The thing about contemporary reads is that they get boring after you keep reading them. I doubt that. If you read different kinds of stories and bring in variety in your reading list, you never feel bored of a genre. Even when I do read a lot of other genres, I feel Indian Romantic novels bring me a homely feeling and some long forgotten sweet and painful memories.
Recently, I picked up From Tiggie With Love. The blurb of the book has an element of mystery inside it. It has romance, unanswered questions and sense of likelihood. How could I keep myself from picking up this book?
Plot of From Tiggie With Love
The book follows Saarika, who is a loving wife and a journalist. After a long wait, she gets her big break when she gets a chance to interview one of the very successful entrepreneurs of her time – Rehaan Dutt. Her excitement turns sour when she overhears her husband. To clear things out, she decides to find out the truth.
The book says, “to find out what happens when ONCE one had to make a choice between truth & correct.” Whether such a plot is there in a book is very questionable.
So, I picked up this book by a debut Chandigarh based author, and it started on a good note. It begins with a description of Sarika’s work life and personal life. Lovely.
Then comes the point when that overhearing the hubby’s conversation thing happens. It didn’t sound convincing to me. I mean once you read the book you find out how it was important, but at that moment, I was like ‘what?’.
As you continue to read, the interview happens along with a beautiful description of the journey to Mata Vaishno Devi temple. The author pulled off this ‘virtual tour through book’ thing very well. Loved it.
But the interview itself was too boring. I mean you’re doing such a big interview and you ask a few simple questions and get done with it? The answers were also a roller coaster ride. Some were interesting, and some were not. Didn’t like that part at all. The fact that all of it didn’t even drive the story made it even worse. It’s like you read almost 80 pages, which are not written well, and then still hope that it will all make sense in the end and then it doesn’t. It was highly disappointing.
Then comes the part where Sarika decides to find out the answers she came looking for. Of course, as the book is a romantic novel, I don’t think it’ll be a spoiler if I tell you from there a love story begins. Some parts of it are good but then I kept feeling things were getting dragged a lot.
Character in From Tiggie With Love
The characters in the book have been forcefully pushed to the extreme. The ‘lover boy’ has been shown like the perfect and pitiable guy whom girls should love. The ‘bad guy’ has been given no attention except for the fact that he was just pushed to be bad. It didn’t come naturally. The women in the story are plain weird and non-relatable.
Writing Style
I strongly feel that 228 pages were too much to deliver this kind of story. For example, there are some emails at the end which take up 14 pages. Now, when you read the first email, it’s so heart wrenching. I felt like crying. And then another email. Then another. By the end of the last one, I kind of felt pissed off. And I am not exaggerating if I say I went through such emotions multiple times in the book. I doubt if anyone of you will continue reading after the first time it happens. Moral of the story: bad editing and unimpressive writing style.
I doubt if the writer gave enough time to this book. Lack of research was evident. You talk about how Saarika has close ties with the Jammu city and how she knows about the cuisine and then you call Wazwan a dish? Like who doesn’t know that it’s a multi-course meal!
Some sections were awesomely delivered; some were close to unbearable. But editing. Nah! Same is with proofreading. I mean by now I know Indian books have at least 15-20 grammatical mistakes (yes! They’re too obvious that even I know about them) but this book! Some errors were even more obvious than obvious!
The ending of the book was almost perfect, but then… it again got dragged to a point where it made no sense. It felt incomplete. Just at the last page. And what about the question they mentioned in the blurb? In fact, if they had added the answer to this issue, the ending would have been acceptable.
Overall, I think From Tiggie With Love an okay attempt. However, lack of good writing, the editing and less attention on crucial sections of the book made it as bad as it could be. I have mixed feelings about this book. I thoroughly loved some sections, but then some parts make me doubtful about this. Pick up this book if you’re ready to dive into a story that isn’t perfect. There are high chances you will regret spending your time and money on it, as I am.
My Ratings: 2/5 stars
