𝑲𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒉:
She shattered my soul with the very first smile she gave me. I wanted her, craved her, yearned for her…
She wanted nothing to do with me, but I was an adamant bastard through and freaking through…

𝑨𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒂:
He pulled at my being with the very first wink he gave me. I desired him, ached for him, broke entirely for him.
He didn’t live up to his promise, keeping me waiting…praying…hoping…dreaming…

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Warning From The Author ( taken from Goodreads )

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚-𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑰𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆, 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅.

 

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On  a kind note:

This is my opinion. My opinions are not facts. This review is also a pro-consumer. This means I´m offering my opinion via review to guide and possibly help indecisive readers.

 

 

Me stumbling upon `Those Chance Encounters by author Pearl Khatri was a chance encounter. It was one of those accidental bump-ins I believe others would appreciate more.

 

It´s romantic. It´s cute. It has humor. It´s revealing. It´s supposed to be great on a level I´m not acquainted with yet.

 

Much to my dismay, `Those Chance Encounters` didn´t meet my reading standards. Not by a long shot. I´m actually disappointed.

Before I dive into a more detailed explanation of my thoughts I´d like to point out what drove me to read this book in the first place.

The Cover & The Synopsis

There´s no denying how cute the cover image is.  And although a little slim, I found the synopsis interesting. I figured I´d be getting loads of story with the little description provided.

So, what´s keeping me from adoring this book? Let me put it this way…

 

The whole problem with this story wasn´t the story itself. `Those Chance Encounters` had the ability to be a great story. But it was the lack of structure in all areas that prevented this from being a great read.

This is probably the most chaotic story I´ve ever read. The author included topics such as body image issues, bullying and lack of self-awareness and all I was able to see was how respectful and at the same time dismissive these topics were handled. How am I, as a reader, supposed to feel empathy when I´m hardly given the chance to develop feelings?

There were moments when I had the feeling the author made the story up. But then again, this story felt like a strong case of „The protagonist is the author´s self- insert“ and that the whole book was based on personal experiences. There´s nothing against using one or the other. But for a reader to feel both is a little confusing and doesn´t work in the book´s or author´s favor.

Which leads me to my next point:

 The writing. I discovered I´m not a fan of the author´s writing.

Wordy. Excessive. Uncontrolled. My reading flow was constantly interrupted by the overuse of words I haven´t seen or heard of in two decades, which, I might add, is exhausting. Usually, this can be a breath of fresh air while reading but in this case, I was confused and irritated.

As for the characters- I tried. When the characters are 2-D you´ll find it hard to have a connection with them. I need to be convinced by actions instead of words in order to develop a bond with fictional people. I would like to relate. I´d rather not sit here and ask myself how this character made my top 3 list of most unliked characters. I didn´t feel anything for Amara or Kenneth. I wasn´t able to warm up to them due to the indecisive character portrayal.  Let´s not forget the kinks and quirks- Yeah, no. I´d rather forget them as they added nothing valuable to each character or the story.

With that being said- I think I won´t check out another book from this author.

While I´m pretty sure this book will find fans, it wasn´t strong enough to win me over.

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Would I recommend this book? To the people who value my opinion- No.

Would I reread this book? No.

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The Cover – 5 Stars:   Hands down- It´s a beauty.

The Story – 2 Stars:   Trite and, at times, confusing

The Characters – 1 Star:  It´s a no from me.

My emotional state after finishing this read – I´m not happy.