Book Review - Love, Peace and Happiness: What more can you want?

Love, Peace and Happiness: What more can you want? is a collection of short stories with a difference. The stories revolve around 3 basic facets of human existence (or the lack of it, in today's world): Love, Peace and Happiness. The protagonists in each story has his / her own way to perceive the above mentioned facets. Some are morally right, some not. You may even feel the story resembles the life of someone you know. That someone can even be YOU!

Target Audience:

1. Youngsters and working population living in cities / metros as they can relate to most of the stories.
2. Readers who want to explore relationships and the attached complications.

3. Readers who want to explore a "different" way of reading a story (more on this later)

4. Readers who prefer books that go beyond love stories, friendship and a time pass read.

Plot(s): As mentioned earlier, the book consists of nine short stories revolving around the basic theme of Love, Peace and Happiness. Every protagonist perceives it in their own way. Some of the stories are simple and will not surprise / shock you. But as you read on, you will come across stories that will keep you hooked. Also, it's important NOT to forget the characters from the previous stories - they appear again. The stories take you through a myriad of emotions and relationship webs that are difficult to cope with. And its highly likely that some of the situations will resemble a real life story, maybe yours or one of your closed ones. Want to view a mirror that tells you the truth? Buying this book will provide you with just that!

Writing: The writing is simple and straightforward. Author has ensured anyone and everyone with basic understanding of English will be able to understand and comprehend. However, there are some typos in the book, some of which you may ignore or may not even realize. There are places where the anticipation builds for a thrilling climax and then ends abruptly. This, I believe, is because the author has deliberately and tactically ensured that the reader should visit the website for alternate endings and read the new climax.

Relevance in today's times: The book is as relevant as relationships are, in today's times. With social network booming and relationships at an all new low, you will hardly find the following anywhere - Love, Peace and Happiness. The book is, in a way, a mirror that shows exactly what is happening. The book doesn't explain why such a thing is happening and how to cope with it - and rightly so. The concept is to let the readers understand it the way they want to. 

USP (Unique Selling Proposition): Undoubtedly, the concept of alternate endings. It's as if the story is being enacted in an alternate timeline. This concept has been tried and tested in the Hollywood movies. What this does is, it increases curiosity among the readers who has just read one story in the book. You get an urge to explore the story more and analyze how the other ending fits. The author wants the reader to end the story in the way s/he wants it. If you are not convinced with the ending (it'll happen for some stories), you have an option to read the alternate ending from the author's website. If you are still not convinced, you have another option to writing the end you want and send it to the author. Something like this has not been explored (as far as I remember) and is unique. This concept will work wonders for e-book publications.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience reading the book. Each story has some inner meaning waiting to be explored and readers are given the option to read and accept what they want! One word of caution though: Read this book when you are connected to the net or have a smartphone with you. You might want to check how the story ends differently!

My Rating: 3.5 / 5