Penguin launches new set of fast reads

Probably to cash in on the Valentine's Day gift spree, Penguin India has launched a series of quick, breezy, fast-paced reads—that are ideal for a plane or train journey or a lazy afternoon at home.

Called Metro Reads, their storylines are simple and everyday, characters lifelike, and language reader-friendly, its releases says.

Written by promising first-time authors from different walks of life, these page-turners deal with subjects that are easy to relate to—romance at work, girl cadets in the army, a relationship gone sour.

The series is being launched with three books—Love over Coffee, Where Girls Dare, Dreams in Prussian Blue and will be back with three more in June 2010. Penguin Metro Reads Rs 150 each.

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Dreams in Prussian Blue by Paritosh Uttam

A story of trust, betrayal, cold truths, white lies, possessive love and sheer hatred—dealing with the dynamics of today’s relationships a true trademark Metro Read.
First-year student Naina is utterly smitten by her senior, Michael, acknowledged genius and resident rebel of the Fine Arts College, Mumbai. So when he proposes that they drop out of college and live-in, she readily agrees. But life with Michael soon turns into an emotional rollercoaster. Temperamental, opinionated and incredibly selfish, he expects Naina to run the household so that he is free to paint. Naina tries her hand at several odd jobs, but when an accident leaves Michael blind, their life together begins to come undone as she can only helplessly watch. And in trying to pull it together, Naina is driven to being what she has never been—a liar and a cheat. Will Michael forgive her when he learns the truth? Will she forgive him for what he has done to her?

Where Girls Dare by Bhavana Chauhan

A hilarious, rip-roaring comedy about 52 girls learning to be cadets.
They entered the Officers’ Training Academy at Chennai, with a single desire—to be Officers in the army. Soon they discovered it was going to be an uphill task, literally! They fought, they bickered, they cried and they raised hell. But they also learnt. They learnt to take push-ups and punishments, front rolls and figures of eight, strict discipline and night marches in their stride. Where Girls Dare is a hilarious and entertaining story of what happens when fifty-two lady cadets (LCs) train alongside four hundred Gentleman Cadets (GCs), some of whom believe that girls in the army is a bad idea.


Love over Coffee by Amrit Raj Shetty

When the office becomes the world, love, friendship, jealousy, cheating, bitterness—all happen in a day’s work.
Anup, a happy-go-lucky boy next door, finds himself a misfit in an IT company. On the bright side, he has great friends in office—Chetan, Subbu and Parag—to help him out of sticky situations. Also, in the same office is the love of his life, Rajni. But Rajni’s strict family and her paranoia of tongue-wagging colleagues play villain in their love story forcing him to be satisfied with clandestine meetings, secret phone conversations and emails. Just as Anup decides to turn over a new leaf, sinister happenings at work force him to take some life-changing decisions—to quit his job and pursue his long-cherished dream of becoming a writer; and also, to marry Rajni.