Blog – Page 9 – Anna Bushi

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Do they take middle-aged moms?

I love books where the setting is almost a third character, and this was one such book.

Tara, after a traumatic senior year, has graduated from high school and is ready to wipe her slate clean. Silas wants to connect with his roots by tracing his moms’ journey through India. Both are junior guides for a pilgrimage tour with rising high school freshmen.

Tara and Silas’s relationship is fairly mature for two eighteen-year-olds. The food they eat throughout the trip is one of the highlights of this novel. I can almost smell the fragrance of ginger and other spices as the author describes the delicious street food. Warning: do not read this book while you are hungry.

One tiny nitpick: I wish we learned more about Tara’s mother’s motivations and the reason for her father’s lack of support for his girls.

Recommend for lovers of YA contemporary romance.

My protagonist is a poet

So I am writing poetry.

My protagonist, Prince Giridhar, is masquerading as a playwright. He falls in love with the poems of a local poet and uses them in his play.

Here are the opening lines of the draft poem:

She shone like a star in the sky

Sparkling like a diamond from up high

What do you think of this verse penned by our princess?

Princess Suryavati has a secret. She loves to write poems, and until recently, she had no audience for them. Can you imagine her thrill when Giridhar builds a play around her poems? But she lets him think the poet is a man, though her heart races each time he is near.

I enjoy writing their story, except for the poetry. That is kicking my rear. I will share more soon. In the meantime, please read the first romance novel in this series. It is a stand-alone happily ever after tale, featuring a king who has captured an enemy on the battlefield and allows his heart to be captured by the daughter of his prisoner.

Dark and twisted

This book reminded me of the Lord of the Flies, another novel filled with unsympathetic characters. This is a dark book, and our protagonist Alys is selfish and cruel, a hard person to root for.

Alys is only sixteen for most of the story, and some of her sense of survival is understandable. I turned the pages like I was reading a horror novel, afraid of what mad scheme Aly would embark on next to save her skin.

The novel, set in the Henry VIII Tudor period, highlights how little power women had in those times, pitting them against one another to win the favor of the lord of the castle. It was a difficult time to be a Wise Woman.

Can I tell you a Funny story?

I love reading Emily Henry novels, and I liked Funny Story a tad better than Happy Place, my last Emily Henry read.

Emily Henry created two wonderful, flawed characters in Daphne and Miles. Her writing makes us fall in love, along with her protagonists. Michigan comes to life in this book, and I want to visit the lakefront beach on a beautiful summer day and dip my toes in the cold water.

Recommend it for contemporary romance readers.

Favorite quotes

It’s a library, Daphne. If you can’t be a human here, where can you?

So many decisions I made were based on the fear of what could go wrong, instead of my hopes for what might go right.

What am I writing?

I have started working on book two of my historical romance series.

My protagonist, Prince Giridhar, is masquerading as a playwright. He falls in love with the poems of a local poet and uses them in his play.

Princess Suryavati has a secret. She loves to write poems, and until recently, she had no audience for her work. Can you imagine her thrill when Giridhar builds a play around her poems? But she lets him think the poet is a man.

Their love of words brings them together, each unaware of the other’s true identity. Is there a happily ever after for them? Only after I make them suffer for three-quarters of the book.

Read King of Hiding while waiting for this novel.

Kindle Unlimited Subscribers can borrow this novel as part of their subscription.

My Happy Place

My happy place is when I am reading a book. I love Emily Henry’s ability to make us feel her character’s joy and pain. Her language is pure poetry.

The best second-chance romance novel, in my opinion, is Persuasion. Written two centuries ago, we still connect with Anne Elliot and Captain. Wentworth. Their motivations make sense, and their love for each other seeps through the pages.

In Happy Place, while Harriet and Wyn’s love for each other is apparent, their reason for breaking up does not quite make sense. I also did not understand Harriet’s reason for abandoning her dreams after all these years of hard work. So, for the last part of the novel, I was yelling at Harriet (in my head) for making the wrong decision.

In a historical romance, the kind I write, it is easy to come up with reasons why the couple cannot be together. Society and culture put up many barriers. In the modern day, the reasons depend on the individuals themselves, so I wish we got more of why Harriet let Wyn go after eight years of being together.

Still, a wonderful and warm novel for a cold winter day.

Book Review: Atonement

We live in an age of impatience. We want our news in fifteen-second chunks, at the moment it happens. We make up our minds instantaneously without being able to reflect on things.

But nature takes time: to grow, to heal, to fruit. An avocado tree you plant today will take ten years to flower and fruit. This book reminded me of a time when we could stare at the sky for hours, instead of at our phones, and observe the sun making its way across the horizon.

Briony’s atonement for her deeds as a child takes an entire lifetime. I am not even sure you can hold a thirteen-year-old accountable for her actions, but in her mind, she is guilty. Her penance takes all her life.

I was a child living in my mind, making up stories to interpret the real world, and I understood Briony very well. Through her immature worldview, she deciphers what happens and arrives at the wrong conclusion. Her actions harm an innocent’s man life.

In Atonement, there are no happily ever afters in the real world. But in her imagination, Briony can conjure a better place. Isn’t that what is magnificent about stories? They lessen our pain when everything becomes unbearable.

When you have time to watch a snail crawl across the sidewalk, pick up this book and savor it.

Review of Last Summer Boys

I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of brotherhood set in 1968. Jack’s thirteen-year-old cousin, Frankie, is visiting them because his parents want to keep him safe from the riots burning his city. Jack’s brother Pete is almost 18 and might be drafted for the Vietnam War. Jack and his cousin concoct an idea to make Pete famous because famous boys seem to avoid the draft. Amidst all the chaos, Will, Jack’s sixteen-year-old brother, tastes his first love.

This tale transported me to rural Pennsylvania. I enjoyed how the family’s love for each other is portrayed through tiny details, even when they disagree on things. I was happy to see our thirteen-year-old protagonist, Jack, cry a few times in this novel. A hopeful tale that felt like a warm blanket on a cold night.

A great debut novel by the author. I am looking forward to reading more of his stories.

Favorite Quotes

If you go long enough thinking you don’t have a say in your life, you reach a point where you’ll do anything to show others that you do. If it’s lighting fires, you light fires.

I don’t believe there’s a boy on earth can see his mother cry and not do the same.

Would that make me love you any less? Would you love me any less?

Do you believe in prophecies?

I did once.

My name is Meera

At the time of my marriage, an older woman uttered this prophecy to me:

“Queen she will be one day, her name will be celebrated, near and far. Her son will rule the three kingdoms and beyond.”

Was this prophecy about me? Once, I believed it was. Now, I don’t know.

I did become the Queen of Padi. I had three sons. In a twist of fate, my youngest, Atul, is the heir to the Malla throne. I worry sometimes about this prophecy coming true, especially with Atul in Kashgar, surrounded by unknown dangers. My mother’s heart clenches with dread for my surviving children.

As a heartfelt gesture to her dearest readers, Anna Bushi, the storyteller behind my son’s journey, has set the launch price at just $0.99. Don’t miss out on this special offer, as the price will rise upon release. Grab your copy today!

Read Child of the River

Let Me Share My Story with You!

My name is Sugandha

My grandfather raised me in a modest home filled with love.

My world shattered on that dark day when my uncle coerced my grandfather into cursing a ship from Malla. With his last breath, my grandfather cast a protective spell around me, shielding me from the clutches of my uncle.

For the first time in my life, I found myself alone, fleeing from the only home I had ever known, with danger lurking around every corner. My uncle’s relentless pursuit and the deadly intentions of a princess plunged me into a whirlwind of peril. I can’t fathom why they’re after me.

But the most bewildering discovery comes when I uncover my deep-rooted bond with the whispering river.

PrEORDER to Experience my JOURney