Escape Reality: Canvas of Dreams

Title: Canvas of Dreams

Author: Jaya Siva Murthy

Publisher: Indireads Incorporated
Number of Pages: 102
Price: 119 [INR] on Amazon.in
Genre: Romance
Format: E-book

The Blurb:

Riya seems to have lost everything - the man she loves to another woman, her husband to death and her soul to fear. An unexpected meeting with her first love, Ryan, stirs up long repressed feelings but also allows her to move out of the long shadow of the past. Unburdened, she feels free to pursue her dream of opening an art gallery and the handsome and intriguing artist Rehaan. But memories of her marriage refuse to fade away and then suddenly, Ryan shows up in her life again. Now, Riya must find the courage to reconcile her past and present. For Riya, life is a canvas of dreams. Can she distinguish between reality and fantasy?

My Review:

Riya is an art curator, who goes to Singapore on work. Unexpectedly, she meets Ryan, the love of her life, whom she had lost to another woman years ago. Riya finds that she still has feelings for Ryan and things seem to fall back in place instantly. But before they could go further, reality hits her and she makes an escape; again!

The story is woven around Riya's dreams or rather nightmares. Since the death of her abusive husband, for which she holds herself responsible, these nightmares continue to haunt her every single night. She is terrified and lost. When Rehaan comes to her life, will she be able to accept his love? Will she be able to forget her past and give herself another chance?

The story portrays the struggle she goes through to let go the past, face her fears and embrace her dreams. The story is about dreams, love and friendship. I loved how the story is woven, showing the soft as well as tough side of Riya at the same time. The language is simple and the flow is smooth. Till the very end, the suspense is well maintained as with whom Riya will end up. Amidst all the confusion in her life, her will to pursue her dreams is praise worthy. I just wish there was a little more about the male protagonist.

Here are some of the lines I liked from the book:

Love is complex, like a pani puri. It's hard outside, yet can contain so much. That's a relationship for you. You never know what happens and how, and before you know it, it bloody ends.
When life gets tough, you get tougher.
It's not about how similar or how different two people are. A relationship is about whether they are able to celebrate and enjoy those similarities and dissimilarities.

All in all, it is a short and refreshing read. I would suggest it to all romance novel lovers.

My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

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Meet the Author:

Jaya Siva Murty is a business writer and social media manager from Visakhapatnam, India. Fascinated with the written word since the age of ten, she would file away her poems and short stories in a secret diary, till some were finally published by ‘Times of India’ and ‘Savvy’. She has written for the Economic Times and now provides India-relevant stories for a Hong Kong based magazine. When she’s not designing content for websites, or writing technical blogs and articles for clients worldwide, she spins yarns with unusual twists and turns through her works of fiction.

Jaya holds a business management degree and has taken creativity lessons at Stanford University. ‘Canvas of Dreams’ is her debut foray into novella writing.

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