Pages

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Without You by Preethi Venugopala : A Review




BOOK TITLE: Without You
ASIN: B015TJJOJE
AUTHOR: Preethi Venugopala
GENRE: Fiction / Romance
NUMBER OF PAGES: 226
FORMAT: Kindle e – book.
SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone
REVIEW BY: Dhivya Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: I thank the author for this Kindle Copy J
SUMMARY:
          When Ananya, a bubbly twenty-year-old engineering student, reaches her Grandmother's house in Sreepuram on a month long vacation, romance is the last thing on her mind. However, she meets Dr. Arjun there and falls head over heels in love.

          As it often happens, the path of true love never runs smooth. Circumstances force them apart even though they were madly in love. She becomes a victim of depression. When everything fails to return her to normalcy, help arrives from an unexpected source. Will she ever find happiness again? Will time allow her heart to heal and forget Arjun? What indeed is true love? What is that strange secret that locks all the circumstances together?

          Travel with Ananya to the picturesque Sreepuram, face the chaos of Bengaluru, and relish the warmth of magical Dubai in this heartwarming tale of love, betrayal, friendship, and miracles.

Meet the main Characters in order of appearance:
·        Ananya: A bubbly twenty year old engineering student— the narrator of the story.
·        Ammamma: Ananya’s Grandma, Arundhati Mukundan, an author by profession, who loves playing Cupid.
·        Dr. Arjun: The dashing doctor who is the heir to a multi Billion super market chain ‘Shine’.
·        Colonel R.S Nair: A helpful neighbor whose charming talks always influences Ananya.
·        Dr. Vishal: Ananya’s cousin and Arjun’s best friend.
·        Shakuntala Devi: Arjun’s mom, the current head of the ‘Shine’ empire.
·        Shankar & Sukanya: Ananya’s parents.
·        Khushi and Poornima: Ananya’s best friends in college.
·        Kishore: Ananya’s cousin who lives in the United Arab Emirates.
·        Shreya and Aditya: Kishore’s wife and son.
·        Lily: The cute Filipina girl who is Ananya’s colleague and best friend.
·        Tom: The handsome and funny colleague who is the heartthrob in the firm Ananya works.
·        Sophia: Ananya’s flat mate and friend who is an expert on Zodiac signs.
REVIEW:
          Without you – expect some unexpected twists – especially at the end!
First Impression:
          The cover design looks like a watercolour of a woman in a flowing gown. While I know the author is multi talented, I am wondering if somehow, she influenced this design. A nice muted image that conveys more than it seems to, on first sight.  A healthy sized book awaited me. The summary was crisp and to the point and what impressed me was the list of characters given upfront!
Now the story:
          Romances are often categorised as one time reads, with little in them to take back after the story has been finished. But sometimes, some books capture your imagination in a different way. You are not entirely sure you will be able to forget the story, but when asked to point out one favourite character, you will stall a moment because there is something you like about every character!
          Without You is one such narrative. The story is simple enough to hold your attention, yet narrated in a descriptive manner that you could visualise it and find yourself wandering away from the story and into the scenery at times.
          Ananya Shankar is a fun loving, unassuming twenty year old who goes to her maternal grandmother’s house for a summer vacation. The readers’ senses are treated her with a very descriptive account of the village and its climate and people. There she falls for Arjun, a charming neighbour and a doctor. Surprisingly, her grandmother even accepts the match, and Ananya is on cloud nine. Everything about Arjun is perfect. His looks, character, behaviour and attitude leave little to be desired.
          But fate has other ideas. It plays a cruel game and separates them both. Ananya is devastated, depressed, and considers suicide. While this might seem like a signature movie move, it also adds depth to the naïve character that Ananya is portrayed to be. Things look bleak and with her mind and heart warring, Ananya can neither forget Arjun nor move on in life.
          She tries so hard to be her normal self and manages to go through the remaining semesters in her college and lands up in a good job based on her meritorious education. Once again, fate has its say in her life and Ananya comes face to face with the best and worst happenings in her life. What happens after that forms the story. 
          ‘Without You’, while not as ominous as the title is making it sound, is also filled with some surprise elements while nearing the end of the book. The story about the main characters is somewhat predictable. You know, deep down, that somehow, everything is going to be alright. And you could also have an idea of what the author has been meaning to do with the characters.
          But a few cleverly written twists at the end of the book make the story somewhat unique from others in this genre. The first half is a descriptive slow read about the bliss of falling in love and the misery of falling out of it. The second half, however, is the one you should watch out for, with the twists coming so subtly that you might miss them.
          The book adheres to the summary and the characters are natural and well defined, bringing with them the nativity of the region they belong to. The author has a knack for describing places and it is only natural that her prowess in her art, and also civil engineering comes out in the book! After all, which book doesn’t contain a part of its author?
          Overall, a good read that you could associate with if you are a romance lover!
WHAT I LIKED:
·        The character of grandmother (Ammamma)
·        That part of the story set in Dubai, the initial days.
·        The special twist with that one character in the end – the most unpredictable element in the book.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:
          The language seems a little archaic with some phrases seemingly of a different word order than is normally used. This is sometimes confusing.
VERDICT: A pleasant story of love and its many trials and tribulations.
RATING: 4/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
          Preethi Venugopala always liked stories. When alone, she would create stories in her mind but never thought about penning them down until a break from her regular job as a Civil Engineer prompted her to take up blogging.

          Flash fictions written for various prompts, winning story writing competitions led to publications of short stories in various anthologies and then to her first full length novel 'Without You'.

          She currently lives in Bangalore with her husband, son and an ever growing collection of books. When not penning down the stories of the voices in her head, she can be found curled up on a couch with her favorite book.
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Kindle
PRICE: $1.45 for Kindle


No comments:

Post a Comment

Not a SPAM comment! :)