Retrace Love by Malini Amaladoss – Review

It is very important to note that recent trends in Indian English fiction point in two major directions – mythology and romance. Mythology has become a safe playground for quick-earned success for many novelists and newbies are not afraid to try their hands. At the same time, romance has become a very safe route to easy debuts and quickly widening readership. However, do most of the authors succeed? Does the trick always work? I guess no and you can easily find it out when you recall the names of the famous authors… there are very few. Nevertheless, there are many impressive authors who mark their wonderful presence with emphatic and impressive writing – and such authors, very few in numbers, must be pointed out and appreciated. One such author is Malini Amaladoss and her debut romance novel, Retrace Love, is a book that shows signs of promise and longevity rather than quickly visible threads of short-lasting romance with no permanence in the theme. In this article, I will review Retrace Love for the readers of The Book Blog.

In short, Retrace Love is the story of four major characters, ambitious and animated, very much from the real-life with a few exceptions and all impressive. Tina and Meghna, the two friends, find their passionate and true love in Ray and Neil, respectively. It all goes well until Ray and Tina separate over some issues and Neil’s marriage with Meghna fails because of one’s extreme sexual desires and communication gap between the husband and the wife. Life takes quick turns and they all separate from each other to meet in very different circumstances. Most of the story takes place in the memories of Tina and the readers will be taken to places very quickly as the story moves back and forth, here to there and all happens quickly enough to keep the readers thrilled.

Malini Amaladoss, as an author, has kept her language very simple and communicative. She talks to her audience mostly from Tina’s point of view as this is a novel written in the first-person narrative. Tina and Meghna tell their stories to the readers, and Tina enjoys the larger piece of the cake. Readers will like the way characters grow in life, develop in thoughts and mature in an overall perspective. Unlike most of the romantic writings by Indian authors, Malini hasn’t zoomed on the sexual descriptions in that explicit and perverse manner. Her descriptions of sexual encounters between Ray and Tina, Meghna and Neil are sophisticated and well-placed and the readers will rather enjoy it compared to what they do with the details by Chetan Bhagat and Durjoy…

To cut things short and to give you my final verdict about Retrace Love, the debut novel by Malini Amaladoss, I would say it without any hesitation that it would be a great experience for the readers who want to read something different in the romance genre. Malini Amaladoss has walked those extra miles to bring to you a story that offers you love, romance, regret, repentance and also, to an extent, redemption… Malini has created a full circle in her first romance novel and I am sure it will be worth a read… do get a copy and enjoy your time!

Buy the novel from Amazon India – click here

Review by Alka for The Book Blog