Rating: 1.5 out of 5
ISBN: 9789350880128
Review:
NOMINATED FOR COMMONWEALTH BOOK PRIZE - 2012
WINNER OF DEBUT AUTHOR OF THE YEAR 2012 - BY Butterfly and the Bee Literary and Book Marketing Agency.
Plot:
It is about two people - Aryan and Isabella - and their love journey. Aryan is not the one to believe in love. He had his reasons. The harsh marital results of his parents was one reason. But that was only until he met Isbella, a Spanish beauty. Unknowingly, both fall in love and get closer to each other like never before.
Period.
Isabella's father had already fixed her marriage with his business partner's son, Ethan. Ethan was a guy not to messed with, so Isabella in an attempt to save her love, Aryan, she gives in for her parents' decision and gets married to Ethan.
Ethan was also a brute. The cruelest when it comes to love. So Aryan decides to save her love, Isabella from him.
Will he succeed in doing that? By sacrificing her life, did Isabella really saved Aryan's life? What will happen to their eternal love?
My take on the book:
Actually, I have won a give-away of this book on GoodReads.com . A signed copy by the author himself, Rohit Sharma.
The first feeling I got when reading this book was that it so similar to the movie 'Kites' starring, Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori. The female protagonist is a Spanish beauty The lead character, Aryan, is an Indian. Both love fall in love with each other incidentally but there is the problem, same like in the movie, of the female protagonist fixed to another rich, influential and evilistic villain.
The most irritating aspect about the whole book is you would find at least a couple of 'Gracias', three 'Te amo's and innumerable 'Love you's every page. I have never read Cecelia Ahern or Nicholas Sparks but if romantic novels are meant to be like this then I prefer giving away my copy of 'The Last Song'.
First of all, the book is 300-pages thick and the font size is so small that it could easily scare the day-light out of me. I got this book on a give-away, that was the only reason I started to read this book.
Every scene in the book is detailed. I felt such a description is very much unnecessary and the whole concept of saying 'Love you' every second line got on my nerve. I think it needs a good editor, actually they call them trimmers, who could cut off the crappy part of the book. I am sure after the trimming the book will be reduced to half.
At one point of the story, Isabella, who will be then the wife of Ethans - the villian - will elope with Aryan to Canada. For about more than 6 months, they spend there, never once giving away a clue to Ethans. And for those 6 months, Ethans keeps looking for them but in vain. According to his description in the story, Ethans is one of the most powerful personality in America and in Spain. If he was so powerful, he could have easily traced the couple's location through their passport details. Or maybe using his connections he could have inquired the local airport authorities about destination to which an Indian guy and a Spanish guy left on that day. And another flaw is that Isabella and Aryan both were in contact with Isabella's father. Ethans could have trapped the call Isabella's father got and trace their location.
It was so foolish. How could anyone be so naive and leave so many big flaws in the story?
Very poorly edited Though I didn't find many spelling or grammatical mistakes, I think there is lot of crap that should shortcutted.
But the climax was pretty unexpected for me. At least I didn't such an end. And then came the epilogue which had an unexpected end, too. Maybe the story was not bad, but the whole crap made it worse.
Over all, good novel, thick and bur boring, story too much filmy, read it on your own wish.
Recommendations:
To romance lovers. To those roman lovers, who don't have anything to do with practicality but love and romance...
A review I came across on Goodreads
My politest reply...
Wow. That was the first. Please someone tell me this review - Or the so called 'Comment' - is not directed at me.
Ashwina, first of all, hope you are not fictious - like this book. Are you really kiddin' me? Maybe this book was better than the 4 other books on your list. Of course, I agree the author has done a very hard work. I don't want to bring author into this.
You better watch 'Kites' one more time. Better get one with a subtitle. Then, we will continue the talk about it.
And, by the way, that last statement - "And all those people should try writing a book." - that was more than provocative. You should try reading better books. Try spending a little more than 60 bucks a book, you will come across better books.
Also, go get a life. Keep your views from pointing to others and stop guiding people to waste their money. Kudos.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your straight and honest review. I will definitely try to do better, the next time. But, I may have a few points which I would like to clarify (and on which I will try to improve), if you allow me: -
ReplyDelete1. You, as a reviewer, didn't like the descriptions, and detailing. I am sure you have read authors like Sheldon, Archer, Stephen King, or very own Ashwin Sanghi or Amitav Ghosh. I have learnt from them, and tried to make a visual impression of the story. I wanted readers to imagine each and every scene to the detail, hence the description. You didn't like it, that's perfectly okay. I will try to improve.
2. They contacted Isabella's father only once, and that too by Aryan's phone. And, Ethan had no idea who escaped Isabella. Because for him, Aryan was dead.
3. The font size we have used is 11.5 In most books, the font size vary from 10-12. But it was completely the publisher's decision. I will try to get it increased to 12, in the next edition. But I am not sure how much difference it will make. I will try.
4. I am sorry, but I will not agree that there is a Gracias, Te Amo, I LOVE YOU, on every page, with that much frequency.
And lastly, THE LAST SONG is a great book. Don't throw it away. :)
Thank you once again, for reading my work. Your review will definitely help me to improve.
Warm Regards and wish a Happy New Year 2013
Rohit Sharma
First of all, I didn't an author to reply.
DeleteAnyways,
1. For them - the authors you have mentioned - detailing of the situation is to prolong the suspense. That's how the suspense thrillers work, not romantic novels.
2. I thought it was easy to access people by their passports. (At least I saw that happening in the Bourne series)
3. The problem wasn't with the font size or spacing. It was with the length of the book. Now think like a reader, if you may. When you see a page in the novel, what do you like - (a) Page with more white spaces or (b) Page compacted with words? At least I like page with more white space. That's what readers want a novel small and good.
4. I agree that was an exaggeration, with a varied frequency there was at least one 'Te amo' or 'Love you' or 'Gracias', if not all at once.
Lastly, I take up that advice. Thank you.
Happy New Year to you, too....
PS: When I mentioned the word 'reader', I was referring to myself. I am a reader, too.
Dear Reviewer,
DeleteI am sorry, if you didn't like me replying on your blog. But, I have to, to clarify certain things. First of all, I am not against criticism. It is necessary. It helps us to improve.
I truly respect your reviews. I am a reviewer myself, and have read and reviewed a lot many books, maybe not as many as you have.
Detailing is not always to prolong the suspense, I am sorry, I am disagreeing. Detailing is required to make a reader visualize the complete scene. You have read many good books, and you must try Nicholas Sparks too. He does a lot of detailing in his romance/relationship based novels.
I agree that most readers in India want small books. But, 250-300 is a general length of most novels these days. But, if you are talking about college romances/chiclits, yes they are below 250, and they require no detailing whatsoever. But, I didn't try to write a chiclit.
My page count is 310. There are 44 Gracias, 44 Te Amo and 63 I LOVE YOU, in my book. So the frequency is not even 1/page. The frequency is 1 in 5-6 pages.
Yes, I agree. As a reader, you didn't like the book. That's pretty okay. But, I have read your reviews today, especially for Indian writers. You said that the story was good (apart from too much detailing and 1 flaw you mentioned), the mistakes were less (apparently there is 1 spelling mistake, which I have corrected in 2nd edition), and the ending was unpredictable. Still you gave my debut effort a harsh 1.5 rating, which I accept.
Whereas, for one book, by an established author, whose font size you didn't like, whose ending you found predictable, you gave it 4.5 rating.
Regarding more white space. You can check all books by Mahaveer publishers. They have common type-setting, with font sizes varying between 11-12. Mine is 11.5, and my cab driver read the book in just 2 days, without any font-size complaints. He is 41 yrs old. He does not wears specks.
Still, I accept, there must be weakness in my book that it failed to satisfy you. I am not giving any excuses. I will try my best next time.
Warm Regards
Rohit Sharma
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHey, Rohit. First of all, sorry for my late reply. I rarely visit this blog as it is a blog just to post my reviews...
DeleteLook, I am not going emphasize about my review. It is already given in the review, anyway.
About your driver - I don't want to say this but - I wouldn't dare to criticize my neighbors effort. It COULD be the same, too. Not to mention, 310 pages in 2 days!! Wow!
The detailing was so unbearable for me that I couldn't read them but just went through the dialogues. And all your 'Gracias' 'Te Amo' and 'Love you' come there. I couldn't help but get annoyed.
4.5 rating.. I know what book you are talking about. When the story is good, when it keeps you going, when it, what people call, hooks you onto it, you never mind about the font size. The is not only about the end. Its like at the end of your life, it is not how you die, that matters but how you lived your life.
PS:- I am thinking of checking out Nicholas Sparks, soon...