Legally, Lovingly Yours by Abhishek Bose

Legally, Lovingly Yours is exactly what it sounds like - a law college romance story.

The book is refreshing in a few ways. For one, after the Chetan Bhagat success story exploded in India, bookstores are lined by Indian authors from the IITs or the IIMs or various other engineering and management colleges all over the country, and law (which I have a soft spot for anyway) has been largely underrepresented. Moreover, the writing in this book, according to me, is a notch above the regular books it shares a bookshelf with. The writing style of the author is crisp, thankfully without any pretentious words that seem to have been put in after checking a thesaurus. The story is almost auto-biographical in nature, though I'm not sure where fact separates from fiction, the book definitely reads like it's a true story, and like its the author's love story, which is being shared here. 

The story is fairly straightforward, a guy likes a girl, and a series of misunderstandings (mostly engineered by a rival) ensue, which makes her hate him, eventually things are cleared out, and a happy ending reached. Interwoven among this is a vibrant friendship among many different students (in a group called 'diversity unified') and the depiction of a law school - with its moot courts and competitions and projects, and fresher's parties, and fun. Its a simple, clear plot - without much suspense, as the story begins with the girl introducing her parents to the parents of the guy - but with a lot of emotion, and fun, intermixed into the plotline. 

As I said before, the book is fairly well-written. At parts there seem to be details that are extraneous, like a part in the fresher's party which never seems to come back to relevance (unless I read it wrong) and that might be jarring to a reader, but on the whole the book is a quick and easy read, without many stumbling blocks. Its coherent, linear, and easy to understand even if you're not a huge fan of reading. Its also a great glimpse into the lifestyle of a law college, something that might touch a chord among many students (of law and otherwise). 

Final thoughts: Sweet love story - and a nice insight into the law school atmosphere. Oh, and come back tomorrow to see me interview author Abhishek Bose, right here on In My Bookshelves. 

Other thoughts: This is my second book for the Book Reading Challenge 2011! Come join! 

(Financial disclosure: Book source was the author.)