vampire books

Xcess Baggage by Varsha Dixit

Xcess Baggage comes with a strange baggage with it and I can’t figure out if it is a surprise or a shock or I guess it is a mix of both….

At the onset I will say, please read it at your risk, I mean I am not saying don’t read it but then the beginning was not great, one has to hold on to ensure that one hangs on it. It is plain boring until the Vampire hits you on your face full on! Unbelievable but true, it is a story about a female in US who falls in love with a Vampire who  is a werewolf, the one who is hell bent to kill her; reason, they want to set free ‘Unquiet Dead’ inside her by killing her and which would have benefited the specie of the Werewolves! Ok, I can’t explain these things detail, simply meant, the female protagonist must be killed or rather sacrificed for the well being of male protagonist ‘s clan….you can draw inference in whatever way you may like it.

So we have Meghna Chandra who resides in some part of US (off late I am reading all such books where the setting is always in US, I wonder why?) and Byron who is Lord, I mean not in literal sense but yes he is because he is a werewolf, a rare combination of vampires and wolves. There is a big clan though not so big lead by Byron the Beast as Meghna calls him. So as you move on, the story unfolds like a true fiction like a movie with all special effects with hero flying out of aero plane with heroine, saving her from dying etc. Oh yes! He excels in almost everything, literally yes, he has even studied medicine.

I hope and believe that it is a pure fiction (I am not sure if werewolves exist). You will enjoy the verbal repartee between Meghna and Byron, you will also hope that he will finally fall to her charms and you will also hope that they live happily after but that is not the case. What exactly happens? To know this, you need to read on.

The first book – Right fit wrong shoe – was really enjoyable, so the second book came with the excess baggage of expectations of being a better one than the first but somehow it is not so. Or, may be we had so much of expectations that it failed to meet so. The book is different in its own way for the simple reason I never knew or could think of this kind of plot so it was seemingly fresh to say. After you have managed to stay put through first five pages then there is no way you can put the book down without completing it which makes it clear that it is good in its own way. I mean if you ask the author which book is better, she will have no answer. My only wish was the different ending; yes a true happy ending would have sent my spirits soaring. I actually imagined that it will be a one bollywood ending but that was not the case alas! It is not even sad, it is just painful and leaves you with a question why or rather “Oh Noooooo”!!!

Over all I suggest to read it in leisure, reasonable price, sweet & sour story, not meant for those who do not believe in fairy tales, or who always believe in happy endings J

Yes, the review was late, I have been writing it for ages; I had read the book in its first week of launch itself….I managed to read some chapters again in order to write the review….and yes I can read it again (but not the first 4-5 pages !!!!).

Book review: Twilight by Stephenie Meyers

It is so easy to criticize something, someone but it is equally difficult to be honest and think up plausible reasons for liking something immensely to the extent of appearing biased…

I was overwhelmed by a strange feeling after reading TWILIGHT. A feeling I could not put my finger into. What was it? Was it love? Was it elation? Or Sorrow? Whatever it was, it had the same effect that I had after reading Eric Segal’s Love Story. To put it simply in a few words I loved the book.

As it is, the book and the movie have acquired quite a lot of fame and I already had the gist that it was a love story – an extraordinary love story. And extraordinary it was! When I picked up the copy I started out with very little expectations, but as the pages shuffled on I was flabbergasted. Flabbergasted at? – At everything. The plot, the descriptions of each and every emotion, nuances of the characters, the backdrop, the progression, the tempo… Can anything be so beautifully described without being monotonous and boring? No wonder it was made into a successful movie. As for the plot I will keep to the minimum so as to not give out much of the suspense.

Shy and awkward Isabella or Bella comes to the dark, sunless and always misty Forks in the Olympic Peninsula from sunny Phoenix to stay with her father after her mother decides to marry again. . Will she ever fit in this desolate and gloomy place? Which has simple yet adorable characters like Mike, Jacob and Jessica… and also the Cullens Siblings- Cold and different from the rest and the mysterious and enigmatic and absolutely stunning Edward Cullens? There is something insanely dark and sinister but magnetic about him which attracts Bella towards him. So is Edwards drawn to Bella in spite of himself whom he finds different and difficult to comprehend and vulnerable. After Edward rescues Bella from a couple of near mishaps under strange circumstances, they both fall in love. But though Bella is the best thing to have happened to Edward she also has the potential to bring out the worst in him. His worst and most primal instinct for he is not a human but incredibly a VAMPIRE. With a love so intense and yet forbidden, what does their destiny hold for them? It is a story about their trust, their sacrifice, and their choices. And just when I was starting to think that it’s all about mush, the tempo changes and next it becomes a frenzy of thrills and suspense with a deadly chase till it reaches a crescendo in the climax. But that should be left to be read by one so as to not break the suspense.

When I completed the novel, at the end it was written that the novel was to be continued in the next of the series NEW MOON. I had mixed feelings. Did I want a sequel? I enjoyed the book a lot but I think I wanted the story to remain where it had ended. In uncertainty and Sweetness but that of course this is my personal opinion.

Novel : Twilight

Pages : 512 (hardcover) , 544 (paperback)

ISBN : ISBN 0-316-16017-2