The Best Man by Kristan Higgins

In an age of one night stands, here comes story of Faith ready to have  a dream wedding with love of her life; only to be jilted at altar. Fast forward to three years later, where Faith is getting attracted to the person responsible for ruining her wedding- The Best Man- Levi Cooper.

Here are the leads that always felt something for each other. Even when she was dating his best friend, supposedly love of her life. Did they pursue each other then? No, ignoring the attraction over the practicality of their situation. and what do they do years after when they meet again and old attraction rekindles is the rest of the story here.

I loved Faith's family drama, and the characters that supported our leads. I loved Faith's spirit, an epileptic patient, she doesn't let her disability, her ruined wedding, small town gossip, tragedies of her past or lack of dating success lessen her optimism. Never once in entire book, even when she is broken, she seems depressed. Her relationship with her past fiance are also shown too mature.

Her relationship with our lead Levi cooper, although starts with attraction, slowly brews and grows on us. I felt some kind of domesticity whenever they both were involved. One of the rare books now, that doesn't force putting Sex in front of readers all in name of passion.  It just remains a part of their relationship, never overshadowing it.

What didn't worked for me was poor development of Levi's character. I just failed to connect with this guy. I failed to reason his logic of dating Faith, or of fighting with her. He seemed too superficial. Even his efforts for reconciliation didn't generate any empathy. I think his poor character development is the main reason, why story wouldn't stay with you long after you read it, inspite of having strong plot and other strong lead and supporting characters.

Memorable Quotes- None, but yes I had a happy feeling whenever Faith was around in book.

My Verdict - Wish the male lead had any depth.

Best to read - This one is really long, so start reading when you can justify that time. Story itself will not grip you to finish it. 

Availability -  Amazon

The Reluctant Matchmaker

Well I am back again after a long break. No, I Didn't stop reading all these years, just stopped reviewing them apart from some on Good reads. But this year's resolve is to start this blog again. And here I am...

Well the first book I read in 2019, is The reluctant matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal. The premise is pretty much set in Amerika as we desis call it, with  protagonist being second generation American - Indian.

Now this is how book fared for me-

Plot - With female protagonist(Meena Shenoy) interested in male, and our hero being so dumb to ask her to find a bride for him, this could have made for really intriguing plot but alas writer was too lazy to put depth in it. He could have easily carved pun in this extremely predictable story but he missed it.

Primary Characters - Well I almost can say this was one protoganist story as our hero missed any kind of character building here. Remember one iconic male character that resists female protagonist as he was too dangerous for her kind. That was Edward to our Bella and it was Vampire ~Human love story. Our hero here uses same convulated logic that  he is not good for our female protagonist due to his gigantic build and in his own words, " Any Kind of physical relationship with me will be death of you"😂 and "Can you honestly see a man over two hundred pounds making love to a doll like you,"🤔 well with male protagonist having such harebrained logic , it was difficult to accept him as CEO of a software firm in US.

In any normal book, I would have dismissed Meena's character too, but her being only one to cling to, I feel that writer should have carved the characters better.

Secondary Characters - Many a times in book, I felt that writer just made a checklist of requirements of story, and implemented all in this one without bothering to check whether there was requirement for the story or not. For example most of romantic Mills and boons type of books have one evil vamp, here we had one lady called Gargi Bansal, which was there is three to four instances in book. Our female protagonist says she is evil, and we have to accept she is evil. She does almost nothing in entire book. Why she was there is big mystery. Also there were bunch of other odd Characters and a sub-plot of Meena's brother loving a Muslim that were utterly unnecessary and did nothing to the story.
The second character of Akka that was sort of Grand mother of Meena and actual match maker is end also was a imposed on us. As if writer thought there is need of one sassy Grand Mother and there she is available in out story. Just like we have seen in many movies based on NRIs life. Replace here with any Good friend / Neighbour/ collegues and then also you won't miss any thing in book. That is all because writer was too lazy to build his characters or to give them any depth.

Memorable quotes - None

My Verdict -Opportunity wasted due to lazy writing

Best to read - I read this one when I was there at some place and needed to read something but couldn't afford to invest my much attention in that. I call it Passive Reading. Reluctant Matchmaker doesn't deserve undivided attention.

Availability - Hardcopy at Amazon and Flipkart

Pride and Prejudice Book Review

If anybody asks me which book I am never tired of re-reading,  it would always be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

The plot, the characters, and Jane’s writing style - all are very engaging. The book was written in 1813, but lovers in todays era would also connect with the story. 

The story is about Miss Elizabeth Bennet a.k.a Lizzy, the second daughter of the Bennets and Mr. Filtzwilliam Darcy, a.k.a Mr. Darcy, the owner of the Pemberly state. Throughout the book we will find that how the protagonists proud nature and their prejudice towards each other stops them from expressing their mutual love and affection for each other.  Misunderstandings create a further rift and Lizzy starts hating Mr. Darcy.

Finally the love wins over all the prejudices and arrogance, and Mr. Darcy expresses his feelings for the lady love. And Lizzy also realizing that she was wrong on judging Mr. Darcy’s character, accepts his love.

What I loved the most in the story:

- Though story is about Miss Elizabeth & Mr. Darcy, the other characters, Mr & Mrs Bennet, Elizabeth’s Sisters, Mr. Bingley etc get their due share in the book.

-  The inception of the story on the dream of the mother to get married here five daughters to wealthy suitor’s appeals to many, the authors writing style and characterization looks real.

-  The inability of the leads to accept their love for each other due to misunderstandings, arrogance, prejudices against their way of upbringings connects with many readers.

-  The subtle romance, it’s the best in this story.

To sum up ‘Pride & Prejudice’ is a very cherished love story, with drama, plot, characters...all ingredients that make it an all time favorite read.    

In the end, sharing my favorite quote from the book, that’s how Mr. Darcy divulges to Elizabeth how he began loving her;

‘I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I HAD begun.’