Title: The Runaway Bridegroom
Author: Sundari Venkatraman
Publisher: Westland
Genre: Romance
First Publication: 2019
Language: English
Major Characters: Chanda Maheshwari, Ranveer Singh
Setting Place: Rajasthan, Delhi
Book Summary: The Runaway Bridegroom
Eight-year-old Chanda Maheshwari and thirteen-year-old Veerendra Singh Choudhry are married as per custom. But when the bridegroom runs away immediately after the wedding, the Maheshwari family’s world comes crashing down. They move to Jaipur to begin a new life in the city.
Fourteen years later, as a management student in Delhi, Chanda takes up a temporary job at RS Software Pvt. Ltd and finds herself falling head-over-heels for her boss, Ranveer Singh. But, for all her feelings, Chanda is still a married woman. Meanwhile, Ranveer’s secretary, Shikha, is determined to win him for herself. Even though his second-in-command, Abhimanyu, keeps getting in the way, she keeps a steady eye on the main prize. So when Ranveer starts to show an interest in Chanda, Shikha is furious. Back in Jaipur, an astrologer predicts that Chanda’s errant husband will soon make an appearance.
A secret childhood marriage, a vindictive secretary and unwelcome cosmic predictions—how much can Chanda deal with? And does anyone care about what she wants? Torn between the man she loves and the claim a missing husband still has on her, will Chanda ever find happiness?
Book Review: The Runaway Bridegroom
The Runaway Bridegroom is an intense, utterly riveting book that I literally could not put down, that kept my heart racing, that had me hanging off of every word that I read, and the story just ripped my heart out but yet still had a very sweet ending.
The author Sundari Venkatraman has done wonderful job with words. The writing was beautiful and flowed effortlessly, the characters were vivid, and the story was gripping and sucked you right in from the start.
I started reading The Runaway Bridegroom around midnight after a whole day of traveling expecting to just read for an hour and put it down. Boy I was wrong! I read straight through the night and finished the book around 6am when the sun came up!! I just couldn’t tear myself away from it!
The first chapter of the book starts out in a small town of Rajasthan where Chanda Maheshwari, an 8 year-old girl from a very well-respected family who gets married as per the customs of family to Veerendra Singh Choudhry, a 13-year old boy. But the tragedy outside of their control strikes, when the Bridegroom, Veerendra Singh, runs away on the same day after his marriage with Chanda. After a few weeks of this incident, unable to face the disgrace brought on by the disappearance of their son-in-law after a few hours of wedding, the Maheshwari family, including Chanda, her parents and her siblings, move to Jaipur.
Chanda and her family continues with their life. She is now in final year of studying BMS (Bachelor of Management Studies) in Delhi and lives in a hostel. Soon she joins a software company owned and managed by Ranveer Singh, a young entrepreneur in Delhi. She falls for Ranveer but her childhood marriage is still in her mind. There is one more hurdle to add, Shikha, the secretary of Ranveer, Who is also determined to get her boss at any cost.
The Runaway Bridegroom is about powerful love, loss, family, second chances, secrets that test the strength of family and relationship bonds, overcoming prejudices; but most importantly its about a very beautiful and sweet love story that start when Chanda and Veerendra were young and never lets go throughout all the years of hardship.
The book was wonderful. I won’t say too much about it and won’t give too much as it just needs to be read and felt. The Runaway Bridegroom really did come as a surprise to me. I never expected to finish this book within a few hours! I was able to predict everything that happened and that was a bit of a bummer but I still enjoyed this book nonetheless. But I think this book is definitely worth a read. It’s one of the better love stories I’ve read about in awhile.
If you are looking for a captivating, bittersweet, emotional read with a happy ending, this is it!
