My second book by Helen Hoang after "The Bride Test". I liked The Bride Test and saw better reviews about "The Kiss Quotient" which was her first book. So, I read the books in reverse order and it lived up to its hype.

Stella Lane, 30, an econometrician, is successful and smart but she expertise in one area due to her Asperger's syndrome and that's relationships. She gets really awkward when it comes to love, social interactions and love making. She hires an escort to teach her to get well on these subjects so that she can fulfill her mother's demands of marriage and giving her grandchildren.

Michael Larson who is a fashion graduate but works for his mother as a tailor to pay off her medical bills and to stay with her while she is going through the cancer treatment. He also works as an escort on Fridays without the knowledge of his family or friends to get extra income for the same purpose. Stella hires Michael but instead of a professional relationship between them, it turns into a personal relationship when both of them get smitten by each other and couldn't stay away from each other.

I have been a fan of Helen's writing since I read her "The Bride Test". She empowered an autistic character with her narrative abilities and emphasis on a strong, independent and smart woman is always her strong point. Most of the romantic novels are cliché but this book is refreshing and very modern. Helen's book also teaches a lesson that "consent" is very important in a relationship and nobody can force himself/herself on you without your consent.

A hot and steamy romantic book with a lot of sense, a must read by Helen Hoang.

I had to go and pick "The Sentence is Death" after reading "The Word is Murder". It was simply irresistible. I think I've recently developed a love for Anthony Horowitz's writing and it is about time when I buy his "Magpie Murders".

This book is second to the Hawthorne detective series. If you've read the "The Word is Murder", this book might make a little more sense from an angle of character development for the main characters but on an overall level, this book is fine to be read as a standalone. This book deals with another case of a celebrity-lawyer, Richard Pryce's murder and Daniel Hawthorne is hired as a consultant to the Police to solve the murder mystery. Anthony Horowitz is being requested by Daniel to write a book about him solving this case again to which Anthony reluctantly agrees again and in order to accomplish this, he accompanies Hawthorne everywhere. There is an accident involved which happened 6 years before Richard's death which interlinks with the current murder investigation and it is an absolute charm to read this mystery "masterpiece" to see how everything is revealed.

This book has everything you look for in a murder mystery and I love the camaraderie between Anthony and Hawthorne. The perfect murder mystery where every character looks like a prime suspect until you move to the next. There have been so many clues dropped at times but you realize it later when you jot them down.

Thank you Anthony for giving us such a thriller with a few bouts of laughter!

Sometimes I surprise myself when I make good decisions and picking this book up someone left at the "romance" section is definitely one of those decisions. The cover of the book fascinated me and I couldn't resist. "The Word Is Murder" is one such book which is not "much" hyped up on instagram and I wonder why.

The book starts with the lady, Diana Cowper, going to a funeral parlour and booking her own funeral She is murdered the same evening. Coincident? Daniel Hawthorne, an ex-Policeman who is mysterious in his own ways but very efficient. He is being hired as a consultant by Police to solve the murder case of Diana Cowper. Daniel approaches Anthony, a famous writer, to write about the case he's solving so he must accompany him everywhere. A concept of "Sherlock Holmes" and "Watson"? pretty much.

Diana's son, Damian Cowper, is a famous celebrity star living in LA and he visits London for his mother's funeral. He also gets killed brutally shortly after her funeral. Hawthorne has now 2 murders to solve. Anthony has to write a book with Hawthorne being chippy and mysterious and not giving away too many details about himself. So, how the murders are investigated, how they are solved and how they are documented in the book "The Word Is Murder" - you must read this to know!

Anthony Horowitz didn't only write this book, he is in the book and narrated the whole story in the first-person narrative. The English background of the book and the use of British vocabulary also piqued my interest. A clever, brilliant and unputdownable book which I recommend to all the book lovers who love murder mysteries.

It was my first book from Anthony Horowitz and he is "bloody" brilliant at what he is writing. I am definitely looking forward to read more of his books!

My first book from Tessa Bailey and wasn't sure if I would like it. There have been a lot of reviews about this all over the bookish community which made me pick this one at the bookstore.

Georgie Castle, 23, the youngest sibling, who wants her family to take her seriously. Travis Ford, 28, a major league baseball’s hottest rookie who is forced to retire based on his injury and he wants to start his new career with a better image. He has been known for dating so many girls and leaving them.

Travis's best friend, Stephen is Georgie's brother and Georgie has been swooned by Travis for a long time when he used to play baseball matches and she would cheer for him at the bleachers. Travis, on the other hand, has always seen her as a best friend's little sister who is not a kid anymore.

Georgie works as a planner for children's birthday parties and likes to make people laugh. She has never been asked out. Hence, Travis and Georgie stage a love affair for the press and people around so that they both benefit from it. Georgie's family will finally consider her grown up and Travis will be seen as a one-woman man thus his new employers will trust him with a lucrative career.

One thing that I really liked about the narration is that the next chapter always does a little mini recap of the last chapter in a sentence which makes you pick up the story from there instead of flipping back the pages. The characters have been beautifully developed. There is a lot of romance, steamy and explicit love scenes and sarcastic funny one-liners.

If you love hot and steamy books, this is the one for you!!!

Highly popular on instagram, "Fumbled" made me pick it up as soon as I saw it at the bookstore in Romance section. Needless to say, I enjoyed it and didn't regret picking it up.

A single mother of a nine years old, Poppy, was disowned by her parents when she was 16 and pregnant. Her boyfriend, TK Moore, didn't reply to her text and answered her calls about her pregnancy. TK was a budding football player and her mother thought that fatherhood at this early age would ruin his career so she asked Poppy to abort the child but she decided to keep the child and worked hard to raise the child by herself working in a bar as a waitress wearing uncomfortable clothes against her wish.

Poppy's life takes turn when one night working in the bar, she encounters TK after 10 years. Her love life wants to give a second chance to her as TK reenters her life and wants to live with her and her now 9 year old son, Ace.

Should Poppy give him a second chance? Does second chance guarantee the successful love and family life?

It is my first book from Alexa Martin and it was engaging from all sorts. Single and independent mother, sports romance, sports injuries and second chances at love - enough to keep me engaged. A quick read and the sweet romantic story I've read in a while.

If you are looking for a light and quick read, grab "Fumbled".

I simply cannot disregard a book recommended by Reese Witherspoon book club. All the books recommended by her have been amazing for me (yet). "The Cactus" was one of those.

As the name suggests, "The Cactus" is all about finding love & surviving even being very complicated. Susan Green, the lead character, has her own equation of perfect life. Her messy emotions don't fit into the real world's emotions. She lives in a flat which is suitable for one person and goes on a date with someone completely based on business type arrangement. She likes when she controls the situation herself. In short, she is brittle, prickly and dry.

Her life takes a complete turn when she finds out that she is pregnant and her brother gets to live in their mother's house as long as he wants according to their mother's will. She feels that she is losing control and as her due date nears she finds that she is drawn towards her brother's friend, Rob, whom she initially felt repulsed. She accepts the support from her neighbour as well whom she hardly used to speak to.

Overall, a smartly written book with commendable narration from Sarah Haywood. I liked her English humour. Several topics such as sibling rivalry, inheritance issues, mature age pregnancy, marital issues and illness have been beautifully described and covered in her debut novel. An excellent debut novel by Sarah!

If you haven't grabbed a copy of it, you should definitely get it. As the book suggests, it is never too late to bloom!!!

Another popular book and I couldn't resist the desperation to read it. Unfortunately, I felt this book didn't live up to its expectations for me. I kept reading it anticipating something which I never read before but it is just an average book for me.

The plot of this book is appealing and in my opinion makes this book so popular. First Son of US (Alex) falls in love with Prince of Wales (Henry). A lot of repulsion between these two in the beginning as they hated each other but when they both were asked to pretend false friendship for tabloids in order to maintain international equilibrium, they discovered each other closely hence, falling in love with each other. Alex, who is busy in reelection campaign for his mother in President run finds his relationship with Henry as a gay couple affecting the campaign benefitting their opponents. Henry, on the other hand, is struggling to change the attitude of Buckingham Palace where any heir should be allowed to date how they want instead of confining them to Royal rules of dating.

The characters of White House are elaborated more than that of Buckingham Palace. I found story shifting briskly from one place to another where the characters are in US for one paragraph and in UK for the next. It could be just me but I had to go back and read the last page again to find what I missed.

The chemistry between Henry and Alex has been penned down nicely but sometimes it seems forced into the ongoing story.

The only thing that intrigued me about this book is the political arena of US presidency. It has all the twists and turns, plots, subplots, and characters which explored the White House's environment during elections.

Overall, an average read for me and if you like romantic comedy with political twists in it, grab the copy of Red, White & Royal Blue.

This book was recommended to me by the staff of the bookstore I go to. I can't thank them enough to recommend me this and of course to myself for believing them.

How would you react when you'd get an email saying that you are "matched"? A website which claims that they can find your soul mate based on your DNA, "THE ONE" you are genetically matched with. This approach of finding partners has its own pros and cons. It has not only caused breakups of many couples and but also has changed the concept of traditional dating and romance.

The story revolves around 5 such different couples who are affected by this website. Everything starts on a happy note until they all realize that there are perplexities in relationships and love is above all.

John Marrs has written a clever book expressing all the complexities of relationships in 5 different scenarios. It is very intriguing and simply kept me engaged until I finished the whole book in 2 sittings. Some might find that the end is a bit abrupt but I find there is a clever closure to all the 5 stories John is describing.

Worth recommending it to fellow readers who love to read thrillers!

The psycho thriller which I picked after getting too hyped on bookstagram. Luckily, it lived up to its expectations.

A deep and dark story of love and revenge. Alicia Berenson who is happily married to Gabriel shoots him and never speaks a word after. She refuses to talk anything and hence captures the public eye. She is in a secure forensic lab where she is being watched 24 hours. People start forgetting about her after 6 years until Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, enters the scene. He has been wanting to work with Alicia to get her to talk and reveal why shot her husband whom she loved only by raising curtains on a lot of mysteries.

An intelligent narrative, short chapters and brilliant metaphors only make this book unputdownable. Some readers found the climax a bit rushed but I found that there couldn't be a better way to reveal the mystery.

Alex Michaelides has done his job superbly and intelligently. It is so hard to believe that it is his debut novel. I am definitely looking forward to read more of his work because he definitely knows how to pique reader's interest with his words.