A Cocktail of Love - Book Review

A Cocktail of Love

By Mayank Sharma

Review By Ila Garg

A Cocktail of Love is a crazy romance novel by the debutant writer Mayank Sharma and is published by Good Times Books Pvt. Ltd. Let’s begin with the title and the cover. I liked the title before I actually began reading the book. It sounded interesting and gave a glimpse into the storyline. The cover is simple, sombre, and very attractive. The glass surrounded by girls with the guy in the midst, very eye catching!

The author, Mayank Sharma did his schooling from The Aditya Birla Public School, Madhya Pradesh. After his schooling days, he carried on with graduation in commerce, but soon his desire to redefine ‘Love’ and ‘Life’ weakened his interest in bookish knowledge. A Cocktail of Love is his literary debut.

The blurb reads as, ‘Love... Ever or Never?

It’s a common riddle with every virgin teenage heart. A riddle that becomes a nightmare upon first break-up.

Rajeev, a regular teenager with charming looks, is extremely in love with his school days. His life revolves around his buddies and on-stage activities at school. Life changes when love sneaks in, like a perfect example of love-at-first-sight. After a lot of messed up thoughts he submits his heart to Payal, his junior and a girl of pristine beauty. Love becomes the only reality in his material world, and to survive in this reality, Payal becomes his necessity. But misunderstandings, honed by mistrust, consume his relation. Alcohol, in no time, consumes him.

An emotionally broken Rajeev finds his solace in bottles and babes that happen to cross his way. Bottles to ease the ache, babes to fill the space; he recognises no love, no emotions, no friendship... nothing.

Can a completely shattered guy realise the opportunity when love knocks again? Or will he let it pass like other times?’

The story revolves around the life of Rajeev. I liked the way author has begun with the story. It almost moved liked a Film which pulled my interest and kept me glued. The book is nice and engaging. It is a saga of friendships, love, infatuations, teenage life, broken hearts, alcohol, and what not! The narrative skills of the author are indeed commendable. Despite of a few grammatical errors, the author has managed to write well and keep the flow of the story intact.

However, I found nothing new in the plot. A guy falls in love with a girl; they went out for some time till their destiny separated them. A broken hearted guy goes insanely sad and resorts to drinking. He chooses alcohol as the escape route and meets a lot of babes to fill the emptiness of his heart. Everything fails though and his good luck makes him bump into another girl. And all well that ends well situation is reached. Somehow, in spite of the ‘not so new’ plot, the readers manage to reach the end due to the well written plot.

The 190 page book comprises of 26 chapters and an epilogue. The reason why I loved the book is the writing skills of the author. The too many dilemmas of Rajeev’s life is just one of the reasons you want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens in A Cocktail in Love. To find out whether Rajeev gets Payal or not, what breaks them apart, what makes them come along again, he gets his true love or not, who he ends up with in the end: Payal, or Shreya, or someone else; you will have to read the novel, A Cocktail of Love.

Best wishes to the debut author, Mayank Sharma for wtiting this one. Awaiting many more such stories in future.

Ratings: 3/5