Title: You don’t love me, the way I Love you!
Author: Ekta Chandana
Publisher: Bluerose Publishers
Genre: Contemporary Romance
First Publication: 2021
Language: English
Book Summary: You don’t love me, the way I Love you! By Ekta Chandana
I don’t know from where to start. My life was a hell of a ride. I had been through a lot of ups and downs, from anxiety to panic attacks, and my mistake was that I fell in love with all my heart.
Aarav and Shreya meet in college and fall in love. Shreya loves Aarav a lot although her best friend Meera wants her to break up with him. Meera sees Aarav as a practical guy who will surely break Shreya’s heart. But for Shreya, Aarav is a perfect boyfriend with whom she wants to live forever.
But destiny has other plans for Shreya which she has never even thought of. Will she find her forever with Aarav?
Book Review: You don’t love me, the way I Love you! By Ekta Chandana
“You don’t love me, the way I Love you!” is a cute story about second chances, trusting your heart, and finding comfort in familiarity. The story fabric is woven a little differently, the set-up alludes to fate and soulmates, so the love between Shreya and Aarav feels present throughout the book. Since the love already feels developed, their journey is more about navigating the emotional pitfall maze to reach it. I felt like Shreya and Aarav’s chemistry was a little slow-burn than a lot of rom-coms but there was definitely some steam when they finally got together.
I knew I would like Shreya from the moment author introduced her in the book. Shreya works so well as a protagonist because she isn’t the archetype. She has been through all herself. She reads as absolutely, totally real.
Something that really bothers me a lot in romances like this is that a romance tends to save the protagonist, and I think this book – despite all romance trope – does the opposite. The lead friendship here between Shreya and Meera is so iconic and so important. And even though there is a plenty of romance in the book, I think the author is very concerned about friendship.
The wild thing is, aside from his moments of extreme rage, Aarav never appears to be that bad of a guy. He seems to account for Shreya’s feelings. But his actions against her are enough. There is no question in the narrative on whether Shreya was being empathetic no matter how he treated her. Aarav’s character is nuanced but also irredeemable for Shreya.
The writing is extremely clean and easy-to-read, there are some really good and heart-touching moments, the romance that does end up occurring is genuinely sweet, and it’s overall a win. The protagonist is fleshed-out and the story tugs at the heart.
This story also had some of the best use of secondary characters. They were stars in their own right and provided emotional heft not only in support of Shreya but the overall story. They provided heartfelt depth to some of the underlining message of the importance of human connection and how valuable ‘found family’ is. This book would be great for someone that loves character driven romance books with a pinch of friendship.
