Loving You: A Destination Wedding Book – Andaleeb Wajid – #BookReview

Loving You: A Destination Wedding Book – Andaleeb Wajid – #BookReview

Title: Loving You: A Destination Wedding Book
Author: Andaleeb Wajid
Price: Rs 150
Format: Kindle
Genre: Romance
Link For Purchase: Loving You: A Destination Wedding Book

Synopsis:

Hamza Ali has learnt a valuable lesson from his twin brother’s disastrous first marriage: Love is not enough.
Determined to have an arranged marriage, he is soon to be engaged to Mahrukh, the ‘ideal wife’ his parents have found for him. And yet, it is not Mahrukh who stirs his heart and scrambles his brain. It’s her aunt, Noorain.

Divorced, independent and happy, Noorain Alam wants nothing to do with men. Until the day she meets her niece’s fiance…

Hamza realises that there is no ideal wife… only an ideal woman. His ideal woman. And it is Noorain…
Their love is forbidden. Their love is wrong. Their love is impossible. And yet, their love is everything.
Hamza and Noorain are about to find out the answer to an age old question.

Is love enough?

My Take:

After a long time I am reading a novel from the romance genre and it reminded me of my own youth. The author managed to get me interested in the book right from the word go. People who like romance would definitely find this book quite entertaining. I could identify with the characters, especially those of Hamza and Noorain quite well. Love raises its head at the most unfortunate time for the protagonist Hamza, but he does not run away from facing facts and wooing the woman he loves. On the other hand his lady love Noorain keeps trying to deny the fact that she is in love with him and consciously makes an effort to maintain a distance from Hamza. The reason is simple. Hamza is engaged to Noorain’s niece, Mehrukh whom she loves dearly. She does not want to spoil things for Mehrukh. To Noorain, it appears to be a callous and mean trick to steal Hamza from Mehrukh. But Hamza, the protagonist, realises that Noorain is as deeply in love with him as he is with her.

And he also feels that if he marries someone while being in love with someone else, neither would he be happy, nor would he be able to keep the woman he marries happy. The only thing which is possibly wrong with the book is the amount of time it takes the protagonist to get his lady love to accept and face the facts. This book claims to celebrate forbidden love. When we say forbidden love, there has to be something in the story that will not be so easily accepted by the society. As far as I could see there is nothing that can be called forbidden love, except for the fact that the protagonist is engaged to his lady love’s niece while he is actually in love with the aunt. It would have been a tad more exciting if there had been some other conflict which the society does not accept easily. If that had been the case, then it would have been a genuine case of forbidden love at least in the context of the Indian society.

Of course, the protagonist carries the entire story on his shoulders. He convinces his parents, then he convinces his lady love to step out of conventionality and he also breaks the norms in several other ways to make the story very interesting. The characters of both the protagonist and his lady love are clear cut and we understand their feelings very well. There is also a villainous woman who throws a spanner into the works. This story could be made into a good movie which young adults will lap up eagerly. All in all, it is a pretty well written book. Only thing is the plot could have unfolded a little faster. It would be remiss of me if I don’t say anything about the author’s vocabulary and her narration. Both were really superb. Only thing is, the editing could have been a little better in some portions of the book.

Conclusion:

Pick this book if you have a taste for romance. It is definitely a good book. This book is a definite yay for romance lovers!

Rating:

I go with a 4/5 for Andaleeb Wajidd’s ‘Love You A Destination Wedding Book’. I have cut off a point for the fact that the story does not strictly celebrate what would have been called ‘forbidden love’

Rating Scale: 

                 1  Poor

                 2  Fair

                 3  Good

                 4  Excellent

                 5  Outstanding

This book has been written as part of the Blogchatter Book Review Program