Kidnapped the Wrong Sister by Marie Kelly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A lust filled love story wherein one falls in love with the one who kidnaps her.

Storyline: Diona and Darlyle Brown are two orphan sisters who lead a modest life in Britain. Darlyle one day suddenly informs her elder sister Diona, that she is going to marry Alexis, the brother of a rich business tycoon Nikias Dranias, and elopes to Greece. Diona sensing trouble immediately shoots off to Greece to save her sister from a disaster. But she gets kidnapped by Nikias and held hostage in his private island, having been mistaken as Darlyle. Her stay in the luxurious island and repeated vigorous sexual encounters with the rich, handsome and sexy Nikias brings her intimacy and ultimately she falls in love with him. Nikias, though initially mistakes her to be a schemer and master sketcher to claim some ransom from him on behalf of her sister, later realizes that Diona came to Greece just to take her sister away from his brother Alexis, and he wrongly kidnapped her instead. Meanwhile Alexis and Darlyle get married and live happily. The true love of Diona is reciprocated by Nikias by not only confessing his love to her but also with an offer to marry her; just at the time when Diona decides to leave Nikias forever, instead of just being his bed partner.

Positives: A beautiful soft story to reveal how love between two strangers can be born so suddenly, out of nowhere. Also to elicit that sometimes lust and physical attachment gives way to long lasting love and undoubtedly becomes the binding factor for two people to stay together forever. Very plain and smooth ride through the book. Good enough for a weekend time pass. Love rides though wealth gallops.

Negatives: Except for the mistaken kidnap and violent sexual encounters between Nikias and Diona, there are not much twists and turns in the story. Very few rich guys out there nowadays who do not mix love and lust together. Does physical intimacy between a male and female enhance true love? Or does it bring it down?

My rating is 3 out of 5


View all my reviews

TROY (A EUROPEAN EPIC WAR MOVIE - 2004)

Directed by Wolfgang Peterson. Produced by Wolfgang Peterson/Diana Rathbun/Colin Wilson. Starring Brad Pitt (Achilles), Eric Bana (Prince Hector of Troy), Orlando Bloom (Prince Paris of Troy), Diana Kruger (Queen Helen of Sparta) and Brian Cox (Agamemnon) in lead roles.

Storyline: The king of Achaea (old Greece) Agamemnon and king of Sparta (Menelaus) were brothers. Agamemnon had a long cherished wish to capture the wealthy and powerful kingdom of Troy, ruled by King Priam, who makes a peace pact with Sparta to avoid the invasion of Agamemnon. But, the younger Prince of Troy, Paris falls in love with the wife of Agamemnon, Queen Helen. He smuggles her to Troy. This angers both Menelaus and Agamemnon and gives them a reason to attack Troy with all their forces in 1000 ships. They take the help of Achilles, the greatest warrior ever born in this world, lord of the deadly warrior clan of Greece, called the Myrmidons, for this attack. Achilles, unwillingly takes up the job as he was against the principles of Agamemnon and his unjustified invasions. Achilles skillfully wins the initial war against Troy, by taking over their coveted Temple of Apollo, where he comes across the beautiful Brisies, cousin of the Prince of Troy, Hector, with whom he falls in love. Prince Hector, the elder son of King Priam, an equally fierceful warrior, defeats the Greek army with his great war skills. In his second reluctant attack Hector kills the cousin of Achilles, mistaking him for Achilles himself. This greatly angers Achilles and kills Hector in a one to one tussle, avenging his cousin’s death. Achilles repents for this act of his, when King Priam begs to give back his brave son’s corpse for last funeral rights. After a brief peace assurance for twelve days, the Greeks enter the impregnable Troy walls hidden in a wooden horse, which the Trojans mistake for a gift to their God Apollo, for having attacked Troy. The Greeks plunder Troy by burning the city to ashes, ruthlessly killing the men and the babies after raping their women. The royal family women along with Prince Paris escape through a secret passage built by Hector. Agamemnon, Menelaus and Priam along with all their great generals die in this dastard attack in the night. Achilles, also gets killed by Paris’s deadly arrows when the former tries to find his lover Brisies in the palace. Finally, Achilles is given full royal funeral pyre in the ruins of Troy by the Greeks, as a farewell to the greatest warrior that ever lived on this Earth.

Positives: One of the greatest epic war movies ever made in the history of world cinema. Another proof that mankind’s self destruction happens only due to the hunger for either power or a woman. Lot of study and research has gone into the making of this movie which has given the right aroma of excitement through hair raising scenes brought out in the greatest wars of olden days. The true story of the rivalry between Greece and Troy and the great war that resulted in destruction of one of the most prosperous and powerful kingdom of Troy is exquisitely shown on silver screen. Kudos to the production and technical team which captured every minute detail of the true epic story, on celluloid. The warrior skills of Achilles and Hector, the two greatest warriors of those days, was brought back to life as if those men exist even today, amongst us. Perfect screenplay, music, action, and result.

Negatives: Though Brad Pitt well suited as Achilles, Eric Bana as Prince Hector, seemed a little misfit. Hector was shown as too weak compared to Achilles both in physique and mental state, which is actually, not true, in history. There should have been more of Helen and Paris, whose selfish love (rather infatuation) was the actual reason behind the fall of a great kingdom and death of two great warriors.

My rating is 4.75 out of 5

Goal Setting: How to Get Everything You Want In Less Time by Josh Adams
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A simple guide to set your goals in career or personal life. One can read this book when one has short time in transit or waiting for someone. Goal setting is easy if one has a zeal to excel but difficult when he or she fears failure and procrastinates. Various points of how to set goals based on self belief, inner desires, priorities in life, commitment, honor, time allocation, self discipline, resources and rewards.
Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Rewarding, Time Bound (SMART) goals are always the best and good to pursue, as per the author.

My rating is 2.5 out of 5


View all my reviews

PERCY JACKSON: THE SEA OF MONSTERS (HOLLYWOOD ADVENTURE FANTASY MOVIE)

Directed by Thor Freudenthal, Produced by Michael Barnathan/Karen Rosenfelt, Starring Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson), Brandon Jackson (Grover), Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth), Douglas Smith (Tyson) and Jake Abel (Luke). Music by Andrew Lockington, Cinematography by Shelly Johnson.

Storyline: Camp Half-Blood is a little township where the children of Gods live in peace and harmony. This is where Percy Jackson (son of Poseidon-Greek God of the Sea) and his friends Annabeth, Grover, Luke and Tyson (Percy’s half brother) live. Long ago, a girl called Thalia, daughter of the eldest God, Zeus, sacrifices her life to protect Annabeth, Luke and Grover against a monster attack. Her death leaves her to be transformed into a pine tree and form a protection layer to the Camp. One day Luke, the great grandson of the evil Titan God Kronos, tries to revive him from his coffin through the Golden Fleece, and seeks Percy’s help, since he believes that Percy is the only living child of the eldest Gods, as per a legend of the Oracle. Percy turns down Luke’s proposal. Luke in protest, poisons Thalia’s tree and disappears. The Camp elders now know that the tree can be saved only through the Golden Fleece, which has magical powers to heal and raise the dead. Percy and his friends set out to obtain the Fleece from Polyphemus Lair in an island in the middle of the Sea of Monsters. Percy adventures to get the Fleece from the monster man and while returning is confronted by Luke. The Golden Fleece is used to raise the Kronos from his coffin, by Luke. But Percy valiantly kills the Kronos with his Riptide, a cursed blade gifted by his father. Percy and his team bring back the Golden Fleece to the Camp Half-Blood and revive the dying Thalia tree and restores the protection layer. In the process, Thalia also comes back to life due to the magical power of the Golden Fleece only to reveal her true identity and surprise everyone.

Positives: An visual treat for all age groups. Though the story line is a little confusing for those who haven’t seen the first part in Percy Jackson series, one gets to enjoy the extensive graphics used and great screenplay assisted by beautiful cinematography. The visual effects are so rich and colourful that the audience is virtually carried into a different world, when watched on big screen.

Negatives: The story line is confusing for those who haven’t watched the previous Percy Jackson movie “The Lightning Thief”.

My rating is 4 out of 5

Love Gone Mad by Mark Rubinstein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A deadly fiction based on psychiatric disorder of a man who loved his wife very much.

Storyline: Conrad Wilson, a sexually abused child by his adopted father, grows up to be physically strong but with a psychiatric ailment called paranoid delusional disorder. He believes that his beloved beautiful wife Megan Haggarthy cheated upon him by bearing a girl child which doesn’t belong to him, but of a person called Dr.Adrian Douglas, a cardio surgeon. The reason behind which he ventures to kill both of them. Megan takes a divorce from Conrad and lives with her daughter separately, under police protection.
Dr Adrian, a divorced man, who is desperate to live a life with a beautiful small family of his own, gets attacked by Conrad even before he ever met Megan. Adrian meets Megan once accidentally, after the attack, and they immediately fall in love. Conrad makes multiple attempts to murder the lovers and ends up in jail followed by a court trial wherein his lawyers prove that Conrad was suffering from insanity and a psychiatric disorder due to his abused childhood. The twist in the story and the reality comes in when Adrian and Megan discover that the child of Megan does really belong to Adrian, when Megan conceives with artificial insemination of the sperm from Adrian at the sperm bank. This is unknown to both of them. This secret is found out by Conrad due to his extra-ordinary animal trait of being able to smell the genetic odour of the child matching with that of Adrian, even before the donor and the recipient knew about it. This as explained by the experts is due to the extra large olfactory node present in Conrad like in animals that can smell the scent of their offspring. This secret is held by Megan as she couldn’t conceive through Conrad and wanted to keep the marriage intact.
Conrad is sent to a rehabilitation centre from where he again escapes cleverly by pretending good behaviour with the authorities, only to attack the married Adrian-Megan couple, once again, to take revenge for being cheated by Megan, whom he loved very much and wanted the same in return. The couple is saved by the police in the nick of time and Conrad gets killed in the tussle.
The original secret gets cremated forever between Adrian and Megan while the police and court thinks that Conrad suffered from a psychiatric disorder.

Positives: A very interesting page turner right from the beginning. A scintillating thriller. The medical link to legal trials and the outcome involving a set of doctors and lawyers trying to show their each other’s superiority in the court is commendable. The psychiatric disorder of Conrad and the way it is used to save Conrad from being convicted by his lawyer is worth reading. Overall, the scientific reasons behind Conrad’s behaviour and his animal traits in being able to identify his offspring through his ability to smell is hair raising. A perfect blend of love, law and science makes the book highly thrilling.

Negatives: The dis-integrating human values in the society is a matter of concern once again. The absurd behaviour of irresponsible parents towards their children which lead to the making of such psychos in the society challenging the security of the good ones. This book might give the readers the fear of such impending danger.



View all my reviews

AQUARIUS - Your Zodiac Horoscope by GaneshaSpeaks.com 2014 by The GaneshaSpeaks Team
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A book of basic astrology which speaks more about the writers and the origin of the website. Describes the different zodiac signs available and the mysteries, elements, colour forecast comes up somewhere in the second half which spreads across month-wise. Even the solar and lunar eclipse periods for 2014 are covered and surprisingly the preferences, ruling planets, and their preferences to start with. The actual astrological countries and towns that will get affected are also mentioned. That is the interesting part and must read for the believers. Non-believers can give it a try too.

Positives: Many general aspects like the good and bad of each zodiac sign is briefed, like in many other such counterparts. The best part of this book is the monthly forecast for the year 2014 for people, cities and countries. Must wait and see to get the full picture.

Negatives: Information provided is nothing new for those who are already well-versed with such forecasts. Universal forecast mostly covering the good and a little of bad, but nothing specific. I did not find the book very interesting as it is more generalized with a tag that the forecast might not be accurate when it comes to individual perceptions. Though, the description of my zodiac Aquarius is quite fitting, I personally didn’t find it relevant to me when it came to the monthly forecast of the last quarter of 2013.



View all my reviews

The Flinch by Julien Smith
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A self help book on a person’s inherent nature to draw back any action. ‘Flinch’ is a term used to draw back or offer resistance to any change or to any action that anyone desires to do.
Part of the Domino Project, the book reveals many real facts about how this strange character of a human being dwells in the brain and doesn’t allow many to reach out for their best. Many good examples and motivators have been used to urge the reader to overcome this dangerous inherent nature and get over many hurdles of life and lead an excellent life. The author discourages parents not to strength the flinch in kids by cautioning them too much on dos and don’ts and urges the readers to test their limits to the maximum to become strong.

Positives: A very good book to locate the flinches within one’s self. Particularly the assignments suggested by the author at the end of every chapter are worth trying. One could learn how to curb the internal resistance when they want to do something out of the box.

Negatives: Too short to really learn something about this murky character, that subdues every individual.

My rating is 2.5 out of 5


View all my reviews

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A classic novel that should not be missed. Though very late in reading this book, I am totally overwhelmed by the foresight of this great author, in future of mankind and the earth itself.

Storyline: An inventor of The Time Machine (name undisclosed) gathers a group of learned people from different strata of the society in his house, to explain about his great invention that can take a man into future and past. The Time Traveller (as named by the author) tries to explain that there is a fourth dimension to length, width and height of Space, and that is ‘time’. Just like how we can move forward and backward in the three common parameters, he wants to prove that we can do so similarly in time also, which is conveniently ignored by the scientists. He puts himself practically into the Time Machine and moves ahead thousands of years into the future. There, to his surprise he doesn’t find advanced life as expected but tiny human beings who evolved into terrestrial and subterranean creatures, the former being purely vegetarian and the later non-vegetarian. It’s a world of the haves and the have-nots with totally different languages, life style, eating habits etc. A sort of a stage where mankind has evolved into a very simple and secure life with no desires, wants, needs, familial structure, male female differences, violence, intellectual/economic power, big buildings, cars, luxuries, machines, tools, gadgets etc but a simple of eating just fruits and meat to live and enjoy a totally different pristine mother nature, where even fire is unknown. All forms of animal lives have become extinct including all forms of bacteria, viruses and other microscopic organisms. The time traveler escapes the cannibalistic subterraneans to travel much further into future only to find that practically all life on earth has disappeared except for a few crustaceans of the sea. Even the sun is about to collapse and earth has turned totally barren with no day and night. This depresses the time traveler to a great extent and returns back to the present only to tell what he witnessed to the group. But they do not believe in him and dismiss the narration as a silly dream as he doesn’t have any physical proofs of his visit.
Determined to prove the authenticity of his machine, the Traveller goes back in his Time Machine this time with a camera to prove his visit to the past or future but doesn’t return back.

Positives: Fiction re-defined. A classic, which cannot be admired in mortal words. Some great truths about human life and its evolution to a level where there is no desire, danger and fear, is exquisitely explained. The reader will not want to put down the book until finished at one go. A wonderful book of unfathomable imagination which enlightens the reader beyond a level of one’s thirst for knowledge of human existence and its evolution into the future that brings it back to the beginning where it all started.

Negatives: The book could take us through the extreme future of the mankind but not about how the evolution happened stage by stage.

My rating is 5 out of 5


View all my reviews

CLOSED CIRCUIT (HOLLYWOOD BRITISH CRIME THRILLER)

Directed by John Crowley, Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Chris Clark. Starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall. Music by Joby Talbot.

Storyline: Martin Rose (Eric Bana) and Claudia Simmons Howe (Rebecca Hall) are attorneys appointed by the Attorney General as defense lawyers to defend Farroukh Erdogen, a suspected terrorist responsible for a blast in a busy London market, killing almost 120 people. Martin and Claudia’s (ex-lovers) appointment with lot of conditions and restrictions, was deliberate by the Government to mislead the public away from the complicated case of national interest. In their investigations, both of them dig out the fact that the British Secret Service Agency Mi5 was involved in the blast, accidentally. Farroukh was an MI5 agent deployed in terrorist camps of Middle East who is said to have duped Mi5 and lead the plot for the blast. All this information is brought out by Farroukh’s son, through a hard disk from his father’s laptop. In the process Mi5 agents try to kill the boy, Martin and Claudia to protect the organization’s guilt, but all of them escape to appear in the court next day. But Farroukh is eliminated in the jail by Mi5, showing it as a suicide. Eventually the case gets posted to Government enquiry which would take years to be solved, despite all the efforts of the two lawyers to provide enough evidence against Mi5’s involvement in the blast.

Positives: The plot and the storyline were different with an end that is not successful to the lead roles. Very good performance by Eric and Rebecca. Clean and green movie with no sex scenes, no gun fights and no car chases. Just pure drama with beautiful love expressions, to be enjoyed by the audience on a nice weekend evening. The ill deeds of the powerful secret service agencies of some countries aided by the respective Governments, exposed once again.

Negatives: Definitely not a movie for the high voltage crowd. Success restricted to some countries only which approve slow and pure classical entertainment. Though the story is excellent, the way in which it is screened, seems to be a little out of flavour. Probably the stardom was not enough.

My rating is 2.5 out of 5

Now That You’re Rich! Let’s Fall in Love by Durjoy Datta
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A continuation of the authors’ previous book, OF COURSE, I LOVE YOU, the story of 4 young fresh graduates, narrated by Debashish Roy, a senior intern in a major financial institution, mentoring the fresh interns, along with his gorgeous love Avantika.

Storyline: Four fresh graduates Abhijeet, Saurav, Garima and Shruti get through their college placement interviews and join the Hyderabad corporate office of Silverman Financial, a giant in the industry. Coming from different financial and emotional backgrounds, all of them dream of having a successful and lavish careers. But they are greeted by the tough working environment of the organization with equally tough bosses to work with. They struggle to keep up to the organization’s expectations and get frustrated with the way their superior exploits the fresh female interns sexually. Shruti, the poorest of all, struggles to keep her job to meet her parents’ thirst for money. She is misunderstood by her other three friends to have slept with her boss to keep her job and breaks away from the group. In the midst of her loneliness and drunken state, she encounters Rishab, the owner of a lavish night club and heir to a vast business empire. Rishab gets impressed by the simplicity and humble background of Shruti only to fall in love with her. She finally reunites with her friends, after they realize their mistake and also fulfills her cherished wish of marrying a rich guy. Abhijeet and Garima marry, while Saurav finds Riya (ex-girlfriend of Abhijeet). All to end in a happy note of living rich until they find a better partner.

Positives: Young dreams of finding a career that makes one financially stable is worth observing. Though today’s young generation know very well what they want, the book depicts how they are capable of making or breaking their lives, without depending on their elders. Interesting book if one wants to know how corporate culture exploits the young and needy. Sexual harassment of female employees by male bosses is well elicited. A good entertainer for the young, who are looking for something to read on love and sex.

Negatives: The book has a filmy touch. Dreaming big is not a crime but means to achieve that dream is what counts. Sex and relationship seem to be in the air and very casual in today’s youth, as per the author….as easy as one changes clothes. They are forgetting the point that such relationships become a big problem once the married life partner comes to know about it, later, unless he or she is equally involved in similar acts. Infatuation rather than true love seems to be rampant. The author seems to have experienced similar environment and has a halo effect on his writings. Danger of youth adopting easy method of getting rich through marriage.

My rating is 3.5 out of 5


View all my reviews

Of Course I Love You...! Till I Find Someone Better... by Durjoy Dutta , Maanvi Ahuja
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first of the book written by the author in his early writing days, it’s a story of his life in college and just after college. A book filled with relationships, kisses, sex, love, lust, infatuation, break-ups, switch overs and same all over, again.

Storyline: Debasish Roy, a Bengali lad gets into Delhi Engineering College, into Mechanical Branch. Since he is just not interested in his studies, and always craving to get recognized among the lot, due to his hefty and ugly personality, he loses out in his exams as well as placements. He gets into relationships or the so called Love, with many girls, but dumps them or gets dumped equally fast, as soon as he satisfies his sexual pleasures with them. His friends Shrey, Vernita, Yoginder etc are no less. Finally, he comes across the most beautiful, sexy Avantika, who just gets rehabilitated from drug abuse through a spiritual Guru. It starts with infatuation but matures to true and passionate love, fuelled with wild sex and kissing. Avantika one day suddenly feels that Deb is stuck with her bad luck, just like all her other ex-boy friends, and breaks her relationship, by taking up a job and walks out of Deb’s life. The dilapidated Deb joins a Government organization through his dad, where he meets Amit, whom he helps to get his love of his life. Amit gets to know about Deb’s failed love story through his blog and contacts Avantika to know the real story. He narrates the position of Deb and how much how much he still longs for her. Avantika realizes her mistake and reunites with Deb through a surprise visit to his home with the published book of his story captured from his blog and also remuneration cheque from the publisher. Both live happily ever after.

Positives: A vibrant book for the early college goers. Though college life is shown to be very colorful and a period which is supposed to be enjoyed rather than taking life seriously, there is an underlying moral which states the importance of studying well and getting into good jobs rather than be left out like Deb. “Is today’s youth really getting into trouble and mess?” is the idea one gets after finishing the last page.

Negatives: Quite boring until more than midway. There is too much of hype around the subject love-sex mix which might mis-guide young readers to dream about having a life like Deb. Not everyone has parents like and girl friends like Deb, who can forget and forgive everything. Flirting and having sex with strangers is portrayed as a common thing in city colleges. No wonder some youth resort to rapes when they don’t get such privileges. The basic culture and tradition is at stake if situation in colleges is like this. There are some negative elements of behavior which might have a lasting impression on young people.

My rating is 3 out of 5


View all my reviews