Tag: contemporary fiction

#BookReview The Morning Star by Gita V. Reddy @RandomTTours

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The Morning Star - BT Poster

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Morning Star by Gita V. Reddy. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to the author for my digital review copy.

The Morning Star by Gita V. ReddyAbout the Book

Anything is possible if fate wills it.

A desperate woman calls a neighbour before dying in childbirth. Is it a coincidence that she chooses someone who will give her all to save the baby from its unscrupulous father?

When Sudha answers a telephone call in the middle of the night, she cannot know how it will change her life. From the first, she feels a strong connection with the motherless baby. She brings her home and names her after the Arundhati star. Sudha loves Arundhati – Anu as she calls her – as much as she does her son. She is the daughter of her heart, a precious gift that fate has given her. As the threat to Anu’s safety increases, she grows desperate and takes a drastic step to protect the baby.

Only, it might cost her everything she holds dear…

Format: Paperback (329 pages)          Publisher:
Publication date: 30th August 2020  Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Women’s Fiction

Find The Morning Star on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK
*Link provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Having previously read the author’s two short story collections, Happiness Is A Collage and A Tapestry Of Tears, I was intrigued at the prospect of experiencing her writing in novel length form. Even more so since I also enjoyed her book, Outside the Magic Circle, exploring the private life of Charles Dickens and revealing his cruel treatment of his wife Catherine, mother of his children.

Described as “a story of love, sacrifice and the unseen hand of destiny”, The Morning Star takes the reader on an emotional – and literal – journey as Sudha attempts to fulfil her neighbour Prerna’s dying wish that she keep her newborn daughter safe from Prerna’s alcoholic husband. Sudha soon finds herself forced to choose between respecting the wishes of her husband Vinay, her responsibilities for her young son Raghu and her sincere conviction that destiny has chosen her to be the protector of the baby she names Arundhati. Her choice sets her on a path that jeopardizes her marriage, forces her to venture outside the relatively enclosed life she has led so far, and brings challenges and risks she can never have imagined.

Although Sudha’s actions may appear rash, even naïve at times, they are clearly motivated by her love for Arundhati, the daughter she would have loved to have, and by her own experiences as a child. This makes her a very sympathetic character. And I’m sure I’m not the only reader to give a little cheer the first time she, in her words, “stands her ground”, answering back to yet another mean comment from her cousin Lavanya.

A chance encounter on a train journey results in an unlikely friendship which brings Sudha (who is somewhat of an innocent abroad, at one point describing herself as “a boat without oars in a fast-moving river”) much needed practical help. It also leads to Sudha and Arundhati finding an unexpected refuge as well as a source of love and support, just at the moment they need it most.

The novel’s references to smartphones, Instagram and Netflix place it very much in the here and now, even more so as the author very cleverly weaves current world events into the storyline. However, as in her previous books, the central story is accompanied by fascinating insights into Indian culture, religious belief and social customs. Oh, and delicious sounding food.

The Morning Star is a moving family drama set against the backdrop of modern day India. It will take you on an emotional journey, one you won’t want to forget for a while.

In three words: Emotional, touching, hopeful

Try something similar: The Borrowed Boy by Deborah Klee

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Gita Reddy Author PicAbout the Author

Gita V. Reddy lives in Hyderabad, India, with her husband and son. She writes fiction for both adults and children. Her books for children are written when she takes a break from writing for adults and vice versa. She enjoys thinking up tales in different genres and has written historical fiction, women’s fiction and has recently made a foray into Regency romance. For children, she has written mysteries, adventure tales, fantasy, science fiction and also a fable. In addition to writing, she is interested in art and has illustrated three picture books.

Gita Reddy also writes under the pen names of Heera Datta and Jessica Spencer (for Regency romance). Ms. Reddy is a postgraduate in Mathematics. In an earlier life, that she voluntarily quit in 2011, she was a senior manager in a bank. To know more about her and her writing journey, visit her website.

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#BookReview How To Belong by Sarah Franklin @ZaffreBooks

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How To BelongAbout the Book

Jo grew up in the Forest of Dean, but she was always the one destined to leave for a bigger, brighter future. When her parents retire from their butcher’s shop, she returns to her beloved community to save the family legacy, hoping also to save herself. But things are more complex than the rose-tinted version of life which sustained Jo from afar.

Tessa is a farrier, shoeing horses two miles and half a generation away from Jo, further into the Forest. Tessa’s experience of the community couldn’t be more different. Now she too has returned, in flight from a life she could have led, nursing a secret and a past filled with guilt and shame.

Compelled through circumstance to live together, these two women will be forced to confront their sense of identity, and reconsider the meaning of home.

Format: Hardcover (368 pages)               Publisher: Zaffre
Publication date: 12th November 2020 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find How to Belong on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*link provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I was initially drawn to Sarah Franklin’s first novel, Shelter, because it was set during World War Two which is one of my favourite periods for historical fiction. I was also intrigued by the choice of location, the Forest of Dean. I loved the book and it left me keen to read whatever Sarah came up with next.

In How To Belong the location is once more the Forest of Dean but this time we’re very much in the present day. However, there is a sense of the timelessness of the Forest, even if much around it has changed and is still changing. Not only a source of recreation and employment, and a haven for wildlife, the Forest acts as a place for contemplation and reflection. As one character puts it, “The trees will restore the mess“.

The book switches between the points of view of Jo and Tessa, two women who are very different in terms of their life experience and character. Tessa is by nature an introvert whose one attempt at reaching out and expressing her true self ended in rejection, disappointment and a sense of failure, for reasons the reader will gradually discover. Jo, on the other hand, has forged a life for herself away from the Forest, a life that had been successful in many ways but which has left her unfulfilled and with a desire to return to her roots.

Jo returns with big plans for the family butcher’s shop but is disappointed to find it more difficult than she expects to be absorbed back into the community. The friends she grew up with have built their own lives – married, started families – and talk about people she doesn’t know. “The group’s shifted. She doesn’t know who she is or where she fits in. There’s nowhere left for her to go.” In particular, Jo struggles to understand the change in her relationship with her childhood friend, Liam, with whom she was once so close. “She’s homesick for happy Liam, who doesn’t exist anymore; perhaps never did outside her own naive bubble… Most of all, she’s homesick for her old self.” What Jo comes to realise is that it’s possible to be the repository of others’ hopes and dreams, not just your own.

Tessa has become used to living a life socially distant from others. From childhood, she’s instinctively felt different from her peers for reasons she couldn’t initially explain. Traumatic incidents in her past have left her with a misplaced sense of guilt as well as worries about her future.

Thrown together by chance, Jo and Tessa slowly discover they have more in common than they may have thought and that each can help the other find a way to achieve the sense of belonging they both crave. Whether that’s feeling a part of a community or a family, having a sense of security, fulfilling a dream or simply being comfortable in your own skin.

How To Belong is an engrossing human drama that shows it’s never too late to start again, if you just give yourself the chance.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Zaffre Books, NetGalley and Readers First.

In three words: Tender, insightful, intimate

Try something similar: Birdie & Jude by Phyllis H. Moore

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Sarah FranklinAbout the Author

Sarah Franklin grew up in rural Gloucestershire and has lived in Austria, Germany, the USA and Ireland. She lectures in publishing at Oxford Brookes University and has written for the Guardian, the Irish Times, Psychologies magazine and The Pool. (Photo credit: Twitter profile)

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