Review: The Lover in My Dreams by Shivani Singhal

  BOOK SUMMARY:

Naina is a new-age girl with many dreams and a goal in life. But her parents are all set to get her hitched right after her MBA. Naina pines to live and enjoy her life, and has absolutely no faith in her parents’ choice.
On top of everything, Naina’s life becomes a rollercoaster ride when her family priest foretells that Naina will marry her lover from the previous birth; still, the marriage will be an arranged one!
Meanwhile, Raghav – a charming, chivalrous, and almost irresistible guy – enters her life thunderously. And Naina, unwittingly, feels herself drawn to him for reasons she cannot understand.
Naina’s love life takes twists and turns in a way that they put her in a holy mess. And everything seems to be related to the mystery of her past life.
Will Naina be able to find her true love? What mystery does her past life hold? What if she marries the wrong person?

Release date: January 15th 2021

Published by: Srishti Publishers & Distributors

Page numbers: 216

REVIEW: 

With heaps of family drama, glimpses into a fun and happening college life, an arranged marriage, faith in the divine and reincarnation, strong patriarchal grounding, coupled with a love story that focuses on a character not often seen in writing, The Lover in My Dreams would make for a perfect Hindi soap opera. As a book, it isn’t bad at all- it is rather quite entertaining and engrossing for the most part.

This is the story of Naina who is like that one girl in college that we all know who comes with a rule book from home. All her life, she has tried hard to please her family and done what they have said, although the girl is dying to live life on her own terms. Naina is naturally incredible at hiding stuff, and somewhat at being hidden as well. A character that was well done but rarely relatable, Naina did seem immature and way too naive for her own good, at times. Then again, she’s fresh out of college and forced to get married by her family, so it’s understandable.

Having zero experience with boys, she is suddenly getting attention from Raghav, a character who I just couldn’t figure out. She is drawn to Vireen who also gave me negative vibes, but at least their relationship was well explained. While the characters in this story are your desi favourites, I personally never found them interesting. The reincarnation part of it was also a tad unbelievable for me, but the way the author dealt with it in the end was quite nice, honestly.

Overall, this book will really make for a great TV drama, because of how typical yet engrossing it is. Not a bad read at all, some aspects of this could have been better. Author Shivani Singhal has written a complicated story in a simple manner, which is great because that makes it a quick read.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by Srishti Publishers in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.