My rating
An interesting mix between romance and woman’s fiction, MK Schiller made me travel, hope and swoon for these lovely characters.
When a man loves a woman
Recovering addict Nick Dorsey finds solace in his regimented life. That is until he meets Shyla Metha. Something about the shy Indian beauty who delivers take-out to his Greenwich Village loft inspires the reclusive writer. And when Shyla reveals her desire to write a book of her own, he agrees to help her. The tale of a young Indian girl growing up against a landscape of brutal choices isn’t Nick’s usual territory, but something about the story, and the beautiful storyteller, draws him in deep.
Shyla is drawn to Nick, but she never imagines falling for him. Like Nick, Shyla hails from a village, too…a rural village in India. They have nothing in common, yet he makes her feel alive for the first time in her life. She is not ready for their journey to end, but the plans she’s made cannot be broken…not even by him. Can they find a way to rewrite the next chapter?
Author : MK Schiller
Title : The Unwanted Girl
Series : –
Number of pages : 292 pages
Publisher : Lyrical Shine
Release Date : January 19, 2016
Genre : Contemporary.
I Loved this book. LOVED IT.
First, I picked it up because of the author. MK Schiller is a name I associate to books I adored a couple of years back, “The Other C Word” and The Do-Over. Sexy, funny and entertaining contemporary romance books.
What motivated my choice secondly was the blurb mention of a shy heroine. I don’t know why but something about a shy woman in this particular premise just appealed to me.
The fact that the heroine is Indian coming from a rural part of india and the forecast of a cultural differences between the hero, reformed meth addict and this shy indian girl just confirmed my decision to make of Unwanted Girl my next read.
And I definitely don’t regret my choice.
This book, all of it, was a breath of fresh air. From the premise, to the multi-layered characters, the parallel story ingeniously mixing woman’s fiction with contemporary romance, to the twist at the end… Everything made of Unwanted Girl the perfect read for me.
I’m not sure what to tell you about the story itself. There is a twist in “Unwanted Girl” and although I guessed it myself really early on, I think you’d better try to dive in as blind as you can. The blurb says enough for you to get to your own conclusions regarding that twist anyway. That’s my clue to you. So it’s not really a super secret twist.
The heroine Shyla Metha is a shy, reserved young woman coming from a rural Indian village and attending NYU on a student visa. She took a part time job as delivery girl for an Indian deli and that’s how she meets Nick Dorsey.
She’s the one delivering this mysterious, gorgeous and recluse man his sandwiches, gathering over a year of time enough courage to speak to him.
Nothing big at first, just weather forecast nonsense… Until one day she gets as bold as it gets and invites herself in for dinner.
The whole dance between them at first is endearing. The many differences between the heroine —shy, sweet, introverted, joyful, innocent— and the hero—dark, forward, tortured and unabashed —, was enough to hook me in and make me sit forgetting about any real life responsibilities.
Nick is a successful author currently experiencing a writer’s block and is attracted to Shyla’s personality, she intrigues him.
They connect effortlessly, their shared dinner is soon becoming a routine, making the perfect occasion to discover each other.
Shyla has an idea for a book but she is not a writer, she makes a proposition to Nick to write a book together, she has the story and he has the right words.
And so the author takes us to a parallel story, the story of Asha, a devastating story, a beautiful story, one that almost put Shyla and Nick’s in the background.
I’m not saying more, I hope the blurb will be enough of an incentive for you to read the book, if not, I hope this review helped you. Unwanted Girl was maybe not perfect, but I could tell that the subject addressed in this story meant a lot to the author, and I thought it was an interesting idea to mix both genres this way.
The Nitpicking Part
…or The Importance of a Good Editor. 😉
I deliberately waited the end of my review to address the following, because I love this book and didn’t want to make umbrage to a fabulous story with my nitpicking.
Now, I loved this book and read it in one sitting, but I thought I’d talk about a few minor issues I had while reading. It’s nothing really if editing issues but it was silly enough that it was really anticlimactic to the serious matters discussed within its pages.
At the beginning of the book, when Nick first started writing the story for Shyla, there was a character’s name misplacement that kind of revealed the twist of the story. I contacted the author and she told me it was unintentional, therefore a typo. In all honestly it left me frowning, because, although I had my idea set on the twist already, it just confirmed what it was, and I’m not the kind of reader liking to get spoil even by minor spoilers. So being clued in by mistake by the author itself kind of sucks.
A little later in the book I think I had the loudest guffaw I’ve ever heard in my life.
See, there’s typos and TYPOS. I’m not exempt of them, far from it. But then I’m not a writer, so I’ll even ask you to excuse myself in advance for any typos in this review, or bad grammar.
Anyway, the heroine was in a seduction mode and questioning her newfound rather brash attitude… That’s when this happened :
…He covered her in a thick soft towel, drying her quickly, before placing another around his hips. Shyla felt safe but wonton. Satisfied but not sated. Timid but bold at the same time.
WONTON. Holy ravioli, she felt like a Chinese dumpling?! What does this mean, I wonder?
Oh, maybe the author wanted to say… wAnton? As in lascivious, sexually lawless woman? I like the idea it could be some kind of food analogy I’m not aware of yet, but I really think it would be a long stretch. lol!
I’m really being picky here, but no one wants that kind of disruption in the middle of a good scene, an meaningful scene. It threw me off, honestly, reading that she felt “wonton”. Imagine a lover suddenly farting in bed during intercourse, no one wants that kind of interruption, it kills the mood!
I am a hopeless romantic in a hopelessly pragmatic world. I have a full time life and two busy teenagers, but in the dark of night, I sit by the warm glow of my computer monitor, and attempt to conjure up passionate heartwarming stories with plenty of humor.
I started imagining stories in my head at a very young age. In fact, I got so good at it that friends asked me to create plots featuring them as the heroine and the object of their affection as the hero. We’d spend hours on the phone while I came up with a series of unrealistic, yet tender events, which led to a satisfying conclusion. You’ve heard of fan fiction… this was friend fiction.
Even with that, it took many years to realize I could produce an actual full-length book that readers would enjoy. I try to make my stories humorous, realistic, with flawed but redeeming characters. I hope you enjoy my stories and always find The Happily Ever After in every endeavor.
Great Review! and your blog looks amazing!
Love this review. The premise of Unwanted Girl & your review has it on my TBR list. Also, I completely agree some typos and grammatical errors totally pull me out of the story.
I shouldn’t laugh, because bad editing gives me a headache. BUT, “WONTON. Holy ravioli, she felt like a Chinese dumpling?! What does this mean, I wonder?” LMAO! Great review!!