Outside A Dog

I started and finished Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki last night. I really, really wanted to like this book. I picked it up at the store because the blurb on the back cover sounded intriguing, but the content of the book was not what I expected at all. The story focuses mainly on Shona, the product of a relationship built on lies. Shona’s father was tricked into marrying her mother, and Shona’s mother spends her entire life manipulating people. Shona herself elopes to London with an ‘unsuitable’ boy and starts a life there with her husband, telling little white lies along the way. In the meantime, her father begins working in London and begins to lead a double life, further complicating things with more deception. Things eventually come to a head and all of the worlds collide shortly before a series of ridiculous and unbelievable happy endings.

I think Roopa Farooki certainly has the potential to be a good writer. This novel, though, could have been so much more. The characters lacked any kind of depth, and I found myself wanting to know more about them but being disappointed. The story is sweet but not nearly substantial enough — good for a quick fluffy read, but not much more.