Review of My Trip To Adele
Posted: 01 Jul 2021, 08:16
[Following is a volunteer review of "My Trip To Adele" by R.I.Alyaseer and A. I Alyaseer.]
My Trip to Adele by R.I Alyaseer, A.I. Alyaseer follows the lives of three people as they navigate through love and the cost of their decisions regarding their love lives. Their stories range across different cultures and countries. Here we have Elias, who cannot stop thinking of his 8-year-old fling with a charming girl named Malika, Yaser trying to mend his relationship with his wife, and lastly Nadia, a divorcee wanting to look after her son while remaining independent. As the title suggests, their love for Adele and their plans to go to her concert in Verona connect the three characters.
As an avid reader of the romance genre, I can confidently say that this book brings something refreshing and new to it. The way the locations were described made me want to visit them, especially Morocco. I could practically imagine myself at the frequently mentioned El Fnaa Square. The very tactfully quoted Adele lyrics at the end of every chapter also made me sing along and smile. In fact, the number of chapters being twenty-five in total; after Adele’s third studio album, left me really satisfied. Another positive point of the story was the mention of different social issues and conflicting views in each chapter. Some characters firmly believed in God, while others were atheists who blamed God. In this way, we got to see both sides of the story. There were also mentions of the cost of freedom, social prejudice, rocky marriages,toxic masculinity and so on.
As mentioned before, the book is subsequently divided for three different characters and, while I did not have a problem with that, I did feel Elias’ story could have been much better. The pace of his part of the story was messy and unnatural. The author(s) mentioned certain characters like the Shawafa (fortune teller) to move the story forward, which I felt was unnecessary. Other than that, there were many characters like Veronica (Elias’s best friend) and Nadia’s coworkers who had great potential but were not fleshed out. For example, I quote Elias, ‘She turned to face me with such grace that she looked as ravishing as Rome first thing in the morning’. He thought this in the first chapter itself, with regards to Veronica. That said, the philosophical, internal monologues that followed after conversations with these characters were so unnecessary and made me cringe a lot.
Moving on to the most important topic; the singer Adele. Except for Yaser’s connection with her, no other character’s connection with Adele felt natural. As a matter of fact, Yaser’s story of the struggles in his marriage with his wife, Mariam, was what moved me the most. He was so flawed and fleshed out that I wanted him to have a happy ending despite his evident mistakes. His story was a page-turner and what made me give this book 3 out of 4 stars.
In conclusion, I would recommend this book to fans of romance and music who are looking for a short and sweet story with a very satisfying ending (be it happy or sad). It is a book with characters that make questionable choices, which makes you want to root for them and more often than not, reflect on yourself. Happy Reading!
******
My Trip To Adele
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
My Trip to Adele by R.I Alyaseer, A.I. Alyaseer follows the lives of three people as they navigate through love and the cost of their decisions regarding their love lives. Their stories range across different cultures and countries. Here we have Elias, who cannot stop thinking of his 8-year-old fling with a charming girl named Malika, Yaser trying to mend his relationship with his wife, and lastly Nadia, a divorcee wanting to look after her son while remaining independent. As the title suggests, their love for Adele and their plans to go to her concert in Verona connect the three characters.
As an avid reader of the romance genre, I can confidently say that this book brings something refreshing and new to it. The way the locations were described made me want to visit them, especially Morocco. I could practically imagine myself at the frequently mentioned El Fnaa Square. The very tactfully quoted Adele lyrics at the end of every chapter also made me sing along and smile. In fact, the number of chapters being twenty-five in total; after Adele’s third studio album, left me really satisfied. Another positive point of the story was the mention of different social issues and conflicting views in each chapter. Some characters firmly believed in God, while others were atheists who blamed God. In this way, we got to see both sides of the story. There were also mentions of the cost of freedom, social prejudice, rocky marriages,toxic masculinity and so on.
As mentioned before, the book is subsequently divided for three different characters and, while I did not have a problem with that, I did feel Elias’ story could have been much better. The pace of his part of the story was messy and unnatural. The author(s) mentioned certain characters like the Shawafa (fortune teller) to move the story forward, which I felt was unnecessary. Other than that, there were many characters like Veronica (Elias’s best friend) and Nadia’s coworkers who had great potential but were not fleshed out. For example, I quote Elias, ‘She turned to face me with such grace that she looked as ravishing as Rome first thing in the morning’. He thought this in the first chapter itself, with regards to Veronica. That said, the philosophical, internal monologues that followed after conversations with these characters were so unnecessary and made me cringe a lot.
Moving on to the most important topic; the singer Adele. Except for Yaser’s connection with her, no other character’s connection with Adele felt natural. As a matter of fact, Yaser’s story of the struggles in his marriage with his wife, Mariam, was what moved me the most. He was so flawed and fleshed out that I wanted him to have a happy ending despite his evident mistakes. His story was a page-turner and what made me give this book 3 out of 4 stars.
In conclusion, I would recommend this book to fans of romance and music who are looking for a short and sweet story with a very satisfying ending (be it happy or sad). It is a book with characters that make questionable choices, which makes you want to root for them and more often than not, reflect on yourself. Happy Reading!
******
My Trip To Adele
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon