Cross cultural genre is the genre I love to write in and love to read. The novel features a group of characters from diverse backdrops. The lead characters stand out from the milling crowd of college in Madison. For Lena, she is from Northern part of America, finds Madison a complete city. Aakash, Manit, and a few more landed from Bangalore, India. They meet in college in Madison. They are studying music. First 40 % of the book educates the ‘ifs and buts’ of music. Lena wants to be a successful concert violinist despite some failures. Aakash has Indian Tabla talent but he is in for a musical engineering course.
Piano, drumming, orchestra, violin…the story brims with its student gossiping and willy-willy brouhaha of student community. Madison is a beautiful city to be a student there. College campus and life outside at bars, at flats is pragmatically captured, stirring senses of nostalgia. I would say with full emphasis that the novel passes as fully romance one.
“He saw Lena from the corner of his eye, and often he felt that she was seeing him too. At those times he began scribbling at a frantic pace, capturing the lecture nearly word for word.”
Aakash and Lena make up a wonderful couple. They are aware of their differences left back in their countries. The couple tried to be as cool as possible; however, love takes over them. Aakash’s family is conservative and middle-class; they cannot let their boy falling for any blonde girl. Lena is open with her liberal culture. She and her family are receptive towards Aakash! On the other side, Aakash makes his decision at his own without realizing the pressure of family that is grappling with medical crises at home. “Differences” is a big factor in love. Not all could surpass it for final accomplishment. Lena is a beautiful girl. Brave, courageous, able to take decisions, fights loneliness, and still hopeful.
Mental health wasn’t the priority. However, with story of love and college, it inevitably scores its place in the story. Parenting, pregnancy…are the crucial stages of life that seek a good mental health during these periods.
I confess the novel is a slow burn. The second part recompenses for the first slow burn. I root for Lena, felt sad for her heartbreaks and the sacrifice she undergoes. This novel is one of those reads that immediately pulled me in. It is the ultimate story of love vs. family differences. Honestly I started reading and couldn’t stop. I had to know what would happen. I had to know that she would suffer. The novel’s ability to immediately suck me into the story, make me care about the main characters, and for keeping me glued to the page. This book gets a big, bold five stars from me.
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ibooksta 