The Second Coming: Book Review

A wedding planner who believes in fairytale weddings, Mini yearns for romance in her own marriage. The magic of the initial years has vanished, leaving behind a hunger that she assuages with chocolate. Mini would love to change her situation, but she is over the hill, overweight and under confident. The chances of having a hot affair with a happening man are dim, if not non-existent.
An erstwhile royal scion decides to wed a Bollywood starlet and Mini is sent to Mumbai to plan the celebrations. The manager of the Mumbai office is young Rustom, the answer to Mini’s secret dreams. Goaded by impending menopause, Mini decides it’s now or never. She simply has to take a second stab at romance.
Rustom is a ladies man. He is also married, and a skirt chaser. Mini decides to shape up and get into the kind of skirts Rustom would want to chase.
Working together closely, Rustom and Mini fall into each others’ arms. Meanwhile, her husband gets wind of the affair and tries to reclaim her. Now Mini must choose between heady romance and steady matrimony.
But soon, Mini discovers that her romantic idol has feet of clay. In a dramatic end, the trusty husband stages a timely rescue. And Mini learns that a rock solid husband is worth many a dream lover.

Review:

Plot:

Mini, a woman in her early forties is a wedding planner. She is successful in dreaming and making happen beautiful weddings. Be it in hot air balloons or a Swayamvar, ideas pop in crazy in her creative head. However, she suffers from a monotonous, dull marriage. And therefore she believes that weddings could be sublime and marriage, a mere joke! She believes in fairy-tale romances and when Rustom, the handsome Manager at the Mumbai office enters her life, she pictures him as her Knight in shining armor, ready to sweep her off her feet and take her away to a dreamland. She feels that he shares the same dreams and likes as hers, but in the end she approves of the regularity and ordinariness she shared with her husband Shyam. As her life seems betwixt and between, Rustom turns out as an “imperfect” man unlike the one in her dreams. So, what should she choose? A never failing husband and a solid marriage or a wild fantasy?

A light, breezy read, full of fun and humor right from the beginning- that’s how I can summarize the book. The characters are real. You can find them in the girl next door, your colleague or even in you. Just like any other woman, alarmed at the prospect of menopause as early as in her early forties and a monotonous predictable marriage, Mini decides to have a life that she always dreamt of. For a man who never cared two hoots, she decides to replace him with someone who cared.

I hated her husband Shyam when he addressed her as ‘a bag of cellulite‘. But then, his character is understandable.

While there was scope for a steamy, vulgar romance, the author had impeccably portrayed the lives of Mini, Rustom and Shyam with utmost decency and purity. Real life is like that, don’t you think? Not all Tom, Dick and Harry goes for an extra-marital affair.

Mini believes that chocolate can heal all the brutalities of the world. It made me smile when she thought, ‘It wasn’t sleep that was the balm for hurt minds; it was chocolate!’ And that’s exactly how I would think when I’m sad and hog on a complete bar.

My heart went for Shyam. May be a little more depth in his character?

Yes.

4 on 5 for the impeccable, witty writing! I was grinning sheepishly irrespective of whether I was at work or in cab! 😀

Thanks Shubha Menon for the signed copy! Woot woot!

Thanks TBC for the opportunity. Love Paperbacks! <3

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