Thursday, 31 January 2013

Casting Shadows by RJ Samuel


Indian/Irish vision painter Kiran is the only vision painter in Ireland, she is also the only woman vision painter in the world. Unfortunately after her previous misadventures, Kiran is currently unable to vision paint. Her relationship with Ashley however, is going extremely well. In fact, they are taking their relationship to the next level and trying for a baby. Like all things in love and real life, nothing is destined to run smoothly.

When Kiran gets a call from her father that her mother is, or could be seriously ill, Kiran must immediately return to India. The result of this phone call could well change the lives of everyone forever.

This is RJ Samuel’s third book. With each book, I grow to love her writing more. Her stories are well written page turners. This series is spellbinding and magical and although the series has an element of fantasy, I found myself almost believing the impossible.

This story is completely enthralling and absorbing. Once I’d started this book, I couldn’t put it down. The story had me feverishly turning the pages until I’d finished it. No matter how hard I tried to slow up, I couldn’t. I simply had to know what happened and how the book ended. In doing this, I did this wonderful book an injustice. But no worries. I knew I would be reviewing it, so I simply re-read it more slowly the second time to savour the story without the pressures of not knowing how it ended. My second reading was just as pleasurable and intense as the first.

This story is actually written in the past and the present and is so intricately woven that it’s seamless. It was a great idea to give the reader the background on vision painters. Also it cleared up a lot of things I’d been wondering about Kiran’s past.

RJ takes the reader back into the past and tells of how Kiran’s parents met, married and their struggles and traumas along the way. We also learn of how Kiran became a vision painter against all odds.

The myriad of emotions this book evoked went far beyond any I’ve experienced for quite sometime when reading a book. In the span of minutes I went from a calm and serene feeling, to a laugh out loud humour and intense anger and back again to calm and serene.

The scenic descriptions are so vivid I could feel myself amongst the characters. I’ve never visited Kerala, India, so I took a look online after finishing this book. The photographs I found matched exactly the way I’d imagined Kerala to be. The Irish scenes are equally as well described.

There is actually two romances in this book. The romance between Kiran’s parents and the romance between Kiran and Ashley. But this book isn’t actually just a romance, it’s a story wrapped around a fantasy, which appears to be very real. A story full of love and hate with so many twists and turns I didn’t have a clue as to how it was going to end.

Each and every one of these well formed and multidimensional characters played an essential part in progressing the story forward to its climatic conclusion. Although this book ended, I feel these characters have a lot more to offer us. I would love to see at least one more book added to make a trilogy, more if possible. Although this book is a sequel, it can also be read as a standalone. But I would urge you to read Falling Colours first. You will be sorely missing out on a great read if you don’t. Plus it will give you the chance to get to know some of the characters better.

I eagerly await RJ Samuel’s next book. This one will join Heart Stopper and Falling Colours on my re-read pile.


No comments:

Post a Comment