11 September 2016

Review #521: It Must've Been Something He Wrote by Nikita Deshpande



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.”

----Robert Fulghum


Nikita Deshpande, an India author, pens a lively yet soul-touching contemporary romance debut novel, It Must've Been Something He Wrote where the author weaves a sweet and funny romantic comedy that is centered around a woman who is a nerd-cum-marketing-executive for a publishing house in a city away from her own, where she faces lots of hurdles to make her boss happy with marketing ideas as well as she also caters to the country's dashing bestselling author's needs and events, and little did she knew that love can happen even with someone who is entirely different from herself.




Synopsis:

When obsessive book-lover (ahem, book snob) Amruta – Ruta – Adarkar arrives in Delhi to work as a marketing executive for Parker-Hailey's Publishing, she learns that the world of books is not as cozy as she’d imagined. Her eccentric taskmaster of a boss expects marketing miracles to happen on shoestring budgets and in record time, and surviving the job (and the city) means she’ll have to master the local art of jugaad really fast. Worst of all, she’s stuck being a publicist for Jishnu Guha, protein-shake lover, serial selfie-taker, and bestselling author of seven cheesy romance novels, the kind she wouldn’t be caught dead reading.

As Ruta struggles between work and life in a new city, she finds, much to her annoyance, that she needs Jishnu’s help more than she cares to admit. But with her own parents getting a divorce, can Ruta dare to fall in love, especially with someone who’s so impossibly different?



Amruta, a. k. a., Ruta has arrived in the capital city, Delhi, to work as a marketing executive for a trending book publishing house, where her crazy boss expects Ruta to come up with marketing ideas that fall in the bracket of tight budget (extremely low) and on an almost zero time frame (spontaneous time line), and Ruta must learn to cope with the best prices, the crazy traffic of the city, the excuses to give to her boss and many other such tricks, if she needs to survive her job. And within no time, her job becomes even more difficult when she is asked to publicize the bestselling author, Jishnu Guha, whose cliched college-themed rom-com books Ruta would not even dare or bother to read, given the fact that Ruta is a serious reader who loves books written in proper English unlike Jishnu's books. So while juggling authors on one hand and the city and her life on the other, Ruta gradually leans on Jishnu and for his brainstorming ideas, and within no time, Ruta falls for the man whom she despises a lot because of his carefree nature. Will Ruta let her guard down?

I bet female serious Indian readers, who is a fan of well written books, especially not those college drama romance books written in terrible English mixed with Hindi, will find similarity with the central character and will also fall for the story. I'm calling this an imperfect book snob's perfect and dream love story. The book is so addictive right from the very first page, that it will suck the readers right into its very heart and will not let them go until the turn of the last page. And if any reader is feeling under the weather or feeling the blues, then this book is the perfect cure to cheer those sad souls up. Moreover, the alluring bright happy yellow color of the book cover will melt the readers' hearts on the very first look itself.

The author's writing style is remarkable and is laced with so many heartfelt and sometimes light emotions to make the readers feel the story from their souls. The narrative style is extremely sweet, authentic, free flowing as well as humorous that will bring tears to the eyes of the readers not from the feeling of sorrow but from laughing out loud and hard. The pacing of the book is really fast as the readers will find themselves swaying smoothly with the flow. Since this is a love story that has not much twists or layers, some readers might find it very much cliched or predictable, although the fun beats all the negative aspects of this book.

The author captures the feel and look of the city of Delhi strikingly through her story line. The city comes alive with the author's usage of eloquent words that describe the city's streets, food, people, local dialect, the nightlife, the lifestyle and the culture so vividly that readers can easily visually imagine the scenes unfolding right before their eyes. The author pens the story with a strong and proper English but often laced with the local language of the city that international readers might find it bit difficult to comprehend those words.

The characters are very much well crafted out with realism that the readers will find themselves easily connecting with the imperfect and crazy bunch of myriad characters, who brighten up the whole story with their funny and sarcastic dialogues. Each and every character from this book beats one another and manages to stand out. The main character, Amruta, is a sweet yet nervous young woman, too much of a bookish snob, who has no idea how to speak out in front of her arrogant and dominating boss. Her funny and embarrassing moments, especially her imperfectness will make the readers easily contemplate with her messy situation. The hero of the book is a cliched chocolate boy, who is beyond every perfection, yet somehow his laid back attitude makes Amruta as well as the readers go weak in the knees.

The author unravels the love story gradually with enough tension, intensity and compassion that will make the readers fall in love yet one more time. Nonetheless, the love drama is very much "been there done that" kind of, as it is foreseeable and there could have been much more twists to make it sound believable, instead of making is way too cheesy.

In a nutshell, the story is a light-hearted and extremely entertaining romantic book that will cheer up your gloomy day in just one sitting.

Verdict: A rom-com that you need to look out for!

Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers from Hachette India for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book. 
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Author Info:
Nikita Deshpande is a creative nomad. A writer of copy, screenplay and poetry, she graduated in English Literature from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. An occasional film-maker, she has assisted directors on prominent films such as Fukrey (2013) and Mirzya (2016), and was the writer/director of the winning commercial at Crash the Pepsi IPL (2015). It Must've Been Something He Wrote is her first novel.
Visit her here 



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