Book Review - "Finding Juliet" by Toffee

Theme

"Finding Juliet" is a realistic fiction that identifies with the lives of youngsters in modern times. The genre of the book is a mix of romance and erotica. The story looks inspired by the no strings attached kind of relationships that doesn't carry any emotional baggage and is merely a series of sex encounters.

Main Characters

Arjun is an incredibly nice guy and believes in true love. However after three heartbreaking encounters he starts to lose faith in love and considers himself the biggest loser.

Krish, a flamboyant in nature and a rockstar enters Arjun's life as a saviour and gradually becomes his only well wisher, a guiding source and eventually a best friend.

Anjali is another very important character in the story who is Arjun's childhood friend and always stands by him no matter what.

 Plot

Finding Juliet is a story of a simple boy Arjun who lives in Hyderabad. Like any other guy he enjoys the attention from girls but wasn't an expert when it came to winning their hearts. He befriends girls, and just when he thinks everything is going great in his life and he has found the true love... his heart breaks and he goes through the misery of being left alone, sad and broken.


Soon after, another tragedy hits him hard and he is left with no choice but to leave the city and his past behind to try his luck in Bangalore.

Krish, a good looking flirtatious kinda guy meets Arjun at work and understands his plight. Krish is no less than a love guru and understands what women want! The questions that's been haunting Arjun all this while regarding his break ups gets answered and Arjun's outlook towards women and relationships changes. He transforms from a geek to a handsome hunk in town with a changed personality and boosting confidence.

The new lifestyle, attention and fame gives him a big high and he is all set to rock the world of his romance and fulfill his desires with a new outlook.

Life was treating Arjun well! just the way he wanted..... right then a hard-hitting reality smack him in the face and life takes a 360 degree turn.... making him feel like a scumbag once again..What happens next is a mystery?

Does he Jeopardise his life for lust or gets lucky to find his true love ?

 Review

I must admit "Don't judge the book by its cover" doesn't hold true for "Finding Juliet" . The book has a nice colourful and catchy cover that sends a happy and positive vibe about the story. In fact I decided to read it at the very first instant I saw the cover.

The story line is good and pretty much justifies the characters that comes along as it progresses. Author writes through a perspective of young and vulnerable who gets in the journey of love and lust at a age when love is difficult to find and lust is purely enticing, however he ends the book with a message for youngsters to realise the secret to happiness lies in fulfilling the soul not ego.

The narration of the scenes and the pace of the story is good to keep the readers engaged.... However I felt the author goes a little over board with the sex escapades and the repetitive description of girls in stereotypical manner got me bored after a while.

Finding Juliet is an entertaining book for young readers looking for romance. For someone like me who likes romance with substance, the book didn't really had much to offer. I failed to connect with the characters personally. The authors pre conceived notions of girls and and few statements like  " women, if dealt with deftly can be your greatest source of pleasure" were a put off. The writing style is simple and will make for a good read for youngsters looking for a mix of soft romance, friendship and lust that is very much relatable at their age.


Quotes & One liners from the book

* Problems in your life are like the weights in the gym. You can either get weighed down by them or turn them to your advantage and become stronger.

* I am fine is the most popular lie ever told.

* Of all the lies she told me, "I love you was the sweetest".


About an Author 

Toffee a.k.a. Taufeeq Ahmed is another Engineer turned Author whose debut book was "An Idiot, Placement IntervYou". He loves narrating interesting stories with subtle insights. Currently he is pursuing his Masters in Business Analytics from the University of South Florida. His passion for writing lies in heart warming stories that touches people's lives. "Finding Juliet" is his second book written especially for India's Y generation and is published by Srishti Publishers.


' I received a copy from Writersmelon  in exchange for an honest and unbiased review '


My review of the book Finding Juliet can also be read at Goodreads and Amazon

Wake up to Global water crisis - A precious resource is at risk

We might have conquered the world when it comes to technology but we are surely failures when it comes to humanity..

The number of lives that we have lost in the last few months due to scarcity of water, the basic need of a human life can't be justified whatsoever .. It's devastating to read farmers and villagers dying of thirst but not some incurable disease .. I don't think it can ever become worst than this.

It's been centuries mankind has come into existence and surprisingly we have come a long way with our science and knowledge. World has developed nuclear weapons, found cures to diseases like cancers but when it comes to fulfilling the very basic need of a human life, We are speechless and tongue tied.

Isn't it hypocracy to celebrate 66yrs of independence when most parts of the nation are struggling for a drop of water. Farmers are suiciding because our government has failed to provide them with the right of drinking water for their basic needs. How ridiculous and shameful can it get beyond this.

The times have gone when we prayed to God of Rain and completely depended on nature for our basic needs. We have ways to preserve our natural resources and produce water through artificial rain .. However the power hungry haven't learnt their lessons when it comes to saving it at the time of crisis.

There are countries who yearn for water all year long and struggle to survive. The years of living for people in dry lands is not dependent on anything else but how long their need of water is satisfied. They don't strive to stay healthy .. They strive to get enough water to survive. They don't have a choice of a bisleri or a better brand of filtered water.. They try and filter a few drops of water from a mud ...

It's time we see eye to eye with the gloomy dark side of the world we live in and accept the responsibility for  what it is . Our blue planet is no more able to suffice the needs of people.. Thanks to globalization. 

If we go by the stats by 2025 more than 1 billion people will be without water.

Today, nearly 1 billion people  in the developing world don't have an access to clean, safe drinking water.

By 2025, there will be 1 billion more mouths to feed .. Are we ready for it yet ?

It's unfortunate that water is considered an infinitely available resource and is wasted more than its used.

It's sad to see people at different lands have completely different needs and dreams. We have scientists trying to reach out to the moon and the Mars in search of life and water... Wish they cared a little of those lives who die  everyday in search of few drops to satisfy their thirst and live a few more nights.

Wish science had an answer to these poor people's needs of survival. We have been successful in fulfilling our big dreams of launching rockets to the moon and beyond .. But has anyone looked closely in the eyes of these poor whose dreams are nothing but to get  a handful of water without a struggle.


What is the basis of human success? It's totally unacceptable to see humans need to survive has become more than a struggle while there are few living lavishly under the rich and famous.


Let's face the facts -

We talk of peace, economy, education and rights .. The question is whose gonna give some unfortunate the right to survive .. ?

The power, the money, the intelligence and above all the humanity has lost its true meaning if it fails to fulfill the basic needs of humans.

It's a big slap on the rich, famous and the most educated lot if they could do nothing out of all their abilities and grades. It's a curse to be born as humans if one can't live to get his hunger and thirst satisfied.

The nations who have rich resources of water must mourn that they did nothing to help the ones in need in dry lands and are dying every day in the hope of a miracle to happen one fine day ..

These questions and poor souls will always haunt the mankind in existence .. 

Unlock the imagination with #ColgateMagicalStories

When it comes to keeping our kids engaged, we oflten fall short of ideas. TV and gadgets are the easy way outs to keep them quite and busy for long and we often give in to their demands until we have something really interesting to keep their attention away from digital entertainment. These days when kids seem to lose touch with creativity, brands have gone wiser and they aren't designing products for brands but for people interacting with them. 

Like Scott Bedburry said, "A brand is a story that is always being told" stands so true for Colgate, check it out for yourself through this video -

Few days back when I received this colgate pack of three from BlogAdda for an activity called #ColgateMagicalStories I found the concept interesting and surely engaging for kids. Children usually find such stuff intriguing as it offers some kind of surprise along with the product. My little one was thrilled at the sight of the pack and started to unveil the pack curiously. No not because he is fond of brushing but because every pack came up with some kind of adventurous space characters that needed to be told in a form of a story. No doubts children are best at telling stories and using their imaginations in the most unique fashion.

As he opened the packs one after the other, I could see the excitement! His imaginations had already begun to explore the space adventure with Astronauts,UFO, Aliens, Spacecraft and much more.

He immidiately related this space adventure to his favourite TV show "Miles From Tomorrowland" that he catches on Disney Junior. Soon he began to collect all the pieces and started to weave his magical story. Here is goes ....

There were these two friends named 'Juno' and 'Mike' who were astronauts. One evening while Juno was returning home from Mike's house, a sudden noise and lightening💥in the sky caught his attention and he soon realised it was a spaceship. Without wasting any time he turned back and quickly got back to Mike's house and shared a cause of his worry. With in minutes they realised that this is an aliens 👽 spaceship and they are definitely here for a mission. They quickly informed the Spacecenter about this suspicious spaceship 🚀 and put everyone on Alert 🚨.

Within an hour they started to leave for the spacecenter to prepare themselves against any unforeseen incident that could cause damage to them and people around. But by now the spaceship was taking a turn to go back to the space. This appeared as though aliens 👽 have something on their mind and they only wanted to test the waters from far before they could do any damage to people on earth.

Since Juno and Mike were all determined to leave no stones unturned. They called for an urgent meeting with their fellow astronauts and began to plan an urgent travel to space 🚀 tonight and figure out the suspicious 😒 activity by aliens.

It was 8'O clock in the evening. Juno and Mike were all set to leave, dressed in their space suits. They soon launched a space shuttle🚀that could spy on any menacing activity in the space and signal the spacestation about it. While Juno left seperatly in his spacecraft. Mike accompanied another colleague of his named Shelby in the space-shuttle. As they were nearing the space they saw a bright flash⚡️and a huge smoke🌪erupt at a distance from them, it was nothing else but a meteor that could have caused huge devastation to their space-craft. They soon began to move in a different direction trying to escape from the effects of the meteor. However a huge piece strikes the window pan of the spacecraft like a bullet causing fear and discomfort. Juno immidiately pulls the window shield up to escape an further damage to the craft 🚀as well as him.

Mike took a different trajectory and was nearing landing on space 🚀 keeping his cameras 🎥 monitoring from all directions. After they had a safe landing they were just relaxed and started to chat  

among themselves.

It was almost midnight and they began to feel tired and drowsy. Mike was fast asleep 😴 when Shelby woke up with a sudden noise on her screen 📺. She looked around and felt some movement around their spaceship. She went closer to the computer screen trying to look through the cameras and caught a sight of a creature that was moving towards them. She quickly alarmed Mike and coordinated with Juno to inform him of the strange movement. They watched for a while and then they began to shoot as they saw it nearing the spaceship. They were weaponed too. Within no time there appeared a large no. of those creatures and all of them firing towards the spaceship. Juno was in constant touch with the situation and he arrived from behind and started to attack them too.

They successfully destroyed them all but it wasn't over yet. They were sure these aliens 👽 are hiding somewhere in the space and they need to be dealt with. While they were still trying to gauge their exact location, they saw a small spaceship going away far in the space 🚀 they began to move in that direction and soon they were very close to them. They tried to initiate a conversation with them but Aliens straightaway refused and said "Humans are our biggest enimies on Earth  🌏 " Only if we destroy them we will be able to have peace in space 🌕

Shelby was listening to all the tension that was brewing up among Aliens 👽  and them. She barged in and said human beings 👱🏼would do no harm to you if you help us find an other planet that has life on it. We assure you if you help us in our mission, we will be committed to keep our promise of not doing any harm and in fact we can both have life together on the new planet. We can all stay happily. You can help us make the new planet even better than earth 🌏with your powers and our knowledge.

Something clicked to one of the heads in their group, who overheard the idea. He ordered all the Aliens 👽to step back and agreed to help.

The whole team of aliens were taken a back with their masters decision but they had no choice but to abide by his words. Shelby, Mike and Juno were more than happy to see their mission of years coming true with the help of Aliens.

They began to travel as one team this time and after a travel of hundreds of miles they landed on a planet that was similar to earth and had small patches of water 💦 and sunlight ☀️on it. They jumped with joy. Juno quickly took out the flag 🇮🇳  from his spacecraft and ran towards a huge rock to hoist the flag ⛳️ expressing the achievement and completion of their mission. Aliens looked surprised to see a piece of clothing hanging in air but didn't take long to realise its a celebration 🎉 of their win together.

My child 👶 had a great time using his creativity and imagination that brought his fantasies of adventurous world alive for few hours. Its a great way to unlock the imagination of your child while  ensuring bright and healthy teeth for their beautiful smiles.




* I am blogging my #ColgateMagicalStories at BlogAdda in association with Colgate.