The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello, hello, If you enjoy MM/ gay romances, then I have some fun recommendations for you.  This is a series of 5 books by Eden Finley and Saxon James and all of them are available for free as part of your Kindle Unlimited subscription.  These are all books that are: Low Angst  Sweet  Medium spicy/ steamy  Sort of funny with some laugh out loud moments  HEAs  So, if you want to read something fun and light within the broader sports romance sub-genre, then these are good books to pick up.  Quick mini reviews:  Book 1: Power Plays and Straight As  Plot Summary:  “Look out for Zach and don’t hit on him.” My brother’s request sounds easy enough. Keep an eye out for his best friend on campus and keep my hands to myself. Easy. Even if Zach is a quintessential nerd, who I’ve always thought was cute, I don’t have the time to think with my … stick. There’s only one stick I should be focused on this year, and that’s my hockey stick. My ...

 Hello, hello, We're officially in the last week of 2023! How did this happen so quickly? The same question we ask ourselves as yet another year winds down! Time, it seems, flies irrespective of whether we are having fun or not. It passes. And that is both a consolation and a tragedy.  Anyway, didn't mean to wax poetic about time but maybe this is what happens when you read too much romance? :)  So, without much ado, let's get into our favourite spicy romance reads of the year. And, bonus, most of these can be read free via Kindle Unlimited.  The Royal Elites Series by Rina Kent  This is a series of 7 books based in a posh private school in the UK. Hot rich kids doing hot rich kids stuff but somehow each of these books has a soul. They are all spicy but not taboo and fun. Perfect to binge read if you are having a slow week! :)  The Legacy of Gods Series by Rina Kent  Rina Kent has her own multiverse of madness and two of her series meet in this third (...

Book: Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder  Author: Gracie Ruth Mitchell  Pages: 376 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  Juniper Bean has big plans for her writing career. Swoony kisses, sigh-inducing happily ever afters—she’s going to write them all. There’s just one problem: she can’t seem to stop killing off her main characters. After accepting that a genre change is in order, Juniper sets out to do some research. What’s the best way to carry a dead body? How exactly does one pick a lock? Juniper is going to find out—with the unwilling help of her new roommate, Aiden. But Juniper’s plans go haywire when she stumbles across an actual, real-life dead body—and before she knows it, she and Aiden are thrust into the middle of a murder mystery that seems suspiciously tied to Juniper’s past. Who killed the girl in the woods? Can Juniper ever get the hang of mystery writing? And, perhaps the biggest question of all: Why the heck does Aiden look so good in a ...

  Book: You Can't Hide Author: Emily Shiner  Pages: 255 Read on: Kindle  Read in: 2.5 hours  Plot Summary:  Beth thought she’d escaped her past. She was wrong. Beth and Ian are desperate to have a child. So much so that they decide to sell his family cabin in upstate New York to pay for IVF. When they arrive at the cabin, they meet Ryan, the caretaker. But Ryan is not who he says he is… He’s here because he knows Beth has a dark secret. And now he intends to use it against her. He threatens to tell Ian everything about Beth's past unless she does exactly what he says. Beth finds herself caught in a nightmarish trap. If Ian discovers what she’s been hiding from him, she’s sure he’ll leave her. She’ll lose everything she cares about, including the chance to have a child of her own. On the other hand, what Ryan wants her to do is so dark and twisted it’s beyond horrifying. Either way, Beth is sure her life is over, she can see no way out. Unless… Unless she digs de...

  Book: The Girl from Silent Lake  Plot Summary:  When single mother  Alison Nolan  sets off with her six-year-old daughter,  Hazel , she can’t wait to spend precious time with her girl. A vacation in Silent Lake, where snow-topped mountains are surrounded by the colors of fall, is just what they need. But hours later, Alison and Hazel vanish into thin air. Detective Kay Sharp  rushes to the scene. The only evidence that they were ever there is an abandoned rental car with a suitcase in the back, gummy bears in the open glove compartment and a teddy bear on the floor. Kay’s mind spins. A week before, the body of another woman from out of town was found wrapped in a blanket, her hair braided and tied with feathers. Instinct tells her that the cases are connected––and it won’t be long until more innocent lives are lost. As Kay leads a frenzied search, time is against her, but she vows that Alison and little Hazel will be found alive. She works around the...

  Book: Best Served Cold (#4 in the Janardan Maity Series) Author: Bhaskar Chattopadhyay  Pages: 217  Read on: Kindle (via Kindle Unlimited) Read in: ~3 hours  Plot Summary:  Twenty years ago, four boys were wronged by a vicious man in an idyllic tea estate. Now, they have returned to avenge the crimes committed against them.  His simplest case might just be the most challenging puzzle that detective Janardan Maity has ever faced. General Thoughts: We have read and enjoyed most of the previous Janardan Maity books. Bhaskar Chattopadhyay writes a good crime thriller  and  his ' detective' is more interested in uncovering the truth than anything else; much like Byomkesh Bakshi. We highly recommend the previous three books in the Janardan Maity-Prakash Ray series. Reviews can be found by following the links to Penumbra , Here Falls the Shadow and The Disappearance of Sally Sequeira . So, when I noticed that a new Maity-Ray book was out and was ...

Book: Lying Next to Me Author: Gregg Olsen Pages: 391 Read on: Kindle (via Kindle Unlimited) Read in: 4-5 hours Plot Summary:  Adam and Sophie Warner and their three-year-old daughter are vacationing in Washington State’s Hood Canal for Memorial Day weekend. It’s the perfect getaway to unplug—and to calm an uneasy marriage. But on Adam’s first day out on the water, he sees Sophie abducted by a stranger. A hundred yards from shore, Adam can’t save her. And Sophie disappears. In a nearby cabin is another couple, Kristen and Connor Moss. Unfortunately, beyond what they’ve heard in the news, they’re in the dark when it comes to Sophie’s disappearance. For Adam, at least there’s comfort in knowing that Mason County detective Lee Husemann is an old friend of his. She’ll do everything she can to help. She must. But as Adam’s paranoia about his missing wife escalates, Lee puts together the pieces of a puzzle. The lives of the two couples are converging in unpredictable wa...

Book: My Sister's Grave  Author: Robert Dugoni  Pages: 402  Read on: Kindle {via Kindle Unlimited} Read in: 3 hours  Plot Summary:  Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed.  She doesn’t believe that Edmund House—a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah’s murder—is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers. When Sarah’s remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she’s been seeking.  As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long-kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past—and open the door to deadly danger. Review: This book deals wit...

Hello!  January is gone (nearly) and it has left me with quite a few books read and some pretty diverse reads at that. January was a very good reading month!  I hope the rest of my reading year matches January.  Let's jump into all of my reading that I did in January.  BOOKS READ IN JANUARY 2018!  1. The Mussoorie Murder Edited by Ruskin Bond: My first book read in 2018 and even the first book I bought in 2018. Truth be told, I got this book thinking it will all Ruskin Bond. It wasn't. It is an anthology of classic short stories. I quite enjoyed it.  3/5  2. One by Sarah Crossan: An incredible book. I loved it. Read it in one evening and I can't recommend it enough.  So good!  5/5 3. The Ten Dollar Bride by Sanya Runway: Another collection of short stories dealing with the myriad issues women in India face.  Compelling and moving. 3.5/5  4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J...