The award-winning novel
by Samreen Ahsan
is getting a new look and a new edition for its 10th anniversary. Enjoy this sample.
I looked down at the floor, and my heart wedged in my throat.
A girl was dancing to the music.
From my vantage point, I couldn’t see her face clearly on the sixth level, but how she moved took my breath away. I felt like the dance and music had cast a spell on me. She was lost in her dance, not caring about anyone watching her. Or perhaps she didn’t even know she had an intruder here. Others were dancing with her, but I couldn’t see more than shadowy figures since the spotlight was on her.
For the first time, I felt my soul pulling me toward something…toward her.
Unable to resist the temptation, I started trotting down the winding passage. The music became clearer and melted in my ears…in my body…in my soul. I’d never heard of anything like this. Who was the composer?
On the second-to-last level, I was able to see her more clearly. It looked like a masquerade as the girl had a Colombina mask tied over her eyes. Clad in a long, pink ballerina skirt, her body moved celestially as if she was not carrying any weight.
I looked around, but the shadows still weren’t clear to me. I knew I hadn’t had enough drink to make me this heady. But a dance session with so many shadows and no faces didn’t make any sense.
Then, one shadow lifted her up in the air, swirling her around with lights and music as if she, herself, were the light and melody. I inhaled sharply, trying to make some sense, but it was impossible to take in.
The shadows kept on dancing around her, but it was her presence that was only visible. The rest was just a blur of movements. I thought again. Did I drink too much tonight? Why couldn’t I see the other people? Or was I so awed that I couldn’t see anything other than her?
I’d never been drawn to anyone like this before. A mystical power was drawing me towards her, but at the same time, a presence was pushing me away from her.
I must see the girl more closely, meet her, and tell her how captivating she was when she was dancing. What was she thinking in this moment? Was she dancing for her missing lover or was it a dance to ward off her pain?
Chasing a girl was very unlike me. I hadn’t even acted like this in my adolescence. Something deep within me was screaming not to make a move, warning me not to cross the forbidden territory.
I ignored the cry and kept moving. Why couldn’t I look away? This had never happened to me before. Or perhaps I had never seen anyone like her.
The intensity of the music augmented my fascination. Under the colourful lights, she moved like a dove borne by the wind. My heart rejoiced as people wrote about the rainbow appearing after the endless rain.
Upon reaching her level, I noticed she was dancing alone.
Where did the other people go, whose shadows I saw from above?
I watched her in a trance, admiring her body and movements. The violins behind me accelerated, and so did her body. She twirled around and around with the music. If it had been a few millennials in the past, I could have called it a dance with pagan gods. Though I saw no one around her, I could sense the presence of something powerful helping her move this way.
It was magic.
It was unreal.
A Silent Prayer
“An intense, joltingly modern love story.” – KIRKUS
Every love story has magic. For Adam and Rania, it was the curse that brought them together.
Adam Gibson, a powerful billionaire from Toronto, is a professed atheist with an affluent lifestyle. He donates generously but denies the existence of God until he encounters a beautiful stranger in a realm that only exists for him. For months, Adam searches for the girl behind the mask to create the same magic, but the place does not exist. After many months, he meets a girl with the same eyes who once stole his heart.
Rania Ahmed lives a reclusive life, attempting to start anew far from home while also protecting her heart by avoiding any relationships. She strongly believes in God but has lost hope of ever finding her soulmate. Endowed with hypnotic beauty and cursed by a brutal past, Rania has no idea she has cast a spell on Adam, who has never received more from a woman than physical pleasure.
As Adam grows closer to Rania, a series of strange, unexplained events threaten to drive them apart. Something is always between them, but he can’t see it. He is relentless, and despite Rania’s cold behaviour, he doesn’t stop pursuing her. He slowly discovers the true meaning of love from Rania and begins to face his demons and reconsider his beliefs. Adam vows to break the force driving him apart from Rania by unearthing the mystery behind her past.
In this captivating romance, two souls embark on a journey of friendship as they fall and grow in love, with magic and curses to pull them apart.
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Samreen Ahsan
is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning author. She is a traveller and a history buff by heart. However, art and literature are her passions. She loves digging out information about prophecies, divine miracles and paranormal events that are mentioned in history and holy books, that don’t sound possible in today’s modern world.
“My favourite genres for reading are literary fiction and historical fiction, especially WWII stories.”
Since childhood, she has been interested in reading and writing—and yes, it can’t happen without imagination, which luckily has no boundaries.
She loves visiting historic cities and their architecture. Her obsession with castles and palaces is quite evident from her travelogue. She has an impossible dream of time travel to the sixteenth century, and meet Leonardo da Vinci.
“I love visiting art galleries and admire Medieval and Renaissance art.”
For further information, please visit her BestSelling Reads author page, or her website, samreenahsan.com