About the Book:
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When Shireen's landlord announces that he's demolishing the building where she stays, she has no recourse but to stay at her friend Naima's house until she can find a place for herself. Enter brooding and judgy Umar who is Uzair's older brother, who is in Bangalore for an interview. He riles Shireen in the worst way and yet she cannot stop thinking about him when he leaves. But what is she going to do when she learns that he has got a job in Bangalore? He's going to move to his brother's house till he finds a place.
Will Umar and Shireen put aside the differences between them and explore what they can possibly have with each other? Smitten by You is the third book in the Destination Wedding Series by Andaleeb Wajid, author of More than Just Biryani, The Crunch Factor, Twenty Nine Going on Thirty, Asmara's Summer, House of Screams, Jasmine Villa Series and several others.
Although this a standalone romance, it's better to read the series in order to understand the journey of the characters. Read One Way to Love and Remembering You to enjoy this book more!
Read an Excerpt from Smitten by You
Chapter 1
Shireen didn’t need to be a genius to figure out that she was in deep trouble. Her boss, Pushpanjali Rao looked at her over her round wire-rimmed glasses that often magnified her eyes and raised an elegant eyebrow in her direction. They were seated in her office, a bright room with whitewashed walls, high ceilings and the red oxide floors she loved so much.
Quietly, imperceptibly, she toed off her jootis and let her feet touch the floor. The coolness seeped into her soles and somewhat neutralised the shame and the heat she was feeling at the moment.
‘Can you explain this Shireen?’ she asked softly.
I can’t, she thought wildly. She wished the earth would open up and swallow her whole. But what was done was done. She slipped her feet back into her jootis.
‘I…’
‘Go on,’ Pushpanjali Ma’am said. Shireen looked at her to see if she there was a hint of kindness hidden behind the steel in that voice. There wasn’t.
‘It was a mistake. I didn’t know they would…’
‘They would…’ Pushpanjali Ma’am prompted. ‘You didn’t know they would wreak havoc in my gallery? That they would destroy my plants and…’
My plants, Shireen thought, annoyed momentarily and then tuned back into the dressing down of her life. One that she totally deserved. She had convinced Pushpanjali Ma’am to open the gallery for poetry readings, book launches and even open mic events. Her boss was unfazed by whatever happened in the world outside. She was only concerned with the artists she featured and even there, her lackadaisical attitude had made Shireen go quite mad.
But since Shireen had started holding events at Art Space, things had changed rather drastically. The quiet Sadashivnagar gallery had become the go-to place for all things cultural and even Pushpanjali Ma’am had been startled at the visitors who had started streaming in regularly. Weekends were of course, quite hectic and Shireen finally had to grit her teeth and learn Excel so she could manage what was happening and when.
The gallery was in an old bungalow that had been refurbished by Pushpanjali Ma’am’s son who lived abroad with his family. Since she refused to move to the US with him, he had helped set up the gallery for her because she’d always loved art and it had been something she had wanted to do for the longest time. In fact, Bhaskar had been the one to hire Shireen and he had left her in charge.
Shireen had fallen in love with it the moment she saw it. From her stuffy apartment in Mumbai, she’d moved to Bangalore years ago and had lived in PGs and finally managed to find an apartment for reasonable rent. The space in the gallery though blew her mind. So much empty space! The tall ceilings, the Mangalore tiled roof, the stark whitewashed walls and the quaint little garden that surrounded it was breath taking. There was even a little pond!
Art Space had gained a lot of popularity in recent times and they’d been covered in several newspapers and magazines. Shireen felt an inordinate amount of pride at what she had achieved in her time here. The pay sucked big time. It was less than half what she had been earning in her corporate job but the vibe there had killed her soul. She was a Literature student and she hated sitting in front of the computer doing technical writing because that was all she was good for, apparently.
Anyhow, she hadn’t minded the lower pay because she felt like she was living her life. Until the shocker from her landlord had come last month and she had to vacate her home. She was desperately looking for another place because she didn’t want to stay any longer at Uzair and Naima’s. She’d already been here for two weeks now and although they wouldn’t even dream of saying it, she felt like she had over-extended her stay.
But now, her job, the only thing that kept her together could possibly be taken away from her. Why? Because she had given the okay to a group of performers who wanted to hold a play here. She thought that since they had space, they could do it. But she belatedly realised that if something of this sort was going to happen, they would have to charge a fee for it. Since it was a free performance and the performers were young college students, they had invited their friends who in turn had invited their friends. What happened was that there was quite literally a stampede inside the gallery and well, when they left, the mess they’d left behind was phenomenal.
About the Author:
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| Author's Amazon Page |
Andaleeb Wajid is a hybrid author, and Smitten by You is her 25th novel. She has self-published the popular Jasmine Villa series on Amazon. Andaleeb enjoys writing in a number of different genres such as Young Adult, Romance, and Horror. Andaleeb’s horror novel House of Screams and Young Adult time travel series – The Tamanna Trilogy - have been optioned for the screen and she has an upcoming romance novel with Penguin Random House in 2020.
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