BOOK TITLE: Trouble
Brewing
ISBN: -
AUTHOR: Jane
Tara
GENRE: Young Adult/ Fantasy
NUMBER OF PAGES: 270
FORMAT: Adobe
DRM e-book
SERIES / STANDALONE: The
Shakespeare Sisters #2
REVIEW BY: Dhivya
Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: A
net-galley request to read resulted in this most intriguing book.
REVIEW:
A
romance genre novel always holds some sort of intrigue and promises a united
happy ending. That is the main purpose of most novels in this genre. The fairy
tale like ‘happily ever after’ endings, people realising their follies and
finding true love and companionship are part of almost all the stories. I took up the second book of the
Shakespeare sisters series, by Jane Tara expecting a different personification
of the same ‘psychic clan of sisters’ story. I did not expect much deviation or
edge of the seat thrills in the narrative, considering the previous instalment,
Forecast, in this series. (Review here :)
But
Trouble Brewing pleasantly surprised me. Yes, it was a romance novel, and yes, there
are more instances of intimacy, but the novel managed to pack in a few punching
twists and turns. It also has a few ‘other worldly’ moments, entrances into
faerie worlds, fables and prophecies, fauns and other mythical creatures in
abundance. The London based clan of redheads are more exotic and Calypso, the
lead protagonist, rues the loss of her One True Love, his unexpected change of
mind and the turn of events that led her to her current state.
An
expert traveller and potion maker, Calypso helps everyone else’s love, all the
while mourning her loss. She lives with her mother Batty, father Alf and sister
Nell, in their famous pub. Calypso tries to drown her depression by a series of
relationships that she always find lacking compared to her One True Love,
Scott, Who was, according to tradition, an unreadable enigma to her otherwise
flawless psychic abilities. Soon after Scott’s sudden departure, enters Taran,
another man that she could not read.
Calypso
meets him by chance in her cousin’s shop and involves herself for a one night
stand and gives him the slip. He follows her across the globe, unable to face
rejection by any woman. Soon she finds herself unable to refuse the fact that
she has found another man who she could not read. Another man, who might be her
true love, has arrived out of tradition. Calypso feels that by loving again she
will betray the memories of her past love. Taran imposes himself on her
relentlessly, until Calypso decides to distance herself from him citing her
father’s illness.
The
fear of loss of loved ones is portrayed well as the emotional moments tug at
the simple readers heartstrings (well, at least, that was how it was meant to
be for the fans of this genre). Taran follows Calypso who likes him but still
distances herself for the fear of being too involved. Just when she decides he
is the one, another loss threatens to present itself. And she distances herself
from committing with Taran. But with the support of family and friends, Calypso
decides to give another chance to love in her life.
And,
*spoiler alert*, Taran decides to move on with a past girl friend who had
approached him, just when Calypso swallows her ego to reach out to him. In a
reeling moment of shock, she closes up her shell, and Taran follows her to win
her back, shortly after which another shocking revelation makes Calypso decide
to lose her life. How she comes back to living a life and how she realises that
not all Shakespeare women have only one true love forms the plot of the story.
WHAT I LIKED: A myth-magic story line and a perfect rain read
for Romance fans. Of course, there is the thoroughly unexpected set of twists
in the plot. A special mention to the author for choosing her book covers
fittingly.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: Loose
editing, and again a lesser usage of a rare psychic ability.
VERDICT: A
rainy read and feel good book.
RATING: 4/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jane is from Bondi, Sydney. She has traveled extensively and has lived in Tokyo, London, Vienna, New York and various parts of Australia. Her first book Forecast was first published in 2007 by Dorchester, but they went out of business .So FORECAST was re-released in May. And the long-awaited sequel, TROUBLE BREWING has also just been published. She has over twenty children’s picture books published in Asia, and has written travel articles for many publications worldwide. She has transformed her “itchy feet” into ITCHEE FEET, which publishes travel books for kids.
Jane is from Bondi, Sydney. She has traveled extensively and has lived in Tokyo, London, Vienna, New York and various parts of Australia. Her first book Forecast was first published in 2007 by Dorchester, but they went out of business .So FORECAST was re-released in May. And the long-awaited sequel, TROUBLE BREWING has also just been published. She has over twenty children’s picture books published in Asia, and has written travel articles for many publications worldwide. She has transformed her “itchy feet” into ITCHEE FEET, which publishes travel books for kids.
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Kindle
PRICE: Rs. 216 for Kindle edition
BOOK LINKS: http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Brewing-Shakespeare-Sisters-ebook/dp/B00BMFEWME/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380127492&sr=1-1&keywords=trouble+brewing+jane+tara
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