Sunday 17 January 2016

BOOK REVIEW - heart of bullets

BLURB : 
'The only way to get close to those glittering stars in heaven is, to look at a soldier with stars on his shoulders' Every time, they're around, the thing that we see is the bravery awards, medals, the pride, but what we can't see is their heart that lies inside the iron chest, some untold stories, sacrifices, and the hardship they've been through. Every soldier has a story that is unique and extra ordinary. A tale of brotherhood & heroism, a tale of love & betrayal, 'Heart of Bullets', is about two best friends, Arpan & Sam, and the untold story of their friendship, untold story of their love, Shradha, but what happens when Sam gets hit by the enemy - across the border? What will Arpan do to save his friend? Will love prevail over friendship of lifetime? There is a decision to be made, is the life without love, and friends, better than dying to save the one we love the most?


REVIEW : 
heart of bullets publised by petals publishers, edited by the publisher himself *i felt another good story would have been created into a disaster* as the name suggests, is a story basically dedicated to our brave indian soldiers *indian army*. the novel starts with the heroic description of the war scenes by the protagonist Arpan, followed by the friendship tales of Sam, Arpan and Shradha, ends on a good love story and of course a big sacrifice by sam's dear friend Arpan just to safe his life.
i sincerely don't want to discuss the story in detail * as i genuinely feel the story should not be discussed and i don't want to finish the suspense too* let the reader do that, but yes as the cover pic depicts it's a story dedicated to the heroes, but actually 70% of the noevl is a love story and only 30% weightage is given to the war sequences, brave incidents. well that's not the mistake of the author, it's the cover designer who got confused with the title and the theme. coming back to the story line, i feel the reader might feel dejected, as the reader will pick the copy thinking it might be a novel dedicated purely to the soldiers, but at the end that's a swet love story.
The author has rightly balanced the love story and the story of soldiers too, the 3 war sequences have been amazingly described. Nikhil has wonderfully started each and every chapter well, complimented with some mesmerizing poems * that connects with the chapters well *, punchlines and one liners which sum up the stanza well in a beautiful manner, and eventually will make you fall in love with his writings. it could have been much better if the editor would have paid some focus on the mistakes, well never mind, when a book is coming from petals * one can expect poor quality of printing, 'n' no. of mistakes, no editing, and of course grammatical mistakes and not to forget silly typos "also known as Makkkkkaaaaaaarrrrr's forte". overall heart of bullets is a delightful read, if you ignore the publisher and his forte.

MY VERDICT : 
title : 2/5
book cover : 1.5/5
writing style : 4.5/5
editing : 3/5
overall : 3/5 * i've deducted 2 marks for editing and other mistakes i've mentioned above and that does not count in the mistake of author * 

book review- SORRY,I LOVED YOU

BLURB : 
What are expectations? Can these expectations ever end? I think, no... It's the human tendency to expect more till everything he desires comes his way. "Sorry! I loved you", the story of a sweet girl Priya and an innocent boy Siddharth ends with the base line 'MADE FOR EACH OTHER'. Though Priya and Siddharth, were not with each other but in real they were meant for each other, what separated them was their expectations from the other. They had an indefinable love for other but they allowed expectations to follow which ultimately made them to "COMPROMISE".

REVIEW : 
Sorry I loved you marks the debut of Saksham Mittal in the writing industry.
It is a love story at its core which is published by PETALS and is edited by Harpreet Makkar. 
So let me begin with its real review. So priya and siddharth meet at the latter’s house during a wedding where Priya happens to be the choreographer of the event. Siddharth falls in love with her at the very first sight (WOW!). He only later discovers that she is far elder than her.(AMAZING!). After a serious (read: predictable) turn of events and after some years Siddharth finally confesses his feelings. At this point the story gets a bit too romantic and I appreciate Saksham for that. After this the book gets a lot too predictable and simple. When Priya finally accepts his feelings the two start going out and you can expect them to do all the things that childhood sweathearts do. In short the story loses its grip and you really wonder whether to carry on or not. After another 100 pages which are a lot too tiring the story reaches its end which is way more exaggerated and unreal.
Apart from hundreds of editing blunders, loose story, imperfect situations, and an even more uneven grip , the only thing that makes up for the faults is the appreciable starting and cute notes that are scattered in the book. Given the storyline the story could have been much, much better. As far as writing is concerned the author needs to put in some more emotions and seriously needs to make sure that the story does not turn predictable. The book could have been much better with better writing and editing.  To comment on editing, well it seems like the manuscript was given to a ten year old. The editor really needs to work hard, not for the upcoming editions of this book but also for his future.
A note to the publisher- well you could have generously invested more on the printing.  Half of the disinterest in the book arises due to its bad quality printing and the bad texture of the pages. Would like to say stop printing such mess, its look like an absolute waste of time and money, neither is the title interesting nor the story. With much leniency I would like to give 1.5 stars.