Review: The All Seeing Digital Eyes

The All Seeing Digital Eyes

by 

Neville J Kattakayam 

Published: 2018
Amazon: The All Seeing Digital Eyes
Goodreads: The All Seeing Digital Eyes
Pages: 173

• BOOK BLURB
• My nature of work requires me to spend a lot of time online, but I always try to ensure that my digital footprint is minimum. I value my freedom of speech and my right to privacy, which has encouraged me in writing this book.
• This book's objective is to educating technology users about safety, security and privacy. Inside you’ll find research-based safety tips and tools, advise, parents’ guide and commentary on different aspects of tech use and policy. 
  
  This is not a technical book, even if many tips and tricks are shared to secure oneself. 
• MY REVIEW:
• If you have a mistrust of electronic devices and sharing your personal info online, and want to be aware of how that information might be used against you or how you can safeguard yourself as much as possible then this is a book you should definitely look into. (Phew, that was a seriously long sentence!)“... technology is also being used to analyze, predict, manipulate and even control human behavior.”
• In the easiest of words, the author tries to describe the "various pitfalls and traps" of using the internet. 
  “The objective of this book is to make you aware of various pitfalls and traps that you may face from modern technology, while using your electronic devices.”
  
  The All Seeing Digital Eyes is a well-explained book, with examples stated and described to accommodate even the layman's understanding. And not just the layman but even the “digitally literate" people may not always be aware of the information leaching until they find themselves a victim of it.
  “Software today is designed and engineered to make it easy for digitally literate people to continue using programs and apps with high efficiency; but without knowing the vulnerabilities or threats it poses towards you.”
  
  It also takes a look into how various websites, e-commerce, search-engines, social accounts and apps function. How safe the Wifi, ATM machines or GPS are. The difference between private data and public data, the extent of how much personal data one should share and what all one is giving away by agreeing to their “Terms of Services”. It discusses the threats one can face on the internet from harmless trolls to cyber-bullying to Phishing (something I'm personally paranoid about) and what one should keep in mind to safeguard yourselves.
  
  One of the best features of this book is that it keeps everything concise and succinct, and the chapters are clearly divided. It is a short enough read to finish in a couple of sitting which is a refreshing break from handling thick tomes on computer handling and internet.
  
  My sincere thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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  View my review on Goodreads

Review: The Coin

The Coin

by 

Sandeep Sharma

Published: 2018

• Amazon: The Coin
• Goodreads: The Coin
• Pages: 164
• BOOK BLURB
• “Who likes Sudden death?” That's the only question he used to ask before killing his prey. 
• Random people are being abducted from the capital city, Delhi and are being killed mercilessly. Before killing, the murderer is reciting them a story, a story about a 9-year-old child who saw the brutal side of the world at a very young age. All the stories are being recorded for the Police department to see. Raunak Upadhyay, the Police inspector who is handling the case, links the style of serial killing to the case he solved years ago. But the murderer of that case is in jail then who is following the footsteps? 
• Does the murderer want to convey something? 
  Whose story is being recited? 
  Why is the murderer taking personal interest in Raunak? 
  Is there any other side of this coin or both the faces are just the same? 
  Welcome to the Brutal world!
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• MY REVIEW

The best part of this book is its plot. It is solid, concise and has just the right pacing. There are flashback scenes in the book that provides us with the back-story. The past and present sequences are arranged well which helps in building up the plot. So three solid stars for the plot. 

There are dialogues in the book that I found really compelling. They're like hidden gems that one has to be on the look out for.
"... The definition of human is wrong. We are just animals with a higher intellect. There's no difference between the wilds who are wandering outside and the one who is wandering inside in all of us."

The significance of the burnt coin and how it links the three major characters; their back-story is another highlight. The accounts of the murders, the unique way the serial-killer kills, then the corrosive and ugly side of human beings, the stronghold a person of influence has on others; there are a many intriguing facets to this story. I seriously wished I could give it a higher rating. 

The two points where this book loses its stars are the numerous syntax errors and the somewhat typified cast of characters. There are just so many mistakes in the writing. Tenses also keep changing. It got very distracting and rather annoying after a while. I really like the plots this author comes up with. They’re all atypical, slightly hatke is what I mean and I like that aspect. However, the poorly proofread book simply ruined my enjoyment this time. I would have made concession had this been a debut work but that is not so. Being that the author is not exactly new to writing, this indicated callousness. Even the book summary on the back cover has errors. 

The persona of the MC (Raunak) initially seems like the stereotypical genius detective with enough quirks that make him seem odd to his colleagues. We don’t get enough of a picture until later in the book as his persona is revealed in bits and pieces throughout the story. Now, this is not necessarily a misstep but it resulted in a lack of empathy, in my case. I felt detached almost to the point of being indifferent, even during the more sensitive episodes narrated here. 
The supporting cast is more or less overlooked; physical descriptions of most are (curiously) absent. The killer’s features are only described early on because it is essential for the plot.

Plot is really the back bone of Sandeep Sharma’s latest detective novel. With its fast pacing and intriguing reveals, it definitely showcases enough potential to keep one hooked.

My sincere thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

View my review on Goodreads

BONUS Review: Marry in Scandal

Marry in Scandal (Marriage of Convenience #2)

by Anne Gracie

Published: 2018
Genre: Historical Romance
Amazon: Marry in Scandal
Goodreads: Marry in Scandal

• BOOK BLURB
• Shy young heiress, Lady Lily Rutherford, is in no hurry to marry. She dreams of true love and a real courtship. But when disaster strikes, she finds herself facing a scandal-forced marriage to her rescuer, Edward Galbraith, a well known rake.
  
  Despite his reputation Lily is drawn to the handsome Galbraith. In the gamble of her life, she agrees to marry him, hoping to turn a convenient marriage into a love match.
  
  As heir to a title, Galbraith knows he must wed, so a convenient marriage suits him perfectly. But there is a darkness in his past, and secrets he refuses to share with his tender-hearted young bride. All Lily's efforts to get close to him fall on stony ground, and in desperation she retreats to his childhood home—the place he's avoided for nearly a decade.
  
  Must Lily reconcile herself to a marriage without love? Or will Galbraith realize that this warm-hearted, loving girl is the key to healing the wounds of his past—and his heart?
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• MY REVIEW
• I enjoyed this book. The characters sort of grew on me by the time I finished with it. One cannot help but fall for Gracie's characters. And I've been a devoted follower of Anne Gracie for several years. Having said that, I couldn't help but feel that this one wasn't up to par with her usual books. 
• Two things that bothered me were her dyslexia (not a spoiler, trust me) and the hero not returning to his estate despite having such a great relationship with his grandfather. I felt both of these issues were overly stretched, so much so that they lost their effectiveness. I'm not being insensitive to the issues but they could have been handled far better.
•  The author certainly has the talent to do it, she's proved as much in The Perfect Stranger and The Gallant Waif (books whose copies have worn out due to my re-reading). 
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• View my review on Goodreads

Review: Marry in Haste

Marry in Haste (Marriage of Convenience #1)

by Anne Gracie

Published: 2017 

Genre: Historical Romance

Amazon: Marry in Haste

Goodreads: Marry in Haste

• BOOK BLURB
• Major Calbourne Rutherford returns to England on the trail of an assassin, only to find he’s become Lord Ashendon, with the responsibility for vast estates and dependent relatives. Cal can command the toughest of men, but his wild half-sisters are quite another matter. They might just be his undoing.
  
  When he discovers that Miss Emmaline Westwood, the girls’ former teacher, guides them with ease, Cal offers her a marriage of convenience. But strong-minded and independent Emm is neither as compliant nor as proper as he expected, and Cal finds himself most inconveniently seduced by his convenient wife.
  
  Emm knows they didn’t marry for love, yet beneath her husband’s austere facade, she catches glimpses of a man who takes her breath away. As pride, duty and passion clash, will these two stubborn hearts find more than they ever dreamed of?
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• MY REVIEW
• Marry in Haste makes good use of the trope that just might be a weakness of most HR lovers which is the good ol' marriage of convenience. While on the pursuit of an infamous assassin, Major Cal finds himself the unwanted guardian of a handful of young girls. Girls, who refuse to obey his commands like good little soldiers. With a near mutiny in his hands, he finds himself proposing a marriage bargain with one of their former teachers. Except the peace and exemption he had hoped for might still be long overdue.
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  All in all, it's a wonderful read. I absolutely adored his young wards, how Cal and Emm finally found a strong base for their relationship and especially how they all come together to form a genuinely caring family. This looks to be a good start to another promising series by Anne Gracie. 
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• View my review on Goodreads

Review: Love Trumps All!

Love Trumps All! 

by Sudarshan Mahabal

Published: 2017

• Amazon: Love Trumps All!
• Goodreads: Love Trumps All!
• BOOK BLURB
• A story of the making of an India-born American high-tech executive, gingerly intertwined with, a story of the making of an America-born global philanthropist with a twist of cross-cultural romance!
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    • MY REVIEW
    • I loved the bookcover, it fits the story to a T. And so far as the writing style, story flow and plot are concerned, I‘m very much impressed with those as well. The plot is well put together. It has the right flow and ebb to hold the reader’s attention. The adept writing lets the story advance smoothly. It really made me take delight in reading the stories and experiences of the characters. 
      
      The characters are distinct and well fleshed out, with different quirks and opinions yet sharing some basic similarities that lead them to form a strong bond. Unfortunately, I did not find myself rooting that strongly for most of them, especially not Anant who is the main protagonist. And I felt this emotional distance throughout the book. 
      
      Anant is a young, ambitious man from a small village in India. He aspires and later achieves his American dream – a successful job, car, bungalow and the perfect little family. But after a decade or so, this NRI longs for his roots, for the familiarity of his motherland. And so he and his wife Samaira decide to return to India to be close to their families. This is mostly Anant and Samaira’s story and the other three characters are, in large capacity, portrayed in terms of their relevance in the main couple’s lives. 
      
      The story is divided into three parts. Part one is mostly about Anant achieving and living his American dream. It stresses on the various experiences of living in a foreign country. It showcases cultural diversities and similarities in the aims and lives of people. I loved the fact that the author doesn’t stint on any details. One can ascertain all the effort that has gone into writing this book which is pretty remarkable. 
      
      Part two is about their move back to India and about new and old relationships. I feel this part is the most satisfying in terms of character portrayals. I really ended up liking Samaira here; in fact, her character was the closest I came to feeling any emotional connection with. The author deftly adds layers to his characters through their various experiences in this part. There’s the trekking trip which I really enjoyed; my father has also trekked around EBC (without any major disaster thankfully) so I loved reading about the cross-country and trekking trip. I think the after math of the trekking trip could have been written in a more moving way. I felt the anger in Madhura over the treatment and prejudice they evidenced there. But I also felt the episode lacking in sentimentality for the massive destruction of lives. The emotional aspect felt a bit superficial to me. Also, about Anant(view spoiler) – I could not feel much sympathy for him and the way it is finally handled felt slightly exaggerated and dramatic. 
      
      Part three of the book was something of an anticlimax for me. It felt dragging and preachy. As for the political debate near the end, I felt that the author somewhat imposes his opinions using his characters as mouthpieces. So I could have done without part three. 
      
      In conclusion, I felt this book is more about new adventures, new dreams, new goals, new experiences and new outlook on life rather than just love. The writing is perfectly suited to the plot, it is interesting and it is real. For a debut work, it shows a lot of promise.
      
      My sincere thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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    • View my review on Goodreads

My Spooktober Reading List!

Hey everyone! Goodreads is holding Horror Week 2018 so I thought to pitch in and read some paranormal, fantasy and horror books to celebrate the spookiness of this month. 

Check out the synopsis of the books I chose to read:

A Flight of Broken Wings (The Aeriel Chronicles Book 1)

Six hundred years ago, humanity rose up in revolt against the Aeriels, who were driven from earth and back into their homeland of Vaan after a bloody and glorious war.

Eight years ago, Ruban’s home was destroyed and his family murdered by an Aeriel. 

When a new Aeriel threat looms over Ragah, the capital city of Vandram, Ruban Kinoh must do everything in his power to avenge his family's past and protect the future of his country. 

Which is hard enough without being saddled with a pretty and pompous aristocrat, who seems as useless as he is vain. Faced with a conspiracy that might cost humanity its hard-won freedom, and accompanied by the bejeweled and glitter-clad Ashwin Kwan, Ruban begins his journey into a land where the past and the future intertwine.

Lake Silence (The Others, 6)

Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others–vampires, shapeshifters, and paranormal beings even more deadly. And this is a fact that humans should never, ever forget . . .

After her divorce, Vicki DeVine took over a rustic resort near Lake Silence, in a human town that is not human controlled. Towns like Vicki’s have no distance from the Others, the dominant predators that rule most of the land and all of the water throughout the world. And when a place has no boundaries, you never really know what’s out there watching you.

Vicki was hoping to find a new career and a new life. But when her lodger, Aggie Crowe–one of the shapeshifting Others–discovers a dead body, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the man’s death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, things get dangerous–and it’ll take everything they have to stay alive.  

*Continues in the same alternate Earth as the previous books but features a new story and new characters.

Steelheart (The Reckoners,#1)

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his will.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart — the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning — and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Only By Your Touch

Determined to give her son, Jeremy, the childhood he deserves, Chloe Evans has left a tough past behind and is starting fresh in the charming resort town of Jack Pine, Oregon. But protecting Jeremy becomes a dicey proposition when he seeks out the most dangerous man in town, Ben Longtree, to heal his sick puppy. Chloe has been warned to stay away from Ben. But there's something about him, at once gentle and untamed, that intrigues her....

Long ago, Ben accepted his role as the town outcast. Rumored to have once killed a man, he lives in splendid isolation with his forgetful mother, secretly employing his skills as a veterinarian to heal the wounded wild animals that mysteriously come to him. Now Chloe's sunny warmth and brave tenacity arouse desire he has long deified. And although Ben is notorious for his healing touch, it is Chloe's hands ... and heart ... that have the ,.power to save his battered soul. 

Irish Ghost Stories

Over the centuries Ireland has preserved a magical, mystical aura that lends itself to tales of the supernatural-from leprechauns and fairies to ghosts and hauntings. Stories and storytelling have always been central to Irish folk culture, and this anthology of the best ghost stories from Ireland and Irish writers includes contributions from Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Patrick Kennedy, George Moore, and W. B. Yeats. 
The result is a collection of tingling tales of poltergeists, supernatural experiences, haunted houses, death warnings, and banshees that will chill the blood of readers and listeners alike.

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy, #1)

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell. 

A Court of Thorns and Roses(A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)

Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever. 

Share which books you have planned to read!

Review: Kate Daniels Series

Kate Daniels Series

by Ilona Andrews

Published: 2007 - 2018

• Amazon: Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1)
• Goodreads: Kate Daniels Series
• BOOK BLURB
• The world has suffered a magic apocalypse. We pushed the technological progress too far, and now magic returned with a vengeance. It comes in waves, without warning, and vanishes as suddenly as it appears. When magic is up, planes drop out of the sky, cars stall, electricity dies. When magic is down, guns work and spells fail.
  
  
  It’s a volatile, screwed-up world. Magic feeds on technology, gnawing down on skyscrapers until most of them topple and fall, leaving only skeletal husks behind. Monsters prowl the ruined streets, werebears and werehyenas stalk their prey; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst for knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds.
  
• In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight. But sometimes even trained killers make friends and fall in love, and when the universe tries to kick them in the face, they kick back.
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• MY REVIEW
• • Kate lives in a world where anything is possible. A world where words have power. Where adoration gives way to hope, hopes to prayers and prayers to god-like powers.
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    This ten book series knocked me off my feet with its incredible world-building and carved itself a cosy little niche in my heart. It has got the apocalyptic setting down to a pat, it’s got mythical beings taking forms and messing up our definition of a normal life and it has got a wonderful set of characters doing their best to maintain the precarious balance of the world. 
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    It is one of my favourite urban fantasy series. Definitely the only series where even after ten books featuring the same lead characters, I find myself wanting more and more. Narrated from the POV of a kickass female lead, Kate Daniels; she would rather let her sword do the talking, a through and through woman of action. And she pulls it off with enough witty humour and grim determination that one cannot but be amazed with her. Her skills and powers grow with the series and she herself grows more awesome. And adding to the awesomeness is her self-proclaimed protector, the werelion, Curran Lennart.
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    The initial books may feel a bit heavy on the descriptive side and that’s cause a lot of effort is given to the world-building. It is an important aspect in any fantasy book. I’m sure any The Lord of the Rings fan would agree with me on this. Here, the setting is of an apocalyptic Earth, except instead of natural disasters or zombies, it has been run by anything and everything that one can imagine. You’ve got were-animals, zombie-like vampires, demi-gods, actual gods from Norse to Slavic gods, even Rakshasas with a flying chariot that is reminiscent of one used by Ravana. The authors have definitely done their research well.
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    The books are episodic; each deals with a different ‘paranormal’ issue in a way that it never gets boring (trust my word for it). However, all the books slowly build up to culminate in an eventual climax in the last two books. Safe to say, there’s hardly any lull to the action. The story is simple enough yet entertaining, it does not get overly complex so I would recommend it to anyone who is new to the fantasy genre. The action scenes are well-versed and detailed and there’re plenty such scenes over the course of the series. New characters are added in almost every book and new villains as well so it hardly becomes dull (although it may be a problem always remembering who’s who but there are enough character guides for this series online). There is plenty of witty conversations and humorous situations that keep things light and the reader happy. One has to read just one book and it’ll be hard to put it down.
  • The main series came to an end this August with 10 books. There is one currently ongoing spin-off series Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant, #1) and various other novellas featuring different characters as leads listed HERE
  • I’m writing a collective review so you may not find all the elements that I stated here in one book. However, being that all the books have been rated 4 or higher out of 5 stars by me, it is definitely worthy.
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• View my review of Magic Binds (Kate Daniels, #9)
• View my review of Magic Triumphs (Kate Daniels, #10)
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