The Story:
After less than two years of marriage, young Cathy runs away from her abusive husband Mark who is a rich and powerful businessman. She takes refuge in a small and beautiful village, living in a guest house run by Mrs. Grindle. She gets the shock of her life when she runs into Michael at the local grocery shop as he looks like Mark’s twin. Later on, she finds out that Michael couldn’t be more different then Mark in character. And the two men have nothing to do with each other, least of all their surnames. Finding herself attracted to Michael, Cathy slowly works towards wiping out her horrible past. But things suddenly get out of control and her life falls apart yet again. Will she survive the pain this time round?
My Perception:
This is Devika Fernando’s debut novel. Considering that, I must say it’s simple awesome. I loved the village background, the descriptions of the place and the atmosphere.
The characters are very well drawn. While Cathy is petrified of her soon-to-be ex-husband, that does not stop her from creating a niche for herself and getting on with her life.
Mark has been drawn out to be an excellent bad character. Well-etched!
I liked Michael best of all. He’s perfect hero material - a guy who has chosen to give up his rich business life to lead a quiet one in a village amidst nature and preferring a creative life to his prestigious one in the city. This character is superbly developed.
The storyline is beautiful and very well written. The cover is perfectly suited for the book and so is the title. I enjoyed reading this one by Devika Fernando. Looking forward to reading more from the author!
There are a couple of things I would have liked to see in this book though. I have travelled to almost all over the globe through books. There is no name mentioned of the city or village where Cathy is put up, not even a country. She takes a bus to another town with no name. I really missed that. It would have helped better visualise the setting.
When Cathy narrates her life story to Michael, it would have been nice if we could have seen the scenes instead of a list of occurrences. Anyway, this is just my opinion and it does not in any way deter one from the read, which is very good.
Congratulations Devika Fernando, way to go!
Disclaimer: I received this book in the form of PDF from the author in return for my honest review.
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About the author:
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| Devika Fernando |
Almost as soon as Devika Fernando could write, she imagined stories and poems. After finishing her education in Germany and returning to her roots in Sri Lanka, she got a chance to turn her passion into her profession. Having lived in Germany and in Sri Lanka with her husband has made her experience the best (and the worst) of two totally different worlds – something that influences her writing. Her trademark is writing sweet, yet deeply emotional romance stories where the characters actually fall in love instead of merely falling in lust. What she loves most about being an author is the chance to create new worlds and send her protagonists on a journey full of ups and downs that will leave them changed. She draws inspiration from everyone and everything in life. Besides being a romance novel author, she works as a self-employed German web content writer, as a translator, and as a faithful servant to all the cats, dogs, fish and birds in her home. When she’s not writing, she’s reading or thinking about writing.
