Stevie‘s review of Unwanted Girl by M.K. Schiller
Contemporary Multicultural Romance published by Lyrical Shine 19 Jan 16
I tend to shy away from romances – as opposed to, say, mysteries – featuring writers as protagonists, especially when the blurb tells us all about the issues they’re having in their personal and/or professional lives, but I’m drawn to inter-racial and multicultural romances, of which far too few appear for review. So, I decided to give this one a go, in spite of the fact that I’m not exactly keen on the whole recovering addict trope either.
Nick, the hero, isn’t just a recovering addict – he’s also suffering from a severe case of writer’s block when it comes to his highly successful series of adventure novels – so his routine consists of a series of regimented behaviours which seem guaranteed to continue his angst, although supposedly designed to keep him from going back to his bad old ways, followed by lots of procrastination over his current work-in-progress. The one highlight of his day is the girl who delivers his evening sandwich. Because, not only is Nick living remarkably well on his royalties for a writer in his late twenties or early thirties, he’s also one of those annoying post-yuppie types who has a fancy kitchen in his apartment but no idea how to cook. He’s got money, he can afford to buy cookery books or go to culinary school, surely.
The delivery girl Nick is fixated on is an overseas student called Shyla, who comes from a remote Indian village, and is reaching the end of her four-year-degree course, apparently untouched by the excesses of university life. When she was introduced, I assumed she was a first-year student, recently arrived in the big city, but apparently not. After months of saying little to each other, Nick and Shyla finally start a conversation, and it turns out that not only has Shyla been wanting to write a book, but it also has some similarities in style, though not theme, to a non-fiction book Nick wrote early in his career under his own name. Nick and Shyla agree to work together on this new project, and suddenly Nick’s block is gone.
When done well, I really like the idea of a story within a story. However, this one didn’t work for me. The chapters from Shyla’s book that are presented to us tell the whole of the story that is supposedly a full-length book, crammed into a small portion of Nick and Shyla’s romance. And that is another big stumbling block. Nick is a controlling, potentially abusive jerk, who learns very little in the course of the story until Shyla’s (not entirely believable, but not completely unexpected either) Big Reveal.
The whole romance, to be honest, made little sense in the context of what we learn of Shyla’s past, and the wrap-up presented me with so many questions as to how it could have been accomplished in terms of getting around legal stumbling blocks that I wish I’d had a paper copy to throw at the wall. The one bright point in all this mess were the characters of Nick’s agent and her wife, who – along with their adopted daughter – were well rid of Nick when he rode off into the sunset with his bride. In fact, they bumped the whole thing up a rating. Not an author I’ll bother reading again.
Grade: D
Summary:
When a man loves a woman
Recovering addict Nick Dorsey finds solace in his regimented life. That is until he meets Shyla Metha. Something about the shy Indian beauty who delivers take-out to his Greenwich Village loft inspires the reclusive writer. And when Shyla reveals her desire to write a book of her own, he agrees to help her. The tale of a young Indian girl growing up against a landscape of brutal choices isn’t Nick’s usual territory, but something about the story, and the beautiful storyteller, draws him in deep.
Shyla is drawn to Nick, but she never imagines falling for him. Like Nick, Shyla hails from a village, too…a rural village in India. They have nothing in common, yet he makes her feel alive for the first time in her life. She is not ready for their journey to end, but the plans she’s made cannot be broken…not even by him. Can they find a way to rewrite the next chapter?
Read an excerpt.
