Book Review: When the Wildflowers Bloom by Rupa Bhullar

Book: When the Wildflowers Bloom

Author: Rupa Bhullar

Publisher: Rupa Publications

Genre: Inspirational/Drama

Pages: 240

Price: ₹ 248 (on Amazon)

'Cheers, to lost love, new choices and unknown possibilities.'

This quotation (From the book) is the gist of this story. 

The story opens with a conflict: a very unpleasant, shocking situation Tara, the protagonist of this story has to face. A public humiliation from her husband. It makes you feel sad and angry; it intrigues you: what next?

Next, you see Tara traveling to Amritsar, in search of solace. 

It's difficult for her, as Tara is the mother of two lovely kids, but finally, she decides to take control of her life into her own hands. 

This story is about Tara's journey of self discovery, to find her own worth.

The author has a good command of English language. It's neat, beautiful at certain places, and it creates lovely imagery. This book is a beautiful reflection of Punjab and Punjabi culture. The descriptions seem very authentic.

There are some lovely, insightful quotes.

'For love, I guess, is neither a conviction nor an assurance. It is an unquestionable knowledge. No one needs to tell you they love you. You just know it --- their love is experienced within you.'

However, there are certain things that didn't work for me. 

First of all, the dialogues: there are too many dialogues. People say too many things. Everything the characters feel has been expressed through dialogues, even the greetings and the replies to the greetings. Plus the dialogues are long, sometimes 3-4 paragraph long and heavy, without any kind of break/interruption.

This approach of dialogue delivery made the dialogues very unrealistic. We don't really talk that way. 

Now, I love good conversations, for they make the read engaging and the characters more interesting, but here the conversations are mundane. Sadly, they didn't engage me. 

Frequent usage of Hindi and Punjabi:

I'm not a fan of too much usage of Hindi/regional language in English novels. A few words/sentences here and there are fine but in this book, the author has used it too frequently (sentences like, 'Jug-jug jiyo', Janamdin mubarak ho') so frequently that the book contains a 6-page glossary.

I liked the ending. It's well written and pleasant. The book cover is so captivating, and the title so beautiful. My main reasons to pick this book, to be honest. 

I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.