A review by medini_l
The House that BJ Built by Anuja Chauhan

2.0

‘… it was better to demolish the house and keep the family together than demolish the family and keep the house together.’

[a:Anuja Chauhan|1637550|Anuja Chauhan|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1380174467p2/1637550.jpg] is probably one of the few Indian authors whose books I do not hesitate to pick up. Her writing is as witty and humorous as ever, with a lot of Hinglish interspersed in the dialogues and the characters’ thoughts, probably to give it an air of authenticity. Also, I noticed a lot more Hindi words in this book compared to her previous books. (Of this, I can’t be sure. My memory fails me, but it’s just a thought.)

[b:THE HOUSE THAT BJ BUILT|25599937|THE HOUSE THAT BJ BUILT|Anuja Chauhan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1433541695s/25599937.jpg|45185731] is a recap into the lives of the alphabetically named sisters, Anjini, Binodini, Chandralekha, Debjani and Eshwari, The Pricey Thakur girls, now older, with families and problems of their own. Debjani had been my favorite character in [b:THOSE PRICEY THAKUR GIRLS|19227449|THOSE PRICEY THAKUR GIRLS|Anuja Chauhan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394701807s/19227449.jpg|24076846], but here, I found myself liking Anjini a lot more. The sisters’ quarrels, their tenderness towards their father, their attempts to set-up Eshwari with Satish Sridhar and their endless hassles with Bonu was hilarious and compelling.

“We are all vegetarians in RIGID,” Chandu volunteers. “We believe cows are our sisters.”
“And we believe our sisters are cows!” said Eshwari with an inelegant snort of laughter.

The protagonist of this book is actually Bonita Singh: 2nd sister Binodini’s daughter, survivor of a horrific accident that took the lives of her immediate family, leaving her alone with her grandparents and the cows (Yeah, that’s what she calls her mother’s sisters). Basically, I disliked Bonu with a passion. It’s not just that I couldn’t relate with her; I found her an annoying, arrogant, presumptuous, unscrupulous cheat! She wouldn’t even try to bond with her aunts and was being a massive pain in the ass for a good 80% of the book. Also, she was supposed to be 26, but felt more like she was 16. The only ‘good’ thing about her was her relationship with her grandfather, Justice Laxmi Narayan Thakur.

Thankfully, the love interest, Samar Vir Singh, a young, swoon-worthy Bollywood director of 2 hit films and on his way to direct a period drama based on his great-grandparents’ life, was redeeming in comparison. I liked his sense of right and wrong and his relationship with Anjini. I wish I could say the same about his taste in girls.

Recommended to people who enjoyed [b:Those Pricey Thakur Girls|25472292|Those Pricey Thakur Girls|Anuja Chauhan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1430643243s/25472292.jpg|24076846].