When Dimple Met Rishi - Blog Tour (Extract)

Blog Tour:
Title: When Dimple Met Rishi
Author: Sandhya Menon
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release Date: 1st June 2017 (UK)

“Hello, future wife,” he said, his voice bubbling with glee. “I can't wait to get started on the rest of our lives!”

(That quote though...I died of laughter! 👆)
Welcome to the 3rd day of the When Dimple Met Rishi Blog Tour!

The arranged marriage YA romcom you didn't know you wanted or needed...
Meet Dimple.
Her main aim in life is to escape her traditional parents, get to university and begin her plan for tech world domination.
Meet Rishi.
He's rich, good-looking and a hopeless romantic. His parents think Dimple is the perfect match for him, but she's got other plans...
Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
Perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell, Jenny Han and Nicola Yoon, WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI is a frothy, funny contemporary romance set at a coding convention in San Francisco over one exciting summer. Told from the dual perspectives of two Indian American protagonists, Dimple is fighting her family traditions while Rishi couldn't be happier to follow in the footsteps of his parents. Could sparks fly between this odd couple, or is this matchmaking attempt doomed to fail?

Flame in the Mist - Review

Book Review:
Title: Flame in the Mist
Author: Renee Ahdieh
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release Date: 18th May 2017 (UK)
I received an early copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Mariko has always known that being a woman means she's not in control of her own fate. But Mariko is the daughter of a prominent samurai and a cunning alchemist in her own right, and she refuses to be ignored. When she is ambushed by a group of bandits known as the Black Clan enroute to a political marriage to Minamoto Raiden - the emperor's son - Mariko realises she has two choices: she can wait to be rescued... or she can take matters into her own hands, hunt down the clan and find the person who wants her dead.

Disguising herself as a peasant boy, Mariko infiltrates the Black Clan's hideout and befriends their leader, the rebel ronin Ranmaru, and his second-in-command, Okami. Ranmaru and Okami warm to Mariko, impressed by her intellect and ingenuity. But as Mariko gets closer to the Black Clan, she uncovers a dark history of secrets that will force her to question everything she's ever known.

Strange The Dreamer - Review

Book Review:
Title: Strange The Dreamer
Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
I received an ARC/PROOF of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable," she pleaded. "Something beautiful and full of monsters."
“Beautiful and full of monsters?"
“All the best stories are.” 

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.
What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?
The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?
Welcome to Weep.

NAONDEL - Blog Tour

Blog Tour
Title: NAONDEL
Author: Maria Turtschaninoff
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Release Date: 6th April 2017 (UK)

WELCOME to the 9th and final day in the NAONDEL Blog Tour!

In the opulent palace of Ohaddin, women have one purpose - to obey. Some were brought here as girls, captured and enslaved; some as servants; some as wives. All of them must do what the Master tells them, for he wields a deadly and secret power. But the women have powers too. One is a healer. One can control dreams. One is a warrior. One can see everything that is coming. In their golden prison, the women wait. They plan. They write down their stories. They dream of a refuge, a safe place where girls can be free. And, finally, when the moon glows red, they will have their revenge.

What better way is there for us to end this wonderful blog tour than hearing about Maria Turtschaninoff's future plans and what she has is store for us next:

🌊⛵🌊

"  9. What next?

For the past year, I have been working on the third instalment in the Red Abbey Chronicles, “Letters from Maresi” (working title). At one point I thought the book might morph into two novels, but I reined it in and I think I will be happy with it as one novel. “Letters from Maresi” follows Maresi as she returns to her home province and attempts to start a school and spread the knowledge she gained at the Abbey. I have just finished a first rough (oh so rough) draft and soon I will start the first rewrite.

And then will follow the next.

And the next.

I hope to be able to submit the manuscript in the fall.

Will that then be the end of the Red Abbey Chronicles?

I don’t think so. As I have mentioned earlier in this blog tour, there are many story seeds I would like to plant and see if they grow. Things mentioned in Maresi, in Naondel and in “Letters from Maresi”. Some of these seeds may tie in to the Red Abbey, and some may not – but this does not overly concern me. My previous books Arra and Anaché (not yet translated into English) are set in the same world, and have loose ties to the other novels, but are not “Red Abbey”-books. For me, however, the novels are all equally part of the world building I am doing, book by book.

But I am an intuitive writer and I have learned never to think I can steer my creative process very much. There will eventually be one story that tugs at my sleeve harder than the others. And then all I can do is take my pen and follow, wherever the story leads me. "

🌊⛵🌊 

How exciting!

Don't forget Naondel & Maresi are both out in the UK and are available to purchase!

MARESI: Amazon | Waterstones | Whsmith

NAONDEL: Amazon | Waterstones | Whsmith

(Thank you to Vicki at Pushkin Press for inviting me to take part in the Naondel Blog Tour!)

About the Author:

Maria Turtschaninoff was born in 1977 and has been writing fairy tales since she was five. She is the author of many books about magical worlds, has been awarded the Swedish YLE Literature Prize and has twice won the Society of Swedish Literature Prize. She has also been nominated for the 2017 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and the 2017 CILIP Carnegie Medal. Naondel is part of the Red Abbey Chronicles which began with Maresi.