Lallan Sweets

Lallan Sweets
Author: Srishti Chaudhary
Publisher: Ebury Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-04-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780143450290

It is 1995. Tara Taneja lives in the small town of Siyaka, running Ultimate Mathematics Tuition Centre and working for Lalaji, her grandfather, at Lallan Sweets, his famous sweet shop. The laddoos sold at the shop are made using a secret family recipe that contains a magic ingredient known only to Lalaji. When Lalaji chooses to retire, he decides that Lallan Sweets will not be inherited but earned. He devises a quest for his three grandchildren-Tara, Rohit and Mohit-to discover the magic ingredient. Whoever finds it first will get to run the shop. It helps that Tara's long-time crush and neighbour, fun-loving and good-natured Nikku Sabharwal, returns to Siyaka after years. He joins Tara in her pursuit to outsmart her cousins. As the quest takes them from Mathura to Ludhiana, they must battle old secrets, family legacies and unexpected dangers. Yet, the toughest part will be acknowledging their feelings for each other. Will this journey bring them together or lead to a bittersweet end?

Once Upon a Curfew

Once Upon a Curfew
Author: Srishti Chaudhary
Publisher: Ebury Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2019
Genre: Delhi (India)
ISBN: 9780143445968

It is 1974. Indu has inherited a flat from her grandmother and wants to turn it into a library for women. Her parents think this will keep her suitably occupied till she marries her fiancé, Rajat, who's away studying in London. But then she meets Rana, a young lawyer with sparkling wit and a heart of gold. He helps set up the library and their days light up with playful banter and the many Rajesh Khanna movies they watch together. When the Emergency is declared, Indu's life turns upside down. Rana finds himself in trouble, while Rajat decides it's time to visit India and settle down. As the Emergency pervades their lives, Indu must decide not only who but what kind of life she will choose.

My Little Epiphanies

My Little Epiphanies
Author: Aisha Chaudhary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2017-01-06
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9386250985

This is a movie tie-in edition and any reviews posted before October 10, 2019 are from the previous edition of the same title published in 2015. Aisha Chaudhary was born with SCID (severe combined immune deficiency) and underwent a bone-marrow transplant when she was six months old. She lived in New Delhi, where she was born. The year 2014 was brutal for Aisha as her disease progressed, and her lungs started giving up on her. The last few months of the year felt like a roller-coaster ride, one that seemed to be mostly going down. Spending almost all her time lying in bed, Aisha wrote down her thoughts to get some relief, to get them out of her head. Aisha's life was not anything like the average life of an urban teenager, but she had experienced a lifetime of emotions; life and death, fear and anger, love and hate, the depths of utter sorrow and the happiest one can be. In My Little Epiphanies she took a hard look at her own feelings and what it was that gave her a sense of hope and control. This book gave her life purpose and meaning, something to hold on to. Sometimes, Aisha's little epiphanies had morphed into doodles that capture what was going on in her mind as her destiny played itself out. Through the book she wanted the world to understand her unusual life and she hoped that it will inspire others, going through similar hardships, to find peace.

People We Meet on Vacation

People We Meet on Vacation
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1984806750

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers and Beach Read comes a sparkling novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ The Skimm ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ The Wall Street Journal ∙ Chicago Tribune ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ Business Insider ∙ Real Simple ∙ Frolic ∙ and more!

Paper Moon

Paper Moon
Author: Rehana Munir
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2019-11-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9353574013

BOOKS. BOMBAY. ROMANCE.When her estranged father passes away, Fiza, fresh out of college, discovers that he has left her a tidy sum in the hope that she will open a bookshop... Overnight, Fiza's placid life is thrown into a whirl of decor decisions and book-buying sprees, unconventional staff and colourful patrons, small pleasures and little heartbreaks, as the store -- Paper Moon -- begins to take shape in a charming, old Bandra mansion. To top it all, she is being wooed by Iqbal, a mysterious customer who frequents the shop, and Dhruv, her ex-boyfriend, her feelings for whom are still confused. Can Fiza take charge of her life, reconcile with the past, and reach for everything that is hers?

You Only Live Once

You Only Live Once
Author: Stuti Changle
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2021-02-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9390914221

What if you ran away from your life today? Twenty years later, three people are looking for you. One is dying to meet you again. The other wishes you had never met them. The third wishes they could have met you at least once. You are one person. Aren't you? But you are not the same person to each of them. Find the answers about your own life in this story about searching for love and discovering yourself. Join a broken but rising YouTube star Alara, a struggling but hopeful stand-up comedian Aarav, and a zany but zen beach shack owner Ricky. Together, take the journey to seek the truth behind the famous singer Elisha's disappearance somewhere by the deep sea in Goa. Will you be able to find Elisha? Or will you end up finding yourself?

Excess Baggage

Excess Baggage
Author: Richa S Mukherjee
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2020-12-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9353579740

Lately, Anviksha Punjabi can't seem to get anything right. She is in the middle of ending her second marriage, is barely keeping any friends, and repeatedly getting into trouble at work. And as if all that weren't enough, she must put up with her gregarious and over-bearing 67-year-old mother as a housemate. Afraid that if this goes on, she'll finally unravel completely, Anviksha decides that she needs a break - a Bollywood style, solo-trip across Europe kind of break. What she doesn't expect is that her mother, Smita Punjabi, will insist on coming along. The unlikely duo embarks on a journey complete with nudists, an unwelcome blast from the past, a British dog named Bhindi, and several eligible bachelors, and slowly, what was supposed to be a soul-searching journey for one, turns into a life-altering experience for two.

Those Delicious Letters

Those Delicious Letters
Author: Sandeepa Datta Mukherjee
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-08-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9353574609

SOON TO BE A MAJOR WEB SERIES From the bestselling author of Bong Mom's Cookbook, comes a novel about food, family and love Soon after her fortieth birthday, Shubha starts receiving letters with traditional Bengali recipes from a mysterious lady in Calcutta claiming to be her grandmother. Never one for cooking, but drawn by the nostalgia and lured into the delicious world of forgotten food, Shubha starts experimenting with the recipes. The dishes are an instant hit with everyone she knows -- everyone except Sameer, her very busy husband. As Shubha tries to find the mysterious writer and her own life begins to unravel, the notes from a bygone era give her courage to take a second chance at life. Torn between the taste of success that the letters bring her, and the need to save her marriage, Shubha must find the perfect recipe for love.

Something I Never Told You

Something I Never Told You
Author: Shravya Bhinder
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2019-02-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9353054753

When in love, you tend to take each other for granted, and sometimes, that can cost you a lifetime of togetherness . . . Ronnie knew that his first crush was way out of his league, and yet he pursued and wooed Adira. Shyly and from a distance in the beginning, and more persuasively later. He couldn't believe it when the beautiful Adira actually began to reciprocate, falling in love with him for his simplicity and honesty. Slowly, as they get close and comfortable with each other, life takes on another hue. From truly magical it becomes routine. There are fights and then making-up sessions-a clash of egos and doubts. Things begin to change for the worst. It is too late. Ronnie and Adira will probably never find their forever after . . .

Sita's Kitchen

Sita's Kitchen
Author: Raghav Khanna
Publisher: Repro Knowledgcast Limited
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2021-12-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9789355201898

London-based restaurateur Arun and his assistant Ben are on a business trip. They stop at a roadside café in Himachal Pradesh and are astonished with its European looks and Italian menu. A cynical Arun samples a dish and is blown away by its authenticity. His astonishment turns into disbelief when he learns that the cook is Sita, a simple mountain girl who has never in her life stepped outside her village. Ever since her mother passed away, Sita started helping her deaf-mute father run their small tea stall. Sita loves cooking and when a travelling Italian chef gifts her a cookbook, the passion becomes an obsession. Aided by YouTube videos, Sita soon revamps the tea stall and turns it into an elfin café. Arun recognizes Sita's extraordinary talents and convinces her to move to London and become a chef at his restaurant. However, Sita's lack of professional training is soon apparent. Help comes in the form of Anwar Khan, a veteran butcher, who takes a floundering Sita under his wings. She embarks on a journey, navigating the cut-throat and often ugly world of gourmet chefs where gender conventions and racial undercurrents can make or break careers. As she strives to carve a niche for herself, Arun starts feeling differently towards Sita. Just when Sita starts believing in her special destiny, one incident alters her inside out and leads her to rediscovering herself.