The Justified Sin - Book Review

The Justified Sin

By Harpreet Makkar

Review By Ila Garg

The Justified Sin is a mushy romance novel by the debutant writer Harpreet Makkar is published by Author’s Empire Publishers. Let’s begin with the title and the cover. I liked the title before I actually read the book. It sounded interesting, however, soon after I finished off the book, I realised that the title nowhere links to the plot of the story. The cover is simple, sombre, but nowhere reflects the storyline.

The author, Harpreet Makkar was a Senior Design Engineer in one of the top MNC’s of the country till the moment he decided to quit and devote his time to his family and pursuing his passion of writing. Along with writing, he joined his Dad’s business. The Justified Sin is his literary debut.

The blurb reads as, ‘What do you call it when three beautiful women come in your life, but you are still single? What if they all, at some point, tried to entice you, but you feel like committing suicide because of loneliness? What do you call it when you made no mistake, but still, you feel guilty as sin?

Jay had a common life until Saloni, Prachi and Vineeta came in his life and changed everything.

At times, he avoided the love that knocked at his door, and when he actually needed it, the same love kicked him.

He betrayed… He got betrayed.

He rejected… He got rejected.

From being shot in the back by Prachi's father to getting intimate with Vineeta under the influence of alcohol, his life was as spicy as those masala Bollywood movies!

He was getting used to his life, until one night, he decides to jump off a building and end everything...’

The story revolves around the life of Jay and the three ladies in his life - childhood friend Saloni, his best friend’s girlfriend - Prachi and his doctor - turned - girlfriend Vineeta. While two of them wanted him and he ignored them, the third girl that he wanted, left him astray. It is tough to understand the other gender and establish a bond. You will realize this once again after reading The Justified Sin.

The book is nice and engaging. It is a saga of love and betrayal. The narrative skills of the author are indeed commendable. Despite of a hell lot of grammatical errors, the readers manage to reach the end due to the well written plot. What disappointed me was the fact that I even found few errors in the Author’s Bio: It is written ‘perusing his passion of writing’ however, it should be ‘pursuing his passion of writing’. Perhaps, it can be ignored though.

The 158 page book comprises of 32 chapters. The reason why I loved the book is its plot. The way he juggles between the three girls in search of love, belongingness, is described nicely.

There are some interesting events occurring in the course of the novel too. For instance, the way Saloni dominates him and keeps coming to his home to meet his mother and he goes to meet her mother, the way Prachi and Jay’s relation starts taking shape, and he ends up in bed with Vineeta.

The too many dilemmas of Jay’s life is just one of the reasons you want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens in The Justified Sin. It is not every day that you encounter a guy like Jay who is so confused, doesn’t believe in the concept of love, ignores a beautiful girl like Saloni, has a rich dad who never says no to him, gets shot by Prachi’s dad and survives! It is in that sense a story full of upheavals.

To find out whether Jay chooses to follow his dreams of DCE in spite of the hurdles or resolves to give up and come back for love, comes out as a savior or surrenders to his fate, he gets his love or not, he is able to discover the true love and friendship of Saloni or not, how he reacts to the gunshot by Prachi’s dad, who he ends up with in the end: Saloni, Prachi or Vineeta; you will have to read the novel, The Justified Sin.

Few pointers: The author should have given his script for a proofreading. The language is good, however presentation needs improvement. I can’t imagine a father always agreeing with his son no matter what, this made him look unreal. Also, I felt somewhere Shaurya’s character (Jay’s best friend) could have been given a little more space. I felt some connecting points were also missing in the book. 

Best wishes to the debut author, Harpreet Makkar for writing this one. Awaiting many more such stories in future. Kunal Marathe and Author’s Empire indeed did a nice job with the paper quality and cover quality. The colours of cover are nice, printing is awesome too. Way to go!

Ratings: 3/5