Sehgal Family and Friends Series by Sapna Bhog

I just wrapped up a six book series called Sehgal Family and Friends by Sapna Bhog. Six love stories: 

1. Take a chance on me - Kabier Sehgal and Keya Karia 

2. Let's start with forever - Sameer Sehgal and Raashi Dewan 

3. Breaking all the rules - Rithwik Bali and Aisha Solanki 

4. Living on the edge - VJ Bellani and Diya Thakur 

5. The long road home - Rishi Sehgal and Mehak Khanna 

6. Every breath you take - Nirvaan Kapur and Rhea Sehgal 

As is the case with series these days, there are common characters running through the books but the books can be read independently most of the time. In fact, I had read the fifth book in the series first and because I got curious about the other characters, I started reading the books in order. 

The books are about a patriarch Janak Sehgal, a wise old man with a liberal outlook, and how he influences the love stories of his grandchildren and their friends. The Sehgal young generation and their friends are a very close-knit circle, all in the age group of 20s to early 30s, who party together but also stand out for each other and confide into each other regarding everything. The books move in chronological order except Books 3 and 4 which take place within the same timeline.

The books follows a common trajectory. The two protagonists, both with a past, get off on a rocky start and hate each other for whatever reason. But irresistable physical attraction brings them together. Just when they start getting along well, some misunderstanding embedded in their past crops up. But eventually love wins and all misunderstandings are cleared out. All characters are similar too. The men are tall, well built and good looking who have lavish lifestyles and are big on no-strings-attached dating and one-night-stands. The women are all stunning and beautiful with firebrand attitudes, fighting spirits but are all virgins. That's the only thing that irks me with this series and most romance novels, especially with billionaire male protagonists - why is it okay for men to sleep around but women need to be virgins to appear as good character girls? Even if it is depicted that the man doesn't care, the authors clearly do. 

Anyway, the books were good time pass reads and managed to keep my attention engaged. Now, when all books are over, I feel I could do with one or two more. I am now curious about how Rohan Bali and Jiya Dewan's chemistry could have panned out. Also, Shauna Sehgal is still single and there was a hint somewhere that Janak Sehgal could have considered Akash Karia as a suitable match. Maybe Sapna Bhog could consider two more books in the series.

P.S. I had revised the yearly books reading target to 24 books and I am already 17 books down. I hope I will be revising the target many more times by a dozen.

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A Love Cookie by Jenny Fox

Off late I have read a few office romance novels most of which included billionaire bosses as male protagonists. This book despite having that commonality of office romance with a billionaire boss, was a refreshing change. Ophelia Valentine is lovable and cute; and I love that she is confident in her own body and chooses to make herself a priority. The billionaire boss too, for a change, is not an egotistical, possessive, spoilt, stalker brat.

The food references are enticing. I used to consider myself a foodie but I doubt I can rival Ophelia's love for food and sweets. It is also interesting how all chapters are named on desserts, drinks and delicacies.

Overall, the story is simple and somewhat relatable as far as toxic relationships are concerned. The toxic relationship between Ophelia and her boyfriend seems all too real because it is all too prevalent between many real-life couples. However, it is heartening to see how Ophelia's friends and colleagues are rooting for her all through. The language used and the interactions between friends are sweet. Ophelia's billionaire boss, despite being socially awkward and blunt, is cute.

I actually read the book in one and a half day in the middle of the week, which I think says much about the happy and endearing the book is. Not just that, I recited the book to my teenage daughter over two nights and am absolutely fine in case she picks it up to read (which I am not so much in case of most of the billionaire romances that I have read so far).

P.S. Surprisingly, I am doing much better than my expectations in this year's 12 books in a year resolution. Since I am picking up most light romances to read, I am already 8 books down. But, I am not posting reviews for all books that I have read as I don't think that all of them deserve me spending time to write a full-fledged reviews.

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Awesome start to the year with Madhuri Tamse's books

I have started the new year with a bang. In the first 11 days itself, I have managed to wrap up three books which has been that most I have read in 10 days in forever. But, it helps when the books are sweet, romantic easy reads. The three books I wrapped up are all by the same author, Madhuri Tamse. The books in question are Royal Vows, No Wedding Bells and Marriage Bubbles; in the order that I read them but the correct order should actually have been reverse. Although they were standalone stories but they had a few common characters.

Royal Vows

The story was sweet and readable but to a lot of extent unrealistic. A painter being hired by a Royal Family to teach the prodigal son painting and then accommodating her within the Royal Palace when her work would probably not stretch beyond an hour every day... If this was unrealistic, imagine the painter volunteering to act as the Nanny for her student's daughter and even travelling on trips and staying in the same suite with the father and daughter. Having said that, the book was leisurely paced and the characters of Ruhi and Raunak were well-etched enough to keep one hooked. I had not heard of the author at all and had been intrigued by the book summary while browsing through Amazon. The fact that the book encouraged me to pick another one, and yet a third one later should say something.

No Wedding Bells

I picked this book when, at the end of the previous book, I read that this was Avni and Aryan's story; Avni being Ruhi's sister who had briefly appeared in the previous book along with Aryan. I was intrigued so I picked it up immediately after. The story was, like the previous one, easy to get hooked to. The only part that irked me was Aryan stalking  Avni.

Marriage Bubbles

This book is Advay and Jiya's story and these characters had appeared off and on in "No Wedding Bells" and again I was intrigued. The book is a standalone part of the "Accidental Marriage" series meaning the characters get married accidentally at the outset itself. Advay is Aryan's cousin and I am not sure why the Bohra brothers consider stalking their women is okay? However, despite the accidental marriage part being stupid (aka the Bollywood movie "Ek Main Aur Ek Tu"), the rest of the story was still believable; much like people falling in love in arranged marriages. On the contrary, the end ruined the experience for me.

The common thing about the books which I enjoyed the most is that all three books are about the journey of couples falling in love. In none of the books, there is one Eureka moment where the character realises that he or she has fallen in love (except in case of Aryan). And that experience makes these books pleasurable.

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Year-end Report - 2021

Every year since last five years, I start the year with a resolve to read at least 12 books in a year, that is, 1 book per month. I usually start the year well and then end up getting busy with life and losing control of the resolution, so much so that I never end up completing my resolution; except this year.

As usual, I started the year fine but reached a dry spell sometime around the middle of the year. Then in the last 2-3 months, everything changed. Few months ago, I started seeing all these sponsored posts on Facebook of book excerpts by "Pay by Chapter" reading apps which publicise "Free Books" (well, to give them benefit of doubt, the books are free but the coins/rewards/points to open each chapter may be paid; and you may eventually end up paying more than a normal book). I read those excerpts. While most pertain to werewolf/shifter romance, which I usually steer clear of, there were a few that were not paranormal and caught my attention and I would end up searching for the books. That lead me to subscribe to "Kindle Unlimited" and I started reading free books that came with the subscription. I also installed two "Pay by Chapter" apps but those are only for specific books that I became curious about and which I read through daily free coins. But, honestly, I am not a fan of these apps.

The point is that that was when everything changed about my reading style. First, I don't stop myself from putting down books that I don't like. I am the kind who felt guilty about not completing the books I picked up but didn't like but now I may debate about whether to quit, but I have quit quite a few books in between, some even more than half-way through. Second, I now am usually reading 2-4 books at the same time, on various devices. It basically means that I am putting my daughter's Kindle and my phone to good use.

Although most of the books that I have read did not excite me, these are a few that I read and remember off the head:

1. Inappropriate by Vi Keeland - My most recent read, and one which I completed this morning only. This is by far one of the better ones that I have read. I loved the story and the characters, Ireland and Grant, especially Grant. The comebacks and dialogues between the two characters are absolutely loveable.

2. Happily letters after by Vi Keeland - It's a cute and a totally unrealistic story. But it was sweet enough to make me pick up another book by the author.

3. Ved Maya by Vineeta Malhotra Taneja - Vineeta is a friend and I had already read her 'The Nameless Encounters' long back. Ved Maya and her third book had been on my TBR list for a long time and I had even once started reading Ved Maya earlier but had put it on hold 'to resume soon'. Finally, picked it up and lapped it up in one weekend. Again, Ved was my favourite character. Loved his "I don't have a girlfriend, but I'm committed" nature.

4. Roohi Shekhar by Vineeta Malhotra Taneja - Although if I had to choose between Ved Maya and Roohi Shekhar, I would choose the former; but Roohi Shekhar did not disappoint either. It was just as sweet and engrossing. The thing I love about Vineeta's writings is the effortless depiction of everyday urban young generation in Indian cities. The dialogues (Hinglish) and the banter between friends is so relatable and her books make for light easy read any day. Vineeta inspires me to write myself and that's the best part of her books.

5 & 6. Love Hate Relationships and Love in Relationships (LHR2) by Goodness Shadrach - I picked up the second book first and because I got curious after reading the Prologue, I decided to search the first book first. Luckily, it was available free to read on the internet. So, I ended up reading both parts in the series. I now feel I could have skipped these. But, the first book started well, and in the second, it all just went downhill.

7. Chained to the Mafia by Maya Lara - The less said the better.

8. The Arranged Bride by Mattii - Just slightly better than the one on number 7.

There were a few others but I cannot even remember their names right now. Honestly, they were more or less all the same romance cliches. Also, I re-read Harry Potter 1 again and planned to read the others too but didn't get around to.

I am also currently reading two stories on "Pay by Chapter" apps. I manage to read only about 1 or 2 chapters in a day with the free coins but so far I am enjoying them. The books are not edited, the language is not perfect and there are grammatical mistakes. Normally they are a put off for me but these two books have managed to keep me hooked.

1. The Alpha King's Hated Slave by Kiss Leilani - It was initially three books, namely, "My Slave, My Property", "My Master, My King" and "My Woman, My Possession" but on this app it was published all combined under a new name. I might have ignored it altogether because the word "Alpha" tends to make it appear like a werewolf romance but it is not. And the story got me hooked despite it being erotic in nature. I am about 60% through.

2. The Hired Bride by Seemran Haider - Another book that got me hooked because of the fun banter between the two lead characters. So, far I am enjoying it a lot and I am about 40% through. Interestingly, I started reading this to collect coins for another book on the app. But, I left the original one after a few chapters and stuck to this instead.

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Intertwined by Jerilee Kaye

I continue to be distracted by the sponsored posts on Facebook by free book reading apps. Very often I read the book summary and while I continue to be repulsed by all those books that have werewolves and pack stories, I once in a while find myself intrigued by some of the extracts. Intertwined was one such book whose extract I found a bit interesting. I eventually ended up reading it till the end. As I continued to read, I got hooked and I ended up finishing it in three days, much with the guilt of prioritising it over my work.

My last two reads, a set of two books actually, were similar ebooks, but, this book is way better than those, not just in terms of story and plot but also in the writing style, language and plot structure. I remember that in in case of my last two reads, I had felt that the author needs a good editor to edit the flow and check Grammar. In Intertwined, at least all that is taken care of. There are a few dialogues that are repeated again and again but, in my opinion, apart from that hardly any portions of the book need to be taken off and the grammatical errors are bare few.

The story starts in true Disney style movies, in High School with its dating scene and peer pressure on hooking up, and it soon progresses over the next 16 years of the characters lives. The protagonists are a bit cliched - the guy is a tall, handsome, brooding, super rich boy and the girl is a sweet, romantic, beautiful and innocent girl - and the ending is predictable too - they fall in love and spend the rest of their lives together. The book is all about how they reach their blissful ending of ever after. The story is simple, warm and sweet and makes you fall I love somehow with the characters. In fact, I have since re-read many of the parts of the book again because I found them super cute and they lingered on in my mind. Overall, it is a fun one-time read.

#intertwined

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Married to the Devil's Son and Return of the Devil's Son by Jasmine Josef

Since last few months, I keep getting these sponsored posts on Facebook about apps where you can read free books by budding authors. They always have catchy one or two sentences which are supposed to be like the summary (usually it's not a summary and just some sentences to get readers intrigued) followed by an extract, say the first few chapters etc. I often get myself reading these extracts just to pass time. More often than not they are pathetic translations of Chinese or South East Asian novels by some unknown budding authors which more often than not harbour on similar plots - A beautiful young girl unwillingly gets married to an extremely handsome, rich entrepreneur (or sometimes even a prince) with a bad reputation and how she manages to win over him and make the marriage work. There is always a vamp typical 70s-80s Bollywood movie or Ekta Kapoor's soaps style who is vile, vicious and totally 'un-sanskari' whereas the heroine is totally opposite. I hardly get any motivation to read the full extracts, leave alone try to get the app or go to the web and look for the whole book. There have been times when I have done that. "Escorting the Billionaire by Leigh James" was one such book for me, in fact, the first one where I actually made the effort. To say that it was borderline porn and quite disappointing is an understatement, because I am the kind of person who has never even had a Mills and Boons phase in my teenage. Thereafter, I had been vary of reading full books from these extracts. I did try twice. The second book that I tried turned into a full blown porn novel after few pages and I left it in between. Mind you, it's not in my nature to leave books in between no matter how boring, cringing or dragging they are. I would have long phases of no reading time but I would usually not pick up another book before I finish a book. So, it was quite a tussle inside me whether I should read through whole of it or just leave it there but eventually I told myself that I have much better things to do. Then after few weeks I went all the way with another book and started reading it online. It was some bad translation of a Chinese Novel and felt a bit interesting at the beginning. After reading about 170 Chapters (to be fair they were not very big Chapters), I realised that the story is practically going around in circles where the end is predictable but the author is deliberately delaying it by introducing new characters and replaying the same story line with the lead protagonists. Just trying to check how many more chapters there were to go, I found that the book had about 2000 chapters. Whoa! My inclination died then and there and I left it.

Now, "Married to the Devil's Son" was yet another a free novel type that I stumbled upon on Facebook. The story was not much my type as it had Demons and Witches and I never kind of liked these fantasy books unless it was the Harry Potter series which was to the point when it came to making it realistically possible writing. But, I guess I was in the phase where I was neck down in work, typically exhausted by day end, and was looking for a very light, no brainer kind of read. This book somehow fitted the bill. So, I went ahead and looked for a full version online. I found it quite easily and, in fact, this book even had some reviews on Goodread. 

I eventually read the full book and even picked up the sequel since the first book was left at a somewhat intriguing point. Apparently, there are one or two more books in the series but I don't plan reading them. The story is okay; it's light, frothy and romantic. There is not too much character building except for describing physical appearances of the characters (and guess what they are all very good looking and exquisite, both men and women). Also, the language is not very refined, there are many grammatical and spelling errors. I think the author, Jasmine Josef, can do with an editor here. But other than that, it was a total timepass and I have no issues documenting these books here as my 6th and 7th books of the year, as part of my 12 books target for the year.

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The Gita: For Children by Roopa Pai

I had read the Bhagvad Gita earlier twice in my mid-twenties. It wasn't any famous or popular version, rather just a simple Sanskrit to Hindi literal translation. I could understand it then but, honestly, there was no retention at all. I am anyway not much into non-fiction books and I just presumed that it was probably the reason why I didn't enjoy it much.

I had a few years later attented the Book Launch of The Gita: For Children with my daughter, who was maybe 6 or 7 years old then. I was mighty impressed by Roopa Pai. Surrounded by kids, she held their attention rapt. She asked quite a few questions related to Mahabharata and my daughter, fresh off various Krishna and Arjuna related animated movies, gave quite a few answers correctly. "Oh dear, I am mighty impressed with this little girl," Roopa said on the mic and my daughter puffed up with happiness. She started pestering me to buy the book. After the session, I went up to Roopa and asked her what would be the right age for my little girl to read this book. She said she was too young but maybe 13 or 14 years would be better because she would be able to understand the thoughts better. Now, when she has reached that age, I decided to buy the book for her and even before she picked it up, I decided to give it a go myself.

I simply loved the book. Written in conversation style and as a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, it is very easy to understand. Not just that, it explains the 18 learnings from the 18 Adhyay with simple real life examples that young adults can relate to and also gives tips on how to imbibe the learnings from the Gita into their day to day life. Honestly, most of us adults can use these tips as well.

So, if you are looking for a translation of each and every shlok / prose, then, this is not the book for you. Neither will it give you spiritual analysis and deep prodding to question yourself or explore your inner self. But if you are looking for a light reading which explains the crux of the most famous ideology of life and gives you simple tips to imbibe these learnings into your everyday life, this is absolutely the book for you.

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