Review- A Wild Rose by Uzma Jafri

Goodreads Summary: 

Ritu Anand. Vivacious television anchor envied by many, makes the biggest mistake of her life. A man is at the center of it all. Who is he? And why is he after her?

Ritu Anand is a strikingly beautiful and wealthy divorcee, all of 25 years. None but her parents and best friend in life, Sumbul, know the truth of her divorce. Her career too, had gone to dust thanks to her failed marriage and traumatic ill-health. To the rest of the world, Ritu maintains a façade of still being married. In an effort to piece her life together again, she goes back to being an anchorperson after 3 long years… 

And a very important part of this new life becomes the enigmatic Anshuman Sinha. Not very tall and with an average physique, deep hazel eyes and sharp intense features, Anshuman is dangerous and irresistible – he is the very picture of 'Ritu's Man'. The devastatingly dashing ‘casanova’ soon has the ‘love starved- Ritu’ eating from the palm of his hand and dreaming of a picture perfect life with him.

The gullible Ritu is soon weaving the tapestry of a picture perfect life, of a happily ever after with her lover. But there is her hidden past to deal with. What was the truth behind her sordid marriage? And coming to the present, what did she know about Anshuman at all?

Will this new life be the chance Ritu was hoping for? Or is this some deep, dark hell?

Has she fallen from the pan straight into the fire?

Is love blooming or have the sinister thorns torn the petals to shreds?

REVIEW:

*NOTE: We (The Readdicts) received a copy of A Wild Rose from author Uzma Jafri in exchange for an honest review. We thank Uzma for the book! 

When I first saw the cover and read the summary of A Wild Rose, I thought the book would be emotionally beautiful. Ideally, I would have preferred to give myself some time to contemplate over the story before penning down my final thoughts on it. I, however, have no intentions to take this story with me for long. While the ending of A Wild Rose was exactly the kind of ending I devour, the characters, the story and the writing really put me off. 

Ritu, the protagonist in A Wild Rose, has a dark past about her marriage hiding behind her when she starts working nearly two years after tragedy strikes. A news anchor by profession, Ritu is a beautiful woman who still believes her Prince Charming will come riding on a horse and take her to a place full of eternal love. Her most favourite hobby is spending time with her best friend- Facebook. 

I had a lot of problems with Ritu. It's understandable when someone seems silly because of their innocence and naiveté but it's a whole new level of silly when, after having experienced so much of hurt and heartbreak, a person still seems innocent and naive. And that's how Ritu was. 

When she meets Anshuman, a dashing and well mannered colleague of hers, she easily falls in love with him and in her head, he is the one. I did not get how, after having her dreams shattered once, Ritu easily and willingly gave in to her feelings for Anshuman. Even I, as a reader, could make out there was something totally off about him and it was plain sad that Ritu couldn't see it. 

Also, I did not get her obsession with Facebook. I was once as obsessed with Facebook as Ritu, but it was when I was a teenager. 

Although a very beautiful and smart woman, Ritu at times seemed a bit shallow to me and so did Anshuman. He was such an irritating guy who thought the world could dance on his fingers. And surprise surprise, his charm and chivalry or the ladies’ stupidity- depends on how you look at it- made him do just that. 

Another thing I disliked about A Wild Rose was the writing. There was an amalgamation of the past and present tenses. The dialogues seemed like text messages and the text messages popped out of nowhere. The excessive use and repetition of punctuation marks and sentences along with a change of font where it wasn't needed was annoying to read. Ritu’s voice did not seem like a woman’s at all. I mean, honestly, I didn't care the long details about what she ate and wore. 

Keeping everything I disliked aside, author Uzma Jafri has done a good job in capturing the emotions of a woman on her journey to find love and feel secured and cared. A Wild Rose is a good story that has a lot of potential to be a beautifully emotional read but it wasn't up there for me. And the ending was good for me so that's a tiny plus. Also, I quite liked the red rose significance- it was pretty apt. But overall, especially considering the fact that I had high expectations from it, no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to like this book. 

RATING: