The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal

The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal

Kensington Publishing/Books

Published in 2007

ISBN 0758220316

343 Pages

PLACES TO BUY FROM:

Amazon (Paperback)
Barnes & Noble (Paperback)

CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Review/Rating:

5 out of 5



After Megha, a 21-year-old Indian woman, is stuck in an arranged marriage to a "momma's boy" for a year, she overhears her husband and his mother talk about murdering her. With no choice left but to run away from their evil plans, she goes to Kiran, her cousin-in-law, for help and protection. However, when their relationship grows into something more that friendship, what will happen? Will their feelings bring forth their doom?

For this being her first novel, Shobhan Bantwal writes in detail about some things that happen in India for arrange marriages, customs, and inputs the language spoken in India to show the culture of India. I've never read a book about arrange marriages and customs of India, and I found it very interesting to learn about some of things that I've never knew about the country. :)

For the first part of the book, it was kind of boring and you're wondering why she put that first, which becomes redundant since she mentions it later on in detail about what happened. Other than that, the book is pretty interesting and not that boring, though, it is kind of slow paced with a lot of description in between.

It was going so slow paced that half of time I was wondering when Megha and Kiran were going to do something smutty and gushy, but around page 200 they finally start getting more gushy than smutty. Most books I know would have gone for smutty and explain in detail about sexual scenes, but The Dowry Bride puts in detail about the romantic part of it like a little touches of hair and snuggling into your lover afterwards. It was a nice change from the smuttier books that I've read. I went, "Awwww," so many times when she put in detail about the romantic parts of being in love --- walking under the moonlight, talking by river at sunset, etc etc. So those of you expecting more smut than romance, you will be disappointed, though, the romantic parts are nice. ;)

Throughout the book there are a lot of climaxes, suspenseful areas, and a lot of character building, so you won't be that bored --- you'll be so into the book that you'll forget what time it is. In about 10 hours, I was already on page 270. :) I haven't finished it yet, but I'll write what I think about the ending when I finish reading it. Then ending is kind of okay --- the relationship part for Megha and Kiran kind of leaves you wondering if they really do get married or not, though, the point of this book, I think, is to show women's independence and how women, like men, can grow whenever something terrible happens and still lead a successful life. It is a good book to encourage women to take a stand in things they know isn't right for them or others, but as far as romance goes, it isn't. :(

Other Reviews/Author Site:

Shobhan Bantwal
Goodreads: The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal
Library Thing: The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal
My Book Place: The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal
My Dent in the Intertubes: My Brief Review: The Dowry Bride by Shobhan Bantwal