Book Review: 'The Bestseller She Wrote' by Ravi Subramanian

Title: The Bestseller She Wrote

Author: Ravi Subramanian

Publisher: Westland Books

Pages: 391

Genre: Romance Thriller

Price: 295

Having read ‘God is a Gamer’ last year and finding it one of the best suspense thrillers I have read (Check the review here), seeing Ravi Subramanian’s name was enough for me to apply for his new book. Soon enough, I received ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ from Blogadda’s Book Review Programme. My first impression was that the author has changed his genre from thriller to romance, and I am not very fond of the latter, especially from Indian authors. But I thought I would give it a shot since it came from the writer of God is a Gamer. It can’t be bad, I thought.

The Story:

Set in the present day corporate and publishing world, The Bestseller She Wrote is the story of an established and famous writer-banker Aditya Kapoor and how he meets Shreya Kaushik, a final year IIM student. The story is about the love story that flourishes between the two leading to a crash of Aditya’s personal and professional relations, Shreya’s ambitious motives, and a lot of commotion. All this happens in the backdrop of the debudant writer (Shreya) getting published under the guidance of India’s most successful fiction writer Aditya.

The story of a banker-cum-author written by a banker-cum-author gives authenticity to the background details in the plot. It starts as a pure romantic story but slowly reveals to be a good suspense novel by the end of it.

The Style:

One thing that re-establishes one’s attention while reading the book is the mention of a lot of direct and a few subtle references to real people and situations in India. The short discussion between the Aditya and his wife when he mentions getting an offer to judge a dance show was one when I couldn’t suppress my laughter! Plus, the mention of ‘book reviewing on blogadda’ as one of the ways to market a book- to me it seemed too direct and promotional for both parties involved. But I think that’s what works for the book. (Loved that Marathi-manoos support group reference- although it remained just a touch-and-leave-it issue in the book without any conclusion. Would have loved to see some bashing up of the lunatics in the later part of the story)

The book is easy-to-read. The first half of the story seemed a little slow and clichéd to me. Married guy has an affair with a younger girl who takes helps from him for a project and the wife finds out- it was too predictable. The pace of the story changes after this. Until then it had taken me almost 3-4 days of ‘I have to read this’ thoughts to read the ‘romantic’ story book. I finished the last 150-170 pages in a single seating because the story had become exciting and the fun of reading a suspense novel was back- the genre the writer is great at and is famous for. It’s this second half that makes up brilliantly for the not-so-different romantic part of the story.

You keep wondering throughout this time- Could Shreya’s selfishness actually lead her to take such deteriorating steps? Is Diana the culprit? Is there a different side to Sunaina? Why the Ebola instead of the clichéd and simple car-accident for the same result? Are we missing out completely on the real story? Is the real deal being presented to us so subtly that we aren’t even realising it?

I was a little disappointed with the ending which I was able to predict quite correctly about 3 or 4 chapters before the major suspense was revealed. But then, 300 pages had passed without me giving it any thought, so yeah, I think it worked.

Read the book if you like reading romance mixed with some suspense. The book provides some real insights to the publishing business of today, the way the media works, the way stardom hits and the potential that fame has to kill you. It’s not just a good story that sells, it is what can sell well that sells.

My Rating: 3.5/5

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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!