Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake

Title : Tea for Two and a Piece of Caketea-for-two
Author : Preeti Shenoy
Publisher : Ebury Press
ISBN : 978-81-8400-279-9
Number of Pages : 263
Price [INR] : 125
Genre: Fiction

Having finished reading a book last night (CB’s Revolution 2020), it was time to pick a new book. And I picked “Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake’ from my library cupboard.

Read the prologue while standing near the cupboard and I was glued to this book. The story was so very captivating right from the page 1 that I forgot to have my tea and it just went cold, didn’t play FarmVille and was reading it while I was scanning a document!! Yes, it is that gripping a tale of Nisha, Samir and Akash.

Synopsis : Nisha, a plump, plain looking, 26 year old working woman is over the moon when a sophisticated and charming Samir finds her interesting and takes her out for a date. A fairy-tale romance and a ‘will you marry me?’, later, Nisha has a perfect life which is completed with 2 lovely kids. And 8 years later, the fairy tale comes to a shattering end when her husband ends their marriage over the phone, for that was not his idea of a perfect life. A devastated Nisha, moves out of his home, starts a new life and business with the help of an old colleague Akash. While Akash wants Nisha to be in his life, she is sceptical. Will she be lucky, the second time?

Review : I have read the first 2 books written by Preeti. While “34 Bubblegum and Candies” is a collection of 34 real life common everyday incidents, her second book, “Life is What You Make It” is an inspiring story of a girl suffering from Bi-polar disorder. Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake is Preeti’s third book. It’s a love story which has a ‘different’ twist.

It’s a story of relationships… love, friendship, marriage in contemporary India.

Nisha and Samir’s story… a whirlwind romance and a marriage between 2 people who are so different in personalities but are bound together initially by love and later on as the differences in the basic thought process starts occurring, they separate without actually working on the marriage or the differences, is reflective of our today’s society.

And then the live-in relationship between Nisha and Akash, though is not as common as the separation between couples part but is making its presence in our social structure.

The grit and determination Nisha shows post separation from her husband, to get her life back on track, is a lesson and inspiration for every woman who suffers any setback in life.

The story is so fast paced that it is simply impossible to tear yourself apart from the book and you’d like to finish reading the book at one go.

Came across an error in the book about the birth month of Nisha’s daughter. The personal journal which Nisha maintains shows that her daughter, Tanya is born on August 6th while the latter part of story reads like this… “Tanya’s birthday is coming up in three weeks. Her school is closed for half-yearly December break. Mama, my school is always closed for my birthday.”

In all, Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake is a heart-warming, entertaining and engrossing read.

Rating : 4/5

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