Book Review: "Let's have coffee" by Parul Mittal
I recently enjoyed reading a book titled "Let's have coffee" by Parul Mittal. This post is a quick review of the book. This is Parul's second book. 5 years ago I had reviewed her first book, Arranged Love.
Let's Have Coffee is written from a perspective of a girl who is wedding planner by profession and is in search a perfect man for herself. She has her sight on a prospect but a series of developments derail the prospects. The plot unfolds with events after event which sometimes brings them closer, sometimes causes a drift.
For a change, the lead character Meha isn't positioned as the most beautiful girl. Feels more realistic with various ups n downs of life. Narrated from a girl's point of view in first person, it offers insights into various aspects that make or break a relationship, many of the times purely due to wrong interpretation of things. I initially thought I might take a week to read this book, but once I started, I finished it in about 2 days, in 2-3 sittings. Once you get yourself into the plot there's no stopping- it effortlessly takes you along. There's no distraction in the form of secondary or parallel plot or some side story.
Besides its pure entertainment value, I would recommend "Let's have coffee" also for a significant amount of general knowledge it offers, w.r.t wedding planning. There have been few movies focused on wedding planners, but though movies give more visual treat while this book gives more inside details.
For example:
1. I had never thought there could be a full fledged proposal planning industry which arranges movie like proposal sequences and charges in crores per proposal (just for proposal arrangements, for the services of the team, doesn't include cost of venue, guest travel, stay etc)
2. Indian Wedding photography & videography market alone (Only shooting, not other expenses) is alone valued at USD 2 Billion per year
3. If you can't find a real boyfriend/girlfriend, there's virtual boyfriend app, which is almost complete with artificial intelligence, its own facebook ID and so on.
Plot takes us from Delhi to Thailand to Maldives, among other places.
Contextual images- Phi Phi island from viewpoint
Several Bollywood songs are referred to at right moment within the plot, like below two videos.
Couldn't find any faults as such in the book or the plot, couple of comments below:
Page 104: Caller tune and ring tones are two different things.
Page 196: Here narration changes to 3rd person. Author has confirmed that this is intentional as Mansi is impersonating Meha
For a change, the lead character Meha isn't positioned as the most beautiful girl. Feels more realistic with various ups n downs of life. Narrated from a girl's point of view in first person, it offers insights into various aspects that make or break a relationship, many of the times purely due to wrong interpretation of things. I initially thought I might take a week to read this book, but once I started, I finished it in about 2 days, in 2-3 sittings. Once you get yourself into the plot there's no stopping- it effortlessly takes you along. There's no distraction in the form of secondary or parallel plot or some side story.
Besides its pure entertainment value, I would recommend "Let's have coffee" also for a significant amount of general knowledge it offers, w.r.t wedding planning. There have been few movies focused on wedding planners, but though movies give more visual treat while this book gives more inside details.
For example:
1. I had never thought there could be a full fledged proposal planning industry which arranges movie like proposal sequences and charges in crores per proposal (just for proposal arrangements, for the services of the team, doesn't include cost of venue, guest travel, stay etc)
2. Indian Wedding photography & videography market alone (Only shooting, not other expenses) is alone valued at USD 2 Billion per year
3. If you can't find a real boyfriend/girlfriend, there's virtual boyfriend app, which is almost complete with artificial intelligence, its own facebook ID and so on.
Plot takes us from Delhi to Thailand to Maldives, among other places.
Several Bollywood songs are referred to at right moment within the plot, like below two videos.
Couldn't find any faults as such in the book or the plot, couple of comments below:
Page 104: Caller tune and ring tones are two different things.
Page 196: Here narration changes to 3rd person. Author has confirmed that this is intentional as Mansi is impersonating Meha
Summary
- Title: Let's have Coffee
- Author: Parul A Mittal
- Publishers: Rupa
- Genre: Romance
- Pages: 230
- MRP: Rs 295 (Rs 222 + 78 shipping on Amazon)
Overall, Let's Have Coffee is a nice book to read. It is entertaining, maintains curiosity and suspension, has lots of information/insights on relationships and wedding planning industry. So there's no reason not to buy this book if you're looking books related to these topics. My best wishes to Parul for the success of her second book. You can order the book through below widget.
Disclaimer: The book was sent to me for review, but the opinions are my own. You may read more book reviews here.
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