Book: Heartstrings and Harmonies

Author: Manali Desai

Genre: Short Stories, Romance, Fiction

Format: eBook and Paperback

Publisher: Ukiyoto Publishing

Pages: 152

My Rating: 4/5 *

About the Book:

‘Heartstrings and Harmonies’ is a collection of 29 short stories of love. But unlike most of the love stories collection, this book explores various aspects of love from different perspectives like hope, friendship, revelations, and beyond. Most important, love is an inevitable part of life and this beautiful truth is depicted in each story of this book.

In this book, one of the best things is you never get bored while reading the stories because they are short, sweet, easy to understand, and most importantly, they are very much different than the others. Each story has something to tell you, some new aspects of ‘Love’ to reveal in front of you.

Author Bio:

Manali is a full-time freelance writer and editor cum blogger. She blogs at A Rustic Mind. Currently, apart from her ad hoc writing and editing assignments, Manali runs a blog where she shares poetry, short fiction, book reviews, and personal stories. In her authoring journey, Manali has had nine books published under her name. Alongside that, she has also been a part of a few coauthored books (aka anthologies). Manali is a bestselling author on Amazon India with all her books ranking in the top ten in many categories. Her short story, The Walls Have Ears, helped her bag the Best Short Story Award in 2019 at Stories from India by Ukiyoto Publishing. She has also won the Best Author: Fiction Award at Cherry Books Awards, and the Book of The Year title in 2021 at BeTales Magazine Annual Awards, for her debut novel, Love (Try) Angle. Her short story titled, The (Un)Blind Date, which is a part of her Christmas special anthology, Under the Mistletoe & Other Stories, won the best story prize in an online contest by smitawritespen.com, before the book’s release in December 2021. Her second novel, Love & (Mellow) Drama, was nominated for the prestigious AutHER Awards by Times of India in 2023. The same book also helped her win Best Author of the Year at Authoropod Magazine Annual Awards ’23. You can find her on all socials as A Rustic Mind.

Book Cover:

The beautiful book cover is designed by the author herself. A young couple standing on the terrace, immersing themselves in their favorite songs and lost in the thoughts of love, holding hands with each other, depicts a sweet and innocent image of the theme of this book. I loved every bit of the book cover as its background color and the other hues used to design the book cover elements deliver a calming yet catchy look. I appreciate the author’s choice of colors and other design elements.

Writing Style:

The writing style of this book is lucid and subtle, thus making the reader smoothly absorb the essence of the stories. However, the delivery of the message of the stories is clear and apparent, thus the readers don’t have to stress their minds too much to understand the stories. Another nice thing about the book is the stories are very short, they will take a maximum of five minutes to finish reading, thus claiming only a small duration of your daily life to invest in reading these short and sweet tales of love.

Structure of the Book:

The book is divided into five parts where the author has shown the vastness of the word ‘Love’ through the beautifully created characters. Sometimes she told us the stories of love where ‘Love is Romance’, sometimes, where ‘Love is Friendship.’ Sometimes, she has woven tales of love where the stories take us on a journey to perceive ‘Love is Hope’, or ‘Love is a Revelation.’ Last but not least, the fifth part beautifully captures the essence of the word ‘Love’ through the stories where we can see how love becomes life because these stories reveal to us ‘Love is Life and Beyond.’

I appreciate the author for aptly dividing the stories into these five parts and compiling the stories in this manner so the readers find the diverse aspects of love while reading this book.

Only, a friendly advice to the author is if she could make a list of the stories and the inspiration behind each specific story or the prompt she had used to write the story or where it was first published, instead of adding them in the footnote below each of the stories, it would have more impactful and offered the reader a smoother flow of reading. At times, I felt it was somehow interrupted my pondering thoughts and the aftermath of the story that I had just finished reading, as I wanted to stay in the hangover for some more moments until I delved into the next story but the facts regarding the prompts and previous publishing platforms or challenges slightly interrupted my flow of thoughts.

Also, while reading the Hindi lines of the songs’ lyrics, I realized if they would have been written in English, then the readers who can’t read Hindi, could understand the songs because unless you can read Hindi, you will never know which part of the lyrics was used at that specific place. The same happened to me in the parts where the author used Gujarati words written in Gujrati itself. I could read the Hindi lyrics as I can read Hindi but being uninitiated in Gujrati, I craved to read those words but couldn’t.

What I Loved the Most:

I loved how Manali Desai, the author, has offered her readers a bunch of tales of love where she has presented twenty-nine different flavors of love, without using any complexities of mind of the characters or erotic scenarios or brutal intentions, which I have read in several love stories and these elements deeply affect my reading spree as I don’t like these adverse thoughts to interfere the sweetness of the word ‘Love’.

I appreciate the author’s excellence in bringing human emotions, creating sweet moments to add flavors to mundaneness, finding the impact of love in human lives, and discovering the power of love in the little things of life. This is why ‘Heartstrings and Harmonies’ offers a collection of stories that not only talk about love but also present the precious moments of life where ‘Love’ makes everything shine!

A Glimpse of the Book:

Among these bunch of love stories, the stories that found a special space in my heart are:

The Rains Fall Pitter Patter (A story where a common man meets an RJ who was his dream girl)

My Heart Has Started to Love You (A story of a boy and his childhood friend who became a woman and how love blossomed between them)

One Incomplete Story (A story where a girl finds two notes beneath the pages of two books, revealing them as the love letters from two lovers)

You’re the Reason I Smile and Hum (A story of three women clinging on hope to welcome better days in the future)

This Intoxicated Evening (A story of connecting three generations together through the string of music)

Come Back Home (A story where a phone call changed a man’s life)

What Makes the Difference:

Songs, of course! Can you imagine a short story collection inspired by music? It’s a rare finding and thus, the author has excelled in brainstorming such a unique romance collection by intertwining music with stories.

Moreover, every story relates to a specific song in a beautifully balanced way that the reader never feels like the author has forcefully blended the story with the song. Instead, the author’s flow of writing the story takes you on a nostalgic ride to remember the song and I am sure readers will definitely hum the song in their minds or vocally while reading the story. And here is the master stroke by the author!

A Quote to Remember:

“In a few seconds, Rafi and Asha’s voices were drowned amidst an off-key duet mingled with laughs.”

It was their song after all; the one that gave them strength to get through days when the going got tough.

–         From ‘Heartstrings and Harmonies’ by Manali Desai

My Recommendation:

In a lazy afternoon or an evening dedicated to self-love and relaxing the mind, if you are looking for a light read to spend your time without any stress, this book is the perfect one to grab your read. On a vacation where you want to gift yourself some time to relish and read something while watching nature and listening to your favorite playlist of songs, you may need to pick this book and tune in to your favorite songs to savor every bit of this sweet collection of short stories.

Buy the book here.

(I received the review copy for an honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.)