A Place Called Home by Preeti Shenoy, published by Harper Collins India, promises a heart-touching story that will tug at the reader’s heartstrings. But…
BOOK DETAILS
TITLE : A Place Called Home
AUTHOR : Preeti Shenoy
PUBLISHING DATE : June 06, 2022
PUBLISHER : HarperCollins India
PAGE LENGTH : 306
GENRE : Contemporary Romance
TRIGGERS : Domestic Abuse, Sexual Assault, Cheating
TROPES : love triangle
SYNOPSIS – A PLACE CALLED HOME
In the windowless, cramped servant’s room at Mrs Shetty’s luxurious house, where her mother is a maid, Alka dreams of an escape. When Mrs Shetty decides to send her to the same school as her daughter, she works hard, moulding herself into a new avatar.
She marries Subbu, a coffee grower with a four hundred acre estate. Between taking care of her heritage home, her two young daughters and her fabulous relationship with her mother-in-law, Alka’s life feels complete.
But when secrets about her past that she has fiercely guarded are exposed, they threaten to destroy her life. To protect all that she has, Alka must fight her demons and travel back to the world she worked so hard to leave behind.
A Place Called Home is a novel about secrets, family, and finding yourself, from bestselling author Preeti Shenoy.
“There are two kinds of secrets. Some we wear like an invisible cloak, which we don when we need to be shielded from the judging eyes of the society, and discard over a few drinks in the company of friends. These are harmless secrets. Others are the ones that weigh you down like a stone. You bury them deep deep within you. You carry them around for so long they become an intrinsic part of you, until you no longer see them as burdens. These kinds of secrets, you wish to take with you to the grave. Or at least you intend to."
PREETI SHENOY (A PLACE CALLED HOME)
MY BOOK REVIEW – ★★
A Place Called Home by Preeti Shenoy promises a heart-touching story that will tug at the reader’s heartstrings. I, having read a few books by the author, was ecstatic to have received a review copy directly from the publisher. However, I was more than ready to fling it out my first story window a mere seventy pages into the book. There are very few things I hate more than a book that is downright boring with less than charming characters.
I am unsure how much I can say about this book without spoiling the plot because, frankly speaking, there isn’t one to begin with. It’s a pretty straightforward plot with a pretentious girl, honestly, not so likable. This is the first book where I had to assign a particular book tab colour to the scenes I hated the most in the book. Yeah, it was that bad.
Despite the lively, poignant, and still, somehow ambiguous plot promised by the book jacket, the reader is in for a tremendous disappointment. Don’t get me wrong; Lively details are my jam. There’s nothing better than knowing an author has thought about her characters and situations and come up with surprising and delightful details that make the whole reading experience fuller. Lively details, you understand – pointless details, on the other hand, are a nightmare to read. A Place Called Home by Preeti Shenoy was overbrimming with such details.
My biggest complaint about this book is the lack of relevance of certain plot aspects. It was as if something had happened, yet it wasn’t adequately addressed. Had it happened once, I’d chalk it up to a fluke, but there were too many instances for me to turn a blind eye. The final dilemma of “what will happen at the end?” was utterly dissatisfactory. Sorry for a potential spoiler here, but when the book took an “It Ends With Us” angle, I knew it was irredeemable.
Long story short, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book. Regardless of how good the other books penned by the author are, this one doesn’t live up to the benchmark set by the other books.
LINKS
Purchase your copy of A Place Called Home
