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Tuesday, 24 March 2015








Date Published: November, 2014

Pages: 262
Source: Review copy provided by Jyoti Arora

Format: Kindle Edition




Goodreads Synopsis




'It's all your fault.'
Mere words these are. "But words can possess a shadow invincible enough to rob even a soul of its eternity." 


In a society that finds it easier to mark sins of a victim than the culprit, Nirvi is a young girl punishing herself for the faults she did not do and avenging her hurts by defeating her own truth.

She is scared of her future, and ashamed of her past. She is failing herself, and knows it. She has had a long line of boyfriends, and hated them all. She detests the guy she is living with, runs away from the one she loves , and seduces the one who can never love her. When Arsh first sees Nirvi, she's a free and frank girl in whose eyes sparkle the lemony zest of life. The next time he sees her, she is a voiceless doll draped in clothes that cover her body less and shroud her soul more. And Arsh can't rest till he finds out what made Nirvi give up her own real self.

Nirvi knows she is dragging herself on a path from which there can be no recovery. Can her spirit survive the treacherous downfall? Or is the pull of fear and push of desperation just too strong to withstand for a girl who believes she has "nowhere else to go" but down.
"When it's time for you to fall in love, even a lemon can become the cause of it," says Arsh.

But can love survive, when even the self love dies?Can love survive when respect is no more?Does true love have the power to revive a dying soul?Find out in the pages of this brilliantly woven, intense, heart-warming and thought-provoking saga of RISING IN LOVE... 

First 12 chapters of the book are now available as free download at: 
http://www.jyotiarora.com/lemon-girl




My Review


"A young, pretty, confident and gracious girl with a dream in her eyes and last but not the least, a story behind her smile"


Although I wrote these words almost a year ago, I still remember them as if I just came across them. The reason why I’m bringing the caption up again from the past is these words: 'Story behind her smile'. While I read ‘Lemon Girl’ by Jyoti Arora, I was gripped with curiosity, like darkness grips the night and, the question reverberated in my body and soul was what the story behind Nirvi’s smile is? Lips which purse just too perfectly to bring out the most perfect smile must surely be a lie and, deep down, under the bottom of the ocean, the truth awaits to be discovered. As I read on, I found out there’s indeed a great story behind that smile.


‘Lemon Girl’ by Jyoti Arora is a great Indian story of a great Indian woman, Nirvi, the lead character of the book. The dance of sorrow in Nirvi's eyes and the emptiness of her smile ignited the curiosity of not only Arsh, the lead male character of the book, but also me. What happened to Lemon Girl, I wondered. This is where Jyoti Arora didn't disappoint me. Jyoti Arora weaves a mystery around this very question and takes just the perfect time to reveal the truth. Just as a cocoon takes just the perfect time to turn into a beautiful butterfly, Jyoti Arora reveals the mystery of Nirvi at the right place and right time. And, then Jyoti Arora's story unfolds like a night; it falls slowly calming our souls and then, takes us through the darkest and scariest nights of our lives and, in the end, as the dawn appears, leaves us with tears in eyes and hopes in our hearts.


One of the most fascinating features of the novel is the narration of the story. Jyoti Arora, with her two weapons, a Post Graduate in English Literature and Applied Psychology, narrates the story shifting between two lead characters Nirvi and Arsh’s point of views smoothly and narrates the psychology of both the characters. Jyoti Arora does justice to both the characters perfectly, especially to Nirvi, a girl with a troubled past. I really enjoyed the parts where Nirvi narrated the story. In fact, that was my favorite part of the narration – Nirvi’s narration.


Not only the novel but also a fantastic first page Dedication of Jyoti Arora left me speechless.


Jyoti Arora, a feminist, I assume, couldn’t have chosen better words than this to dedicate the book to Indian women when she says,

“In earlier times, Indian women suffered in the name of culture. Now it’s being done in the name of loss of culture.”


Hardly had I read this very first line of her dedication, when I knew I had the ‘best book of the year’ in my hands.


Well, I have a dedication myself to all the ladies who fell victims to the cruel hands of lust; to all the ladies who are brave and determined to live a respectable life in this unfair world; to all those who are broken, crawling in the dust, helpless and suffering; and last but not the least, to the ‘Lemon Girl’ and the ‘Caption Girl’. I borrow words from Maya Angelou’s poetry, ‘I Rise’, and let her words be my dedication:


“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”


Will Nirvi ever rise from the dirt? Will Nirvi’s smile ever be back? Will Nirvi earn respect in this unfair world? Will she ever fulfill her dreams?


 Read ‘Lemon Girl’ by Jyoti Arora to find out…


Lemon Girl by Jyoti Arora deserves a rating of 5 out of 5! She showed me the mirror of an imperfect world and the beauty of love in the same book and for that she deserves full marks! I recommend this book to every Indian men and women, to every parent, children, grandparents, in fact, to every Indian. This is a book recommended to all feminists and victims of cruel hands of lust. I assure you, you will have a great time reading this book.

Huge thanks to Jyoti Arora Ma'am for Review Copy!

~RP

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