Book Review of ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’
Author : Ravi Subramanian
Publisher – Westland Books
Genre – Romance/ Drama

One sentence for the book
A story that one can easily relate to, the book throws away an interesting take on not-so-fictional real world relationships.

About the Author
A career banker and financial services professional, Ravi has worked with various multinational banks (Citibank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and HSBC) for over eighteen years. As a result of his extensive background in foreign banks, writing about banking comes quite naturally to Ravi. His earlier works, If God was a Banker, The Bankster, Bankerupt, God is a Gamer are all set against the backdrop of the financial services industry and even this book portrays a banker-cum-author as the main character.

I had a chance to meet Ravi in-person during Times LitFest in Delhi in November 2015 and if I am to define him in one line, it would be “suspense in his writings and humility personified, that’s Ravi”.

Author’s Writing Style
Described as the ‘John Grisham of banking’, by the Wall Street Journal, Ravi has an engrossing style of writing. He had been writing thrillers till his last book and this book marks his debut into the genre of romance as well. Having read him earlier with ‘God is a Gamer’ (read my review here), one thing I really liked about his writing was that he uses a lot of real life references for the reader to connect to the story easily. But when you read this book, be prepared for drama and suspense for sure.

The Title and Book Cover
Having read the author earlier, I was really up to read his next book. The title ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ was an interesting one though. Honestly speaking, the first time I read a tweet about the book that “The Bestseller she wrote is an engaging book”, I was really wondering why the tweet was so generalized and did not even name the book. I thought the tweet was just referring to some bestseller written by some ‘she’. However, when I got to know about this being the book name, I was literally laughing up at myself on just giving a bizzare thought on that tweet.

The title is indeed interesting, since the story revolves around a story written by an aspiring author. As the book cover reveals further, the story is all about ‘Love, Betrayal, Redemption’.

Book cover has been interestingly designed. A successful author on one side and an aspiring author on the other side, the transition takes places as the pages turn. And well, it says so that the book is soon to be a motion picture, but well, once you are done with the book, it certainly is no surprise since the characters in the book seem so close to reality with the way the relationships and loyalties show their different angles on different pages.

About the Book
The book is around 400 pages, but as you start reading, I genuinely believe many will read it from cover-to-cover in no time. Such is the simplicity being offered by the author that one does not feel entangled or bored in the story. Inspite of marking a debut for the author in the genre of romance, the book does have an awesome twist in the tail for the thrill and suspense loving fans of Ravi. The book goes on with only a small list of main characters and it helps in clearly carving out each of the character’s traits in the book.

The story of a successful author, who is a banker and IIM alumnus too, by the author of similar credentials does make you wonder if the story is fiction or factual to some extent. However, I do believe, the author has used his personal experiences of both the banking world and the writing world in the story.

At many points in the story, the reader is able to directly draw a reference to someone real and that is what I believe is the crux of the book. One is able to connect to the story, directly relate to the story and directly live the story as the pages are turned.

The suspense- master is really able to keep the suspense till the last chapter of the book. Even I thought till the suspense revealed that the culprit in the story was someone else. You may keep wondering all the time you spend turning the pages if Shreya could be that self-centric, if Sunaina has a negative side to her character too, if Aditya is indeed bad or just a circumstantial victim. But certainly, the author will help you untangle all the knots by the time you complete the book.

Another important aspect highlighted by the author in the book is the fragility of the relationships in our lives. ‘Handle with Care’ or the most beautiful relationship in our life might be gone sooner that one can even imagine. This is my takeaway from the book and certainly, something to be taken care of.

Thumbs Up
The book portrays all the characters and their relationships beautifully and still manages to keep the suspense till the end. Not much of an avid reader, still getting me to complete the book in no time is the biggest thumbs up for the author.

What could have been better
The story is a little predictable for the first half with the aspiring author getting closer to the bestselling author to get published. However, the things unfold quite nicely in the second half with Aditya Kapoor playing a masterstroke, thus compensating for just a little-less interesting first half. And when I say just a little-less interesting, I do mean it literally.

Rating

Ravi has again impressed me with his book, his first one in romance. I will rate this one a 4.5/5.

I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote‘ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!