Such Big Dreams: breaking free and living life on your own terms

Such Big Dreams by Reema Patel is a  story of a savvy former child of the street who discovers a chance to live her life on her own terms. Rakhi is a twenty-three year old who is haunted by the grisly events that led to the loss of her best friend. She is constantly reminded that she doesn’t belong, that she is a charity case as she lives in a Mumbai slum and works as a lowly office assistant for Justice for All, a struggling human rights organization. Hidden behind her façade hides a fierce intelligence and sharp wit with an even sharper tongue, Rakhi doesn’t allow anyone to play her for a fool. She knows that everyone underestimates her until a new intern enters the office. Alex Lalwani-Diamond is the family friend of Rubina Mansoor, a fading former Bollywood starlet. Alex is Indian-Canadian on his way to Harvard for graduate school. Ambitious, persistent and a bit naïve, Alex convinces Rakhi to show him the “real India,” which seems harmless at first. As Rakhi’s past and her aspirations collide, she comes face to face with difficult choices and the moral compromises that one often makes in order to survive. 

Such Big Dreams is the debut moral of Reema Patel. A moving story of survival and the cost of one’s ambition and power. Ms. Patel’s descriptions are powerful and honest as she reveals the different sides, the different “classes” of India. She peels back the hypocrisy of the rich who build luxurious mansions on the land of former slums and then gets on a soapbox about affordable housing and the state of the people in the slums. I thoroughly enjoyed Rakhi’s character, a young woman who lived a hard life that was not of her choosing. I couldn’t imagine being a seven year old and surviving on the streets and yet that’s where Rakhi’s story begins. She is a survivor and I hoped and cheered her on as she tries to rise above her lot in life and works for a better life rather than resolve that she was born there and would probably die there. The author’s note after the story adds to the emotional power of the story’s events. My one complaint is the author’s use of Indian words and phrases without an indication of the translations or meanings. Overall, I enjoyed Such Big Dreams and highly recommend it. 

Such Big Dreams is available May 10, 2022 in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook

The Last Woman Standing: a story of a little known witness to life in Tombstone

The Last Woman Standing by Thelma Adams is the story of a little known woman in the infamous town of Tombstone and the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral. Josephine Marcus came to Tombstone from San Francisco in the fall of 1880. She was meeting her fiancé, Johnny Behan. Behan was the sheriff of the mining town and there she begins her life with Johnny and his son, Albert. She soon meets the dashing and handsome Wyatt Earp. The attraction between the two heats up as the tensions between the Earps and the Clantons reach its breaking point. The famous gunfight is seen through Josephine’s eyes as she fears for Wyatt’s life. It is a story surrounding the infamous event which is shrouded in mysteries as witnesses shewed their stories to fit which side, the Earps or the Clantons, they favored.

Overall, The Last Woman Standing is the story of a young woman who wanted more in life than the one she grew up in. Josephine would remain with Wyatt until his death in 1929. She would die in 1944, the last woman standing. The last remaining witness to the famous gunfight. It is an excellent story told from a minor eyewitness to this famous event. The story covers the build up to the fight, the fight itself as well as the aftermath. I highly recommend The Last Woman Standing for a new take on a very famous story in the history of the American West.

The Last Woman Standing

Is available with major booksellers

In paperback, ebook and audiobook