I am back !!

Guess, this is just what everyone says when they are back after a long gap of silence.
Guess what ? I am like everyone else.

- Swetha Chalamasetty Naidu

A Thousand Letters book review

A thousand letters by Staci Hart - This book is definitely not my forte.

Childhood love, war, death by cancer.. Pheww!! Definitely not me.
I mean, there are lots and lots of poems in between the chapters which obviously I didn't understand. So skipped them. Now, I clearly understood how much I changed.

Reading Robert Frost works had been great in my school days. But now, I don't understand a single word of what ever he says like the poetry and literature from this book. I simply don't get it. If I don't get it then what will I write in a review.

In the middle of the story, we get to learn that the lead character Wade's mother dies at their young age and it's explained in details what their family went through. Then I realized may be it's time for me to learn about grief a little bit. I mean, what grief would be like because I never felt/understood when people talk about loss. We get affected only when we lose someone close to heart. So, this is new to me. I never felt that. May be it's now time for me to learn, understand. Which means, next time when someone talks about going through loss, I can contribute instead of sitting there idle. How to take care of a dying patient, how to see all the emotions a family of dying patient goes through, how to bring food to the family in need when the least thing on their mind would be food. All of this, I learnt from this book. With all this settled, I now focused on reading the book again. And this time it all felt good. It all felt quite interesting.

All the characters of the story feel they had more time. In this life, there is no room to hold on to grudges and stay away from people especially family. Because in the end all you do is regrets for the time lost. Be it a day or years.
Things should be told.
Communication is key.
Making people realize you love them is crucial.
Never withhold your feelings.
Speak up and see the difference.
If you have good to tell, then let it spread.
If there is nothing good that comes to your mind in a situation, keep quiet. But as I said, never ever withhold your true emotions, For life is Short.

Also, observed that the dialogues are less and more narration of the emotions. Same scene is explained both from Wade's and Elliot's side.

- SwEthA ChAlAmAseTTy

Echoes of Scotland Street Book Review

I adore Cole right from the beginning of the series for his calm nature and also his respect for women in his life. He shows kindness in his own unique way and protects all the women folk in the story.
It was his mother's own bad luck that she couldn't understand the love of her own son.

Cole is kind and smart, loyal and compassionate, strong and talented & brave and forgiving.
However, Cole's picture from the cover page of the book seems to be much older and manly. I imagined him to be a bit kind faced guy instead of rough. There are way too many hot guys in the story so far, and I am beginning to wonder if the hotness even exists in real world.

The story of Joss and Braden seemed a long time ago. In fact there's been a description at some point in the story, where Braden is described to be having white freckles and is now 42.I do not know where time flew by.

Ending of the story is just apt for Cole.

- SwEthA ChAlAmAseTTy

Fall from India Place.. A downfall book in the series

The story started may be seven years later. Of Course the story needs to have a time jump considering the age Hannah was at in the previous book. She is now 22, and working as a teacher. After reading this book, it's definitely worth getting to know how the life of a teacher might be given that you are single. There's definitely lot of marking to do, multiple versions of the same essay to read, most interesting part being to bring about a change in student's life.

Though it's good catching up on the life's of other old characters, I am having trouble remembering all the kids that are now born in to the story. Because there are too may and they are too loud.I get it that she is now 22. Just when I was wondering what happened to the little kid Declan, there he comes with his girlfriend and he is now 18. No surprise there. All of them have grown up clearly. 

One dialogue I found a bit funny in the story - 
" When you screw up, and if you're married you're bound to screw up at some point, it's good to have detailed notes of your partner's screw ups because that way you can remind them, and forgiveness for your screw up comes much more quickly. Peace reigns.

However, I found the story of Hanna quite emotional. She falling in love with her childhood crush, he deserting her, she dealing with miscarriage, leading the life of a teacher, dealing with a student's death, encountering Marco again and learning about his family. Though she hung on to her childhood crush Marco, some where in the back of my mind I feel sorry for her, since Marco already had a kid from some other girl.

This book from the series, I do not want to go back and read it all over again, just like how I did for the others.

- SwEthA ChAlAmAseTTy

My Not So Perfect Life - Just like mine

It is great to have a humor side to a romance cadre novel. After Princess diaries this book is the one I had seen with humor touche. Realized now that my favorites are with these type of quirky books. You have silly girl, family bonding, building a career, independent life, love comes to you at the end. Everything I need and it's perfect. Just reading the words from the book, cleared my clogged brain. Started reading this book just to keep my brain getting damaged with all the romance from On Dublin Street series. And look what I have here. A winner that is. My mind is now completely free of jargon. It got dumped in a dump yard. And I can see myself floating in the air with new ideas projecting all around me.

First of all the things I like to give clarity on. I do not want a perfect life. I like clutter. I like my ups and downs. May be I learnt that too quickly. May be I got the image of happy life reading books, May be I always knew every beginning has a happy ending. May be I always knew we have to search for happiness in tiny little things that life has to offer.

God I missed this type of writing. It is now officially decided I have to read Sophie kinsella's books just like I read Meg Cabot's. Looking forward to more fun !! This is FUN !!

- SwEthA ChAlAmAseTTy

Castle Hill - Book 3.5 of On Dublin Street series

The story is narrated by Joss in the first hand and covers all the missed bits of her life story with Braden. Though we get to learn from other books what Joss and Braden are up to, here in Castle hill only we have a look at their life in detail. Reading the story tells about how comfortable they are with each other in their relationship. A girl can only dream about being comfortable with her partner. Both of them should be approachable. 

As the cover says, First comes Love, then comes Marriage - I don't quite agree with it. See in my case, I had an arranged marriage. We never shared love before our wedding. It only occurred gradually after I get to know my hubby. The first time we met at our parents place, we didn't have a bond or spark. It is not until the week before our wedding we met and I realized there is some serious heart-to-heart connection going on here. How-so-ever, I feel that true love (that comes from the bottom of the heart) only grows stronger with time. Well, Best Of Luck to me !!

My mind is now full of Joss and Braden and their love. I am not able to think much other than these three words. I need a break from romance. I am dead serious. Don't you dare get the idea that I am acting like Joss. I am out of words to write a review about any other book. Hands and brain ran out of romantic words to write in a blog. See I am blabbering here. I seriously mean it. I need a break !!

- SwEthA ChAlAmAseTTy

Before Jamaica Lane - Book 3 from On Dublin Street series

I expected the story to be of Olivia after reading the last chapter of 'Down London Road'. She is the new girl in town and I wanted to know more about her. Again Samantha Young did not disappoint in making us learn the story of Olivia. 

It is about a person who wants to have confidence in herself. She is always fighting to get her confidence in front of boys as all her adulthood had been full of responsibilities and she doesn't even know how to approach the opposite sex. The character Olivia from the story makes us learn an important thing and that is - Always believe in you.. and be you. No matter what. 

Talking about belief if you consider my opinion, a life is not worth living if you get to act. We can only enjoy each and every moment if and only if we be our self. None can be a perfect human being at the beginning. We need to stick to the originality in us, as long as it doesn't hurt others. We can have attitude, as long as it doesn't hurt others. By any chance, you feel that you are hurting your love by your attitude, immediately change. If the change you made is good for others, then it makes you happy. If you are happy, that is all that matters in this world. From what I said above, it doesn't mean you have to think about other and make changes in yourself. Sometimes, you need not think of the world as long as you stick to your character basics.

What I observed from beginning of the series is that the female characters in the story are of the below age groups:

1) Joss - Just graduated
2) Jo - 24 years
3) Olivia - 26 years

Had I not been pregnant with my girl by the time I read this story, I would have definitely felt left out. The reason is that Joss is pregnant with Braden's child and then there is Olivia at the end of the story who confirms her pregnancy too. Well, I now know how awesome it feels to be pregnant with a child from your beloved one. Hatsoff to being a mother !!

- SwEthA ChAlAmAseTTy