Review of Bar Maid

[Padmapriya R]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Bar Maid" by Daniel Roberts.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Every one of us would have had a love that has taught us more than any school or university can. It would have taught us about life, showed a new perspective of things, and made us experience a new version of ourselves. Bar Maid written by Daniel Roberts is about one such life-changing relationship Charlie Green was involved in. The timeline of the story is in the 80s. The story starts with him a week before his university life. Charlie's views on love were influenced based on his parents' fairy tale and his brother's dating experience. Charlie also writes stories, mostly about people around him, for example when some random old man he noticed sitting alone in the restaurant in Paris when he was surrounded by happy families. Charlie Green has imagined that his love life would start great with Monica Miller, but they kind of break-up right before his first day of university life. When Charlie explores the city later that day he meets Paula, the girl who is responsible to change his whole life. The novel further explains more about their relationship.

I appreciate how Daniel has made the characters with flaws, just like how people we meet in real life would be. This teaches the readers that to love someone, we'll have to love them with their flaws as well. Especially I liked the characterization of Charlie, a free-spirited, soft-hearted, romantic man who listens to people's bits of advice but follows his heart every time. Charlie knew to prioritize what he loved which is a very important lesson that we should follow in our lives as well. Charlie was also pictured as a person who found happiness in simple things as well. I also like how the story always follows Charlie, it gives importance to the people present with Charlie, also without moving too much away from the leads. And I like how the local language usage of the characters was also clearly maintained.

The only negative aspect that I would like to mention about the story is that it suddenly turns into different people's perspectives often without prior notice. This aspect kills the flow of the story.

I'd like to rate the book a 3 out of 4 stars. I found no grammatical or punctual errors in this book.

I would recommend this teenage-love story to people who love to read romance but also are bored of the perfect couple plots.

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Bar Maid
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