Dark Blossom by Neel Mullick (@neelmullick) @Rupa_Books #RandomThingsTours

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Dark Blossom by Neel Mullick, published by Rupa Publications. My thanks go to Anne Cater for the opportunity to be involved in the tour and to the publishers for the copy.

About the book

Sam returns home from a business trip a day before his son’s thirteenth birthday and is looking forward to being with his family, when his world is cruelly shattered in one fell swoop. Initially he thinks he can cope with the loss, but finally seeks the help of Cynthia, an experienced therapist, to regain his equipoise. What he does not know is that Cynthia herself is trying to cope with a debilitating divorce and the sinister shadow of her ex-husband over her daughter…
What happens when doctor and patient find themselves in the same sinking boat? Moreover, when they are rowing in opposite directions–one clinging to the past, and the other unable to get rid of it! In the midst of it all is Lily, Cynthia’s daughter, who harbours a secret that has the power to explode the lives around her.
Taut with tension and intensity, Dark Blossom is a glimpse of what lies under the surface of apparently ‘normal’ people.

Dark Blossom is available to purchase now – Amazon

My thoughts

The first thing I have to say about Dark Blossom is what a beautiful cover it has, this cover is one that would jump off the shelves in any book shop. It’s absolutely stunning.

At a little over two hundred pages, Dark Blossom is a relatively quick read, I actually managed to read it in one sitting.

Sam returns home from a business trip to life changing news, his whole world has been torn apart and he really struggles with his emotions so seeks out the help of therapist Cynthia.

Cynthia is also going through a rough time, she’s coming to terms with divorce and is struggling to find the bond she had with daughter Lily. Lily is clearly troubled but what secrets is she hiding?

I found the start of the book to be quite slow, I’m used to the first couple of chapters packing a punch but I’m not saying this is a bad thing as it slowly builds the characters, it gives you a chance to get a bit of a feel for them and understand them a bit better.

As the story progresses, so does the emotion and tension and you can’t help feeling for the characters and hoping they can overcome all that is troubling them.

I’m really having trouble getting this review into words as I don’t want to spoil anything, it’s one of those stories where it really takes you by surprise. You think it’s going one way and you end up being completely wrong and the ending, well it wasn’t what I was expecting.

So if you’re looking for a fairly quick read that is quite dark and packs a bit of a punch then I recommend reading Dark Blossom.

Follow the tour

About the author

With degrees in Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon, USA, and Business Administration from INSEAD, France, Neel is the Head of Product and Information Security at a Belgian family-office technology company.

He mentors women entrepreneurs through the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, is involved in raising a generation of digital and socially-aware leaders with the Steering for Greatness Foundation (Nigeria), supports improvement in the quality of life of domestic workers at Emprendedoras del Hogar (Peru), and is helping IIMPACT (India) break the cycle of illiteracy plaguing young girls from socially and economically impoverished communities.

He lives on three continents, spending his time between New York, Brussels, and New Delhi, has survived ten days (and nights!) at an airport, and a free fall five-hundred metres from the sky.

Concerned with the inverse correlation that seems to exist between society’s progress and the empathy with which it interacts with the universe around it, he firmly believes the solution to a rapidly fracturing world lies in peeling enough layers to discover the similarities, rather than judging on mere superficialities.