Review- The First Life of Vikram Roy by Laxmi Hariharan

Goodreads Summary:

His family is being held to ransom by a deadly mastermind. 

Vikram never should have left his family, but when Vikram's father bring his half-brother Vishal home, life will never be the same. 

Vikram thinks things will be better now that he's gone. He's met the love of his life, his future looks bright and then everything is shattered. 

Now, his family's life is hanging in the balance, and only Vikram can do what needs to be done to save them. 

From the bestselling dystopian fiction author with over 200 reviews and ratings of her dystopia books across Goodreads, Amazon and other retailers. 

"A killer ending and the pacing of the story and the build-up is really good. I related to Vikram, really liked it." Richard Sheehan, Author and editor 

"I raced through the book... And the killer ending! Oh my God! It left me with a hangover, and makes me want to physically push the author to write the next book in the series faster." Ritesh Kala, Book reviewer & blogger 

If you’re looking for books like Hunger Games, then this dystopia romance, The Ruby Iyer Series is it.

REVIEW:

In the recent past, I have been on a Laxmi Hariharan reading spree. I read The Ruby Iyer Diaries sometime ago, and then I almost read her The Many Lives of Ruby Iyer, UnTamed (a short story that's a part of the Uncommom Bodies anthology) and The First Life of Vikram Roy back to back, which kind of made me get used to the author's beautiful writing style and enchanting story-telling. What I can say without second thought is that The First Life of Vikram Roy is the best I've read by Laxmi so far. 

Just like any reader out there who has read the first book in the Ruby Iyer series, I was super curious about the mysterious and very tantalizing cop, Vikram Roy. He was unlike any Indian cop I've read about before, and that too as hero of the book, he stood out a lot in a very unconventional and alluring way. So naturally, when I got to know about The First Life of Vikram Roy, I was really interested in reading it to get to know Vikram better. My friend Ritesh (you can read his review of the book here) was absolutely right when he said that I will like this book. 

In terms of its execution, The First Life of Vikram Roy is very similar to The Ruby Iyer Diaries, in the sense that we have direct access to the head of Vikram as an innocent, cute and extremely mature child to a sensible, responsible and still mature adult. There's so much in this book that helped me understand Vikram better, as a reader and all of it was absolutely good and sometimes difficult to know. On the surface, it might seem like Vikram's life is easy, but deep down, his life is full of hardships. I mean, he doesn't even get to enjoy his childhood, because he is too busy being the adult that his home needs. I feel for this guy- oh so much! 

Without giving away any spoilers especially when it comes to the story, I will conclude by saying that the reason I find this to be Laxmi's best work is because this book has everything- puberty, teenage drama, romance, mystery, suspense, thrill, emotions, feelings, a killer ending... You name it and the book has it. And that ending! I need to know more, so I'm excited to see what happens next. 

*A copy of The First Life of Vikram Roy by Laxmi Hariharan was provided by Read Out Loud in exchange for an honest review. We thank them for the book. 

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