Instant Karma by Donna Marie Oldfield : A Review

BOOK TITLE: Instant Karma

ISBN: 978-1500619152

AUTHOR: Donna Marie Oldfield

GENRE: Fiction

NUMBER OF PAGES: 325

FORMAT: Digital

SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone

REVIEW BY: Deepika Anandakrishnan

HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: The author sent us review copies. We thank her for it!

SUMMARY:

Do you believe in karma? Materialistic, selfish estate agent Siena Robinson doesn’t – until she hits a disastrous run of bad luck that makes her wonder if she has brought it upon herself.

In Instant Karma, Siena moves to the quiet village of Fenville, where the locals are opposing a development that will see a beloved hall and library replaced by new flats and shops. What her neighbours don’t know is that she is one of the developers and stands to make millions from the deal.

But then Siena discovers that her high-school sweetheart, Aiden, is leading the protest and she finds herself acting as a double agent who is torn between her neighbours’ plight and making lots of money.

Will Siena betray her new friends and let greed ruin a second chance with Aiden? And will she ever find out who or what is behind her run of bad karma? 

REVIEW:

Have you ever seen the movie “13 going on 30” staring the underrated Jennifer Garner? Well this story really reminded me of that movie. I was a teenager when I saw that movie and was absolutely in love with chic flicks. It was one of my favourites for a long time and what I loved was how they tried their own little spin on Newton’s Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What goes around comes around.

In the story too it’s quite simple, don’t act like a two faced bitch. If you do your car is hit, your shoes and bags are spoiled. Universe decides to punish Siena with such punishments when she decides to become a double agent for the sake of a new project and is actually using her new neighbours. This would make her a ton of money but essentially put out a precious old Library and the community hall in the small village of Fenville.  But our protagonist doesn’t understand this one bit and instead moans and moans about how she is a nice person but bad luck follows her around. I sometimes ended up hoping that more things happened to her just for her stupidity.

Once in a while she figures out that it could be her materialistic nature causing all the troubles and proceeds to rectify it. But since she has quite the record for selfish acts her bad karma backlog is too full and continues to bite. And then all of a sudden Siena realises her mistake one evening and rushes home to correct it. I hope you have already realised its going be a happily ever after type of story. Let me blush for your sake if you haven’t!

A couple of mistakes apart the writing is sharp and the dialogues are short and crisp. The flow of the story is also very good and it’s not at all difficult to keep reading and wonder how the story ends, which was what reminded me of the movie mentioned above. If you cut out the whiny Siena’s actions it’s quite easy to enjoy the book. Well at least it helps that one could have some type of sentiments for the character!

WHAT I LIKED: The writing, the climax

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: The plot and a more intelligent protagonist.

VERDICT: Good read for young adults and romance lovers

RATING: 3.5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Donna Marie Oldfield is a freelance writer based in the Peak District, England who has been writing and editing for 15 years. She has worked for titles such as Heat, The Guardian, The Sun and Now as well as copywriting for a wide range of businesses. She likes cats, pasta, books and cake

EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Paperback, Kindle.

PRICE: Rs. 181 for Kindle edition.

BOOK LINKS: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZ83W5Q

RM note: Special thanks to our guest reviewer Deepika Anandakrishnan for her wonderful review in such a short notice.