Deep Ties

"Someone I loved once gave me a box of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift." It takes a gifted writer to be able to create an imaginary island and etch it so precisely that it appears real to her readers. Radhika Tabrez does just that as she  fleshes out an Indian paradise called Bydore and populates it with lifelike characters like Susan Pereira who is bound to Pereira Mansion and her father’s promise, Deena, a close friend and her feisty daughter Shahana, and Colonel and Mrs. Bindra, all of whose lives are blended together effortlessly. “They all could sense the chasm in each others’ hearts” and “their mutual need for succour”, a need that made them family. It is into this family that a grievously wounded Meera is brought in, and over time, Susan turns into her anchor, touched by “the forlornness in Meera’s eyes” which made her “hear the echoes of her own life”. Their lives fuse as the pieces of a puzzle coming together, and Me...

Marriages Made in India Book #1 THE SMITTEN HUSBAND by Sundari Venkatraman Guest Post The Queen of Romance novels, Sundari Venkatraman, answers a question put to her by Deepti Menon. "Dear Sundari, It is wonderful to see so many stories fly out from your prolific pen. Where do you get your ideas from, especially for a five-novella series? How difficult is it to sustain the tempo as well as the credibility of the characters, considering that they stem from book one and live on over the next four books? Which are the characters closest to your heart, and why?" Hi Deepti, Firstly, let me thank you for your compliment. When I published The Runaway Bridegroom , a few of my readers were impressed with Shikha, one of the side characters, and her relationship with Abhimanyu. They wanted to know what happened to the two. I wasn’t sure of writing a sequel as I couldn’t visualise a full-length novel for them. Later, when I read a ...

Looking forward to reading the talented Rubina Ramesh's collection of emotions, Knitted Tales soon! RELEASING ON THE 10TH OF OCTOBER  Knitted Tales: A Collection of Emotions  By  Rubina Ramesh Every tale has a path to follow to reach its destination.. but it may not exactly be the one we should follow. WHAT IS THE ANTHOLOGY ALL ABOUT? What forces an innocent girl to become a sex symbol? Her desires? Or cruel fate?  Is a lifetime enough—for avenging a betrayal? How do you hide secrets that never stopped haunting you?  Can vengeance and secrets of your past devastate your present? How can long-buried crimes of yours suddenly raise their head? Can sinning be saving? Is your spouse your soulmate? What if they never understood your feelings? Can you still live with them? Lastly, does life give only two options? Live or die? What if there is a third? In her debut anthology, Rubina Ramesh tries to find answers to thes...

A heartwarming book about the passion of ballet and the heartache of friendship and love by Aarti V Raman, whose ease of style makes this a delight to read! Book Tour With You I Dance by Aarti V Raman Blurb Meera Sagar had everything—the perfect job as a principal ballerina (for a prestigious New York ballet company) and a man who loved her as much as she loved him. But tragedy struck on the night  before her biggest performance, forcing her to do the one thing she never wanted to do—come back home. To Mumbai. Now, a year later, Meera is still trying to pick up the pieces, while fending off marriage proposals from her well-meaning but traditional Gujarati family, and figure life out all over again. By starting a ballet school in Mumbai. But she has two problems. One, she doesn’t know anything about running a business. And two, she can’t dance. Not anymore. Enter . . . Abeer Goswami. Hotshot junior partner at a South Bombay law firm and a...

          “Yes, the truth. It sets you free – but tears you apart first.” These words could well be the pivot around which the story of Bhaavna Arora’s ‘Love Bi The Way’ hinges, the story of two modern young women, Rihana and Zara, who live in a house aptly named ‘Cupid’ in Delhi’s Greater Kailash, along with their adorable Labrador, Tiger. The two could not be more dissimilar. While Rihana is a talented artist, with strong views on marriage, sex and relationships, the gentle Zara, a businesswoman, suffers from a major depressive disorder. Rihana’s irreverence and her apparent promiscuousness hide scars that have deeply marred her psyche. The refined Zara too has secrets in her past that have triggered off her health problems. “Both of them were two very different people. “ Yet, Rihana’s “happiness was so infectious that Zara thought she could find a true companion in her.” Zara is the yin to Rihana’s yang, both heiresses in their own right. Z...