Tamanna – Book Trailer and Review

Tamanna- A True Story of Forbidden Love is a journey through a man’s heart, exploring, as it does, how it is possible to love more than one person at the same time, and how love heeds no reason and no boundaries.

Not a usual love story, this novel brings out the complexities of human behavior and relationships in a very delicate and honest way. It makes one sit up and question all that one has ever known and understood about love, marriage, and fidelity.

~ Blurb from the back of the book

It’s been a couple of weeks since I finished reading this book, and so please excuse this review where I ramble a bit vaguely referring to my hand-written notes taken while reading it.

Tamanna is billed as the true story of the author himself, the names and probably some of the details are changed a little. Arjun is a married man, happy for the most part when he comes across Tamanna at a dinner party. Within minutes, he falls head over heels for her, and the rest of the book deals with how he manages his emotions and feelings for her.

First off, I remember reading this book in one session, so it was definitely engrossing for sure, and fairly well-written because I haven’t made any snarky notes about the writing. So those are the great things about the book.

However, I think there were a couple of reasons why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected to.

1. I found the character development a little stunted. The voices of Arjun’s wife, Sangini and Tamanna – his love both sound identical. At times, I couldn’t make out who Arjun was referring to. I suppose the author has kept things a little vague to avoid hurt feelings (this is a true story), but it’s hard to feel very much for the characters when everyone is sugary sweet, and understanding, and loving.
2. Also, the progress of the love between Arjun and Tamanna is disappointing. Again, this is billed as a true story, so I suppose the author has stuck to the facts from his point of view, but by sticking close to the truth, a little of the entertainment value is lost. Most of the book deals with Arjun’s obsession with Tamanna, and very little of Tamanna or Sangini’s feelings are revealed, which kind of makes the book one-sided.

There were portions of the book that I didn’t like and this is because of my own personal dislike for mawkish sentimentality. I do read romances, and this book is strictly not a romance however I did not care too much for the extended pages where Arjun rambles on the perfections of Tamanna.

So these were things that didn’t gel with me.

However, if I view the book objectively, it’s well-written, sensitive, and engrossing, and though it didn’t quite work for me I know it will work for quite a lot of other people.

Huge thanks to Fingerprint Publishing for sending me a copy of this book for review consideration.