Book Review: It's Got To Be Love... by Prashant Kaul

This book is in-escape-able!

Amazon  | Notion Press

The Blurb:

Meet Dev Sharma, a young student, who has a unique ability – he has nightmares that unfortunately come true.
It’s Got to Be Love weaves around Dev and his friend Vikram. Dev is initially smitten with Carol, a college girl, but due to various reasons, they part ways. He meets Vaani through Facebook and a steady friendship develops between them, which soon blossoms into love. However, Vaani turns down Dev, for reasons known only to her.
Will Dev win back his love?
Will Carol come into his life again?
Join Dev on his emotional roller-coaster ride in Chandigarh, Delhi and Mumbai.

Excerpt:

It was almost 1:00 a.m. so Vikram and I said goodnight to each other and went to sleep. I was alone in a dark tunnel and was struggling to find away out of the darkness, when I suddenly saw Vaani, holding a candle in her hand. I shouted out to her, “Vaani, I’m here! Can you see me?” But she did not hear my voice and kept standing at a distance. After a few minutes, she started walking away
from me. I saw that she had tears in her eyes and she was looking ill. I called her again and again, but soon she was out of sight and now I was completely alone in the dark tunnel. A little later, I heard her crying and saying “forgive me!” I woke up frightened and even though I realized that it was just a dream, I was scared out of my mind. I looked at the clock and it was only 4:00 a.m., but no matter how hard I tried, I could not go back to sleep. (Page 125-126)

About The Author:

Prashant Kaul is a vivid thinker and dreamer. He started writing four years ago, and this is his first novel. His love for cinema inspired him to write this beautiful love story. He loves to blog and has written several short stories too. He works for an NBFC in Chandigarh. Besides writing, he loves to read books and watch movies.

The Review:                                                        

''I've always believed that dreams were both the love letters and the hate mail of the subconscious.''

-Pat Conroy

Dreams are both beautiful and scary. They are a mix of illusion and reality in connection to our subconscious mind. It paves us in a situation where we have no control over people or anything around, leaves us with a feeling of being powerless. I see dream almost every night in it having people I know, and a few strangers too. I see, pious things such as temple and river whereas there are nightmare that haunts me; the entire vicinity is covered in darkness and am all alone, listening to weird sounds coming from a distance. It's fascinating to know that there is some connection between the dreams we see and the reality. We often forget and ignore them remarking as 'just a dream', but what if those dreams have a tendency of coming true and impacting your life and people in it?

The Reviewer's Heart…

'It's Got To Be Love' by Prashant Kaul is a mesmerizing tale of love and friendship. Dev Sharma, the protagonist of the story, hails from Chandigarh goes through a dynamic personality transformation, from being physically lean, aloof among the crowd, under-confident about his abilities to being a martial-arts practitioner, fitness freak, attractive, confident and a better performer in academics. Being single child, he is an apple of his parents' eyes. Though Dev is an introvert by nature but as he shapes his personality later, it breaks his self made cocoon and thus, he becomes quite popular after winning the silver medal in martial arts for his college. Dev falls in love at first sight with his junior named Carol. She has a magnetic aura around her that makes it irresistible to pass by without noticing her sharp features and perfect body shape. Dev is head over heels in love with Carol but the frequency from both the ends fails to match thus, leaving Dev a little upset and worried. Carol's closeness with her friend Vaibhav dishearten Dev and later leads to so much confusion and doubts that it ends up breaking the relationship cord between Dev and Carol.

The breakup takes a toll on Dev's health but very soon he realizes how grateful he is to have friends like Vikram, Vaani and Amrish who clutches to him no matter what, his parents who keeps Dev's wishes before anything else and of course his source of joy; his pet dog (Buddy) who loves him unconditionally. Healing after the breakup was only possible due to constant emotional support from Vaani Sharma whom Dev had befriended on Facebook. Vaani Sharma from Delhi is charming by her looks, a very patient listener and genuine at heart. While things were falling apart between Carol and Dev, Vaani made her place to Dev's heart naturally by showing understanding, cheering him up and holding him through his thick and thin days. It was when Dev came Delhi to write his MBA entrance in Zenith University he met Vaani in person for the first time. Slowly their sweet friendship turned into a true love with Carol fading away from Dev's life, heart, but wait! no from his dreams. Vikram, to be with Dev and his first love, Radha decides to study in Delhi too. While everything looks perfect in their lives, something goes wrong and suddenly Vaani disappear leaving a message for Dev not to contact ever. What could have gone wrong between them? Will Vaani ever come back? Will Dev try and find her? Why does Carol still comes in Dev's dreams? Would Dev be able to find out a way to solve the mystery with cues in his dreams?

In order to unleash the curtains, you need to read this book and I am sure you won't regret reading it. I would like to appreciate the author for his excellent efforts in maintaining the essence of the story till the last page of the book.

  

What I liked?

The setting of the story is so realistic that the reader gets empathetic towards the Protagonist. The flow of the story is intrigued enough which persuades the reader to vividly imagine the story line. All the characters in the story are well-developed and sounds way too genuine. I admire all the characters in the story because they all have been very well-woven and each having their own  importance in bringing out this amazing story. The language used is simple yet sophisticated which accounts to one of the aspects of a worthy novel. Plus, kudos to the author for bringing out through detail of each city- Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai. Although many incidents were predictable but the author managed quite decently to keep me hooked till the end by putting a little drama and action in the right places.

What I disliked?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. However, I felt, a few repetitive parts could have been avoided.

Why should one read this book?

For all those who are looking for a light read yet unfolding a series of surprising events 'It's Got To Be Love' would be a good pick for you.

Rating:  

Blurb: 3/5

Description: 3/5

Writing Style: 3.5/5

Editing: 4/5

Excerpt: 3.5/5

Book Cover: 3.5/5

Overall Rating: 3.5 /5

Book Details:

Title: It's Got To Be Love

Author: Prashant Kaul

Genre: Romance

Type: Paperback

Publisher: Notion Press

Language: English

Pages:280

Year of Publication: 2017

Price: 250 INR

Buy Paperback: Amazon and Notion Press

Stars… To this tale, carrying out a beautiful essence of love and friendship, I give a 3.5 star rating. Recommended to all

This book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. I am glad to read and review it. The opinions expressed in the review are my own, and remain unbiased and uninfluenced. I have given a 3.5 star rating on Goodreads and Amazon as I felt nothing less than that would be fair.