The Ascent of Love — by Rooprashi
Publisher: Invincible Publishers
Pages: 179
Price: Rs. 150 INR(Paperback), Rs. 99 INR(Kindle Edition)
ISBN: 978–9388333672
Buy here: https://amzn.to/2FLxaPQ
When Taara met Vedant, she fell in love for the first time. However, she could not perceive that a feeling as pure as love can turn into something so toxic for her.
As she decided to leave her love behind and climb peaks of the world, she knew that the love for the peaks was not hers either.
As she questions herself and is inept to understand why she is not able to forget her past, her ascent to the peaks was making the difference apparent to her. Something she already knew.
Had she found a new love, or was love back in an old package to spite her again? Does a difficult mountaineering course in Kashmir prove to be the turning point in her life? Will she be able to complete her ‘Ascent of Love’ the way she intended to, or will a hailstorm change the plan of her life?
About the author:
Management Executive, author and blogger, Rooprashi is an individual brimming with stories. The author, whose debut novel “The Girl Who Saw It All” made waves across the country, possesses both compassion and composure as well as a capacity for empathy that is clearly reflected in her writing. She writes with an aim to motivate her readers and infuse positivity in society.
She loves writing motivational and spiritual pieces as well as quotes. For more info on her writing and updates on her latest articles and books, you can visit her website www.rooprashi.in
You can also connect with her:
Facebook : Rooprashi
Instagram: @rooprashi
My take on the book:
Taara Singh who signed up for a mountaineering course has just landed in the beautiful Jammu and Kashmir to be enchanted by the beauty of the locales where she will be spending her next one month of training period, learning to perfect the art of climbing high peaks. But her first day of roaming around the place brings back visuals of her long-forgotten love Vedant. It takes her only a day more to realize that he was also attending the same course and what she saw earlier is not a piece of her imagination. What does this proximity to Vedant means to Taara, the person from whom she moved away and never imagined meeting again? Has she really moved on emotionally as well, will she regret this coincidence, or will she give love a second chance with the same person all over again? Is climbing heights synonymous to learning life and love again forms the rest of the story.
The story starts in current time but soon the narration keeps moving back and forth with Taara remembering past happenings between Vedant and her. With each new encounter with Vedant during the daily training, Taara cannot help remembering their past memories both happy and bitter ones. The story does not have too many characters — few friends from their college days and few team mates from the current training. The author slowly develops the protagonists’ characters by revealing the multiple layers as the story progresses.
The backdrop of mountaineering course for a romantic story, especially the reunion of ex-lovers starts as a breath of fresh air. Taara’s new friends, the training routine, along with her thoughts are beautifully penned by the author. The parallel story of their past lovestory during college also keeps the reader equally hooked to the story. However, the story and narration take a dip in the second half as the happenings from the past get more and more cliched and their relationship comes across as shallow and naive, not living upto the expectations built up so far. The novelty factor keeps going down as the story reaches climax which feels bit rushed.
Taara’s inclination towards trekking and that part of the back story is missing, so as what happened in past few years before the current timeline. The author could have made the second half tauter. Pick this one if you love romantic stories, especially if looking for a fresh backdrop.
My rating:
3.5/5.