Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Review: Bad Romance By Harshita Srivastava

Love is a an ancient potion which is quite a mystery. It might not play true to you at times and sometimes it might turn out according to your wishes and desires. Author Harshita Srivastava in her latest book "Bad Romance" catapults the readers to yet another journey of love which is filled with a lot of passion and desire. So will it be able to live up to the expectations? Let's find out. 

Life is a bitch and I am one of its victims. I had the perfect life. I was blessed with the perfect boyfriend, a perfect best friend, the perfect set of girlfriends and perfect choice of career. There were some loopholes but then they went beyond my perspective. Overall, I had the kind of life people would ideally like to have but happy times aren't meant to last forever.
Sometimes we feel that we have figured life but that’s something that is never going to happen. You know why? It’s because it has this habit of kicking us right in the middle of ecstasy. No wonder, it did the same with me.
This is my story, my story of that exploration within, my feelings, my emotions, my thought process, my priorities, my conflicts and my journey into the temptation of love, lust, lies and betrayals. This is the story of Kritika and a man who gave her life another dimension, Tanishq. This is a story of the complexities of relationships and the trap that a simple idea of sensuality, pleasure and euphoria can put you into. This is a story for everyone who has loved, lost and fought for survival and love, together.



First look at the title and the cover and it mesmerises with it's blend of colours and a lone figure which has been cut out staring at waves. The hidden expressions of the woman add curiosity in the mind as what to expect from the book. The title hinting at something bad about to take place in someone's life. The blurb talks about life and it's ways of making you work for yourself to survive. The blurb's length is too long and should have been kept short for the readers to get hold of more of the story from the book. 

The story is of Kritika Mathur, a young girl who lands up in Greater Noida to chase her dreams and ambitions of becoming a RJ and to pursue engineering. The freedom soon engulfs Kritika and she enjoys every bit of it breaking the monotony of her home as she falls in love with Vikrant. Gradually love blossoms and along galore problems which are too dominant to be ignored. With friends by her side especially Tanishq a guy who doesn't leaves much of an impression the first time they meet in the college becomes her life saviour. So will Kritika be able to live a fairy tale romance? What role Tanishq and Vikrant play in her life? Will life ever be same again for the young girl with soaring ambitions and love in her heart? That's what the story is all about. 

When it comes to justifying the tagline love, lies and betrayals the book scores some serious brownie points. It manages to skim out balanced effects of love i.e both positive and negative and imbibed in the story line with great effect. The struggle of a girl and her transition from a girl to woman has been given a lot of limelight and manages to capture the best of the moods and emotions and enthral the readers. The story embarks on a turmoil yet captivating love story which keeps the heart beats pumping all the time. It has that ticklish effect as well as the glaring dungeon dark side and the twisted human psyche which adds and lends voice to the whole idea. The physicality of love too barbaric and sometimes too cosy and has been shown with diligence. The emotions cropping up at the right places with the right mix of joy and sorrow which one experiences while being in love. 

The book lacks in capturing the mental aspects of  love fully. It fails to encourage the characters to grow along with the story rather than choosing to leave them in a limbo at times. The story has some abrupt events and incidents which don't quite add up and shades the progress of the story. Editing turns out to be another big blemish with glaring mistakes being made grammatically, character name goof up, a spelling mistake and entire repetition of two paragraphs describing love in one of the chapters which had already made an appearance in the chapter before. The book towards the end feels out of place as it wounds up without the thoughts of the other characters being expressed or given voice. 

All in all the book does manages to show a girl's courage to fight and live on her life with dignity and respect shedding appropriate light on the delicate subject of trust and commitment. The book manages to shed the tag of a typical romance saga and delves into the inner turmoil of women when they are in love which is felt largely nowadays in the society. But it lacks the punch at times and leaves a lot to imagination which doesn't quite leaves a glaring impact. A book to be read and pondered upon with some nasty and some heartfelt romance. 

RATINGS: 

3 OUT OF 5 

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for such a detailed review, Meghant :) Your insights will be dealt upon seriously in the next edition as well as my upcoming project. Review isn't an easy task and I'm highly obliged to you for putting up one so quick.

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  2. You're welcome Harshita. I hope that your present and upcoming project turn out to be as good as the first one. :)

    All the best and congrats. :)

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