Robbie’s Inspiration – Book review: Coming Home by Smitha Vishwanath

What Amazon says

Twenty-six-year-old, Shanaya, finds her idea of home and family ripped apart when she loses her mother. Her effort to drown herself in her job proves to be financially rewarding and her work is recognized by the organisation. But, even this is not enough to fill the vacuum in her heart or answer the questions, her mother’s sudden death had given rise to. In her quest for peace and the need to hold her family together, she leaves her job in the Middle East and moves to India. The story finds Shanaya journeying across geographical planes and inner landscapes to finally reach ‘home’. Coming Home is a heartwarming story about self-discovery, relationships, loss, love, destiny, the choices we make, and how these choices eventually lead to what we are destined for.

My review

Coming Home is a delightful romance set mainly in India. Shanaya is shocked by the untimely death of her mother from cancer. She has been living on her own in her parents apartment in Dubai while her mother undergoes treatment in India under the watchful care of her father. Shanaya is devastated when her mother dies unexpectedly before she can travel from Dubai to India. The loss of her mother hits Shanaya hard and she finds it difficult to set her grief aside and become immersed in her job and life in Dubai, especially as her sister has gone away to college and her father has elected to remain in India. Shanaya decides to make some big changes and leave her safe job, returning to India to care for her father.

Naturally, nothing in life is ever as expected and Shanaya is in for a few shocks when her father decides to make some changes to his own life. Before her death, Shanaya’s mother had been encouraging her to settled own and marry a young and successful doctor. The marriage would be an arranged marriage as the couple had not met. Shanaya does not view this as an impediment to marriage as her own parents had married by arrangement and their marriage had been happy and fulfilling. Shanaya has it in her mind that she will meet the doctor and fulfil her mother’s wishes with regards to her marriage. Once again, life happens while she makes plans and things don’t turn out quite as expected.

The romance storyline is pleasant and enjoyable, but it is the insights into Indian culture and lifestyle that made this book particularly interesting to me. I know about arranged marriages, but I did not know how they came about or how modern couples felt about it. There were lots of opportunities for the author to share information about life in India and I enjoyed learning about death and burial rites and traditions, engagement clothing and celebrations, as well as a restorative visit to a remote wellness clinic where Shanaya learns yoga, meditation, and other useful tools for a healthy life. Many aspects of life in India are fairly different from my own lifestyle and I found this information very engaging.

The author is also clearly knowledgeable about banking and wrote with insight about Shanaya’s banking career. This was pleasing as the details about Shanaya and her colleagues jobs rang true and added to the overall storyline.

Coming Home is a story about coming to terms with loss and change and learning to cope and move on. It is also cautionary about making rash and hasty decisions and promotes taking life at a slower pace and following your instincts.

Coming Home is an enjoyable and entertaining read that all lovers of romance will enjoy.

Purchase links

For the Kindle and paperback edition of the book, please click here. The book is available in most countries.

You can get your copy of the paperback edition in India by clicking here.

You can find poems, book reviews, and other posts by Smitha Vishwanath on her blog here: https://smithavpennings.com/blog/