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It's Your Move, Wordfreak! (2012)

by Falguni Kothari(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Rupa Publications

review 1: For the first time, I am saying “Buy this book”. I looked and unfortunately, it is difficult to locate. Next I want to say to Falguni Kothari, “Please write more!” I have not been so riveted to a book for such a long time. I took it with me everywhere I went.“It’s Your Move, WorkFreak!” by Falguri Kothari, pulled me in at first because I love Scrabble. I haven’t played for years with any one for lack of a player. The first part of this book is a delightful back and forth chitchat between Alisha Menon, aka Word Diva and Anyan Rajaram Chawla, aka Wordfreak. They met through on-line Scrabble. It was fun being led through their moves and reading their playful banter. This is not slow; instead it is explosively funny through the character’s own wit and old ... moreIndian sayings. After five months of playing Scrabble on-line they decide to take the scary but exciting step into expanding their relationship.The second part after they met is turbulent and very emotional. Since they are off line and in person, we start to see more developed characters, and we start to hear, see and smell Mumbai. Friends and relatives of the two flow into this story and are very important in the uncovering of the many secrets. Alisha has an agenda of trying to please her parents by pretending to be the obedient daughter and marrying who they select. However she is hiding another life from them, one that she is not so proud of.Anyan has a mysterious past that he refuses to talk to anyone about. He won’t discuss it with his father or Alisha. He has buried his thoughts and feelings about the past for most of his life.If you love Scrabble, if you are interested in Indian culture, if you want to read a page turner that rips through your hands, read this book.I received this book as a win from GoodReads and that in no way influenced my review.
review 2: I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.I loved the premise of this book (& the darling cover), but unfortunately, it fell far short of what I expected.My first disappointment stems from the book's description. I feel mislead, I expected more of the actual courtship between Alisha & Aryan. But the book starts with their blind date. I felt left in the dark about how they met, only being told throughout the novel now & then that their chats were flirty, risque, or witty.I never felt any real attachment to the characters. Aryan is alright. I was a fan of Alisha's... Until Mr. Kumar showed up. Then, the "strong" girl tried to talk rationally to an abuser, allowing herself to get pommeled "in the name of justice." Aryan shows up the next night, sees her lying broken, & instead of feeling empathy or sympathy or hell, sadness. He gets enraged with her not letting him know- to the point that he hurts her in his "point making." She screams at him to get out & her mom comes in calmly, saying that she heard the conversation. Yet, she says to stay with him.... After he has blown up & pinned her injured daughter down in fury. After this point, I honestly stopped caring.I found Alisha to be weak, Aryan to be insufferable, & his "bombshell" explanation for his brooding was anti-climatic. It didn't play out like I thought it would, & I don't mean that in a good way. I would have been done with Aryan a long time ago. It's odd- I'm a child of divorce & the daughter of a stroke survivor, but still, I wasn't emotionally invested in this plot.The end, when I finally reached it, seemed rushed. Admittedly, the epilogue did make up for it a bit.A non-plot related thing that bugged me was that non-English words were italicized but not explained. Obviously, I figured out a brief definition based on context clues, but a thorough one would have been nice. This book would have benefited from a glossary or footnotes.I wish I liked this book. Truly, I do. I wanted to love it. I'd think about reading the sequel, but only if I won a copy. less

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