Book Review- Sophie Says by Judy Balan

Title: Sophie Says (Memoirs of a Breakup coach)

Author: Judy Balan

About the story: Sophie Thilagam rechristened by self as Sophie Tilgum is a strong, independent and commitment phobic woman who after a decade of flitting in and out of bad relationships decides to remain single for the rest of her life.

After an impulsive act of quitting her dull and boring job, Sophie finds herself surrounded by the "Blah-Blah aunty brigade" whose main purpose in life is to see Sophie walking down the aisle with a good Tamil-Christian boy. A spontaneous mad outburst from Sophie creates a fake boyfriend who would accompany her to her cousin’s wedding twelve weeks later.

Enter Ryan, the mysterious, dimpled, handsome fake-boyfriend who figures out Sophie in just a few minutes after he meets her and believes that Sophie’s breakup theories are all hogwash. He’s hell bent on uncovering a nurturing bone in the commitment phobic Sophie.

Even as Sophie dishes out breakup advises to her two best friends and blogs about breakup fundas in her popular blog, Sophie Says, she can’t help falling in love with Ryan. Things get more complicated when her “if-someday” guy Yatan decides to drop in and professes his love.

When finally Sophie feels that she’s ready to be in a relationship she has two suitors asking, no, fighting for her hand. Her friends think that she’s lucky to have two gorgeous men fighting for her attention, but Sophie feels miserable for she has to break one’s heart and both the guys mean a lot to her.

Will Sophie choose Yatan with whom she has had a long history or will she choose Ryan, the quintessential widower who has finally learnt to love again?

Read the book to find out who Sophie will choose in the end.

My Review: Judy Balan has a humorous and witty way of narrating events that makes the book an entertaining read. There are a lot of funny episodes in Sophie’s life that made me laugh out loud as I was reading. I particularly liked the ending which was what I would do if I was Sophie.

I would have liked it more if the author had plowed deeper into Sophie’s past life and detailed as to why she was afraid of commitment or her experience of bad relationships that made her averse to it.

Maybe it would have made the book more philosophical. The book has a light, breezy chick lit (romance comedy) ambiance. I had read “Two Fates” by Judy and I picked “Sophie Says” with a lot of expectations and I was not disappointed. Reading the book does feel like one is watching a sitcom, a particularly funny sitcom.

I also somehow couldn’t get rid of the feeling that Sophie’s character is very much like her creator’s.

Verdict: A humorous  witty and amusing read. Avoid if you are not a particular fan of chick lit/rom com genres.

Rating: 3/5