cathartic aftermath of fleeting encounters.




Book Review
Having read her first book The Revenge of Kaivalya and become a fan of Sumana Khan's writing and the way she deals with the paranormal and fantasy elements with ease, I had high hopes from Encounters too. I am sure anyone who has read Kaivalya, irrespective of whether they like the genre or not, will have the same opinion. Encounters is a collection of 5 stories that are at the same time very normal yet so very abnormal.

The first story is the one that I liked the most. Ratna falls in love with the mighty Vrka who would do anything to keep her safe. As time goes on she feels he is merely an illusion. But again, some of the incidents that happen to people around her makes it difficult for Ratna to accept that Vrka is merely an illusion. 

The next tale, The Storyteller, talks of something very sad and relatable to most of us. We have seen the pain and the trauma, but all of us may not have gone through it. While reading the story, the ending is almost guessable, but then Sumana's descriptions have a way of their own - you want to lap up every word she writes. 

Reminiscence is all about love and closure, seeing things from different angles and evaluating your relationship based on that. Reminiscing over a marriage of 35 years makes for an interesting read.
Happiness Clinic is one where we all will stand at some point or the other. After all the duties of an employed man, he wants to spend the rest of his time in peace with his wife. Fate makes him meet Dr. Sheshadri with whom he has an immediate connection. It is then that Sheshadri sees what he has been doing all this while to his loved ones. 

Best Friends Forever is a creepy story about a girl who is possessed and her best friend. The only question that remains is, is her friend for real or is she too a figment of someone's imagination or a spirit? 

The fact that she knows psychology is crystal clear in her writing, for she knows how exactly to appeal to our psyche. There is a very human touch to every story, because each one of it talks about the relationships we all have. I loved the book and read it from cover to cover and very soon will read it again. I really hope Sumana decides to write some more. 




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ABOUT THE AUTHOR 



Sumana was born and raised in Bengaluru, Karnataka, where she went on to graduate with a BSc in Electronics, much to the surprise of her teachers, and relief of her parents. In what can only be described as a quirk of fate, she ended up as an IT consultant - a role she essayed for more than a decade. She then moved to the UK where she quit her job and pursued academic and literary interests. The result of this pursuit has been two Masters, one published book, quite a few manuscript drafts, and above all, being stone-broke perpetually.

She currently lives in the UK with her husband and several books.  

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Wrong Means Right End by Varsha Dixit - Reviewed!



Wrong Means Right End  
by 
Varsha Dixit 


Blurb 
Readers fell in love with Sneha and Nandini, two best friends who stuck to each other through heartbreak and joy in the bestselling novel, Right Fit Wrong Shoe. Now they are back in a delightful sequel that follows the two women as they begin the next phase of their lives in Mumbai.

After a failed marriage, Sneha, a single working mom, has no time, or inclination, for love. She resists every matchmaking attempt made by the overzealous Nandini, married to industrialist Aditya. But then the past intrudes in the form of the gorgeous and rich, Nikhil, who brings along Gayatri to break-up her ex-fiance, Aditya's marriage. Sneha enlists Nikhil's help to salvage the situation. But how does she even talk to a man who clearly loathes her? As Nikhil and Sneha try to grapple with their egos and combustible chemistry, love blossoms.

Wrong Means Right End, an exuberant story about love and friendship, is filled with surprises and a wicked twist at every turn.
                                                                    Reviewed! 

Wrong Means Right End is the first book that I am reading by Varsha. This can essentially be classified into a romance novel in an Indian context. 
The story revolves around the life of Sneha, a recently divroced young mother who moves into a new city and tries to make a life for herself. Sneha works for the Sarin family and hence cannot run away from the lavish parties she is invited to and that is where Nikhil walks into her life. They are at constant loggerheads and may never have come together but to save the Sarins' marriage that was on the brink of falling apart. 
Mona the vamp is slightly Bollywood-ish but the story in itself is not too much. 

The book is a fun light read and is all about two people who have incredible chemistry but will always end up fighting with each other. There is no time to get bored even if you know the pace of the story as it is not a very long/slow read. 


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About The Author 

Varsha Dixit, the best selling author of four successful contemporary romance books. Her debut book, Right Fit Wrong Shoe was a national bestseller for the year 2010. Varsha was a part of the Indian Television Industry and worked as an assistant director and online editor. She considers herself a dreamer who thinks deep but writes light. Even though creativity is gender free, Varsha feels blessed and enriched to be a woman. Currently, with her family, Varsha resides in CA, USA.

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Friday, May 6, 2016

Encounters by Sumana Khan | Spotlight



Encounters
Someone's Always Waiting
by 
Sumana Khan

Blurb 
ENCOUNTERS is a potpourri of five sumptuous stories involving a motley crew of protagonists. Skating along the borders of fantasy and paranormal themes, the stories track incredible and poignant journeys of self-discovery, tracing the cathartic aftermath of fleeting encounters.



Grab your Copy @

You can get this book directly from the Publisher

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 



Sumana was born and raised in Bengaluru, Karnataka, where she went on to graduate with a BSc in Electronics, much to the surprise of her teachers, and relief of her parents. In what can only be described as a quirk of fate, she ended up as an IT consultant - a role she essayed for more than a decade. She then moved to the UK where she quit her job and pursued academic and literary interests. The result of this pursuit has been two Masters, one published book, quite a few manuscript drafts, and above all, being stone-broke perpetually.

She currently lives in the UK with her husband and several books.  

Stalk her @

               

Follow Us +Pinterest 




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