Author
Aarti V Raman
Publisher
Harlequin Non Fiction
Date
April 1, 2014
Final Verdict
3.5/5

About the Author

Aarti V. Raman writes all shades and forms of romance or will in the future because she suffers from writing attention deficit disorder. She must tell all the stories! So, her romances range from romantic comedy, chick lit to romantic suspense and dark romance starring tortured billionaires and suffering military types!
Before she turned to writing and telling these stories full-time, she was a teacher, business journalist and editor for close to fifteen years. So her heroines are career-minded, city-living, strong-willed hot messes who still have their lives together. She believes in writing what she knows and she knows her best so most of these heroines are Indian (South Asian women of color).
Other Works By Aarti V Raman
The Worst Daughter Ever
More Than You Want

Blown Away To Kingdom Come!!!!!!

Whenever you pick a book to read, you always have this preset notion, as to what the book is going to be. Some book fit just right and are exactly as you imagined them to be, whereas some break those boundaries you set for them. They are either worse than you imagined them to be or like Kingdom Come, by Aarti V Raman, better than you ever imagined the book would turn out. 

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PLOT:  Krivi Iyer, a man tormented by his past gets a lead on his tormentor, a very beautiful and lonely sibling. To make peace with his past he decides to come to Ziya and find out whether she can lead him to her tormentor The Woodpecker. Ziya has no idea of the world Krivi inhabits, and no clue as to the existance of the Woodpecker. Strong and Independent, never trusting love, Ziya manges to fall for Krivi. Will they find the answers to their past, will they find it in each other, will they find love? This is what the book is all about.

CHARACTERS:  Whenever I was reading about Krivi, my mind kept humming the song “Right Kind of Wrong”. A life full of deception, death and a tormented past couldn’t make a man more wrong for a girl, but for the very same reasons, his loyalty, his passion and his trust well make him perfect. Sigh what a dilemma – to love or not to love. But Love always wins doesn’t it. Yes I really really liked Krivi. And Ziya, not the typical damsel in distress, a hard life growing up makes her a strong independent woman, sure of herself and what she wants out of life. The Woodpecker – The perfect antagonist for Krivi, the perfect villain for a spy thriller. Noor and Sam, the perfect couple and Ziya’s only family. The elusive Tom Jones, Woodpecker’s Father and  Harold, Krivi’s likable boss complete the cast of this story.It is not easy to sustain a book for 300 pages with minimal characters, especially a thriller and very few authors are successful in doing that. Aarti, has done a brilliant job of etching her characters and writing about their stories through out the book.

WHAT I LIKED: The chase between Krivi and Woodpecker reminded me of the relationship between Jason Bourne and Carlos, and it has been done with brilliance. The amount of research gone into the politics, the functioning and the execution of the special forces shows in the writing as the story seems to move forward, without a glitch in the action and thrill departments. The I am a big fan of Spy thrillers, and have read all possible, Jeffery Archer, Fredrick Forsyth, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum books and I must say that in comparison this book is not far behind.

The romance in the book shown through two different couples in two different kinds of relationships, is brilliantly done. Both the relationships, that of Sam and Noor and Krivi and Ziya are very realistic and not so fantastical that they tend to be unbelievable. Like Aarti says ” It wasn’t happily ever after, but it was life. And Life Matters”. Realistic romance, especially in books is very hard to come by these days.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:  End End End!!!!! Seems pretty hurried, especially the climax reveals and the explanations. Where in the entire books, the ops and the missions have been dealt with so brilliantly, here the balance between the romantic, personal and the thrill aspects goes haywire and the effort to maintain it is evident. Not that it is a bad ending, or the story suffers because of it, it is just that after reading the rest of the book and the fine balance between these various aspects that has been maintained throughout, the end seems hurried.

FINAL VERDICT: All in all a brilliant book. I just think that readers looking for traditional Romance will be disappointed cause this is not just a love story, it is reality and the hero and heroine are very much real. Will I recommend the book – yes of course, if you look beyond the obvious there is something for everyone, and the book is worth the time and money you will spend reading it.

The book is my personal copy. My opinions are honest and unbiased.

Jaibala Rao

Jaibala Rao

5 Responses

  1. Hey Jai, thank you so much for taking the time out to not only buy but read and share your thoughts on my book. I very much appreciate your comments and will someday tell you the long saga about the end 😛 In the meantime, look forward to entertaining you with my nexts. 🙂 Xx Writer Gal

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