Book Review: Untruly Yours by Smita Shetty

I have been writing/blogging about what I read every month since 2010. Each post has a list of what I read the previous month along with a short quick few sentence review. Sometimes, I feel strongly about them and the review goes to almost half a page but never more. After all it is not a review but more of a record of what I read.

Then, last year around Oct-Nov; I came across the Book Review program from BlogAdda.com and I started taking the review process (more) seriously. In this year, I have reviewed several books and it was a pleasant surprise to receive a book request straight from a new author.

Smita Shetty, a Mumbaite currently based in UK, contacted me with a request to review her debut novel 'Untruly Yours'. So here it is … my very personal view on this new chic-lit by the new chic on the block. (One word review: GOOD. Longer review: read on)

Right from the beginning, the book was easy to read and made for some simple light reading. The story starts with our central lead character Natasha and sets the stage by describing her routine life and family.  The story develops and the characters are introduced; real life characters with whom one can identify. The intro of the mother-in-law as 'Godzilla of Godzillas' was interestingly funny and the intro of the 2 interesting colleagues at work was believable while the kid and the hubby description would have probably made many a women-readers say 'Gosh … that's my hubby and kid'.

Turn of events lead to some revelations which form the foundation for the story/plot of this short novel. The marriage hasn't really fallen apart (although the cracks have begun to appear or at least have been discovered) and our lady begins to feel some attraction towards 'other' men; which include one of her colleagues who has accompanied her on the India Trip and a friend from college days (blast from the past). The rest of the story is about Natasha discovering hidden feelings, latent desires and fighting internal devil-angel battles between desires and moral standings. She can't help enjoying the attention of these hunks while her sister looks on.

What I found strange is that just when things began to get interesting … the novel was wound up in about 20 odd pages. At that point in the story, the author could have written a lot of interesting incidents between the lady and her 2 distracting hunks as well as brought out 'her inner turmoil' along with some interesting conclusive actions on her part in contribution to the reason for her India Trip.  

The climax seemed hurried. It was as if the story had to be suddenly wrapped up. Something made her cut it short! Whether it was the publisher, herself or some vague rule that a chic-lit needs to stop at around 150 pages or something like that? I wish Smita had decided to write a little more … just a couple of pages more (I mean 30-40 pages). It would have been a fun to read more ... as was it fun to read the 150 odd pages. She has written it in a very easy-to-read, fun, grounded fashion. I would surely pick up her next novel ... if not for anythiong else ... for her writing style. This is hint for Author to keep writing :).

The book does not bore you at any point in the story. The author is able to hold up your interest levels by the story, the line up of events, by her narrations and sheer writing style.

Anyone looking for a nice light read can pick this up. I would readily recommend.

Anyone looking for more serious literature stuff (even serious fiction) can stay away from this one. This one is not for you. 

And yes ... the cover design is different (as u can see above) from the usual cover designs today. It reminded me somehow of the 'Jeeves' series of books  by P G Wodehouse. The cover design is definitely something which has its own attraction and may prompt a casual browser in the bookstore to pick the book and read the back-cover. A definite win !!