Book Review: Heart of Bullets by Nikhil Kushwaha

Heart of Bullets

Author: Nikhil Kushwaha
Publisher: Petals Publishers
Rating: 3/5

Summary
Life is a cake walk for many but for some, it is not feasible to opt for a line of least resistance. The ones who fight at the border saving their countrymen, spend a life full of uncertainty. Their family life is limited to few days. And the majority of their precious time is spent with their counterparts, who are more like brothers. ‘Heart of bullets’ is a remarkable feat that portrays the emotional turmoil faced by the soldiers when odds are not in their favour. But the story does not end there. When love gets involved, it makes a botch of the life. Isn’t it? On one hand, we have Arpan, the protagonist and an army officer, who thinks straight and has a soft corner for Shradha, on the other hand, we have Sam, who is Arpan’s childhood friend cum enemy. He, too, is an army officer. But the tables are turned when we find that Arpan and Sam love the same girl. Sam gets the girl but Arpan’s jealousy takes better of him. How will they both end up? Will Sam and Arpan ever be able to reconcile with each other?

Read on to know more.

My opinion
“The best kind of friendships are the fierce friendships where you aggressively believe in each other, defend each other and think that the other deserves the world.” ‘Heart of bullets’ is a poignant yet fanciful story that revolves around two friends and their love interest. The plot is a potboiler with all the necessary elements of humour, suspense, spice, romance and patriotism. It is more like a rolling Bollywood movie than a book.

The cover of the book is not catchy. It could have been made better. The blurb misleads a bit. The utter disappointment was the central theme of the story, which was actually love. The reader might assume this one to be a patriotic read but it is not. Yet again, I have come across a mushy love tale with flavours of sacrifice, jealousy and instances from Indian Army. The title of the book is again not apt. It confuses the readers. The quality of print, the font-style and size, the organization and the layout of the book is nice.

Coming to the technicalities of English Language, this book again dissatisfies when editing and proofreading are taken into consideration. Amidst lots of grammatical errors, mistakes in tenses, spelling errors and wrong formation of sentences, the poetic rhythms and quotations stand out. They are deep and offer food for thought. The narration (in the first person) is fabulous. The author has successfully projected the characters live. But for the ones, who like to read books instead of watching movies, this book can be a turn off because it seems more like an amalgamation of Bollywood movies like Border, LOC, etc.

Another important point is the lack of emphasis on the expected theme and inclusion of long monologues and descriptions that break the flow of reading. The thickness of the book could have been reduced much. So much writing seemed unnecessary to me. But overall, plotting, coherence and synchronization of scenes were apt and engaging.

Good effort by the author.

PS: Take care of the editing of the manuscript before getting it published.

Best Wishes!

Buying Link: Amazon