Title: The Perfect Groom

Grab a copy here: http://www.indireads.com/books/the-perfect-groom/

Author: Sumeetha Manikandan

Rating: 3/5

Indireads was started with the aim to revolutionizing the popular fiction genre in South Asia. With edgy, contemporary and compelling fiction by new writers and its digital-only publishing model, Indireads is breaking new ground in terms of the reading experience and giving voice to new writing talent.

Very little has gone right in Nithya’s young life. So, when a proposal from a young, handsome NRI comes along, her mother jumps at the opportunity and packs her daughter off to the US with her perfect groom.

Nithya seems to have settled in with Ashok, ostensibly happy, if as yet childless, in her new life. When an old flame comes back into her life, however, the cracks in her perfect marriage begin to show…

I can’t stress it enough but I absolutely love reading the Indireads Novellas. They are so breezy and engaging that with them I never realize how time passes by. The same thing happened with ‘The Perfect Groom’ as well. No surprises there I guess.

But before I begin with my review I must profusely apologize to Indireads for taking so long to put this up. The last two and a half months have been filled with so many health issues that it was impossible to find time for reading. And I really regret that. But there’s a silver lining after all. Against all odds I’ve finally managed to finish this one and I already feel so much better you know.

So back to the book now. As the blurb says this is the story of Nithya who is caught in an unloved marriage. And not only that she is also at the receiving end of outrageously offensive questions about not bearing a child ‘so many’ years after marriage. Her life seems to be a compromise, one that she makes for her mother and sister. But just when she seems to have made peace with this her entire life is changed with the resurgence of her old flame, or acquaintance rather, in her life. What happens to her then is a question the novella answers.

What I liked most about this novella was the subject. You know so many women from India are married off to grooms who are settled in foreign countries. These are all arranged marriages with no time sometimes for the two people involved to get to know each other. At times I feel these alliances are like lucky draws. Parents push you, lovingly most of the times, into these bonds. But you never know how the partner would turn out to be. It all depends on what hand destiny lays out for you. For some reason this charm of a groom settled in America is something that I never understood. Sadly many women suffer as a result of this. There’s of course another aspect to this. Sometimes parents push their grown up children into marriage so relentlessly that it becomes a bane rather than a blessing. Something like this happened to Nithya of our Novella. And then the incessant intrusions into her life by her in-laws on her giving them a grandchild. Aren’t we all very much familiar with this aspect of our society too? So the best thing about ‘The Perfect Groom’ for me was its closeness to reality.

As all other Indireads novellas this one didn’t disappoint me as well. A simple tale told in crisp style by the author. I think that is a good thing to have in a book. Don’t you think so?

So I would definitely recommend this. And if you do pick this up then I would love to hear what you thought of the novella too.