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The Dowry Bride

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By: Shobhan Bantwal

(26 customer reviews)

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EDITORIAL REVIEW

One sultry night, a young bride overhears an extraordinary conversation. The voices speak of a plot to murder a wife who has failed to produce a child and whose family has failed to produce the promised dowry...

Megha is sick with horror when she realizes she is the intended victim. Her husband--the very man who tied the sacred necklace of marriage around her neck--and his mother are plotting to kill her! In the moment of panic, she runs for her life. Frantically racing through Palgaum's deserted streets, her way lit only by the lights strung up for the Diwali festival, her single goal is to escape death by fire. But fleeing from her would-be killers seems impossible--unless she can find someone to help her...

To approach her best friend would bring scandal to an innocent woman's doorstep, and turning to her own strict, conservative family is out of the question. Instead, with nothing but the sari she wears and a memory of kindness, Megha finds her way to Kiran, the one man who has shown her friendship and respect. Hiding her in his apartment, Kiran becomes her protector. But the forbidden attraction that grows between them can only bring more danger...

Caught between tradition and the truths buried in her heart, a dowry bride will discover the real cost of the only things worth having in life...

"Packed with detail...splendidly depicts passion, brutality, and cultures in conflict." --Dorothy Garlock

PRODUCT DETAILS

Publisher: Kensington
Pub. Date: 1st September 2007
Catalog: Book
Media: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 320
Ean: 9780758220318
Isbn: 0758220316

ABOUT THIS BOOK

USER REVIEWS

A dime-store smut novel with a twist - one would expect to find this in a grocery store along with the latest Nora Roberts.
~ Written on Feb 4, 2010. out of users found this review helpful.

I enjoyed the first half of The Dowry Bride, mainly because of the plot line. I haven't really read books that take place in India, so it was a change of scenery for me, with a little bit of shock factor to make it interesting, what with the bride's husband and mother-in-law out to kill her. It provided Jerry Springer-esque entertainment for me, and I mean that as a compliment. It is for this reason alone I wish I could give it 2.5 stars.

In the second half of the book, however, the excitement of the plot line appeared to have committed suicide and the author overcompensated for that absence with romance. The characters started to seem generic, particularly the main character's love interest, Kiran. If I had wanted to read a romance novel, I could have gone down to the grocery store. The ending kind of killed the potential rating of 3 stars for me as well: it was just as generic as the rest of the second half.

Fascinating Concept, Weak Execution
~ Written on Jan 5, 2010. out of users found this review helpful.

I had high expectations for this story because of the contemporary topic, but the writing style got in the way and disappointed me. There is too much introspection (by both the hero and the heroine) written in that self-questioning style that comes across as something you'd find in a teenager's diary. What struck me as infuriatingly odd was that every time I came upon a situation I thought a little unbelievable, the character would go into introspection mode and ask herself or himself the same question I had been asking myself, and then proceed to rationalize the situation. It came across as if during edits, the author found a plot hole and then proceeded to plug it with introspection, often including flashbacks that weren't relevant to the main story. There was also a lot of telling, not showing, e.g., statements made about the goodness of the hero and heroine while not really showing them being good or making wise decisions. I think I finished reading this just to see how the loose ends would be tied up. I have other books by this author on my list to read, but now I'm not so sure I want to slog through similar writing.

Could have been so much better
~ Written on Nov 6, 2009. out of users found this review helpful.

in the hands of a skilled writer. The dialog and narration was so amateurish I kept wondering if the writer was a teenager or if maybe the story had been poorly translated.

I counted the words "...and yet..." at least 5 times in the first chapter alone.

Very disappointed because I think the subject matter is important, and a better equipped writer could have made this an important book.

books for biased readers
~ Written on Aug 16, 2009. out of users found this review helpful.

There is a bunch of books out there to just besmirch and denigrate Indian culture and people. Writers write anything what the reader wants to hear. Readers who give positive feed back never talk about the book, the writing /the prose nor the narrative style. It is very clear that there is a biased, culture war going on. The same reader wants to perceive one culture negatively and another (their own ethnic group/culture) in a positive way. Absolute shams!!

Good topic, Bad Aproach
~ Written on Apr 10, 2009. 3 out of 4 users found this review helpful.

Because I am writing a thesis on the progress of Indian women, it took me a while to find a novel, which was based solely on the dowry Bride Issue. And I was relieved to find it in Shoban Bantwal's Dowry Bride. But, YES, there are going to be a lot of BUTS because Bantwal uses prejudice and makes the villain, i.e., the mother-in-law, a bad product of violent rape from an untouchable? This was a disappointed to me and the ending was too quick, and really was a diane steel novel rather than a substantial novel like Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair. There are many reasons behind why a man's family is cruel to the bride, but casteism seemed like an easy and definitely a bad approach to justify the mother-in-law's cruel nature. Although I do not believe in casteism and do not belong to the untouchable caste, but give them a break. Was not B.R. Ambedkar an untouchable? A serious disappointment. Also, the actual scene where the heroine's life is threatened is barely mentioned, the rest is a romantic and odd story of a romance between the husband's cousin and the heroine!

The Dowry Bride

EDITORIAL REVIEW

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ABOUT THIS BOOK

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