Finally, it's Nayna and Raj's time to tell their love story!
Premise When I finished Cherish Hard, Ísalind and Sailor's story (Sailor being one of the BFinally, it's Nayna and Raj's time to tell their love story!
Premise When I finished Cherish Hard, Ísalind and Sailor's story (Sailor being one of the Bishop's brothers), as is a signature of any of Nalini's books, I craved to know Nayna and Raj one's because I was already hooked on what was going on with them. Their story, as often is happening with this new contemporary series of Nalini's, was strictly entwined to Ísa and Sailor's, with one couple's story entering the other and enriching it (that's also why as soon as I finished this I went back and re-read Cherish Hard... it made everything even better).
Review Going back to the story itself. As I said, for those who already read Cherish Hard, Rebel Hard is finally the opportunity to discover what was happening to Nayna and Raj. Nayna is the rebel in the title. She is a woman who loves her family and wants to please them after her sister's behaviour wounded them deeply. However, she is also an independent and successful professional accountant who wants to build her career and decide for herself about her life. Still, she finds herself bound by her culture traditions (she is Indian) and what her family expects from her as a woman that is of marriageable age. The pressure to be an obedient and respectful daughter who follows her parents' wishes is what is driving her to meet a list of awful potential candidates at the beginning of this story. If not for a last act of freedom before tying the knot with some boring doctor (or whatever). In fact, Nayna decides to go to a party, dragging Ísa with her, and it is there that things start to get interesting. Raj, instead, is searching for something completely different and is happy to follow tradition. He wants a stable family, something that lacked in his childhood before his parents adopted him. He wants someone who will be happy to build a family with him, creating a warm and cosy home for them and their children. Someone who is not set on making a career but who will stay home. He isn't counting Nayna, though.
Conclusion I truly enjoyed reading this book. Raj is one of the sweetest MCs I have ever had the pleasure to read about. Nayna, on the other hand, is the epitome of the heroine who needs to win personal emotional challenges to find and understand herself and what she wants from life. During all the reading, I could feel the author's personal experience of Indian culture and the influence it had on her life seeping in what was happening to Nayna. This ability to portray a culture in the story made me appreciate even more the book....more
The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a mix of folklore, history, and Young Adult elements that brings its readers in a fairytale-like atmosphere in whichThe Sisters of the Winter Wood is a mix of folklore, history, and Young Adult elements that brings its readers in a fairytale-like atmosphere in which two Jewish sisters learn what it means to become adults in a time of hate and ignorance. Laya and Liba are two young girls in the town of Dubossary. Very different one from the other, they are like the night to the sun, and not just in looks but also regarding their characters. While Liba is dark-haired, studious, thoughtful, and timid, Laya is white blonde, open, apparently superficial, and friendly. While persecutions start to make victims in nearby villages, the two girls parents are forced to leave when a distressing message reaches them. The serious Liba has the task of looking after her sister, but both girls find themselves in the mids of events bigger than themselves.
Strong points of this book for me are: - interesting rendition of the history and cultural aspects characterising Jewish and non-Jewish people in the East of Europe - good characterisation of the MCs and description of the world. Even if based on real places the fantasy part lends to a solid balance between the actual and the fantastical world - nice use of folklore to recount a difficult time in history and to deliver a tale about familial relationships and the passage from childhood to adulthood
The weak points are: - the author falls too easily in the Young Adult stereotype on the use of love. Naturally, the age of the protagonists, Laya and Liba, calls for some romance but in this case, I feel like she should have balanced this differently and kept it a very light, very secondary element. I am sure that if the book had been classified as Young Adult, I would have entered the story with another mindset, however, since it wasn't that clear that it is a YA I expected less childish bickering and romance - I have to admit being one of those who was quite put-off by the way in which this novel is written. The story is on both Liba and Laya points of view, and the author well managed this, but the two ways of writing, one normal discourse and the other in verse gave me pose quite often during the reading - some of the choices taken by the main characters where a bit questionable and, even if needed to support the storyline, I would have liked for them to be based on more stable ground...more
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