Book Review: The Princess of a Whore House by Mayank Sharma

Title: The Princess of a Whore House
Author: Mayank Sharma
Publisher: Notion Press

Review

This slender but nimble fiction is a well-meaning story of a girl trying to make it in the mainstream society. Though chased by the shadows of her melancholy life, Aparajita is destined to rise above her hardscrabble life to pursue the dream that her dead father cherished for her.

The story starts with Aparajita trying to get into one of the most reputed schools in Delhi. This tiny event brings forth Ramya’s past. We get to know how, after Ramya’s husband died in an unfortunate incident, she had nobody in the whole wide world to turn to. The only person, on whom she had pinned all her hopes, cheated her of her trust and dignity. Eventually, she ended up in a brothel along with her daughter. Even though reduced to the worst possible fate, Ramya had only one dream — to give her daughter a quality life. Her ardent prayers were answered when she met Raj, a man who is at the opposite spectrum of Anjum. As such, two men define the fate of a woman and the destiny of a girl. 

Sharma sets the stage for a collision of events and characters that are already connected. Just what this collision will bring forth makes up the heart of the book, which also explores the choices that people make in life and their opportunities to overcome circumstances. The story also mildly touches upon the stigma and the conditions that exist for sex workers in our country.

Written in the first person, the narrative swings between the perspectives of Ramya and Aparajita. This switch in point of view is a bone of contention for it leaves the readers flailing for a sense of time and place. The story’s grammar is less assured though, and the dialogue can sometimes feel forced. Nevertheless, once readers get caught up in the tale itself, they’ll likely enjoy the ride. 

The story gets its lasting power from the qualities of its main characters’ personalities — people who may find themselves caught up in dire conditions but who ultimately find ways to look for light at the end of the tunnel.

Buy Link

Amazon

About the Author

Mayank Sharma is a ‘left-brained’ professional with over twenty years of global experience in leading multinational companies. His interest in writing intensified when one of his articles was featured in the May 2014 edition of Better Software magazine published in Florida, USA.

As Mayank travelled across continents and associated with people with diverse beliefs and values, he became more curious about the social riddles that curtailed liberties across civilizations. 

He is transforming into a 'right-brained' writer with his debut book, The Princess of a Whorehouse. Besides writing, he is passionate about painting and making sculptures. 

Mayank lives in the National Capital Region of Delhi with his wife, Sonali, daughter, Myra, and son, Aarav. 

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I'd like to thank the author for letting me review the book. I do hope you end up liking the book when you read it. Thank you so much for stopping by, and happy reading! 

* I received a review copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest review.

** Picture courtesy: Amazon.in 

Book Review: Summer Secrets by Jane Green

Title: Summer Secrets

Author: Jane Green

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Review:

For a summer read, Jane Green’s ‘Summer Secrets’ is nothing that you’d otherwise expect from this genre. There’s no whirlwind romance or lavish weddings. What this story does is offers an emotional journey, ranging from shame and resignation to frustration and realization.

Our protagonist is Catherine "Cat" Coombs who had it all: friends, a secure job, and people who loved her even when she didn’t deserve it. But besides all this she had a love affair with alcohol. If it had given her a feeling of worth once, it certainly became a bane of her life later. Never realizing that she had a drinking problem that could land her in a sticky situation, Cat kept going until she blacked out one more time and woke up in a stranger’s bed. Luckily for her, the man she woke up with after the blackout was Jason Halliwell, a television director marking three years, eight months, and 69 days of sobriety. Inspired by him and with a possibility of a romance with the handsome hunk, Cat embarked on her own journey toward sobriety. Theirs is a tumultuous relationship with Cat falling off the wagon time and again.

Meanwhile Cat finds out that the cold man she grew up endlessly failing to please was not her real father. She also finds out where she got her ‘drinking gene’ from. She heads for Nantucket, where she meets her drunken dad and two half sisters and where she commits an unforgivable blunder. She also loses her husband Jason and their daughter to her dismay. Now all that she can do to put the pieces of her life back together is to accept her problem and get clean. The major portion of the book traces her commitment to sobriety. 

Green’s tackling of Cat’s character is commendable. In the beginning we see exactly how and why Cat falls prey to alcohol. I couldn’t but sympathize with her circumstance. She handles a grim issue with a sure hand. While the main theme of the novel is Cat’s alcoholism, the overall story also features issues arising out of family dramas. However, the time jump in the narration can leave one disoriented. In spite of being a very good story, I found something amiss. I kept it aside several times only to pick it up and finish it. 

Buy Link:

Amazon

About the Author:

A former feature writer for the Daily Express, Jane Green took a leap of faith when she left in 1996 to freelance and work on her book. She is now the bestselling author of over fifteen novels. Jane lives in Connecticut with her husband and their blended family of six children.

* I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

** Picture courtesy: Amazon.in 

Book Review: False Ceilings by Amit Sharma

Title: False Ceilings

Author: Amit Sharma

Publisher: Lifi Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Review:

Readers who are accustomed to easing slowly into a story will probably want to get a grip on their socks before settling down with Amit Sharma’s debut novel False Ceilings. The story leaps out of the blocks, giving us Aaryan, one of the many protagonists that populate the story, in the stressful mindset where he equates life with an ‘If-Then-Else’ statement. The narration jumps between a distant future and flashbacks. The story takes on a meandering course with characters introduced in almost every chapter and one can only connect the dots after having meticulously read what the author has to offer. It can be a little confusing but if one can stick to it, the plot is promising. 

The book begins in the current period, moves briefly to an imagined future almost 50 years from the present day and then transports us to the Dalhousie of pre-independent India where we are introduced to Kanshiram and his household. His daughter, Shakuntala, is a pampered baby. We get glimpses of her life and later her lineage. On her wedding night in 1946, she is gifted a secret to draw on judiciously once the moment comes as she moves on from the green valleys of Dalhousie to a village in Punjab that is reeling under the communal hostility of 1947 and from the Delhi of 1950s with its exciting whiff of independence to the Delhi of 1970s drenched in the hippie culture. The secret is fortuitously passed along, concealed beneath insecurities and jealousies, sheltered in its vanity and leaving a shadow of wreck as when her great-grandson by chance discovers the furtive he is bewildered by the malevolence that flowed in his family's blood.

A passage from the book reads: “Sometimes people go through a lifetime of pain by holding a secret that could have changed everything. It is an intoxicating addiction, an act of dominance to know that you hold something in your grip that could have changed the life of a person you detest.” This in fact is the crux of the story. Secrets are bad news in real life but for readers these secrets are what keep them hooked to a story. Amit has done a great job of maintaining this secrecy till the very last page all the while tantalizing and egging the readers to turn the page.

Amit is guilty of over-plotting this novel, packing it with developments that, while they may be unexpected and diverting, aren’t really necessary and could have been done away with. Yes, this book leaves you constantly unsure of what lies ahead. But the writer slows down frequently enough to illuminate the darkened, delicate recesses of his characters, so that one doesn’t feel obviously manipulated, thrust forward by his storytelling structure. Not everything succeeds in these pages. A few plot twists are more convenient than credible. Yet Amit Sharma’s False Ceilings remains a satisfying yarn about folks trying to surmount the limits of their heredity and circumstance, overcome the inevitability of fate and find the power within themselves to get beyond their own pains and thus transcend in spite of all odds.

Author Bio:

Having studied M. Tech in Computer Science from Kurukshetra University, Amit Sharma is currently working as a Software Engineer in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for the last ten years. His wife is a teacher and they are blessed with a daughter who is in her terrible twos.

Link:

Amazon

Contact:

Website

I'd like to thank the author for letting me review his book. I do hope you end up liking the book when you read it. Thank you so much for stopping by, and happy reading! 

*'I received a free copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.'