The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev
I first was introduced to the writing of Sonali Dev with her debut, A Bollywood Affair, and was hooked immediately. I adored the characters, loved the romance, and was intrigued by the Indian culture. I was thrilled when I learned of the release of her second story, The Bollywood Bride. I simply adored it, and Sonali Dev has now become an auto-buy author for me. Below I have the link for my review, and then a 3 Q & A with Sonali Dev and the hero and heroine from The Bollywood Bride. Also, Ms Dev has offered a copy of A Bollywood Affair as a prize for this month. Winner will be pulled in November among members of my newsletter as of Oct 31. Go to the newsletter link on the right for further details.
3 Q&A - One question each for Ms Sonali Dev, Ria Parkar and Vikram Jathar.
Ms Dev - A Bollywood Affair was a lighthearted romance, whereas The Bollywood Bride is emotionally intense from cover to cover. Were you expecting this, or as you wrote, did the characters reveal this to you?
The characters did reveal themselves and take my story off in a direction different from the one I'd intended but it wasn't Ria and Vikram from The Bollywood Bride who did it but Mili and Samir from A Bollywood Affair. A Bollywood Affair was a much darker book in my head when I started writing it but Mili and Samir just wouldn't allow it. Ria's past was always what it was and her day to day struggles were always a large part of her. With Ria and Vikram their connection is the constant light in their story and both they and I needed to get past all the darkness to uncover and claim that light and the tone for their story followed their lead.
Ria - You hadn't intended to go into movies, but you did and became a star. Did you have any previous experience in school or community plays?
I'm not exactly what you would call a people's person. For as long as I can remember, meeting anyone new or being the center of attention has felt like my skin tightening around me and squeezing the breath out of me. The fancy word for it is Agoraphobia. Basically I would do everything I could to avoid conversation with anyone outside my family. So, the very idea of ever being in a school play was quite out of the question. When I was offered my first role in a film, I was desperately in need of a way to support myself. So, even though, being in front of the camera was like being stripped naked in public, I had to be grateful for the chance and take it.
Vikram - Your current educational project helps so many kids. Did you have any interest in helping kids when you were younger, by possibly tutoring, or did this just happen quite unexpectedly?
My uncle is a pediatrician and I used to visit his clinic with my cousin Nikhil and we were both so fascinated by the work that I spent all my high school and college summers volunteering at his practice. A pediatrician was all I ever wanted to be growing up. As for the educational project. it actually started because I helped at an orphanage for a few years and tutored the children there and when it came time to leave I couldn't stop teaching them. So I started creating these videos explaining concepts and posting them to youtube. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved the videos and passed them around to friends and their teachers and it kept growing from there. So, yeah unexpected would be a good way to put it.
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I truly enjoy sharing my love of reading. This site was started to allow me to share some of my favorite books. I hope that if you look around and find that you agree with some of my selections (see my reviews), that you will return and hopefully find new authors. I plan on having periodic "Recommended Reads" lists that will include books I recommend, as well as suggestions by visitors to this site. I will also keep you up-to-date on different upcoming events, special offers, etc.
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