Tegwen is a guardian of the dream realm. Her job is to keep the seals safe and prevent the nightmares from entering the waking plane. Making a mistake could mean demotion if she gets caught. 

Namid has more nightmares than dreams. The Windigo doesn’t seem to leave her alone. Tegwen tries to repair the seal in her first solo shift but creates a mess. However, she decides to fix it on her own. Turns out that her decision puts more people in danger. Tegwen is still trying to find a way out when she has her first dream. 

Can she prevent further harm, or will her decisions lead to more chaos and terror? 

The story comes from Tegwen’s first-person POV. 

This is a short novella that reads at a steady pace. It’s neither slow nor fast and has the right amount of pacing to understand the setting and feel the terror. 

There aren’t too many details about the sealkeepers and their roles. It’s more enjoyable to go with the flow and take things in stride. A few things get revealed towards the end, but the setting is very much a work in progress. 

Tegwen is our narrator, and while she is brave, capable, and talented, she isn’t super easy to like (for an adult who dislikes characters making stupid decisions). She grows a little, but she’ll be my third favorite in the book. 

Namid is an Ojibwe girl with spunk, attitude, and vulnerabilities. TBH, I loved Namid more than Tegwen. She is more grounded despite the things in her life. Her character arc is really good. She’s my first favorite (if you haven’t figured it out). 

Ravi is Tegwen’s trainer and superior. He has a limited role in the story but shines whenever he makes an appearance (my second favorite). 

The book deals with themes of how things in real life reflect in our nightmares. I like the presentation of the concept and how it blends with the treatment of indigenous people. 

I first marked the book as MG fiction but realized it would be closer to YA. There isn’t information about their ages, so we have to guess it based on their voices and actions. 

To summarize, Sealkeeper is a lovely fantasy with interesting characters and an intriguing plotline. The ending is perfect for a sequel. I sure would love to read it. 

Thank you, Book Sirens and author Ria Rees, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

 

 3.7 Stars

One Liner: Entertaining and fun 

Rex Hunter, a millionaire, is found dead on his golf links. The sight of his bashed head is enough to show that it’s murder. But who wants to kill the owner of a prestigious golf and country club in Chianti? 

Turns out that Hunter had a thing for women. He was a bully, a womanizer, and a heartless man disliked and loathed by many. With the number of suspects increasing every hour, the case doesn’t look simple anymore. 

Being retired doesn’t mean Dan can spend the rest of his life away from crime, right? Dan agrees to help the local chief and his friend Virgilio catch the killer. Can Dan and Oliver (black Labrador) solve the case in time? Will there be more deaths to deal with? 

The story comes from Dam Armstrong’s first-person POV. 

Dan Armstrong and Oliver are back in action in the second book of the series. This reads very well as a standalone despite the continuing personal track from book one. There’s enough information for the readers to get the gist. 

My issue with long chapters continues in this one too. Please, once again, divide the chapters into smaller ones. It shouldn't take so much time to read a 250-page book (for a cozy mystery). Though the plot is different, I couldn’t help but find parallels in both books. 

The central plot is engaging with an array of suspects and new developments. The numerous characters are easy to track and remember. With most of them hating the dead man, it’s interesting to figure out the killer. I admit only one of my guesses is right. The reveal made sense and fit with the theme, so no complaints. 

Oliver is an adorable buddy and seems to be a ladies’ man. ;) I also like that Oliver isn’t just a pet but has an important role in the book. 

There will be new developments in Dan’s life next, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. I like the way the track is progressing. It feels natural. 

To summarize, Murder in Chianti is an entertaining cozy mystery (albeit a slower one) and a solid continuation of the series. Of course, I’m hoping for a fresh theme in the next book. 

Thank you, NetGalley and Boldwood Books, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

 3.7 Stars

1820, England 

Rosalind Newbury is engaged to marry a duke even without having a season. Her family sees it as an opportunity to increase their reach. Rosalind agrees to make her family happy. As the wedding date gets closer, she cannot help but feel suffocated and uncomfortable. She barely knows the duke and hasn’t had a chance to live life the way she wanted. 

Rosalind digs out a list from her childhood and is determined to complete it before the wedding. She thinks it’ll make her ready for the marriage. She seeks help from her dearest friend Liza. But Liza’s cousin Charlie also joins the gang. After all, a gentleman-turned-wayward boxer needs something to keep him entertained. 

As Ros ticks off each item on the list, she realizes more about her suppressed self. But with the wedding fast approaching, can she make a decision that’s right for her and her family? Is there a place for love and happy ever after? 

The story comes from Rosalind’s first-person POV. 

This is a straightforward historical romance. It was rather a relief to read something simple and sweet. This is a clean romance, too (not that I mind some steam). 

The pacing is steady. I could finish the book in two days and didn’t have to speed-read either. 

The characters are neither too deep nor shallow. They have the right amount of depth to keep the whole thing light and easy on the mind. 

Rosalind, Charlie, Liza, and Ben are easy to like. They have their flaws but are loving, witty, and family-oriented. Ros can be a little childish, but she isn’t even eighteen, so that’s understandable. 

The banter between Ros and Charlie is fun to read. Some of it is silly, while some of their conversations are thoughtful and heartwarming. 

The secondary characters are also sweet and warm. They don’t get much space, but I can see the potential to turn this into a standalone series. There definitely is a track ready for the next book. 

It has HEA, which is always welcome (with exceptions). We know what will happen. It’s the how that matters, and this was entertaining pretty much throughout. 

I’ll put these in spoilers as these issues can be easily edited in the final manuscript (the release is two months away). 

 

Though the book is from Rosalind’s perspective, it was still jarring to see her mother accept her decision (or the change of her decision) and even support it. A scene earlier in the book to link to this change will make the transition smoother. 

 

Rosalind’s father and the duke have very limited roles. A scene between Rosalind and her father would also make the climax more believable. 

 

We don’t see the duke until toward the end. By then, we already have our loyalties towards another character. The duke has to be live in action early in the book to build a case. It seems unfair that this happens to him (and a couple of dialogues don’t justify it enough). 

 

Rosalind doesn’t even think of updating her list. It seems odd that she’d only want to tick off something she wrote as a child. Maybe have her ponder over the items a little more, delete a couple, and add them back again.

 

To summarize, Miss Newbury's List is a sweet regency romance with pretty likable characters and lighthearted banter. It works great as a breather or a comfort read. 

Thank you, NetGalley and Shadow Mountain Publishing, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

Geeta's abusive husband disappeared five years ago, making her an outcast in the village. People have decided she did something to get rid of him. Of course, it comes with perks, and Geeta is content to be left alone. 

However, when other women from the village start asking for her help to off their husbands, things start to spiral out of control. Geeta may be inspired by Phoolan Devi, but can she handle the worst that comes with it? 

*** 

How do you identify a progressive author of Indian origin? Their book has the following topics: 

The Bandit Queen is no exception. It satisfies each element on the checklist and makes it a perfect choice for intellectual book club reads. However, the book has certain elements I like and enjoy.

What I Like:

The cover is fab. Love those eyes on the black background. So, so good!

The kids are a treat to read. I wish the book had more of them instead of social activism. Be it Raees, Arhaan, or Irem, each has a distinct personality and is just as adorable (and funny). Irem deserved more space, given that she is the most likely candidate to take over when the time comes.

The women, Geeta, Saloni, Farah, Priya, and Preity, are layered and flawed. They are much more than the first impressions, and knowing them through the course of the book makes them real (despite a few hiccups). ASP Sinha is another underexplored character. The author could have done so much for the plot with better priorities.

The book has many references to CID (it is a popular crime show on Sony TV and one of my favorites). As someone who watched 1000+ episodes, it’s a treat to see it inspire women (let’s ignore that the inspiration is not something the channel intended).

The story picks up pace in the second half. It is not fast but maintains a steady momentum. The climax is Bollywoodish but entertaining. Well, I can visualize the scenes playing out, so that’s a plus.

The book has a good dose of dark and morbid humor. Some may find it strange, but I like it. The interactions are coarse, crude, and crass, which is exactly how it should be in such a setting. You have to listen to them speak to realize it. Some women use cusswords as a part of their speech, just like men do. And women from rural areas are more likely to have a colorful vocab with native cuss words.
 
What Didn’t Work for Me:

The first half is slow, like really slooow. Imagine reading so much only to notice that you’ve completed just a quarter of the novel. This isn’t the kind of book I could speed-read. Sigh!
 
The dialogues! Yeah, I know it is hard to balance authentic Indian dialogues and their readability for a global audience. It will always be too desi or too western. This book tries hard to get the balance right and manages to a certain extent. But as a desi (#OwnVoice) reader, I could see how it is a weird blend of both. It was hard to sustain the image of Geeta when she sounds like an American in some places (yo, F*ck ya bitch*s) and a proper desi woman (I earn my own salt) the other time.

The translated proverbs were just as strange. There’s only so much of ‘something black in the lentils’ I can tolerate before screaming. It doesn’t help that this appears around half a dozen times in the book. Please, don’t translate native proverbs into English. I endured the same in The Island of Missing Trees very recently. *sob* 

 

I don’t mind frustrated characters. They can be wonderful to read. Take one jab at something, and I’ll see it as a part of the plot and character arc. Do it repeatedly, and I’ll pick patterns. Wanna attack unfair societal rules? Go ahead. I’ll cheer for you. Want to use it as a ruse to target one religion, sorry, but no.  

Trivia: Qureshi Vs. Saifi case and what happened to Danish Ansari 

I could tell myself to ignore this in the name of creative freedom. But this (read below) is ridiculous.

We have a three-page crash course on Ramayana because a book set in India is not complete with invoking Ramayana or Mahabharata. It adds nothing to the plot. Like zero.

So what does this version of Ramayana say? It says Raavan was madly in love with Sita, and hence he kidnapped her. I literally choked on my glass of water when I read this.

You write a book about perverted men abusing, raping, and controlling women and say that Raavan was in love with Sita. Irony downed itself in Bubble Tea. How is it that the difference between lust, dominance, and love is still not clear? Raavan was a rapist who abused countless women. (He was upper caste too, and the author could have used this to drive her point for the nth time. But no, he has to be in lovey-dovey love with Sita.)

Oh, by the way, Raavan did not touch Sita because he was cursed that he would die (his head would be blown into a thousand pieces) if he ever touched a woman without her consent. The curse was given by Nala Kuber when Raavan raped Ramba, Nala Kuber’s fiancé. So, darlings, his lack of action had nothing to do with love or respect but everything to do with the curse. End of the crash course.

A Few Other Hiccups:

To summarize, The Bandit Queens is a book I like and hate in equal measure. I love the layered characters and compelling plotline. But I cannot ignore the attempts at presenting a poor, pathetic, ugly, dirty India with Indians who can’t think beyond caste and religion. This has been an image the developed countries love and expect from third-world countries. I’m tired of authors catering to such needs and playing an earnest brown sepoy.

I won’t deny the existence of ugly in my country. But we have so much good too. We have people working for equality, balance, and overall growth of the country. Presenting a more balanced view wouldn’t make one any less of an activist.

I came across a couple of reviews mentioning they have a much lower opinion of Indian society after reading the book. Well, I have a perfect reply for this, I’ll share this instead. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk on the danger of a single story. Listen to it from minutes 10 to 12. That is my answer.  

The saddest part is that such stereotypes are encouraged and cemented by authors of Indian origin, which adds a false layer of credibility to the narrative and makes them ‘more authentic’. This view doesn’t consider that the author’s personal perceptions and ideology are the foundation of the plot. Hetero, we have a bundle of stereotypes presented as an entire country.

To quote Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ‘show a people as one thing, as an only thing over and over again, and that is what they become’. 

Thank you, NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Ballantine Books, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

#TheBanditQueens #NetGalley 

*****
 
P.S: The author mentions in her note that she was worried about milking Phoolan Devi’s name and past for the book and that it wasn’t her intention. She doesn’t have to worry about it. She doesn’t commercialize Phoolan Devi. She commercializes and sells dirty India instead; something that’ll bring more fame and accolades. 

I mention this because the author has enough talent to create characters that carry a story without a checklist. 

Tales Untold is a collection of fifteen short stories that deal with various folklore and mythologies from around the world. Each story is based on a lore/ myth/ part of an epic and is represented with a fresh twist. There’s a brief intro about the lore at the beginning of each story. This helped me understand the plot. 

As with all anthologies, some stories are great, some are decent, and a few didn’t make any impact. I’ve listed the ones I loved and the ones that had potential but didn’t reach the mark (for me). 

Real Good Stories (4+ stars) 

The Littlest Rose: I love this heartwarming story. It is a little preachy and tries to balance it out at the end. But the story of the Blackfeet tribe, the lives of Native Americans, and the bullying by the settlers (White people) was very well done. 

A Final Cut: This story combines two myths about the dead, and the result is a scary yet satisfying read. Imagine shaving the dead to soothe the spirit! The writing is descriptive but compact, with a steady pace and solid ending. 

The Young Man and The New World: It starts slow with long-winded sentences, but once the action begins, the story flows well and keeps the reader interested. I like the blend of myths too. It’s MG fiction, so even better for me. 

The Fairy Soldier's Last Request: This started okay but got interesting as it progressed. I love the flow and execution. The formatting needs to work to make it more readable (it got a bit confusing to track when the flashback ended and started again). 

Decent Stories (3-4 stars) 

The Tomb of Squire Cabell: This one deals with the lore of the Hound of Baskervilles. The concept was intriguing, but the setup took up too much space. The end was rather rushed and didn’t cause any emotional impact. 

The Crane In The Mist: This story is based on Kodava lore from India. I enjoyed the plot, but it didn’t hit the mark. I thought it would. The ending is okay but missing something. 

Never Trust a Fae: The plot is dark and really good until I realized that the narrator’s a male. Here I am, thinking it is a sad Sapphic romance, and bingo, the narrator is a ‘him’. A male character’s voice has to sound distinct from a female character's. 

The Gandharva: Set in Kerala (India), it’s a retelling of the story of a Gandharva. I wanted more from it, though. The ending seemed too easy. It needed a little more drama and tension. 

Halcyon Days: It is an innovative retelling of Greek lore about Kingfisher birds. The writing is easy and fluid. The ending is compact and sweet. 

The Emissary: This is the last story in the book. It has a mashup of Gods and lore from different cultures. The first third of the story was a little boring (just not my thing), but the rest was engaging and entertaining. 

 The overall writing styles are easy to read; some were better than others. As this is an ARC, I’m hoping the random typos will be weeded out.  

To summarize, Tales Untold is an intriguing collection of short stories with varied themes. Each of them is distinct and will appeal to different audiences. Grab the book and find your favorites. 

Thank you, Ravens & Roses Publishing, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

 

2 Stars

One Liner: Interesting premise but painful execution

The Cotswolds, England, December 1895

Imogene Lynch moves to Dartmond to solve a case her recently dead husband, Thaddeus Lynch, was working on. He was a chief constable working on an adoption case from the family. Sir Finley Lowther’s father tells him that he was adopted as a child but doesn’t give any other information.

Though Finley is not particularly interested in finding his real mother, his brother-in-law, Thaddeus Lynch, takes up the case to assist his sister Anna (Finley’s wife).

With Thaddeus dead, it’s up to Imogene to get to the root of the matter. However, an old baby’s skull ends up in a fishing net, and Miss Eloise Platt confesses to the crime. Imogene has no choice but to solve this new case as Miss Platt is a possible candidate to be Finley’s real mother.

Can Imogene follow in her dead husband’s footsteps and solve the cases?

The story comes in the first-person rambling from Imogene, addressing the readers.

What I Like:

There’s a list of characters at the beginning of the book. This was helpful as the story had loads of characters.

The cover is rather pretty and has Christmas-y vibes. The book can be sped-read with ease.

Timothy is an adorable kid. I hope he becomes a recurring character in the series.

For a change, the story has an aged and overweight dog instead of an excited furball. Older dogs need love too!

Dartmond gets a (half) Indian mayor, Mr. Rahul Banerjee. It’s rather surprising to see such little resistance from the folk. Also, remember, India was still under British rule at that period. A part of me is glad about this modern take. He does have a decent role, which makes me happy. But I’m not fully convinced.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

Unfortunately, a lot of it didn’t work for me. I’ll try to keep it brief.

Imogene is described as ‘a willy-nilly detective who talks too much and eats too little’.
Her talking is more to herself and the reader than to other characters. Her POV is certainly willy-nilly and could do with strict editing.

The book cannot be called a cozy mystery as such. Imogene doesn’t really ‘solve’ anything. She sits in the rented house, goes through the files, rambles, mops, falls sick, and tells us how she should be solving the case. The final solution comes from a couple of conversations. She just had to have them 100 pages earlier and be done with it.
 
Almost everyone who knows Imogene praises her and recalls how she helped her dead constable husband solve cases. Here, we see none of that attitude, approach, or impact. The initial reluctance can be justified as she is mourning, but there is hardly any proactive step from her side.

A guy who doesn’t talk for years talks long sentences after a couple of broken dialogues. Wouldn’t he need more time to articulate, especially when his condition is because of past trauma and even his wife didn’t hear him speak?

The story has some important themes, but they are all underexplored. The book can be cozy and still handle dark topics. That doesn’t happen here.

This book is more about introducing characters and Imogene sharing her opinions of them rather than having a real mystery. Maybe it should have been a novella. Imogene should really, really (yeah, two adverbs) step up.

To summarize, The Unsolved Case of the Secret Christmas Baby could have been a lot better if the execution was compact and well-planned. The book would work for some readers. Sadly, I’m not one of them.

Thank you, NetGalley, Hannah Byron Books, and Xpresso Book Tours, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

#NetGalley #TheUnsolvedCaseoftheSecretChristmasBaby

***

P.S.: I hate to do this with an indie book. I read indie cozies and know some real good ones.
My best wishes to the author. 

Mia and Finn invest all their money in an old house. They are busy repairing it when Mia realizes she is pregnant. The couple is elated. However, Mia sees a message carved into the wall in the nursery, resulting in a series of incidents that change their lives forever. 

The past horrors of the house come to light, bringing more secrets to the surface. The killer is around, too, lurking and waiting for the right time. With the dangers surrounding Mia, her newborn, and the family, can they find a way to deal with it? Can Mia save her family and herself? 

The story comes in the first-person POV of six characters. Sigh! Why!!! 

The book starts with an intriguing chapter and alternates between different POVs and timelines. It can be super confusing if you don’t note the years (something I gave up halfway through the book). 

The information comes in bits and pieces, but we are essentially going around in circles, with each character having its POV [Mia, Finn, Dave (Mai’s father-in-law), and Debbie (Mia’s mother-in-law]. We know many of them are hiding something but what? It gets revealed towards the end. 

Though things aren’t too graphic, we know that a lot of bad things happen to kids. If you are sensitive about this, be prepared for it. What made it easy to read is the writing (and not in a good way). I wasn’t the least bit affected, as the whole thing felt distant. 

Thrillers tend to have unlikeable characters. Here, except for Mia (with exceptions again), the rest are pretty much unlikable. DC Mark is cool, though (he has very limited space in the book and is not explored at all). 

The reveals start around 63%, which means a majority of the second half has a twist, reveal, twist, reveal, and so on. It got tiring when I could already see what the twist would be. I don’t usually mind guessing right, but here, it gets too much. 

The epilogue is like a final and special presentation, but I couldn’t feel awed by it. There are enough hints to show this would happen. In fact, I might have upped the stars if the twist deals with Mia. 

The best part of the book is that I could speed-read it and not miss any detail. That frees a day for me (hence the additional 0.5 stars). But it shows how much rambling could have been edited to make the narration taut. 

The title is all you need to guess the plot. Really. It can’t be more evident than this, and once again, I pat myself on the back for listening to my friends and asking for help titling my stories. 

To summarize, Keep It In The Family could have been a wow thriller but ended up underwhelming. I see the author has written some fab works, so time to check them out. 

Thank you, NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

#NetGalley #KeepItInTheFamily 

***** 

Blythe Harmon is living a fast-track life the way her mother, sister, and boyfriend want. It’s her 30h birthday, and she can’t help but feel suffocated and unhappy. Things couldn’t have been better with a new high-profile job and a marriage proposal from the boyfriend. 

But Blythe knows she needs to do what makes her happy. Respite comes in the form of Nomi’s ashes and last request (Nomi is her late grandmother). Blythe goes on an adventure to a small island in the San Juans. Her stay at the Improbable House takes her closer to the past. 

However, things get complicated with new revelations. Blythe now has to connect the past to the present to have a happy future. And somewhere amidst the chaos lies the key to her happiness. 

The story is heartwarming and sweet with a blend of happy and sad moments. There is enough pain (death of loved ones and secrets) in the book, but it doesn’t get overwhelming. 

The narration is fast-paced and engaging. It dips a little in the middle but gains momentum again. It does feel a little rushed because of the HEA ending, but I don’t mind it. 

Even though the characters aren't very detailed, they are easy to understand. None of them is perfect, but there aren’t any outright villains (with one exception) either. This makes them easy to understand, if not always likable. 

The blurb uses the word magic, and it is important to consider this when reading the book. There are a few unexplainable events that make the setting atmospheric. However, these aren’t explored enough to make the story dark or creepy. This could go either way, depending on your reading preferences. 

Savannah is easily my favorite in the book, and Brodie is adorable. Who can resist a fluffy doggy with loads of enthusiasm and no manners? ;P 

The themes of self-discovery, acceptance, being true to one’s self, taking a risk, etc., are well done without being too heavy-handed.  

Well, as much as I enjoy romance, I didn’t like insta love between Blythe and Flynn. A couple of more scenes to show their chemistry would have made the story even better (for me). Also, Flynn’s character needed to be fleshed out more. 

The plot is complex and has some twists. But it is solved a little too easily and within the week’s deadline. Maybe a bit of spacing it over the days would increase the impact. 

The crucial issues of the plot are also resolved quickly. Given how the issues are dragged over the storyline, the resolution doesn’t feel solid. The gravity of the events is lost when they are wrapped up with ease. 

To summarize, Improbably Yours is a sweet and heartwarming book with a few hits and misses. But it is a good read if you want a blend of genres without getting too deep into any of them.  

Thank you, NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

 3 Stars

Lillian Smith leads an ordinary life as a wife and mother of a sulking teen. She is an obituary writer with hardly anything exciting in her life. It appears that her husband Mike feels the same and looking for excitement else. 

When Lillian meets David, a handsome stranger, she creates a new persona of herself. Soon, she is living a lie and having a great time. However, things don’t last long. The affair is revealed on social media, and Lillian’s life slips out of her control. 

It wasn’t until later that she realizes her life was never in her control. As secrets tumble out of the closet, it appears impossible to get back to normal. 

The story comes from the first-person POV of Lillian and a few other characters. 

To summarize, A Familiar Stranger is a fast-paced domestic thriller with enough to keep you reading. However, it is a passable book with 2D characters and an easy ending. This is my first book by the author, and I see that it is not her best. I’ll read a couple of more books before I decide. 

Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

This is a Book with a Missing Story. The blurb reads much better than the plot, which is meandering at its best. The book has a lot of elements: 

No phew here, as I’m sure I missed a few others. Imagine packing all of this into a 360+ page book. It could still work. But what do we get here? A philosophical encyclopedia, aka the fig tree. Remembering the themes in the book was akin to searching for a tiny drumstick (not your chicken) in a bucket of sambar. Yeah, almost impossible.

The book is filled with lyrical prose, which does nothing for the plot or the characters. There is no character arc. Some questions are never answered. And to top it all, we have Meryem to do the typical Turkish ‘superstitious’ and ‘outdated’ rituals.

One thing I hate about Indian authors writing for a global audience is how they stereotype and make fun of their own culture. While things aren’t that bad here (or maybe they are), I couldn’t ignore finding similarities. I still fail to understand why the scenes with Djinn and Djinn master were necessary except to add something exotic and present a progressive next-gen teen. As if the scenes until then didn’t establish this very detail.

Dafne’s mental health issues and alcoholism are brushed under the carpet. Ada’s viral video and bullying get resolved without them doing anything about it. Meryem waltzes in and out, repeating how Ada looks just like her mother. Just when I thought her character was gaining depth, it goes off track and disappears.

And, I really want to know which genius came up with the idea to fling translated proverbs at unsuspecting readers. There’s a reason proverbs are native to each culture and language. They come from cultural history and have significance within the context. The language fits a meter and has a natural rhythm. Translating them to English is like eating fig pizza (please don’t tell me it’s a thing!).

Now, the saddest part is that I love the premise. I also learned about the conflict in Cypriot and its painful history. BUT… I don’t want to read pages and pages that read like Wikipedia. I love my plants, but I don’t want to read about them when I’m looking for a story about people. I’d rather read non-fiction (some of it would be more interesting, I’m sure).

There is NO magic realism in this book. A fig tree talking to the readers is not magic. A fig tree talking to birds, mosquitoes, and ants is not really magic when the sole purpose is to share the information with the reader. An omnipresent narrator would do the same without ramblings and unnecessary fluff.

Finally, I’m not sure about this as I have zero knowledge, but something about the entire presentation of the conflict feels off. It doesn’t appear as impartial or balanced as it looks. It’s more of an instinct at this point.

I know I’m a minority here, but I have to say it. The book needed to be pruned and pruned to get rid of all the moral preaching and musings of the fig tree to focus on human characters. Oh, I had to speed-read to survive the book.