Book Details:
Name: The Bestseller She Wrote
Author: Ravi Subramanian
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Westland Ltd.
Publication Year: 2015
Number of pages: 391
Price: 295 INR
My rating: 3/5
The Storyline
He was a bestseller. She wanted him to make her one. Paperback king, Aditya Kapoor’s life is straight out of a modern man’s fantasy. His literary stardom is perfectly balanced by a loving wife and a spectacular career. With everything he touches turning to gold, Aditya is on a winning streak.
Shreya Kaushik is a student with a heart full of ambition. Young, beautiful and reckless, Shreya speaks her mind and obsessively chases after what she wants. And what she wants is to be a bestselling author.
What happens when their worlds collide? Is it possible to love two people at the same time? Can real ambition come in the way of blind passion? Can trust once broken, be regained?
Master storyteller Ravi Subramanian, delves into the glitzy world of bestsellers and uncovers a risky dalliance between a superstar novelist and his alluring protege. The Bestseller She Wrote is a combustible cocktail of love, betrayal and redemption.
What worked for me:
“The true test of a good human being is not the number of people who love you, but the number of people who learn how to love, looking at you. You don’t have any enemies, and everyone who comes in contact with you falls in love with you.”
These lines, which are said out aloud by the protagonist Aditya, while his wife Maya was battling with life and death, is just so right and perfect, that this can actually be called the high point of the book, personally for me. The lines are just so touché.
Now the first thing that came to my mind after reading the book was, it is a great coffee table book. While it is most of the times quite leisurely, but even before you realize it, it has picked up a fast pace, especially at the climax when there are colluding circumstances involving the protagonist’s dilemmas and you are left wondering to what extent would the protagonist get embroiled more into murky waters.
Which brings us to the second most amazing thing of this book, who would be the culprit’s identity. It was actually hard to guess the culprit, for nowhere in the story can the culprit be seen to do any slip-ups, which might have given a hint to the reader about his identity, unless of course, revealed at the climax by the protagonist himself.
I would want to make a special reference to the wife of the protagonist, Mrs. Maya Kapoor, whose character, I felt, was beautifully etched by the author. Her determination, her self-respect, her courage, her resilience, is something every woman can sure be expected to look up to. In fact, in today’s times, Maya Kapoor is someone who I think, can really serve as an inspirational figure.
What did not work:
The first thing that would catch the reader’s thrill, is the little tagline on the very front cover, saying, “Soon to be a motion picture”, and one can totally relate it to be one of those recent irritating trend of Bollywood movies, harping on the themes of love, betrayal and redemption. Not something some serious reader would want to have a read of.
The second thing would be the mockery of the very title of the book itself. There is little emphasis on the contents of the bestseller that the character Shreya writes, in fact you’d think it has been used rather as a mere prop to an entirely different story altogether, than what the title intends to portray.
Then there is this in-your-face fact that it is a one-time read. As I have aforementioned already, it is a coffee table, which can be over and done away with, in just one sitting. The story doesn’t really hook you or keep you grasped till the end. At one point, you feel there are some unnecessary events added just to add some cheap thrill to the story, but perhaps the author might have seen some intention behind ‘em which I personally, clearly failed to realize.
Drum-roll: Overall Verdict
For readers who are looking for some time-pass, but a bit quality time-pass, this book is recommended for those sections of readers. It is perhaps just level-head or maybe one to two points up the level of books Chetan Bhagat writes, so of course, it’s a better one comparatively. For the readers who are looking for a serious thriller, there’s this red flag I’d be waving at you. Read at your own risk (of both time and patience). Oops, may I add, your hard-earned money too.
I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!
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