Book picks similar to
Balraj by Manoj V. Jain


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Darjeeling Inheritance


Liz Harris - 2021
    She learns that her beloved father died a couple of days earlier and that he left her his estate. She learns also that it was his wish that she marry Andrew McAllister, the good-looking younger son from a neighbouring plantation. Unwilling to commit to a wedding for which she doesn’t feel ready, Charlotte pleads with Dan Fitzgerald, the assistant manager of Sundar, to teach her how to run the plantation while she gets to know Andrew. Although reluctant as he knew that a woman would never be accepted as manager by the local merchants and workers, Dan agrees. Charlotte’s chaperone on the journey from England, Ada Eastman, who during the long voyage, has become a friend, has journeyed to Darjeeling to marry Harry Banning, the owner of a neighbouring tea garden. When Ada marries Harry, she’s determined to be a loyal and faithful wife. And to be a good friend to Charlotte. And nothing, but nothing, was going to stand in the way of that.

The Shark Club


Ann Kidd Taylor - 2017
    First, she is kissed by Daniel, the boy of her dreams. Then, she is bitten by a blacktip shark. Eighteen years later, Maeve has thrown herself into her work as a world-travelling marine biologist discovering more about the minds of misunderstood sharks. But when Maeve returns home to the legendarily charming and eccentric Hotel of the Muses where she was raised by her grandmother, she finds more than just the blood orange sunsets and key lime pies she’s missed waiting for her. While Maeve has always been fearless in the water, on land she is indecisive. A chance meeting on the beach with a plucky, irresistible little girl who is just as fascinated by the ocean as Maeve was growing up leaves her at a crossroads: Should she rekindle her romance with Daniel, the first love she left behind when she dove into her work? Or indulge in a new romance with her colleague, Nicholas, who turns up in her hometown to investigate an illegal shark-finning operation?

The Lost Story


Amit Goyal - 2012
    Together, they imagine an epic battle between balance and chaos, a tale of a haunted house, a simple journey home that turns into a man's greatest nightmare, and even the end of the world.As the stories take shape, Sandy gets curious about Saleem's past and the several unanswered questions that he encounters… Why did Saleem stop writing? Why can he no longer finish stories? What is behind the locked door in his house? And… what is The Lost Story?Written like the premise, the stories in this book have each been done in two halves. One part by one author, and the second by the other, never discussing the story in between.

When a Lady Says I Do


Bridget Barton - 2021
    Nevertheless, she has little hope of finding true love, as it seems that no one truly appreciates her golden heart and boundless intelligence. Fate smiles on her though when she meets a dashing lord, whose presence will give her butterflies. Little did she know that her own sister would be jealous of her sweet romance...Will the imperfectly perfect Lady capture the charming Lord’s heart?Lord Lovell Trenowden is a man who cares deeply for his family. When their lives are falling apart along with their estate, Lovell accepts that he has no choice but to marry for money. Luckily for him, Lady Grace not only has wealth, but also the most beautiful soul from all women he has ever met. When she accepts his marriage proposal, he feels he is the luckiest man in the world. However, what Lovell hasn’t confessed to Grace, is that finding a wealthy wife was his only option...Will Lord Lovell manage to both save his family estate and marry the woman of his dreams?The more time they spend together, the more Lovell and Grace's romance blossoms into something neither was expecting. Everything crashes down though the moment Grace’s spiteful sister tells her that Lovell was on the hunt for a wife to merely secure a fortune. When Grace calls off the engagement, will Lovell manage to convince her that she is the love of his life? In the end, will Grace and Lovell follow the truth of their hearts, defying anything that comes between them?"When a Lady says I Do" is a historical romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Songbird Cottage Beginnings


Sylvia Price - 2020
    Sam MacAuley and his wife Annalize are total opposites. When Sam wants to leave city life in Halifax to get a plot of land on Cape Breton Island, where he grew up, his wife wants nothing to do with his plans and opts to move herself and their three boys back to her home country of South Africa. As Sam settles into a new life on his own, his friend Lachlan encourages him to get back into the dating scene. Although he meets plenty of women, he longs to find the one with whom he wants to share the rest of his life. Will Sam ever meet “the one”?Get to know Sam and discover the origins of the Songbird Cottage. This is the prequel to the rest of the Pleasant Bay series.

Burnt Sugar


Avni Doshi - 2019
    She abandoned her loveless marriage to join an ashram, endured a brief stint as a beggar (mostly to spite her affluent parents), and spent years chasing after a dishevelled, homeless 'artist' - all with her young child in tow. Now she is forgetting things, mixing up her maid's wages and leaving the gas on all night, and her grown-up daughter is faced with the task of caring for a woman who never cared for her.This is a love story and a story about betrayal. But not between lovers - between mother and daughter. Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, Burnt Sugar unpicks the slippery, choking cord of memory and myth that binds two women together, making and unmaking them endlessly.

Gypsy Masala


Preethi Nair - 2000
    "Tell me about your dreams, and if you have dared to follow them." This is the challenge for three members of the Vishavan family. Evita (real name Molu, but she's always had a tendency towards the theatrical) is stuck in a 9-to-5 job until she hears the irresistible beat of a drum, summoning her to follow her dream. It takes her to faraway places and people, but the rhythm of change is also to be found closer to home. Sheila and Bali have raised Evita as their own child. Yet their sadness has kept them apart; holding on to their separate secrets, they have rejected the possibility of following any dreams. Neither expects the disruption that follows Evita's return. From remote villages in Kerala to the heart of contemporary London, this is a story of discovery, love, and what might happen if you dare to live your dream.

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby


Cherise Wolas - 2017
    But the wonderful man I just married believes as I do―work is paramount, absolutely no children―and now love seems to me quite marvelous.These words are spoken to a rapturous audience by Joan Ashby, a brilliant and intense literary sensation acclaimed for her explosively dark and singular stories.When Joan finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, she is stunned by Martin’s delight, his instant betrayal of their pact. She makes a fateful, selfless decision then, to embrace her unintentional family.Challenged by raising two precocious sons, it is decades before she finally completes her masterpiece novel. Poised to reclaim the spotlight, to resume the intended life she gave up for love, a betrayal of Shakespearean proportion forces her to question every choice she has made.Epic, propulsive, incredibly ambitious, and dazzlingly written, The Resurrection of Joan Ashby is a story about sacrifice and motherhood, the burdens of expectation and genius. Cherise Wolas’s gorgeous debut introduces an indelible heroine candid about her struggles and unapologetic in her ambition.

Purgatory


Rosetta Allan - 2014
    No one can hear her, just us boys. We're the dead Finnegans – Ma, Thomas, Ben and me.Ten-year-old John Finnegan can't leave his garden. Ever since they were murdered he, his brothers and his ma have been stuck there, caught between the worlds of the living and the dead. Unseen and unnoticed, he watches the events after his life unfold – including the actions of his murderer.James Stack is born dirt-poor on an Irish tenant farm and the great famine shadows his childhood. But his clever sister's lace making may save the family – until Aileen is sent to the other side of the world on a convict ship. To save her, James joins the redcoats and follows her across dangerous waters to a hopeful new land. But can he ever leave the death and hunger of his homeland behind?Based on the 1865 Otahuhu murders, Purgatory is a startling, gripping novel from an immensely talented new author.

Swing


Philip Beard - 2014
    Henry Graham is a ten year-old boy whose father has just left home for good. When the two meet in 1971 at a downtown Pittsburgh bus stop, all they seem to have in common is their love of baseball. But that is enough to begin a life-long friendship that, eventually, enables both men to confront old enemies and heal old wounds. Philip Beard's third and most accomplished novel swings between two narratives the way John Kostka swings through life. The result is a multifaceted meditation on childhood heroes, the beauty of baseball and the power of love to heal a family in crisis. "SWING is at once heartbreaking, uplifting and emotionally resonant. In a word, it’s beautiful." –Pittsburgh Magazine "It wouldn't be fair or accurate to call SWING a sports book. It's too rare for that." –The Sporting News ​"SWING is richly rewarding...a tight, poignant coming of age novel...[that] will stay with you long after you put this book down." –Sports Illustrated “Every character—the absent father, the troubled sister, the mysterious wonder that is John Kostka—feels alive due to Beard‘s skillfully simple prose and dialogue. With SWING, Beard has hit it out of the park.” –Foreword Reviews ". . . just about perfect.” – The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tarikshir: The Awakening


Khayaal Patel - 2018
    While unrest surrounding the sudden death of the king of Devangarh grows, young prince Rudra Pratap Chauhan prepares to ascend the throne.But the kingdom is in turmoil. The Devangarh army is outnumbered and the British forces are closing in. To make matters worse, Rudra discovers the king’s death may not have been accidental after all. The strange appearance and disappearance of a mysterious hooded stranger and a series of ritualistic murders in which the bodies have been drained of blood, spread panic across the realm.As Rudra struggles to manage his new responsibilities and investigate his father’s death, dark secrets will be uncovered that will disrupt life as he knows it.

Rocket Man


William Hazelgrove - 2008
    But he just can't keep up. In a story of hilarious consequences, we find Dale in one week accused of cutting down the sign to his subivision, plagued with a father who has come to live over his garage, and on the hook for being the Rocket Man of his son's Scout Troop. While the price of the American Dream has become nothing short of being rich and famous, Dale heads for the the catastrophe of Rocket Day with one mission--to give his son a sense of independence, and in the process, find himself. ...LAUNCH!

The Lies You Told


Harriet Tyce - 2020
    When Sadie Roper moves back to London, she's determined to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. First, she needs to get her daughter settled into a new school-one of the most exclusive in the city. Next, she's going to get back the high-flying criminal barrister career she sacrificed for marriage ten years earlier. But nothing goes quite as planned. The school is not very welcoming newcomers, her daughter hasn't made any friends yet and the other mothers are as fiercely competitive as their children. Sadie immediately finds herself on the outside as she navigates the fraught politics of the school gate. But the tide starts to turn as Sadie begins to work on a scandalous, high-profile case that's the perfect opportunity to prove herself again, even though a dangerous flirtation threatens to cloud her professional judgment. And when Julia, queen of the school moms, befriends Sadie, she draws her into the heart of the world from which she was previously excluded. Soon Sadie and her family start to thrive, but does this close new friendship prevent her from seeing the truth? Sadie may be keeping her friends close, but what she doesn't know is that her enemies are closer still... Dark, addictive and compelling, The Lies You Told is a compulsive psychological thriller from a master storyteller.

My Imperfect Love Story


Shubhashish Kerketta - 2021
    Shashank was older, but flawless and their relationship bloomed. She relished every moment with him, and all the cinematic surprises and unmatched happiness that she could have only dreamed of! With time, in her quest to build the ‘perfect love story’ with Shashank, Amyra found her heart crushed mercilessly. A poignant story of love, friendship, hatred and revenge, My Imperfect Love Story will make you smile, break your heart and take you to cloud nine. More than anything, it will help you rediscover the power of your love.

Knots


Deblina Bhattacharya - 2019
     Knots is a collection of poetry and prose about love and heartbreak, tragedy and grief, survival and loss. It's a journey through the numerous knots that we tie in life, and the ones we tangle and untangle with. It explores the realities of mental illness & suicide, social taboos & violence against women, pain & darkness, self love & healing in all its naked glory. The rhythm of Knots resonates directly with the poet's heart, conveying to the readers that there is a way to untangle every knot in life, but sometimes, some of these knots are what we are made of. Foreword by Dr. Santosh Bakaya