Love, Loss, Life, Laughter And More

Genre – Short stories , Fiction

Format – Kindle e book only

Price   – Rs 50/-  , Free with Kindle Unlimited

The Author – Ritu Kakar

Ritu Kakar is an avid reader herself and  has earlier authored the paperback “Love Unexpected “ and “One Precious Moment “. This is her latest work of fiction and consists of short stories.

The Book – Love, Loss, Life, Laughter and More

The pictures at the start of each sort story are beautiful. They have a mellow quality to them and leave a lasting impression while setting the tone for the ensuing story. I wish Ritu had made the cover as appealing if not more than the pictures inside.

Coming to the stories ,the title sums it up for you! This book takes us through the myriad emotions that life and living brings.

While “Love me … before you” underlines the importance of self –love.

“One memorable Night” recounts a torrid and pulsating night of passion between two complete strangers, Abir and Rami, who are hopelessly attracted to each other.

But the surprise package in this short story collection was “My beautiful Thief “, it really had an unexpected twist at the end which was quite interesting.

 “Sex in the city” starts on the very bold premise of a wild Bachelorette party starting with a Couple Striptease , but after building a tempo, the author seemed to develop cold feet and ended it in quite an expected manner, on a demure note.

Ritu Kakar in“Blind date”takes us on a  date between a visually challenged young girl and her boss.

“Stolen moments” dwells into an unconventional extra marital relationship.

There is another story here with the title “B.O.B.” that stands for Battery Operated Boyfriend ! I will leave the rest to your imagination!

Out of these ten stories ,I loved the story “Second Chance “ , it is an uplifting story of hope and resurgence and rebuilding life brick by brick by an abused woman.

In the story “Full circle “,  life comes full circle for Rishita when her estranged son comes back to her after years of ignoring her.

Among the ten stories, “Soul mates” was the least engaging story for me because it was quite predictable throughout and ended on the same note, I feel short stories should always have a strong ending so this one was a bit of a letdown as this was the final story of the collection.

Ritu Kakkar has an easy to comprehend and fluid writing style. Her characters are very realistic and relatable. Being a homemaker, wife and mother herself, I imagine she could effectively grasp and express the struggles and identity crises that a woman in the city has to face every day. These stories could be the story of any woman you and I know. There comes a time in every person’s life when one  has to face some really difficult moments ,when one is at a crossroads and has to make the decision about which road to take. Ritu’s stories instill the hope and confidence that there is always light at the end of the tunnel even when the going seems tough !

Final Verdict 

To sum it up for my readers, when you pick this book up, you would seem to peek into the life of the woman next to you and maybe next time when you see a woman, you would definitely be tempted to look beyond the exterior and  wonder what her story is!

This book makes for a feel good read, something that is a little thought provoking, gently prodding you into thinking but not so dark that you are left shaken. I would take the liberty to say in James Bond style it left me” Stirred, not shaken! “.