A Price to Love-Smita Das Jain

Book: A Price to Love
Author: Smita Das Jain
Publisher: Readomania

How difficult is balancing work and personal life?

A Price to Love by Smita Das Jain explores the story of Sonia who is an ambitious woman working in the country’s most prominent media company. Sameep, her husband, has loved her ever since their IIM-Ahmedabad days. Her direct report, Mehul, idolizes her, and her boss, Rishabh, acknowledges her intellectual prowess. But Sonia’s past interferes with the present, making her life—and the lives of those around her— lack balance. Time flies fast but leaves shadows behind. A Price to Love is a contemporary tale showcasing the struggles of making a thriving personal life and a successful career tango in the highly competitive corporate arena… especially if you are a woman.

With competition and ambitions touching the sky, the debate about work life balance has become louder. Couple that with demanding relationships and the trials of living in a megapolis, you have a veritable recipe for discontent. Smita takes up this setup and crafts an interesting story that explores the impact of our decisions on the life that we make for ourselves. The plot moves between the past and the present and it is a wonderful way of giving insight into the mind of Sonia and the way her relationships developed across the years. I loved how Sonia is the driving force throughout the story and keeps the plot in action. The plot twist is hinted at multiple points in the story and its revelation towards the end is something that makes the story worthwhile, and specially the way Smita uses it to show that all of us have priorities, but it is worthwhile to sometimes take a step back and look at the big picture. The overall storytelling is gripping and keeps you turning the pages as you are intrigued to find out what happens next in this story where relationships break the societal obligations and tread into a grey area, and the author’s treatment of this is interesting, non-judgmental, and presents it from multiple points of view. The climax is crafted in detail and I liked the way it is presented. The story leaves a subtle afternote, making you take a fresh look at your own life and the priorities you have set for yourself.

The book relies on the ability of the characters to draw the reader in, and I liked the way the book opens. The way we meet Sonia sets the tone of her character quite nicely. Each one of us has either gone through that moment atleast once, or know someone who has seen this happen. As a reader, you are not quite sure about your feelings towards Sonia until the very last page, and you oscillate between anger, pity and awe with the events as they occur. Sameep as a character is not explored much, but as a person on the receiving end of Sonia’s behavior, you start empathizing with him but there is a certain amount of respect that you develop for him looking at the things he puts up with. As for Mehul and Rishabh, I liked the way their characters are used to supplement Sonia’s character.

Overall, I loved the relatability that the story exudes and would definitely recommend if you like reading stories that explore relationships, specially in a contemporary setting. The book scores a 4.56/5 for me.

I was provided an Advanced Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Get a copy of the book on Kindle or Paperback from Amazon India.