Book: Half Love Half Arranged
Author: Itisha Peerbhoy
Pages: 288
Read On: Paperback
How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days
Plot Summary: Rhea Kanwar is thirty, unmarried and tending to fat, who one morning realizes that it is high time she did something about her life. She despises her mom’s best friend, Bubbles Auntie, who always has something nasty to say about poor Rhea, and to top it all up she is invited to all the family functions. To avoid further questions from the rest of her family, Rhea decides to plunge into the marriage market. She meets several guys and every new guy she comes across seems perfect to her for the initial few days. But after a while she starts finding them weirder than the last. Vyash, one of her prospective suitors, freaks out when he realizes Rhea is not the pill, Jay has a super cool tattoo, Mazher is a perfect gentleman and Sid is atrocious in bed, but almost perfect on the outside. But Rhea has been in love with her best friend for the longest time. What will Rhea do now? Will she settle for an arranged marriage or find her true love?
General Thoughts: This book was kindly sent to me for review by the author's PR team. I liked the sound of the book and wanted to give it a read. The book was sent to me but that has no bearing on my opinions. All the opinions and thoughts about this book are mine and not affected by anything else.
Things I Liked:
1. The writing was nice and the pace of the book, for most part was quick and fast.
2. This book is really, really funny in parts. I was laughing out loud in several places and giggling and smiling for a huge chunks of this book. The humour is delightful and I really enjoyed it.
3. There are quite a few characters in this book, but they are all really well fleshed out and by the end of the book I felt like I really got to know these characters.
4. I loved Rhea's family and their crazy dynamic and their antics
5. Rhea's group of girlfriends and their back-stories and struggles made for very interesting reading.
6. There is this match-maker character called Pammie Auntieji who was simply hilarious. I pretty much laughed in all her scenes. The things she said were so cruel and mean but hella funny.
Things I Didn't Like:
I enjoyed this book in most part but there were somethings I had a problem with.
1. Rhea was my biggest grouse in the book. I just couldn't connect with her. I really tried to be neutral about it but I just don't like girls who make marriage the only priority in their life. Girls who think their life is without meaning if they haven't managed to land a husband. It's just a tad bit annoying to read about such girls who put marriage and domesticity on such a pedestal. I am well aware that India in no doubt full of such girls. But no one in my life is this desperate for a man/marriage. So I have a hard time to connect with such characters.
2. Rhea met wayyyyy too many guys. Funny as those situations might have been, there were too many men she met and this for me meant that I couldn't cheer or root for any of the guys. By the time the man Rhea meets the ma she eventually marries, I just wasn't invested in their love story.
Rating: 3.5/5
This is an enjoyable book, a perfect weekend read. A book to enjoy over iced-coffee. Even though I had some problems with the book I still enjoyed it.
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