Title : The Promise
Author : Nikita Singh
On the back cover : Some promises are worth
keeping...
She smiles wide, and under it, hides pain she
barely manages to endure. Her happiness brightens up the room, while inside,
her heart drowns little by little.
Elusive, charismatic and incredibly rich, money
is the one obsession he loves and hates in equal measure. He runs away from his
past and the grief it brings with it.
She is capable of breaking down all his
barriers, making his heart implore to give love and trust a second chance.
Caught in the waves of alien emotions, a promise is made a promise to be
together, to make their love last.
But when disaster hits, does their love prove
strong enough to withstand the brutal force of reality?
Or does the promise lay forgotten, as they struggle to regain balance of their lives?
Review : Being an avid reader and a fan
of thriller and mystery genre books written by foreign authors, I love reading
authors like Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham and Dan Brown to name some. But,
occasionally, I love being glued to an Indian author’s book; because it
provides me with that one essence I miss in the above stated books i.e. Indian
Emotions. My recent pick was The Promise
by Nikita Singh. As soon as I finished the first few chapters of the book, I realized
that the characters of the book were very much inspired by the series ‘Fifty
Shades trilogy’ to be specific ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. I immediately felt a
pang of sorrow; because this trilogy was one of my favorites but I started
loving it as the chapters unraveled themselves in front of me. Shambahavi’s
character in this book was very much similar to that of Anastasia Steele in
Fifty shades and Arjun Datta’s ‘dark ‘n mysterious’ aura had a striking
similarity to that of Christian Grey’s character. Faisal who is an assistant to
Mr. Datta is very much inspired by Jose who is a photographer friend of
Anastasia and has an initial crush on her. Anastasia’s best friend played by
Kate Kavanagh has been used as an inspiration for characters of Mili and Tutul.
There are many instances of the dating sequence between Shambhavi and Arjun
which reminds me of fifty shades. Shambahvi, “rolling her eyes” on Arjun, any fifty
shades fan will know what that means ;). Arjun wanting to know everything that Shambahvi
is thinking is just like Grey being a control freak. What amused me the most
was a paragraph in Page 72 where Shambhavi asks Arjun if he has a ‘red room of
pain’ (Again fifty shades fans will know!!) somewhere because he seems to her
just like Christian Grey of Fifty shades, who was into BDSM. I mean, the reader
will know, there was no need of an open declaration. This was the point when I read
some reviews about this book and found out that some of them have quoted it to
be a “copy” of “Fifty shades of Grey”. Well, I disagree. The characters were
inspired, yes, but it was definitely not a copy. As I proceeded, I found out
that it was mainly a story of Shambhavi, of how she manages everything single
handedly. It was a story of her passion for painting, her love for her family,
her courage of facing the world alone and also her confidence. I loved that.
The narration was beautiful in the middle part of the book. In fact, a tear
escaped my eye too while reading about her, it was touching. I would like to
believe this book being a story of “Shambhavi” rather than the story of “Arjun
and Shambhavi”. What I mean to say is, where Shambhavi has a strong character
Arjun’s character could have been given a bit more of light, so, I would also
like to state that the title doesn’t do justice to the book. The title could
have been chosen with a little more thought into it. Arjun is only on the two
ends of the book and hence ‘The Promise’ means only a little. Had there been a
contract similar to that of ‘Fifty shades of Grey’ stating a promise between Arjun
and Shambhavi, the title would have been completely justified ;)
Rating : 2.7/5
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