The debut novel of Shobha Rao, 'Girls Burn Brighter' is a revelation. Rao has released a collection of short stories before this and won the Katherine Ann Porter prize and is no novice. This novel was startling, complex, and illuminated a world I'm shamed to have not thought much about. That has changed.

'Girls Burn Brighter' is the story of two girls, Poornima and Savitha, who grow up in small village in Indravalli, India. They are both from weaver families, but Savitha's family is impoverished and she comes to work for Poornima's father. They become friends and bond over simple pleasures and hopes for the future. They are torn apart after a shocking crime and breach of trust on the part of Poornima's father forces Savitha to disappear. Poornima is determined to find her friend, but her movement is restricted and custom demands she marry and it is some time before she can take up the search for her friend.

There is terrible, callous cruelty in this novel, but threaded through it is the strength of a friendship and even after years of separation the fond memories of their time together help both women through the hardships they face. After years, the novel moves both women, still apart, to America and still more difficulties. Alone, they learn to rely on their inner light and refuse to allow anyone to extinguish it. A marvelous story.

Really good story about Reyes' life and his early meetings with Charley. Not many revelations but it was interesting to read about his early days. SPOILER [I didn't realize Amador and him were very, very close. 

Girls burn brighter by Rao_ Shobha
Book starts out with a girl that is born and raised in India and her mother dies. The father over time hires another woman to come and tend to the looms.
Girl is now sent out to get married-her family paid another. Enjoyed learning of the spices involved and how important they are.
Her husband not only abuses her physically but after 2 years as she's not become pregnant they toss hot oil on her face and neck. The father in law gives her a ticket back home.
She uses it to go find her friend-who had refused to marry her father and she is able to track her down. The train tracks are ruined but there's a man who will help her raise money til she has enough to travel again.
It's a brothel and I can't read any more of this book, too brutal and abusive for my likes.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

This is book #11, in the fast paced KGI series.  This can be read as a standalone novel.  For reader enjoyment, and to completely understand the series and what is going on in the book, I recommend reading this 5* series in order.

Joe has heard from all the other brothers, and sometimes even his sister, that he will know the "one" when he finds her.  Well that all seems like a bunch of garbage.  Until she steps into view.  Now it is a whole new adventure.

Zoe has never had a family who loves her.  In fact her whole life has been a lot of the opposite.  With the help of her college roommate, she finds herself on the run for her life.  Having a man there who wants to cherish and protect her is so unheard of, she is not sure really how to respond.

This series always gets my heart pumping.  Each character is so unique and special.  This book has some fan favorite characters inside to make you get excited!  I absolutely cannot wait until the next installment in the series is here.  I give this story 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

We’ve seen Charley Davidson’s story continue through the books – now we look again at these events, but from Reyes’s point of view.

This is a book that largely recaps a lot of what has been spoken about and touched upon in the main series. Often I’m not a fan of that when it comes to short stories – or long stories for that matter. Retreading old ground too often feels like some kind of broken money-grab, leaching a book out of a series when it doesn’t really have an original book there. It has to bring something new to the proceedings, to the series – it has to bring a perspective that is actually useful and novel

The perspective this book brings is Reyes point of view

The actual events of the book are ones we’ve seen before. We know Reyes’s history – we know he was repeatedly abused by Earl, we know he was controlled by threats to his sister. Everything he endured is something we knew about. But seeing it from Reyes point of view helped explain a bit more about him, especially since he’s always been the awesomely powerful one Charley has turned to

Here we see what she brought to him – he isn’t just her protector (and frequently abusive controller). He relied on her on her light and on her presence to get him through the dark times.

It also brings some insight into him and his views. He’s always been ridiculously, impossibly beautiful in a way that is full of annoying Paranormal Romance tropes of the incredible love interest who just can’t be resisted. Well here’s the dark side – here’s Reyes, ab to sense people’s emotions and always feeling that endless, hungry all consuming lust. It’s a burden on him, a constant attack on him, a pressure that always drives him down. From there his appearance is never an asset to him, but a source of constant pain. A source of him hardly ever being able to have real relationships with most people.

This is also coupled with his knowledge of who he is and what he does and the inherent conclusion that he is damned, tainted and awful. Which, of course, he is in a way – he was created entirely to help the invasion of Earth and Heaven, he was created to co-opt Charley, her mission and her power.

He chose to reject that, but it took a lot of walking through fire to get there.

We could always infer Reyes’s story – but there is definite value to seeing it through his eye sand his experiences, it helps explain him a lot more

Though it certainly doesn’t justify him, it does help explain him.

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