Friday, May 9, 2014

Crossroads by Preeti Singh: Chapter-by-chapter review



Book: Crossroads (It’s about time….)
Author: Preeti Singh
Publisher: ACCESS (an imprint of Authorspress)
Genre: Fiction, Romance
Number of pages: 264
Cover price: Rs 200


Here is a chapter-by-chapter review of ‘Crosswords’ by Preeti Singh.


Chapter 1
A Journey of Two Hearts (Falling in Love…)
Review: The beginning is smooth, simple and risk-free. Not bad but nothing extraordinary. However, the author chooses two different timelines, making her intentions clear that she’s going to make the reader shuffle between past and present.
Rating: 3/5


Chapter 2
In Pursuit of Ecstasy (Blossoming in love….)
Review: Preeti Singh’s way of describing love scenes in laudable. She provides graphic details but without taking help of tabooed words. ‘In Pursuit of Ecstasy’ is primarily about post-wedding romance, love-making and titillation. Author’s debut novel ‘Flirting with Fate’ too had some well-chronicled love scenes. The romantic readers do feel aroused but the celibacy-preachers don’t get offended.
Rating: 3.5/5


Chapter 3
I Loved an Angel (A child born of love…)
Review: An unpleasantly long chapter that just drags on and on with recurring episodes of husband-wife conflict. A few things lack conviction and the rest is very ordinary.
Rating: 2/5


Chapter 4
The Dark Rainbow (The pain in love…)
Review: Decently written. Our protagonist Kavita continues to endure domestic abuse.
Rating: 2.5/5


Chapter 5
Crossing the Line (Taking decisions in love…)
Review: Slow narrative is not absorbing enough. ‘Crossing the Line’ takes the acidic relationship of husband-wife further and propels the lady to cross a line she thought she would never cross.
Rating: 2.5/5


Chapter 6
Flirting with Fate (The twists of destiny….)
Review: One of the better chapters. Talks of a life fettered by loneliness and the despairs of a hapless woman. The brief visuals of an epileptic seizure add power to the narrative.
Rating: 3/5


Chapter 7
Love You Forever (True Friendship stays…)
Review: The chapter shows that life goes on. In between personal losses and conflicts, the mundaneness of life remains there inevitably.
Rating: 2.5/5


Chapter 8
 Truly, Madly, Deeply (When passion takes over….)
Review: When forbidden pleasures find a way out, things always become readable. Besides, Preeti Singh’s one major strength is to draw the reader with her explicit, yet inoffensive, description of erotic encounters.
Rating: 3.2/5


Chapter 9
Uff Yeh Emotions (Where only feelings rule….)
Review: The story offers its dose of emotions as our protagonist Kavita skids through happiness and falls headfirst over to a pile of sorrow. Not an extraordinary chapter but a somber one for sure!
Rating: 3/5


Chapter 10
Long Distance Relationship (Distance makes hearts grow fonder….)
Review: An unconvincing and melodramatic encounter between Kavita and her hubby Rajiv! The plot is threadbare and the love-hate relationship of the couple doesn’t evoke conviction.
The author redeems herself somewhat towards the fag end of the chapter by depicting a refreshingly bold mother-daughter relationship.
Rating: 2.5/5


Chapter 11
The Other Side of the Bed (Alone but not lonely…)
Review: Again, the husband-wife chemistry lacks conviction and the author seems to lend them haphazard emotions where neither of the protagonists know what they want or whom they love.
The shock proposal towards the latter part of the chapter offers some reprieve.
Rating: 2.5/5


Chapter 12
Lilacs Blooming in my Backyard (Happiness blooms…)
Review: A versatile chapter that spotlights the troubles of a single mother having a teenage daughter and how fame is no compensation for loneliness. One of the better chapters of the book!
Rating: 3.5/5


Chapter 13
Love me in the end (endless love…)
Review: In the final chapter, the protagonist finds herself standing at the crossroads of life where she has to make a difficult choice. And the choice she makes may not please a lovey-dovey reader but has a sense of poetic justice to it.
Rating: 3/5


All in all, ‘Crossroads’ is an okay book written with a lot of heart but fails to match the literary quality of its predecessor ‘Flirting with Fate’.
Overall rating: 2.5/5



-Ritesh Agarwal






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