CHARACTERS: 4.5/5
WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5
CLIMAX: 3/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5
Every time I check out Amazon for the bestsellers list, I almost always find this book.
This book has been on my TBR list for too long now. So, when I found myself looking for a light read, I decided to go for the easier option and downloaded “You are the Best Wife” through my kindle unlimited membership.
“I thought, how can a human being in love surrender himself? I thought I will not surrender. I’ll fight and fight till the end. For myself, my family, her family, for others and, most importantly, for Bhavna.”
As I always do, I read the foreword and the introduction first and realised that the book is based on the true story of the author and his wife. That touched me and also equally intrigued me.
The book tells us the story of Ajay and his wife Bhavna. Ajay sees Bhavna for the first time when he joins his engineering college and it is there that Ajay falls in love with her.
Hailing from the Northern part of India and coming from societies which still consider marriages outside of one’s cast as a big taboo, Bhavna and Ajay feel a lot of difficulties in facing and convincing their parents.
Finally, after a long period of courtship and an equally agonising period of family melodrama, the two get married. They had each other and that is all they wanted from their life.
But their blissful life is shattered when Bhavna falls fatally sick and her death tears the two of them apart (I am not giving any spoilers here, this is mentioned in the blurb and intro of the book as well).
“You are the Best Wife” is written in such a loving and passionate voice that it is really difficult not to fall in love with this story.
By the end, I was so much invested in the story of Bhavna and Ajay that I found myself crying to tears while reading the last few pages.
Their story is such an innocent one with a brutally cruel twist that it is impossible not to feel for the characters.
This, I believe, is the best thing about “You are the Best Wife” – the ability to make the readers feel the same pain which the characters do.
The storyline is quite simple, follows a single plot and focuses on the journey of the two main characters.
The plot is not very innovative but again, this is a true story and not a fictional one to have some decorative subplots and side characters to amuse the readers.
The book is written with the prime motive of keeping Bhavna’s memories alive or to literally immortalise her soul in words.
I like the writing style of the author. It is simple without any fuss or drama.
The narratives are interspersed with some really beautiful quotes from Bhavna which will surely make your heart melt and make you brood over her intellect and wisdom at such a young age.
One such quote is my favourite –
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
It is these bits of wonderful wisdom that make an otherwise ordinary prose quite interesting. The climax, though predictable, is painful and intense.
Needless to state, “You are the Best Wife” is indeed a good one and therefore comes recommended from me. I end this review by rating this book 4 stars.
Final Verdict – Go for this book if you like passionate but not necessarily happy love stories.
Watch the YouTube review below:
