Year: 2021
The Zoya Project
Floriography, Poetry
Floral Secrets

Last night I watched the moonlightIlluminate the blossoming flowers at my doorstep. Silver light rained uponDark crimson roses, like red wine, That blew sultry kissesWhich brushed my cheek and the pulse at my throat. Unfurled the deep gold petalsOf the sunflowersWho promptly fell back asleepUpon seeing the stars. The honeysuckleThat drank in the sleeping worldAs […]

The Zoya Project
Book Reviews
Club You to Death – A Review

I am not a mystery reader. The genre is, in general, unappealing to me. There are three reasons for this. The first, that many crime stories once finished, leave me with a sense of unease and paranoia. Every creak outside at night becomes a murderer scaling my trellis. Secondly, I don’t do well with suspense. […]

The Zoya Project
Travel
Switzerland Must See’s!

In the summer of 2018, I decided my mother and I would embark on a girls trip since I had just finished my senior year of high school. We were to go on our very own Gilmore Girls-esque adventure. Be spontaneous and go and swim in the shimmering waters of the Amalfi Coast or safari […]

The Zoya Project
Book Reviews
Written In Starlight – A Review

Another Isabel Ibañez masterpiece! I loved this book, maybe more than the first one. Filled with South American culture, Spanish, loveable characters and phenomenal world-building. Also, is anyone else crazily in love with the cover of these books? Isabel illustrates them herself and they’re so so beautiful! Written In Starlight is the second novel set […]

The Zoya Project
Book Reviews
The Henna Artist – A Review

Mehendi. The fragrance of it is reminiscent of happy times, festivals, days out, weddings. Fresh, earthy, tinged with a musk of sorts. In this day, we put mehendi or henna only when an occasion requires it, the designs, artistic peacocks and swirly, swishy nets that span the back of our hands and palms. It signifies […]

The Zoya Project
Poetry
A Suffusion of Honey

I’ve only everFelt the sting of the needleLeaving deep bloomsIndigoes and violetsPasted on my skin.Felt the anaesthesiaSeep into my bloodAnd sip at itLeisurelyAs though it had comeFor a cup of teaAnd a conversation.‘Won’t you come and dance?’It asks as it coils itself aroundCellsStacked upon cells.And they sit thereIn a stagnant pool of bloodThat begins to […]

The Zoya Project
Book Reviews
Falling Kingdom – A Series Overview

In 2013 I picked up the first novel in Morgan Rhodes’s Falling Kingdom Series and I fell in love. I loved the story and the setting. But the series wasn’t over and in the many years it took for her to release all 6 books, I had lost interest and rereading the first book over […]

The Zoya Project
Poetry
Dandelion Wishes

There areA fewWishesI makeOnly in December,They float on the windLike dandelionsGlowing gold againstThe smoky sky,Throwing backTheir manesAnd roaringTo the breezeOf all the thingsI want.I wantStarfall and spiced apples,To bite intoSo my chin and lipsAre coated inRich golden juice.I wantEmbroidery like snowflakesTo wear on my skinLike a coatingOf fresh frost.I wantAnd I wishFor all the thingsThat […]