The Break-Up Expert-Sonya Singh

Book: The Break-Up Expert
Author: Sonya Singh
Publisher: Simon & Schuster India

Would you consult an expert to plan your break up?

The Break-Up Expert by Sonya Singh is the story of Manny who is a high-flying CEO who runs a company that specializes in other people’s breakups. Happily engaged and often featured in the media she appears to have it all. But when she is photoshopped to look less Asian and her fiancé decries he doesn’t “see race” she decides it’s time to reconnect with her roots. Determining she needs to learn more about her community, she convinces a client to take her to his brother’s big Indian wedding. When they arrive, Manny is instantly thrown into a celebration filled with fashion, food, dancing and family. There she discovers more than she could have ever dreamt of.

The concept of the story is interesting where an expert on breakups decides to discover her Indian roots. The story begins as we are introduced to Manny and her firm Breakup which specializes in writing breakup emails for client so as to have a clean breakup. The story truly begins when she is pestered by Sammy to take up his case for a temporary breakup and in return, he promises her to help her discover her roots by taking him to his brother’s wedding. The story starts off on a good note and we start connecting with Manny and her struggle to find her identity. As the story progresses and we meet the Patel family, the plot starts feeling more like a Bollywood movie complete with song and dance sequences, and family secrets. The overall pace of the story was good, though the middle was a bit slow. The breakup requests that headline each chapter are interesting to read, however apart from a couple of instances, they do not seem to relate to the general plot of the book. The stereotypes that Sonya pushes into the plot, however, do not stand true in most of the cases, such as elephant decorations on tables, all Indian dances being Bhangra etc. The climax is quite filmy and the revelations of the secrets can be guessed in the initial parts of the story.

Coming to the characters, Manny Dogra as a person looking to find her roots is created wonderfully. With a successful career in a niche field and a fiancé she loves, she has what most people dream of, yet she feels a void in her life. I liked the way she is presented and how she finds her roots one step at a time. Sammy’s character as a conventional Indian male who is scared to face the reality of his relationship with his family. Sonya also introduces some interesting characters such as Aliyan and Manisha who add a layer of interesting flavor to this story.

Overall, this is an interesting story that would interest people who love reading or watching romantic stories that are quite filmy. The book scores a 4.13/5 for me.

I was provided a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Get a copy of the book on Amazon or your nearest bookstore.