Book Review: Just Missed By Himanshu Bhatia

Book Title: Just Missed
Author: Himanshu Bhatia
Format: Paper Back
Total Number of Pages: 232
Language: English
Publisher: PETALS PUBLISHERS
Publishing Date: 1st edition November 2017
ISBN-10: 9385440438
ISBN-13: 978-9385440434

While we try to arrange marriages by matching horoscopes and compatibilities, we forget at times that “marriages are made in heaven”. We all love to say that Bollywood romantic movies are silly, and that they go overboard in their depiction of love, we actually secretly fantasize to be characters in them. Siddharth Gupta (lovingly called Sid) is an ISB alumnus, who is an ambitious perfectionist. He wants to go up the corporate ladder at a faster pace than his age, and is doing pretty well. In his matrimonial search, Sid meets Shreya Malhotra, who herself is an IIM graduate and very career oriented. He finds Shreya the epitome of the “Beauty with Brains” tag and develops a crush on her almost instantly. Shreya and Sid are going steady towards what looks like a ‘soon to be married’ state, but when has life been that simple! On her way to Bangkok for her friend’s bachelorette party, Shreya meets Shivam Malhotra, an IITian, with a living flirting tiger inside him. While Shivam’s cheesy lines ignite hatred in Shreya, it’s only the beginning of a story that doesn’t end in Thailand. “Just Married Missed!” is the journey of a practical arranged crush, chased by crazy filmy love.

Starting from the cover when i first saw the cover of this book, I wondered why the word married has been cut and followed by the word- ‘Missed’ and the blurry touch in the image of the lady to make sense the term “missed” made the cover unique I must say. It certainly made me want to read it as soon as possible. The title can't be more apt than this to plot.

This is the story of love triangle revolves around the main protagonist  Siddharth Gupta (lovingly called Sid), Shreya Malhotra and Shivam Malhotra. Siddharth Gupta an ambitious man who is extremely focused on his goals. Sid was an ISB alumnus. His only ambition is to fulfill his dreams boy since the beginning of his study & career, that landed him today in the position he is in where, other boy of his age can only think of. The reputation he earned through his hard work and precious time, can others only envy of, let alone achieving in his age. Sid’s success was unstoppable and so are his goals, as his current goal is to reach the level of Vice President in his career. Because of love for his work, left him no time to get himself a girlfriend or ‘love’ previously and he didn’t even give it a serious thought, but as then his parents were ready to see him share his life with his life partner and that all started on his 27th birthday so he finally agreed and they started searching an ideal match for their Son through matrimonial site. He came across the profile of Shreya Malhotra (a Punjabi Khatri girl), who is also a very much career focused, IIM graduate, doing exceptionally well in her working life with an envious designation and having a decent well settled family background. Sid had a crush on her instantly after checking out her profile, and with further face to face interactions with Shreya, he started to feel for her beauty and personality. Shreya was started liking her, both their families were being gelled with each other as their “criteria” of marriage complemented each other perfectly and they were looking like a perfect couple made for each other. Families agreed to their marriage and things were going pretty smoothly between both of them, and they were heading towards to take the thing into another level.

Shreya, during her Bangkok trip to attend Anjali’s (one of her bestie friends) bachelorette party she had an unexpected encounter with Shivam Malhotra. Shivam was an IITian, managing his life well according to his destiny (both career & personal level), with a settled career. But in his outer approach, he is a typical guy who flirts with any random girl and tries to woo them through his cheesy lines and PJs and he almost excelled all the levels of flirting (like as a pro). It seems like as if flirting is running in his veins instead of blood. Shivam’s cheesy lines and that kind of approach to Shreya, doing nothing good for him, but only made Shreya hate him more. Things had gone really bad at a time between them that even landed slaps in the face of Shivam by Shreya. But, nothing is predictable, at least not life… and things did not remain the same when Shreya got to know that Shivam was hiding his real self and bearing a deep chord in his past. Shreya initially finds him a flirt but sooner gets attracted towards him.

It's a combination bro sis relationship, or parents children relationship, friendship bond, love knots, every relationship. The writer has narrated the emotions well, at places where it was needed. There’s no over dramatisation, feelings are described where it is necessary. The plot also explores how Indian parents hunt the spouse for their children. Characterization is good as these characters are different from one another and they carry the plot well. I felt immediately connected with them after few chapters. The language is simple and lucid and flows perfectly. The book is nothing less than a Bollywood flick as his debut novel.

Looking forward for next novel.

Recommended to all book lovers.

Overall Rating  4/5 Stars