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Four sisters, bound by immortality, ageless beauty and melodious voices, cursed to live on the blood and hearts of men and to shape-shift into monsters or to shimmer like mermaids. Together they are invincible, but what when they are alone?
Bestselling young-adult fiction writer Amanda Hocking’s third book in the Watersong series leaves us wanting more. Tidal [Pan Macmillan, Rs 350] brings along with it waves of love, action, drama and unsolved mysteries.
The story so far? The peaceful town of Capri is jolted in the first book, Wake, when three beautiful sisters walk into their lives — Penn, Thea and Lexi. All they want is young men to play with... and Gemma Fisher. Cursed by Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvest, the sirens must stick together in a group of four, or they will die. Tricking Gemma into becoming the fourth siren (a cursed mermaid), it is well into the second book, Lullaby, when they realise that it was one of their biggest mistakes.
Gemma loves the ocean and swimming, but she is not exactly the one to turn her back on her life, family and love, just to be a part of the bloodthirsty Greek girl gang! Lullaby left us on tenterhooks when the sirens moved back to Capri not just to keep an eye on Gemma but also to give her an ultimatum.
Gemma is joined by sister Harper, boyfriend-in-law (in Hocking-speak) Daniel and Marcy, Harper’s colleague and the closest to being a best friend, in her quest to break the curse that has doomed their lives.
Book three finds Gemma in the midst of this search. She tackles her hunger and fights her own self by keeping Alex, the only boy she has ever loved, away by using her siren song to make him hate her. This way perhaps even the sirens, especially Penn, would leave Alex alone. Penn sets her sights not on Alex but Harper’s boyfriend Daniel, the only man to not be enchanted by the sirens.
The dead-pan Marcy’s character is quite a surprise. There’s also Lydia, whose grandmother was a “good witch” and father a werewolf.
A relentless search, the death of a siren and a change of heart of another — Tidal packs in quite a pull before the finale.
And now begins the wait for the fourth and final book in the series, Elegy! Also look out for Forgotten Lyrics, that threads together the stories of those whose tales have not been told in the Watersong series.
Psst: Take a look at the cover of the imported version of Tidal (picture above). It has Daniel showing off his tattooed back — a tree running up the spine and branching out over his right shoulder (sigh). Sadly, the cover also has the loathsome Penn on it.
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Seriously Sitara by Nishat Fatima [Hachette India, Rs 299] is a story about a girl called Sitara Gopalasundaram and a boy called Naseer Khan. The girl whose name has oh-so-many syllables. The guy whose name causes oh-so-many stampedes.
The artsy art editor of Hommes, she has no respect for the rules of engagement with Bollywood, namely thou shalt not dig, deep or otherwise; thou shalt not try to report on what stars are really doing and thou shalt not burst the public bubble about your nice-guy image.
Sitara doesn’t dig Bollywood. Naseer IS Bollywood. Hero number 1. A comedy-of-errors-type first meeting happens. A second, a third and many more chance and non-chance encounters (including one in foreign locale aka Florence) and finally a full filmi-style love story. But not so easy. There’s push and pull. There’s drama and denial. Thirty-something Sitara’s family loves fixing her up. Naseer’s family (mum is the word) would like nothing better than to un-fix him with his rather ditzy girlfriends.
The lead pair apart, what makes this book click is its cutesy, quirky supporting cast. Sitara’s BFF Maya, sadist editor Debashish. Naseer’s crazy ex Richa Bali, bestie Shiv, identical twin Naeem and his hyper PA Anjali Rane. They all add to the spunk of Seriously Sitara.
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Forever In My Heart by Arindam Dey [Paper Clip Books, Rs 100] is a tale of eternal love between Rishav Agarwal and Saanjh Saxena in the hilly climes of Kullu and Manali. It transcends time, barriers, manipulation and even disease to give the readers a soppy Bollywood saga.
The book starts with an accident, when both Rishav and Saanjh were in school. Thus ends their chance of elopement and puts their romance on hold.
Cut to 18 years ahead. Rishav teaches stage history in Shimla and sees very disturbing images. Saanjh works in a magazine in Calcutta. Both have failed to move on.
Enter Josephine D’Souza, a budding actress with a crush on Rishav. Before you know it, she’s slashed her wrist to be honest to her character on stage! She has to have Rishav at all cost, but only to win a bet.
Back to Saanjh. She suddenly learns that Rishav is still alive and rushes to meet him in Manali. But she is attacked by the driver of her car and falls into the Beas.
Saanjh is rescued and nursed to health by none other than Rishav’s mother. But Rishav fails to recognise his love, thanks to Josephine’s manipulations and forces his mother to drive Saanjh away.
Enter guilt. Josephine feels bad and starts visiting Saanjh in hospital and eventually tries to bring the two together, coming to terms with her own troubled past and realising her love for her classmate Ankit.
But Rishav has a mental disorder. Ultimately love and sacrifice win the day, Josephine becomes an angel while Ankit is left with... well nothing.
