Alejandro's Reviews > Seconds Later

The author contacted me and sent me a digital edition of the novel in exchange of a honest review.

BACK TO REVIEW

I’ve been away from Goodreads for several months, along with reading anything in general, therefore, when Vani contacted me to make a review of her new book, I was hesitant, since I’ve been busy with familiar matters, but at the end I decided to read the book and I am truly glad of it, since I thought that it will be a cliche romantic tale but I was mistaken founding a very dark romantic story. which I found refreshing.


MISSING TWIST

Initially, when I read the prologue I expected a Gillian Flynn-like book, since I expected some twist since I think that the prologue is quite spoiling about how the book ends. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the case, since while the development is quite engaging and entertaining, what you may get from the prologue, it’s pretty much what you’ll get at the final cllimax. In my humble opinion I’d leave out the prologue.


ROMANTIC TRIANGLE… OF FOUR SIDES

You have the complex love story of Nikki, a rising TV personality; Cyrus, her boss; Sameer, an obsessive fan; and…

…Ali, yet another obsessive fan.

I think that one obsessive fan was enough and certainly Sameer is the interesting one. Sameer is an intriguing antagonist, with several layers to read about.

Don’t be mistaken, the angle of Ali is interesting enough but I think that two fans with dangerous tones in the same book is overkilling (kinda pun intended), leaving in a very dark light the fandom of a media personality. Having fans is an element of a media personality and certainly there must be some dangerous fans but I think that there must be a lot more positive ones than negative ones, but in the book you only get to know about two fans of the Nikki character and both are male and dangerous.

The romantic narrative involving Nikki, Cyrus and Sameer is quite good showing a rollercoaster of emotions, exposing very real characters where you don’t have cliche good or bad characters but real people able to take different decisions and having to find a way to live out of those decisions.


FATHER’S DAY

Fathers is the hightlight in this book, since Nikki’s dad, Cyrus’ dad and Sameer’s dad, all of them play key moments in the story.

Nikki, Cyrus and Sameer may not think high about their dads, and even it wouldn’t seem that they could be relevant in the general story but you can trust that it’s not about the quantity of time but the quality and how they are there in key moments in the lives of the three main characters, not pampering but showing the right path even if Nikki, Cyrus or Sameer aren’t able to realice that their fathers want the best for them.

So…
…while I have my observations about the book, I enjoyed the time while reading it and I recommend it a lot to all of you.