Love Was Never Mine by Kunal Bhardwaj !!!

         
       

               So, I complete a book in 3 hours. The name is "Love Was Never Mine" by Kunal Bhardwaj. Let me discuss about the author first:- Kunal is a strategic research and consulting professional currently working with Genpact Analytics as Assistant Manager. In the last 4 years, he has been associated with firms such as Evalueserve and MarketsandMarkets within research and sales functions. Unlike other authors he started writing quite late when he felt an urgency to give words to his unexpressed emotions through stories. He aims to be an entrepreneur in future, and he was one of the finalists for this year’s “Economic Times Power of Ideas” contest. He loves singing, long drives, and regular hanging around with friends. So, this is the first attempt by Kunal and he wasn't a writer before. He didn't even tried his hand in it. He just started writing because he found that the story had emotions in it and it will touch everyone who had loved someone once. And hence, "Love Was Never Mine" got its birth. 


            Coming to the story of it, Rahul loves Shreya like anything. He wants her at any cost and he does everything to show his love and care to Shreya. Shreya has some other perspective towards choosing the person as a partner. She focuses on looks before the person while Rahul gives priority to the soul of the person rather than the looks. Rahul shares about his love for Shreya with his friends- Hari and Riya. They start helping him and keep an eye on his activities. Rahul gets his heart broken many a times by Shreya but still he keeps loving her. He can't imagine her in any kind of pain and stress. He believes in Universe and his love for her that one day he will win her. But, the universe decides something else for him. To read it, go and get the book. :-)


             Coming to the Review: Kunal has used a very good quality of narration in his first attempt. His English is good and the way of communicating with the readers is commendable. I cannot imagine a writer writing such kind of a book when he is attempting it for the first time. I liked his style of using Italic font whenever the protagonist thinks something. I liked the way he showed the faith of protagonist in Universe. He has won in one perspective that he has managed to express emotions quite nicely. One more thing which I liked about the book is: the importance given to each and every character. With Rahul and Shreya being the lead of the story got their special moments in the book, Riya and Hari also got the equal attention. This is what I want writers to do. Give equal attention to each character. The corporate life of these people is shown in a light manner which makes you read the book without going into the details of how the corporate life is. The focus remains on the character rather than the environment of the corporate life they are working in. The theme of the girl's character is same as Chetan Bhagat's Revolution 2020's Arti. Even Shreya confuses the boy rather than directly ignoring him and making him know that she has no feeling for him. Cover page is fine and the title is exactly according to the story.


             Now the drawbacks: First, the title of the book "Love Was Never Mine" almost makes you predict the story. Then, the Prologue of the book makes all the doubt clear about the end of the story. There was no need of the tragedy in the end. It could have been a happy one. Still, Kunal has succeeded in making you smile after reading the last page of the book. :-) The biggest drawback of the book is its predictability and the same old story. Boy loves the girl but girl doesn't love him. He keeps on proposing and she keeps on hurting him. In the end, something happens which makes the girl realize that how much he loved her but it is quite late. A story should have some provoking twists in between but this had only one and even that becomes normal in the second half. 


           Fine. But still, I would say that Kunal has that skill of writing. And I am expecting a lot from him in his 2nd book. I know he is getting a good response from the starters who have just started reading books and this will already create a fan base for him, so, with his next, I want him to show his creativity with the story. Thanks. 


         ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU