Cross Connection by Preety Praveen – Review

Romance has become a regular genre in India and many authors tend to begin their writing journey with the same. However, only a few novels are able to offer entertainment, something beyond to be remembered by the readers and something really meaningful. One such novel that was published in 2019, towards the end, recently attracted my attention and I read it. Cross Connection, written by Preety Praveen, an author and a poet, is about, more or less, a campus love story that goes beyond the campus and also promises a next episode of the same story in the form of a new novel. Though it might sound similar when you hear campus, love story and a couple, the novel is different in nature, tone and content.

Cross Connection, the title, aptly justifies the storyline of the novel. A girl from Punjab and a boy from Kerala, different cultural and social backgrounds, different aims and ambitions and even attitudes, however, the couple comes together (though in weird situations after initial confusions, anger and feuds). This coming together of Simar, the female protagonist and Naveen, the male protagonist, is the meat of the story that one needs to find out… and believe me, the novel gives you every reason to read it. While recapitulating her own story (and her husband’s), the novelist has been very vocal, honest and straightforward about the events, sequence of episodes, and the results. Though a little bit of fictional environment is necessary for any novel to be able to contain the readers, the novel still smells realism in plenty and you will find that.

Preety’s style and the narrative that she has used have been simple, straightforward and a little hurried. She seems to walk the readers through the episodes of her life at the campus as a medical undergraduate quickly. However, after the entry of emotions, the story walks at a normal pace and readers will enjoy it. Though the novel has been written in a third-person narrative, it seems that Simar is narrating the story herself because it is written more from the female protagonist’s perspective.

Cross Connection entertains the readers, no doubt. It does not bring unnecessary sensuality to the fore in order to keep the readers excited and indulged. It is a clean tale of a love story that is born out of emotions and continues to be so. Family, society, her, his, their and our perspectives are involved as the love story furthers towards union and a kind of seriousness is always there amid fun and entertainment. Thus, it can be said that the novel offers something to every kind of reader – women readers will like to know about emotions that overpower when you fall in love, men would like to know how did the man from Kerala, who lost his father at an early age, manage to introduce the love of his life to his mother, youths would like to know the funny episodes on the campus that bring these protagonists together. A packed piece of contemporary fiction!

You can get a copy of Cross Connection from Amazon: click here to buy

Review by Anand for The Book Blog