The Malhotra Bride by Sundari
Venkatraman
Review for The Malhotra Bride
The Malhotra Bride (TMB) revolves around two young characters Akshay and Sunita who enters into Matrimony, and the drama that revolves prior to them tying the nuptial kept me captivated throughout those twenty-one chapters.
The Author portrays the character Sunita as a twenty plus year old girl who wants a career, but comes from a traditional family that believes in daughters getting into wedlock as soon as they graduate. I found this character a little immature with concerns to her goals in life and also her behavior at times was very sophomoric although she dreams of doing an Interior designing course. But, she could have been nurtured more. She is also gullible when put in front of her dad, who is very strict, unlike his own dad. But she becomes bold and does not fear to reply back to her dad when she develops feelings of affection for Akshay. I guess Love sure can conquer many apprehensions, and that involves the pact that actually allured her to marry Akshay, which is eventually over-ruled by herself
Comes across Akshay who is a debonair and has charmed many girls by his priceless gifts. He is aware of his good looks and also that money can buy anything. This character needs a little more stability or maturity when he is entering matrimony since he is subjected to looks of Sunita than her intelligence. His pride was sometimes irritable as a reader. Although he was trying to work on her terms by coming up with a pact, etc. It did not seem convincing to me. Maybe a little more sophistication with regards to values and respect since he would get irritable with slight ignorance from Sunita for instance when they were getting engaged.
I felt that Akshay and Sunita's Dad was dominating in their own respective ways, and the Author portrayed the dominance of men and some cracks in our society with respect to arranged marriages.
Lust governs the two main characters, which makes Sunita forget her prime goal of getting married which eventually leads to love thus, leading to a happy, blissful marriage. Thus, giving justice to the genre as Romance-Drama.
The Author gave good descriptions of the characters thus making it easy for me to portray them while reading. Simple and heart warming moments were also beautifully captured. I would recommend this book since it is a light read and also to any patron who is a fan of mills and boon. I would give this book a 4 stars.
#SheReadsSA
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Spotlight
The Malhotra Bride by Sundari Venkatraman
The Blurb
Sunita Rishi’s just turned twenty, having completed her graduation. She wants to fly free as a bird, explore career options and travel the world. Does she have a choice when Mamma & Pappa insist on arranging her marriage? Born in a rich business family steeped in tradition, Sunita has a tough job on her hands. Can she stop the tide?
Tall, dark and handsome, Akshay Malhotra is the catch of the decade. The only son of Billionaire Raj Malhotra, he’s in a strange fix. His father’s keen that Akshay meets Sunita with marriage in mind. He’s too close to his parents to say ‘no’ for the preliminary meeting. And then he comes face-to-face with Sunita….
Will Sunita be falling from the frying pan into the fire when she agrees to become The Malhotra Bride?
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Meet the author
The Author's Thoughts
Even as a kid, she absolutely loved the 'lived happily ever after' syndrome as Sundari grew up reading all the fairy tales she could lay her hands on, Phantom comics, Mandrake comics and the like. It was always about good triumphing over evil and a happy end. Soon, into her teens, she switched her attention from fairy tales to Mills & Boon. While she loved reading both of these, she kept visualising what would have happened if there were similar situations happening in India; to a local hero and heroine.
Her imagination took flight and she always lived in a rosy cocoon of romance over the years. Then came the writing - a true bolt out of the blue! She could never string two sentences together. While her spoken English had always been excellent - thanks to her Grandpa - she could not write to save her life. She was bad at writing essays in both school and college. Later, when it was time to teach her kids, she could manage everything from Science to Mathematics and History & Geography.
When it came to writing compositions, her kids found her of no help at all. All this changed suddenly one fine day in the year 2000. She had just quit her job at a school's office and did not know what to do with her life. She was saturated with simply reading books. That's when she got home one evening after her walk and took some sheets of paper and began writing. It was like watching a movie that was running in her head - all those years of visualising Indian heroes and heroines needed an outlet and had to be put into words. That's how her first novel, The Malhotra Bride, took shape.
While she felt discouraged when publishing did not happen, it was her husband who kept encouraging her not to give up. There was no looking back after that. While publishing took a long time happening, Sundari continued to write novels and then short stories. Her luck turned when Indireads approached her to write for them and Double Jeopardy was born.
Then came the self-publishing on Amazon. The 2nd edition of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE has been successfully published on Amazon and is available as an ebook since February 2014. The book has been very well received by the reading public.
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