Eclipse

Eclipse (book three of the Twilight Saga)
A Stephenie Meyer novel.

ISBN-978-1-90423-391-6
First edition- 2007

Author- Stephenie Meyer
Best sellers- The Host, Twilight Saga.

Synopsis- As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob - knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation approaching, Bella has one more decision to make:life or death. but which is which?

Excerpt- ALL OUR ATTEMPTS AT SUBTERFUGE HAD BEEN IN VAIN.

With ice in my heart, I watched him prepare to defend me. His intense concentration
betrayed no hint of doubt, though he was outnumbered. I knew that we could expect no help
 at this moment, his family was fighting for their lives just as surely as he was for ours.

Would I ever learn the outcome of that other fight? Find out who the winners and the losers
were? Would I live long enough for that?

The odds of that didn't look so great.

Black eyes, wild with their fierce craving for my death, watched for the moment when my
protector's attention would be diverted. The moment when I would surely die.

Somewhere, far, far away in the cold forest, a wolf howled.

Ria speaks- I must admit the Preface of each novel in the saga is what kept the faith alive in me that the book in my hands still has the promise of a good read. Not to get too much into the whole love triangle which somehow seems to remain omnipresent through out the book. Jacob still loves Bella- Bella still loves Edward- Edward still wants to kill Jacob(for loving Bella & for being a werewolf). This book brings in the new twist of brand new vampires, it shows us everything Edward(and the whole Cullen family) has talked about. Stephenie Meyer tries to give us as big a insight as she can into the minds of the "newly born's" helping us imagine what Bella(if she turned) would be like. 

Now as we can't run from the whole romance thing as i thought i could and so did Bella( both clearly mistaken), Jacob pounces on the opportunity to save and spend more time with Bella from the newly born's which seem to be coming after her. He finally makes a move and kisses Bella only to get punched in the face by her(her hand breaks but i'm sure it was worth it). Now i read all 4 books before the movie's came out so when i speak of the Cullen family, or the werewolves or even Bella its the picture i formed in my head not the one that was formed for me. That is the beauty of these books it allows your imagination to run wild, be it from the blood thirsty newly born's to the evil genius of the Volturi, throw in a marriage proposal, talk about sex and a scorned love and we have all the makings of a hit story.

Like her previous books the third book did not fail me, it just had me more in love(when i din't think it possible)

Ratings- 4 out of 5( i stick by my ratings)

Price- Rs 395. Rs 277 on Flipkart.

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

[review on request]

Twilight(book one of the Twilight saga)

A Stephenie Meyer novel.

ISBN-978-1-904233-65-7
First Edition -. 2006

Author- Stephenie Meyer
Best Sellers- Twilight Saga & The Host

Synopsis-When seventeen year-old Bella Swan leaves sunny Arizona to live with her father in the small and gloomy Pacific North-West town of Forks she doesn’t expect to like it.  After all she has made excuses not to go there enough times over the past few years.  If living in Forks, with its constant mist and rain, wasn’t bad enough she will have to make a whole new set of friends and settle into a new school.

Excerpt- I'd never given much thought to how I would die -- though I'd had reason enough in the last few months -- but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.I knew that if I'd never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now. But, terrified as I was, I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision. When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.

The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.

Ria speaks - From the moment I laid eyes on the cover of the book I am going to have to say I was hooked, yes you guessed right I’m one of those die hard twilight fans. Nooo not of the movies(which I hate btw) but of the books, I am one of those words who falls in love with words more than a pretty face and from the moment I started to read Twilight I couldn’t put it down.

It starts off so innocently and so common, a feeling everyone would’ve experienced at some point of time in their lives when we have to get up and leave a world of familiarity behind into the world of unknown. Isabella Swan aka Bella was no different the feelings, the thoughts that she was having were and are so common which is why I guess we can relate and get pulled in so fast we don’t even realize it.

Now this may seem a little clichéd a girl in a new town, a new ‘’pretty’’ face whom everyone seems to like and so will THAT boy whose eye she seems to have caught. Well enter Edward Cullen a dreamboat for any normal sane teenage or non teenage girl. He is Tall, Good looking, Mysterious and according to Bella something that just pulls her to him. But sadly he isn’t having the same thoughts as her considering the one and only class he has with her as lab partners he wants to shift out of so he doesn’t have to spend time with her. Though like any mormal girl she will also not let the feeling go that there is something about him that isn’t right which is when she guesses that he isn’t human. One of my favourite lines in this book is when she asks him how old he is and he replies ‘’seventeen’’ and she asks for how long and he says ‘’awhile’’. Like all fiction super natural beings there always comes a power and each vampire may/may not have one. Edwards power is to be able to read minds but with Bella there is a glitch for some reason her mind is the only mind he can’t read which lends more to why he cant help but being pulled towards her, that is apart from the fact that she has blood running through her veins and the smell of that blood drives him quite nuts.

If you’ve seen the movie you probably know how this proceeds but you have to read the book to feel that pull, feel the magic in the words. Yes we all know Edward Cullen is a vampire and that Bella and him fall in love but like a all great love stories this one too has to fight to survive, from a desire to suck the blood out of her (Edward) to another vampire who would love to do the same, to a sister who hates her and many other complications along the way.

The book somehow weaves it spell on the reader because as a girl not only do you relate to the thoughts, complaining and whining Bella goes about doing you imagine yourself to be her. And froma boys perspective you at first feel a little incredulous over the emotions felt but you too fall in love with the simplicity with which it is all written and if that fail too!! The male masochism and the male ego sure would keep you going.

This Saga is a definite read, its one of those books no matter how old you are you should never miss out on.

Rating- 4.5 out of 5 (yes it is that good)

PRICE - INR 395/- Orion Publications [INR 237 at Flipkart]

 

Abandon - Meg Cabot

Abandon
(Book one of the Abandon trilogy)

ISBN 978-0-330-45386-8
First Printed - 2011

AUTHOR - Meg Cabot

BEST SELLERS - every boy's got one, when boy meets girl.

SYNOPSIS - Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera knows what happens to us when we die(ooo do tell). That’s how she met John Hayden, the mysterious stranger who’s made returning to normal life—or at least life as Pierce knew it before the accident—next to impossible. Though she thought she escaped him—starting a new school in a whole new place—it turns out she was wrong. He finds her. What does John want from her? Pierce thinks she knows… just like she knows he’s no guardian angel, and his dark world isn’t exactly heaven. But she can’t stay away from him, either, especially since he’s always there when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most. But if she let’s herself fall any further, she might find herself back in the place she fears most. And when Pierce discovers the shocking truth, that’s exactly where John sweeps her: The Underworld.


EXCERPT - Anything can happen in the blink of an eye. Anything at all.
One.
Two.
Three.
Blink.
A girl is laughing with her friends.Suddenly, a crater splits apart the earth. Through it bursts
a man in an ink black chariot forged in the deepest pits of
hell, drawn by stallions with hooves of steel and eyes of
flame.Before anyone can shout a warning, before the girl can
turn and run, those thundering hooves are upon her.
The girl isn’t laughing anymore. Instead, she’s
screaming.

Ria Speaks - When i first read the blurb for this book i was so excited, in an era where vampires & werewolves are 75% of what is written today here came a book by one of my favourite authors (don't judge me) who was writing about something that has always fascinated the world, "The Greek Gods''. A modern day look at Persephone and Hades is what attracted me to this book (plus its cool goth cover ) but boy did i learn the truth of the saying ''never judge a book by its cover''.
The book which just released over a month or so ago starts off fine giving us a little information about Pierce and her family, but then suddenly she starts referring to the ''Bad Accident'' (i mean seriously how about a clue as to what happened) and is suddenly running out of her own party cycling down to the graveyard where she first met ''Him''. The worst part about the starting of the book is that she keeps on talking as if we know what exactly happened and who ''He'' is and why she is behaving in the strangest way possible.
However the book never picks up pace though the slowly unravel the mystery as to why she is always so edgy. Though things did look up for a bit when Prince charming arrives or as she says ''Prince Terrifying'', he is everything a girl REALLY wants- leather jacket, dark scowl, dark grey eyes i mean come on who cant help but fall in love? But sadly the arrival of John Hayden doesn't improve anything for the book though she does keep mentioning how she was flat lined for over an hour and how her mother and her share a love for birds nothing really comes out of the first 100 pages of the book and the book is only 300 pages long.
Pierce goes through her normal teenage problems of new school (she had to move after her ''accident'') meeting new people, etc. We finally get to the crux of the story where she explains how she drowned(phew now was that sooo hard to say?) and how she went to purogratory which is where she meets John( who BTW rides a dark black angry steed) and takes up his offer to dry her self off( she drowned remember, apparently you still stay wet in purogratory). So after drying herself does she find out that she has died and has to stay there forever which she obviously doesn't like so she runs away through a door which was left open( are you kidding me, is this the underworld or somebodies playhouse?). Which is how she came back to life.
Well the story progresses where she finds out that she actually is in love with John( surprise surprise) and that furies(evil spirits out to kill the god of death) are after her, and one of her own are out to kill her. So at the end John spirits her back to the underworld from where she starts to look for ways to get out only this time he had locked all the doors( smart boy that one).
This book had promised to be so much and more but turned out quite the bore. Maybe Meg Cabot should stick to what she's best at ''Rom-Com's'' or maybe the trilogy's will be better whose to know?

My Rating - 1.5 out of 5. Sad but true.

Price- 299/- at Landmark Chennai, or 179/- @ flipkart.com