Forecast - Jane Tara: A Review

 

BOOK TITLE: Forecast

ISBN: 9780505527448

AUTHOR: Jane Tara

GENRE: Romance, Young Adult

NUMBER OF PAGES: 306

FORMAT: e-book

SERIES / STANDALONE: Shakespeare Sister Series #1

REVIEW BY: Dhivya Balaji

REVIEW:

          The need for a slight read and a promising review drew me towards Forecast. The novel began with the intriguing character of Rowena Shakespeare, nearing thirty years of age, and still waiting for the One True Love of her life. Born into a family of psychics and with special abilities to predict the day’s weather (perfectly, accurately, every single day, okay, that’s impressive) and to see not only the past, present but also the future of any man she kissed, (which she considers a curse).

          Living with her mother and grandmother and minding a shop of curios, Rowena finds her life boring. While waiting for the perfect man, she gets a job at a famous news channel, as a temporary replacement for a famous weatherman rendered immobile due to an accident. While meeting her predecessor for an approval, the girl finds herself strangely attracted. In spite of his reputation of being a ‘ladies man’, the fabled womanizer also has a heart breaking past to justify his actions.

          Events move quickly (to be expected in a romance novel) and Rowena finds herself more than involved with the handsome Henderson in a quaint romantic setting. But back home, the popular soaring rating of the psychic weather lady who replaced him evokes familiar qualities of jealousy from the lead who is misled by manipulations from others. He ends up upsetting the lady and ruining her job. How he realises his folly and apologises to his love forms the rest of the story.

          We also find the family of the leading ladies finding solace, true lost love and many such heart warming moments. Simple concepts like coming to terms with one’s losses, finding one’s true love despite all odds and finding a match in all sorts of unexpected ways, dominate the book. Rare moments of agony and annoyance are soon rectified. With quirky characters like an ever annoying but well loved grandmother, and an eccentric and aloof mother with the agonised but good at heart leading lady, the novel lacks any innovation but is surely a good read in terms of its story line.

WHAT I LIKED: A feel-good factor, a ‘happily ever after’ ending, and of course, the light headed satisfaction of having read something ‘good for your soul’

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: A unique concept of a family of psychic women has been rather under-used. The book deals with a familiar concept of finding love and life, and imposes itself on readers as a ‘one time read’.

VERDICT: Go for it on a lazy rainy afternoon (you can get the hint from the umbrella in the book cover, of course!) when you want to read a relaxing and intriguing book. Here is one of the Romance novels that both engrosses you and impresses you only in its first read.

RATING: 3.5/5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jane is from Bondi, Sydney. She has traveled extensively and has lived in Tokyo, London, Vienna, New York and various parts of Australia. Her first book Forecast was first published in 2007 by Dorchester, but they went out of business .So FORECAST was re-released in May. And the long-awaited sequel, TROUBLE BREWING has also just been published. She has over twenty children’s picture books published in Asia, and has written travel articles for many publications worldwide. She has transformed her “itchy feet” into ITCHEE FEET, which publishes travel books for kids.

 

EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Kindle, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback.

PRICE: Rs. 253 for kindle edition.

BOOK LINKS: http://www.amazon.com/Forecast-Jane-Tara/dp/0505527448