by Title and Author: The Fragile Heart by Ankit Jaiswal
My Review:
Love is a complicated emotion which requires many trials and sacrifices. There is a delicate balance of trust, friendship and care that define our love experiences.
Jai is a normal boy who is often late to school and so far has had no interest in girls. But one day his life changes when he meets the girl of his dreams during the school assembly. With no clue about her name, class or friend circle, Jai spends many a days searching for her and then trying to gather his wits to propose to her. When he does get ready and pours his heart out in a letter, Geeta, the love of his life, is rude to him and disappears from his life along with his letter. Broken and confused, Jai carries on with his life and as time passes starts to mingle with people again.
Along comes Riya and they soon get close but just as he thinks he has moved on, in enters Geeta!
What will Jai do now?
Has he truly moved on and no longer has any feelings for Geeta? Or will he leave Riya to go back to his first love?
What will happen to Riya?
Are Geeta and Jai meant to be?
Why did Geeta leave Jai the first time? Is she here to stay or will history repeat itself?
Ankit Jaiswal is a debut author who tries to bring a predictable yet a touching angle of first love to life in his book The Fragile Heart. The blurb is intriguing and captures the attention of the reader at first glance. The cover also beautifully shows the howrah bridge of Kolkata and promises an interesting story inside the cover! 🙂
Despite all these pros that attract the reader at first glance, the story is marred with poor grammar and editing mistakes. The author tries to fill in as many difficult words in his sentences as possible. Maybe he thinks it shows his prowess in English but sadly it is not so. The interest is lost if one has to look up every second word in the dictionary! The other point is that majority words are wrongly used. Then the dialogue formation needs work. There is a superficial aura in the dialogues and I just couldn’t connect with the story. The pricing is also very high as compared to other books of the same genre.
The story does touch the reader’s heart at certain points like I was very entertained by Riya and Jai’s interactions and can say that the best character in this story is Riya who comes out as a real person. She wears her emotions on her sleeve and I could empathize with her. Jai was supposed to be the character that touches the reader’s heart most but unfortunately he fails to do so. I just felt irritated by him. Geeta has a weak presence in the story and I just couldn’t make up my mind about her. Even her trying family history could not make me empathize with her.
The plot idea was very good but execution needs work. The characterization also needs brushing. Even simple words used effectively can pull a reader. Barron’s English is not required for this. The author has the flair for writing and with practice and a little work on his execution he can come up with great stories. The poetry portions of the book are captivating and I loved the small snippets Ankit inserts st certain points in his story to express his emotions.
All in all, a sweet love story which had it been brought to paper properly could have been a must read. As of now, it is an ordinary book with nothing special and I give it a 2.5 out of 5.
I received the book from the author and I am very thankful to him. The above review is my honest and unbiased opinion and in no way influenced.
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