Sumrit Shahi - Just Friends Review

Sumrit Shahi has a way with words. I just wish it were a little less sexual. I actually have a theory on why some Indian authors have a crude way of writing various scenes but it’s big, so I’ll save it for another post. Till then, let’s see what Just Friends is about and how it scores on Unhealthy Obsessions.

Let’s start with the positive points in this book. Sumrit has an amazing imagination and like I said has a way with words. I like his vocabulary too. It’s helped me expand my own vocabulary and that’s saying something. He has captured every aspect of teenage life in Just Friends and I find it very realistic. The way he tells the story of the two protagonists is fantastic. Also, I like the way he weaves the two stories together and makes it one.

However, on the down side, I find this book full of sexual innuendos. I wish he’d written it in a little more decent way but then I guess we wouldn’t have a book since out of the 248 pages, about 200 of them are crap. Sigh! I find it a big turn off when people sell a romance book which is more like porn.

The storyline:

The first story is about how a boy (Aryan) and a girl (Ishita) fall in love and how the boy’s best friend (Boza), who is a girl, falls in love with him. Ishita, after spending a day with Aryan, who, had unintentionally got them suspended form the MUN (Mock UN), decides that she can’t be in love with him because her parents, who were high school sweeties, were divorced and she didn’t want that happening to he. Plus, she lived in Singapore.  

Aryan goes all depressed and detached, ignoring his friends and everyone just so that he could go to Singapore on a student exchange and meet her. In the meantime, Boza and Aryan almost kiss before they have a fight with lots of slapping and this is where Boza calls Aryan names on the lines of branding him as a womanizer. However, Boza still cares for Aryan and helps him out wherever she can but he never reciprocates. He finally manages to go to Singapore but realizes that he doesn’t love Ishita and that he loves Boza. So, even though his dream of going to Singapore had come true, he doesn’t meet Ishita. He just sits there, waiting for the trip to get over so that he can see Boza, who’s admitted in the ICU.

The second story, is about Tanie, Sumer and their respective partners – Rehaan and Liaka. Tanie loves Rehaan with all her might and does everything for him. Sumer’s long distance relationship with Liaka is taking a toll on him. He and Tanie are best friends. Like literally! They didn’t have that instant connection and no one would even expect them to have because the first time they meet, though technically it’s not a meeting, he picks up her up. The second time, he’s listening to loud music and dancing in his boxers when Tanie barges in on him. Embarrassing!

  Anyways, they finally connect, spend all their time together and have fun, talking and laughing about stuff only teenagers can think about. Then comes the fateful day when Sumer finds out that Tanie’s boyfriend is cheating on her. Tanie doesn’t believe him, they fight and a few days later Taine finds out that Sumer was right. She goes to him sobbing and he consoles her. They kiss and Tanie, who still hasn’t gotten over Rehaan, runs away.

How are these two stories connected?

The two stories are connected by the MUN, A book and a delayed flight. Tanie and Aryan meet at the airport in Singapore, where Aryan had come for the student exchange and Tanie for the MUN. They share their stories and it is then that Tanie realizes that she likes Sumer.

All in all I think the book could be made a little less fancy, or rather the words can be made a little less fancy. It becomes painful when you have to try and guess the meaning of the words. If Sumrit (the author) would refine his writing and make it more meaningful than just sexual innuendos, he can go to a bigger publisher like Penguin, Harper Collins etc.

All in all I would rate this book

♥♥1/2 / ♥♥♥♥

Cheers!
Serena

Disclaimer: All views in this post are based on my personal views. No offense was meant to anyone.