UNWANTED GIRL by M.K. Schiller-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 19, 2016

When a man loves a woman

Recovering addict Nick Dorsey finds solace in his regimented life. That is until he meets Shyla Metha. Something about the shy Indian beauty who delivers take-out to his Greenwich Village loft inspires the reclusive writer. And when Shyla reveals her desire to write a book of her own, he agrees to help her. The tale of a young Indian girl growing up against a landscape of brutal choices isn’t Nick’s usual territory, but something about the story, and the beautiful storyteller, draws him in deep.

Shyla is drawn to Nick, but she never imagines falling for him. Like Nick, Shyla hails from a village, too…a rural village in India. They have nothing in common, yet he makes her feel alive for the first time in her life. She is not ready for their journey to end, but the plans she’s made cannot be broken…not even by him. Can they find a way to rewrite the next chapter?

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REVIEW: UNWANTED GIRL by M.K. Schiller is a story within a story about a young, twenty two year old East Indian woman known as Shyla Metha, and twenty-seven year old American author Nick Dorsey. Shyla is in New York, on a scholarship to earn a degree in elementary education. Working part -time at a local deli finds our heroine face to face with the reclusive Nick Dorsey-an author who has lost his muse and a man who is lonely in the face of being alone. What ensues is a building friendship, a novel co-authored by Shyla and Nick, and a romance with an end date that Nick refuses to accept.

Part of UNWANTED GIRL focuses on female gendercide-the destruction, murder and killing of girl babies especially as it pertains to India, and their desire for a male heir or a son. Our heroine is a woman who needs to write a story that follows Asha- one family’s experiences and losses due to the illegal and ritual practice of killing baby girls. The other part of the story line follows the romance and love between a recovering meth addict, and a woman who needs to return home to help those who are unable to help themselves. There is a major twist to the story -one that I had suspected from the start -but a twist that, at times, felt unrealistic. Nick is the broken but perfect hero with a dark and dangerous past; Shyla is a strong heroine who knows that her time with Nick is limited until her college graduation whereupon she will return to India and the poverty-ridden slums she knows too well.

For many readers, UNWANTED GIRL is a sociological study in cultural differences and beliefs, while others will have a difficult time with the romance aspect of a story where so much pain and suffering has befallen a society who view women as nothing more than chattel. UNWANTED GIRL is a story of survival; of betrayal and loss; of moving forward and but never forgetting those left behind. UNWANTED GIRL is not a traditional romance story line – the gendercide aspect is not commonplace, conventional or ordinary especially wrapped between a romantic story.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy