I had not even heard about Anuj Tiwari till a few weeks ago. When he reached out on twitter, I checked his books on goodreads. I saw that had published two books already and that It’s Not Right…but It’s Okay was this third book. The good reads ratings on all his books ranged between 3 and 4. So when he offered to send me a book for review, I happily accepted.
Plot of It’s Not Right…but It’s Okay
This is the story of a group of youngsters, mostly revolving around the love story of Angira and Ved. This is a true story. The characters meet by chance and you see them become friends, then lovers. There is a lot of focus on exes, previous heartbreak and how that impacts the current relationships.
The goodreads blurb for the book reads like –
Everyone has a past. But what if it becomes daunting baggage and spills over into the future?
A fiercely independent, career-driven girl, Angira, has recently changed her Facebook status to ‘single in Mumbai’. While work has been her only priority, a twist of fate brings Ved—a strikingly handsome footballer, the heart-throb of the college—into her life. He seems genuine and fun-loving, but based on past experiences, Angira knows better than to trust him!
Despite their contrasting personalities, the two develop an unexpected bond—a link for which they are about to risk everything they have.
A riveting tale about incorrigible lovers with a dark past, It’s Not Right but It’s Okay is a true story about finding friendship and love again
It’s Not Right…but It’s Okay – What I Liked
I liked the concept of the book. It’s Not Right…but It’s Okay is the story of a girl who has had her heart broken recently, is surrounded by loving family and caring friends. They do things to cheer her up, to get her out of her shell and help her move on. When she takes those steps, she finds love again.
The initial interaction between Angira and Ved is cute and you see the messages laid out in boxes like they would be on your phone. I quite liked this idea.
It’s Not Right…but It’s Okay reads like a collection of moments from the lives of people. You get to experience the incidents from their eyes, get a glimpse into their thoughts and then move on to another incident.
It’s Not Right…but It’s Okay – What I Disliked
The book is written in present tense. So instead of saying Angira looked at Ved, it reads like Angira looks at Ved. Get the picture? I found in difficult to adapt to this reading style. If you read the goodreads description above, does that not sound intriguing? Well, turned out this is not the most apt description of the book! First up, both the protagonists are in college. Angira is studying fashion designing and Ved, MBA. Angira is certainly not career driven if she reaches late for class and then WhatsApps with a random guy she met by accident during class. So as someone who trusts the blurb, I felt a bit cheated. I would have still read the book if the blurb said fun loving girl looking to follow her dream of fashion designing! And boy is she fun loving! There are so many drinking parties in the book that I was wondering if college kids can really afford it. The language is casual and peppered with slang.
Final Thoughts on It’s Not Right…but It’s Okay
The book is a light read. Definitely not intense and will make a decent companion on a trip or a casual weekend when you have a few hours to fill. I feel it will appeal much more to a younger audience. Twenty somethings would be able to identify with the characters hopes, dreams, fears and language much better than I did. I felt that the moments were done well but the thread that tied the moments together into a story could have been much better.
I was sent the book by the author for review. The views expressed are my own.
Hey Booklover,
I so get your point! While reading connection with the characters is a must, I normally don’t pick such college going scenario books for the reason that they are mostly exaggerated and being a serious reader myself, I just find it hard to connect with that. I totally understand you in the language part.
I normally don’t mention the ‘honestly’ word for the book reviews because it’s given that a book lover would always write the honest review but someone here questiond the ‘paid review’ thing and I find it a bit unsettling, because I did find your review honest and acceptable as a reader. Am glad you shared the honest review here.
Anks,
I don’t normally read reviews. Just because I have trouble figuring out if it was genuine or not.
However, yours seems genuine enough and I appreciate the honesty with which you’ve written in. Wish more people would do that.
I like your concept of touching on all bases with your review, rather than giving it a star based one.
As for the book, don’t think I’ll be picking it up. Not for now, anyway
I see you have done paid review for a book for one recent author (I don’t want to mention name as much be knowing it) We readers expect genuine review from bloggers. I need to tell authors as well as you are being biased
Ankita ‘I am also blogger’
Dear Ankita, I am assuming here that both the comments above are by you. So I would want to respond to both together.
First up, you found the book fab? Great! As an avid reader, I know the joy of discovering a good book. So good for you. I found it an average, okay read. Yes, the concept was good, but I did not connect with the characters or even understand their antics. That is what I am saying in my review. I liked some things, did not like some others. A review is how the reviewer feels about the product, it is the reviewer’s experience. In this case the book is the product so the review is all about what I felt while reading it. I am not a professional critique and certainly cannot comment on the technicalities of it. Am sure the author would have reached out to someone much more qualified for that if he had wanted a professional evaluation. This kind of review is what bloggers do. They experience something and share their experiences. There are plenty of reviews on my blog and each will talk about my own experience. You said the whole review was about the blogger and not the author? Why would I review the ‘author’ per say? He is not the product in question here. I know nothing about him and why would I review the ‘author’?
You said I am bringing out the other side of blogging? Yes, I completely agree with you. I am indeed bringing out the other side of blogging – Professional and Honest to readers. I don’t feel an obligation to sing praises of any product because they were sent to me. I share my honest review and even declare the posts that I am paid for. In this post too, I have clearly written that I was sent the book. I did not ask to be sent it. My only obligation is to my readers – to give them honest and true information and opinions. That my dear, is the other side of blogging.
You mentioned a paid review and I was wondering what you are alluding to. Why weren’t you specific? But I won’t take digs at you and judge you for that. You are free to form your opinions. Doing a paid review is a norm in blogging. Do you know why? Being a blogger yourself, you may be well aware that writing and maintaining a blog is not easy. We bloggers invest our time and money into it so we see nothing wrong in being remunerated for a few posts. What is wrong is the expectation that if you are remunerated then you have to favour the product. I do not buy that philosophy and this review was as genuine as they come. If you did not find it genuine, too bad. I can not please everyone but I can learn to improve for sure. Why don’t you share your own blog link so I can learn how to do better reviews from my Namesake?
I did not appreciate the personal attack included in these comments. As a fellow blogger, you probably know these are the worst kind of feedback. Right? Do you?
I saw reviews of readers on Amazon and Flipkart, and I picked the book. It’s just fab. I am hearing about this a lot. I just want to request not to send books to bloggers who are just showing the other side of blogging. I can sense that in the whole review it was about Blogger not author. LOL
Seems like a casual read….will pick it up if I have not got anything else 😀
Will take a look at this book1