“A Price to Love” by Smita Das Jain is a contemporary romance story that is centered around a couple Sonia Ajmera and her husband Sameep Agarwal who live in the Delhi NCR region. Sonia is a well-educated, ambitious woman who is highly respected by her peers and superiors but as the story unfolds we are introduced to her struggles and insecurities. Despite having a loving partner and a successful career, she feels something amiss in her life and finds it challenging to strike a balance between her professional and personal life. This story addresses themes such as love, career, relationships, infidelity, and mental health issues.
Why is Sonia unhappy despite marrying the man she loved? Why is she drowning herself in her work? What are her insecurities? Will she stray too far? What will happen to her failing marriage? These are the questions that pop up in the reader’s mind as the story progresses.
Sonia has a past that keeps haunting her. Her loving husband is not happy about her demanding career choices and she seems to be losing her interest in married life gradually. Her desire for external validation, adulation from unexpected avenues, and encounters with colleagues introduce the reader to her hidden grey shades.
Despite being the main protagonist, we as readers may also tend to dislike the protagonist for the choices she makes and all the lies she tells herself and the others. Why is she not emotionally available for her husband? Is she flawed or is there a reason why she behaves in a certain way? How will the story end? Read the book to find out.
The narration is smooth and crisp, and the vocabulary is aptly chosen. The switch across various timelines and the interspersed diary entries made the reading experience interesting. All the characters in the story are highly relatable because of the several shades they exhibit. And the story is sure to make one traverse through a variety of emotions.
Overall, I can say that it’s an unputdownable novel that one wouldn’t want to miss reading.
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