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ExUrbanis

Urban Leaving to Country Living

Book Review: One Hundred Shades of White by Preethi Nair

January20

One Hundred Shades of White
by Preethi Nair

One Hundred Shades of White,100 shades of white,preethi nair

Maya, her mother Nalini, and her brother Satchin have left a carefree life in India to come to England. But when Maya’s father disappears, leaving only deceit and debt behind, they are left to fend for themselves in a strange, damp land. Maya, though, doesn’t know of her father’s betrayal. Nalini, determined to preserve her children’s pride, tells them that their father died in an accident and, as their struggle to make a life begins, whole realities are built on this lie. But even a white lie cannot remain hidden forever—and when the truth resurfaces, it changes everything

The title refers to that lie — that husband/father Raul dies a hero’s death rescuing a young boy from the path of an oncoming car; the truth is that Raul had a second family in America and deserted Nalini and the children in London. Nalini muses:

My mother said that to lie is the coward’s way and that truth is whole, like black or white. But what if there are a hundred shades for truth?

Not knowing the truth about her father leads Maya to think in a certain way about her life, her relationships and her mother’s relationships. When she learns the truth, her world shifts beneath her.

I thought the characters of Nalini and Maya were well-developed and the contrast between the warm, fragrant, familiar life in India and the cold, plain, foreign way of life in England was made very clear.

There’s a decent story in this book, which is told alternately through the eyes of mother Nalini and daughter Maya. BUT the book is rife with spelling, grammatical and structural errors that were serious distractions from the plot. Nair’s editors let her down big-time on this one.

I would normally have given this book 3.5 stars (out of five) but I can’t really recommend it as it stands. I’ll have to give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Reading Challenges: 100 Shades satisfies four of my reading challenges: the Colorful Challenge, the New To Me Authors Challenge, the Support Your Local Library, and 100+.

Chapters/Indigo link for Canadian readers:
One Hundred Shades Of White

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Or, even better, buy from an independent book seller by searching this site that has links to independent booksellers across North America.

P.S. If you click through the affiliate links in the book titles, you may notice a different cover. I like to see the cover that’s on the copy I read – and it’s usually different than Amazon.com because they display the American release, and I read the Canadian. Again, the links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.



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posted under Book Reviews
8 Comments to

“Book Review: One Hundred Shades of White by Preethi Nair”

  1. On January 20th, 2010 at 10:33 pm Jennifer @ Mrs. Q: Book Addict Says:

    I added this one to my TBR list. It looks great.

  2. On January 21st, 2010 at 9:19 am Debbie Says:

    Jennifer, I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.

  3. On January 23rd, 2010 at 4:43 pm Shayla Says:

    Sounds like my kind of book. I’ll keep an eye out for it.

  4. On January 24th, 2010 at 12:04 am Debbie Says:

    I hope you enjoy it – thanks for your comment!

  5. On January 25th, 2010 at 4:25 pm Bonnie Says:

    I haven’t heard of this book but it sounds like the kind of story that I would enjoy. I am finding more and more books that are not edited well and it’s distracting to have missed words and spelling errors when I’m reading.

  6. On January 25th, 2010 at 6:59 pm Debbie Says:

    It’s a shame, really, because this was a pretty good story.

  7. On January 30th, 2010 at 10:34 pm Colleen (Books in the City) Says:

    I recently read and reviewed Colour of Love by Preethi Nair and really liked it. I have ordered 100 Shades of White but am disappointed to hear about the grammar and spelling errors. Hopefully they won’t distract me too much!

  8. On February 1st, 2010 at 1:36 am Debbie Says:

    Oh, I hope so too! They don’t seem to bother some people but i knew that a least one previous reader of my library copy did. There were pencil makls and words throughout.

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