Author – Kainaz Jussawalla
Book- Coffee Days, Champagne Nights and Other Secrets
Previous Works- Debut Novel
Publishers- The Write Place
Number Of Pages– 275
Format- Paperback
Blurb-
A lovely, young woman leading a shocking, dual life.
A poised counsellor who has her own demons to fight.
The wife, the other woman, the shared man, and their entangled lives.
A physically challenged but fiery military officer.
A Catholic nun torn between two truths.
A doctor who would stop at nothing for the child she was desperate to have.
Five middle-aged women hatching their own mischievous plan to restore their place in the sun, literally.
They all have their secrets… so what is yours?
Duality, hypocrisy, deception, passion, love, madness, and scandal, seasoned with a whole lot of drama and masala, Coffee Days, Champagne Nights, and Other Secrets s by Kainaz Jussawalla hasit all.
Review-
Coffee Days, Champagne Nights and Other Secrets by Kainaz Jussawalla is an anthology of 7 short stories, adding a different kind of flavour to the regular reader taste buds, these are stories that are someone’s secrets, mischievous at times and malicious at the rest.
The first story Coffee days, Champagne Nights is about a girl who leads dual lives, a secret that can destroy her being and yet she, the good girl, dares to let herself be consumed by the lust that she has for her secrets. Read about Chandni, the girl who makes every person of the opposite gender go weak on their knees and explore the secrets that gives her a new identity every single time.
The second story, Twisted Souls is the love story of a simple girl next door and how she stole the heart of the Most Eligible Bachelor in town in a high profile party, but then, life is unpredictable and their perfect lives lay in shambles when the psychiatrist is asked to take a tough decision that burdens her with guilt.
The best thing about this story is, it makes you feel the teenage butterflies and as the story progresses you feel the love, the way two people, entirely in love , stay in love the way they fell for each other the first time.
The reader also gets the knowledge of the responsibilities that a doctor is endowed with and how complex it is for a psychiatrist to keep calm when they see people falling in front of them each and everyday. This story was a rather thoughtful one and I am quite glad to have experienced it.
The third story, The Hanged Man is the story of a man who lose the love in his life, the woman whom he called his own had drifted apart and that’s when love creeps into his life, but as an other woman. He finds himself torn between love , duties and the favors of the past that he cannot repay.
The climax of this story hit me like a storm, when the crime occurred, I had a tiny notion of who might the criminal be but as the story unfolds, all the changes of a predictable ending are crushed and then the author hits you the truth and there you stay, numb for a moment,trying to register that it surely was a possibility. Truely a thrilling story.
The fourth story, Seasons In The Sun is the story of an old man who loses the love of his life, his Lily White and somewhere the loss is related to him and he can be held responsible for it. Lying crippled for life, in a hospital bed, with a daughter who doesn’t have an ounce of love for him and the hospital authorities who are tired of his tantrums, Homi The Ripper (as referred to by the staff) find the ray of hope travelling back into his life in a way he hadn’t expected.
Also read- Review Pen: Demons In My Mind by Aashish Gupta.
Seasons In The Sun, provides a true justification to it’s name in the way it makes the reader familiar with change, change that is necessary , change is unwelcomed by many but it does find the way as , change that can be destiny. It tells us that life doesn’t really need to have an end , even if you lose everything you lived for, along your own reliability on yourself.
The fifth story, Sister Act is something that I wasn’t expecting from this book. It’s the story of the perfect girl who found herself inclined towards another religion and was brave enough to follow her heart and be converted,despite the disagreement of her parents. But then, after taking to the cause of the lord, she discovered something about her, something that would question her sanity and purity. She was left with decisions she never knew she had to take and emotions she didn’t know how to feel.
I was both surprised and impressed by this unique addition that Kainaz Jussawalla is to be appreciated for. The story gives us something different after those regular genres that the author had touched in her previous stories. If you think you are free to new ideas, this story would prove it for you.
The sixth story, Papa’s Little Girl , portrays a woman who struggles to be her father’s favorite. Burdened with guilt that the Y chromosome didn’t win her race and that brought a huge disappointment to her idol, her father, Divya sought out a rather unconventional way of providing him with the happiness of having a grandson. Lies, deception, effort and sacrifice, all to be her Papa’s Little Girl.
The story deals with the age old craving for a son and proves how education and women empowerment didn’t take us too far from those days. It also speaks volumes about the desperation of a child to please her parents.
The seventh and the last story, Carpe Diem: Seize The Day ,is what one may call, a chill pill in the hot summer. Five woman, aged from the late thirties to the sixties,and their dosage of happiness served in a commute that they take for work.
A few minutes from their chaotic lives that gives them a reason to smile when the sun rises.
The story was refreshing. The kind that makes you smile in the end and awe the character.
The book is written in a simple yet elegant kind of language. The cover depicts a girl holding her finger to her lips, indicating the secrets that the book beholds.
The blurb is an ideal one, it gives an insight regarding the plot of every story, thus making it easier for a reader to pick it for reading.
Ratings:
Cover- 4 stars
Title- 4 stars
Blurb- 4 stars
Plot- 4 stars
Writing and Presentation- 4 stars
Overall- 4 out of 5 stars
The title of the book, could have used a bit more of creativity, as not all stories are secrets, some are just spontaneous activity of life.
The book is perfect to be an intense and light read. It’s an ideal choice for midnight reading.
Reviewed By- Banaja Prakashini
About the Author- Kainaz Jussawalla flies the high skies as an International Cabin Crew. As a journalist she has written for Savvy, Times of India, Debonair, and Bandra Buzz. A self-confessed contradiction- she engages deeply with spirituality and also enjoys breaking rules!
Do check Kainaz Jussawalla’s Facebook page “Chai with Kai”.
