I think I have had my share of chick-lit reading for this year. I am glad that it ended with, "Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake" by Preeti Shenoy. Preeti Shenoy writes with urgency - almost like she has to catch the next bus and will miss it, but it is that urgency that gives the book its much needed tone and pace.
The plot is about starting again. Nisha’s life is not the perfect life one would want. She is plump (and well there is more than one reference to that in the book), plain-looking and but obviously single. She has had her heart broken once by being in an eight-year old relationship with the suave and charming Samir Sharma and being dumped at the altar. Enters a younger man Akash and the promise to start all over, knowing that it could or could not work out. Chances need to be taken and this time Nisha would have to take them all over again, though being guarded and apprehensive. The question is: Will she or won’t she?
The book has its secondary characters in the form of Nisha’s family, friends and colleagues, dispensing advice and sometimes just being there for her. For me, "Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake" worked Tea for Two Tea for Two and some places it did not. The writing is very well executed. You can imagine the setting and it is more conversational, which worked for me.
What did not work for me was sometimes the entire premise - the end to be fulfilled only by having someone in your life and sadly it is true for the way we live now. The maddening need to find someone and for him or her to stay is the crux of the book, of course besides love, which is at the core.
Having said this, I enjoyed the writing. It isn’t in your face and at the same time it is not very guarded. I like how the concept of a live-in relationship was not made too much about in the book. It may not seem to be such an issue considering the times we live in, but it still is. Over all, I enjoyed the book.
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