Recently, I got one such review. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, Sue, for your 4 Pink Hearts for Bombay Heights! It's just what I needed to give my sagging motivation a mighty boost!
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what I found so charming about Adite Banerjie’s Mumbai-based romance Bombay Heights.
The plot seems entirely predictable; Sanjana, the heroine is
conventionally independent and strong-minded, yet melts like a chocolate
teacup at the brush of a fingertip from Ash, the male love interest,
who oozes sexuality with a hint of little boy lost. Honestly, he’s the
sort of bloke – so attractive between the pages, and doesn’t he know it!
– any sensible woman would want to slap if they met in real life.
Sanjana, of course, is much more tolerant – she doesn’t actually smack
him – but she does make it clear she’s no pushover. Inevitably, they
become friends and eventually something more…
And,
it’s the slightly unexpected way their relationship develops and the
changing dynamics within Sanjana’s close-knit family, that makes Bombay
Heights an above average romance: because it’s not just a love story but
also a window into an India – modern, professional, forward-looking –
that challenges western stereotypes of an over-crowded,
poverty-stricken, male-centric country.
This
new India is epitomised by Sanjana’s father, who, initially wanted
Meghna, his middle daughter, to return to her abusive husband, because
of his worry ‘about what people would say if her marriage broke up’.
But, by the end of the novel he apologises. ‘I should never have
insisted you return.’ Instead, he says, he must step back and let his
daughters learn from their own mistakes. While Banerjie’s writing was
sometimes a little over-lyrical for my taste, I doubt this would be a
problem for most readers. A lovely book: an entertaining and
thought-provoking read.
great review
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