Book Review: KINGDOM COME By Aarti V. Raman

I received this book from the author on April 22, 2014 and have taken exactly 2 months to complete reading it. My sincere apologies to Aarti Venkatraman for the delay!

THE BLURB

How do you kill a man with no Achilles heel? You cut off his foot - Tom Jones.

Set against the serene beauty of Kashmir, Ladakh and Tibet, Kingdom Come is a gripping story of death and loss, vengeance and retribution, love and life. Krivi Iyer is an embittered former spy and bomb defusal expert with only one regret - that he couldn't catch The Woodpecker, a dangerous, mentally unstable bomber who ended his partner's family. He has a second chance to go after his arch enemy with the arrival of Ziya Maarten, the manager of Goonj Business Enterprises in Srinagar, Kashmir, who is alleged to be The Woodpecker's sister. Except Ziya is a beautiful distraction and not a terrorist's sister. When a tragedy in London tears Ziya's life apart, she can only rely on Krivi to give her the absolution and vengeance she needs to move on. Between training to be an anti-terrorist squad member and finding The Woodpecker, Ziya uncovers the secrets of Krivi's tormented past. But will two tortured souls find the courage to love?

MY PERCEPTION

The story has been amazingly penned. I loved every single character in the book, even the bad guys. I would have never believed that I could like a silent, dark, brooding hero but I couldn’t help falling in love with Krivi Iyer. I could feel his pain and so relate to his incredible journey as a spy.

The gorgeous Ziya is feisty and touches your heart. Her determination to raise above all the hurdles that come across her way right from the time of her birth is commendable. The contrast between the siblings - one a terrorist and the other the heroine - has been brought out very well in the story.

Noor is a lovely character and I so wished there was more of her. But she played her role very well indeed.

The story takes you from London to Kashmir to Yorkshire to Tibet to Ladakh (Have I missed anything here?) on a roller-coaster ride as Krivi chases The Woodpecker. He is determined to catch the bomber who is crazy to boot. Will Ziya be a help to Krivi or will she turn out to be his weakness? You have to read the story to find out.

The last fifty pages had me biting my nails and I was quite irritated when dinner interrupted my reading. Finishing my work in the kitchen as fast as possible, I got back to my Android to complete the book and was not at all disappointed when I reached THE END. It was one helluva ride! Congratulations Aarti V. Raman! You do have a way with words.

The book cover is just perfect with silhouettes of Krivi & Ziya against the background of a bomb blast.

If the novel was so perfect, then why did I take 2 months to read it and why am I giving it only 4 stars?

There is a reason to it and I cannot hold the author responsible for the same. The book has been miserably proof-read - for example, a simple word like ‘too’ being used instead of ‘took’. The ‘commas’ and ‘full-stops’ were horribly misplaced, an umpteen times. I found errors right from the beginning to the end. Being a professional proof-reader, I found it very difficult to read the book continuously as my eyes kept honing in on the mistakes. For this I have taken away one star.

Disclaimer: I received the PDF version of this book from the author for my honest review.

About Aarti V. Raman in her own words:

Aarti V Raman

“I live in Mumbai, 27 years old, and my publishing credits include White Knight by Leadstart Publishing out in 2012. I was also a part of the romance anthology An Atlas of Love by Rupa Publications, which came out in February 2014. I have yet another novel Lucas which is part of a Historical romance series that comes out in June by the UK-based publishing house Knox Robinson. And my future works are in consideration with Harlequin Mills and Boon, Harlequin India and Rupa Publications.”