Review: A Knotty Affair

A Knotty Affair by Dhaval Birajdar Jinadatt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This story is about a software engineer, Viraj, in his thirties. Good job. Good pay. Lovely mother to take care of him. One day he meets up a girl from his past - Ruhi. From there we go 14 years backwards.

Young Viraj is very low in self-esteem. He has a stammering problem to add fuel to fire. His father, a strict Physics professor (assistant), joins him in the same college he works for. Innocent, shy, stammering young boy in a modern college. No need to say about the ragging and harassment he might go through. Amidst all this, one girl helps him to go through all this - Ruhi. Towards end of college life, Viraj falls for Ruhi who is no where in comparison with Viraj. With time and events, they move away from each other. Meanwhile Viraj's dad got framed in a case which ends his career and screws the life of whole family.

What happened to that case? What happens between Viraj and Ruhi after 14 years gap? This is the remaining story :)

What I loved in this book :
Book cover:

• Two faces of most probably same guy facing opposite directions. One face is thick whereas other is light. This resembles the character of protagonist. Viraj is like two different persons in 14 years gap. Changed physically, mentally, verbally. Young Viraj is so opposite to current Viraj.

• There is a region where both faces intersects. So there's a common space for both faces. Same holds true for Viraj. Though he changed lot in 14 years, he still have few things unchanged.

Courtroom drama:

• I haven't seen an Indian author of current generation writing courtroom drama. Kudos to Dhaval for the attempt. This might mark the beginning of many more to come!

Story-line:

• In general, Indian father-son relationship is bit different compared to rest of the world. Dad seems strict and son seems to hate dad a lot. But the love and bond they share is eternal. This book showcases the same. Because of his love towards father, Viraj fights a 14 years case!

• The Courtroom and NGO chapters of the story displayed the state of current Indian judiciary system , things that needs to be changed and an idea that can be done implemented :)

What I hated in this book :
Courtroom drama:

• This the major plus of this book. So I expected it to be in big level. Though the courtroom scenes are good for initial attempt, they could have been made better. Some little tweaks would have developed it more interesting.

• More focus should have been given to this. Instead author decided to focus on many things and kept this for just one chapter. Not amused!

Errors:

• I don't know what went wrong or how it happened, but I came across multiple spelling errors and punctuation errors. It would have been better if more attention was given to that :)

Characterization:

• For any book, characters make the story better. In this one, that is major thing that felt odd for me. The life of a software engineer was somehow I am not able to relate at all! I am software engineer by profession and I have LOT of software friends & acquaintances. Still I am not able to relate with that character (Viraj).

• In any story, if you are a guy, you should like the female lead in romance genre(according to me). In some stories, you will love her. In some, you will like her. In this, I didn't love her or like her!

• You should be able to understand why the male lead falls for her. In this story, I didn't find any reason other than the fact that Ruhi spoke to Viraj when nobody else did (she did it only for her own reasons which are selfish as hell) and she is hot. Not cool !

• There is too much dilemma in and around Viraj that at some point I started wondering whether Viraj is in dilemma or the author was !!

A good new attempt which could have made better :)
Hoping that Dhaval will reduce the impact of movies in his upcoming stories.
Also hoping that the next book from him would be new in concept like this and better in presentation than this!

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Review: Love Like A Fairy Tale

Love Like A Fairy Tale by Shadab Alam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A boy-ish girl. A very good guy. Friends to Lovers. Continues to be in love. Marks beginning of a unique fairy tale love story. End of story.

 
Jacob and Aana are the two mentioned above. The protagonists of this story. Two friends/neighbors. Aana has a painful past which was caused by many things. Her so-called-mom. Boy friend and best friend (who cheated her by getting together behind her back).

She begins a new life with photo studio business, new friends, new place leaving out all the painful past in past. With time, things get better. Business goes good. Friends love her more with every passing day. Lovely sister who stays by her side always.

All of sudden, past crosses path with present when her ex-boy friend and ex-best friend decides to marry and they end up in her studio door. In a turmoil of events, Jacob, her best friend becomes her boy friend. Her ex-bestie decides to screw her life once more. Jacob becomes a fly in that web. How everything gets resolved and how happily-ever-after begins is the rest of story.

 
I have fallen in love with Aana, right from the beginning of the story. Independent, awesome woman in her early 30s. Someone who didn't stay down after taking multiple hits from childhood. Belongs to the type of girls who will make you fall for them easily without putting any effort at all.
 Jacob. The all charming, well earning, good, hot guy. Dream neighbor for any girl :P.
Sonia. The best sister you can ever have :)
There are few more characters which will get our attention. But these there are the major ones.

Below are what I feel as good and bad in this book. Just my opinion :)

Pros:

• Simple story line. Neat, simple, good.
• Characterizations. Especially Aana <3.
• FIFA love. Very intense love. A rare thing to witness in India. Very rare to witness in an Indian girl. Rare but not non-existent. Good to see the small community getting recognized.
• Shadab Alam made it clear that not every happily-ever-after will be of same type. There can be different types as well :)

Cons:

• Why would Alvia sticks around just Aana to screw her life up? If money is the only motive of Alvia, as mentioned in book, didn't she find anybody better in 3 years? Why should it always be Aana whose life should get screwed?!
• For a genius cool guy like Jacob, the misunderstanding he gets into with Aana, is not so brainy! He who is so stable in mind, gets freaky at the first sight of trouble. Not so cool. All the good thoughts he gathered up from the beginning was spoiled at that point. Though he regained that one from many characters in book, he failed to regain it completely from me :/

Overall, a good read with just a small glitch..

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