A story of love and half truths

Teenage years are arguably the most exciting and unique years of our lives. The transition from childhood to adulthood opens up a whole new world of challenges, excitement and feelings, and all of it comes with a heavy breath of first loves and romantic possibilities. If you add intrigue, secrets and some psycho babble to this already explosive mix, what you get is the book Secretly Yours by Vikrant Khanna.

Everyone has secrets… But is hers the most shocking? Orphaned at birth, 17-year-old Sahil has always blamed himself for his parents’ death. He has little interest in life until he meets the enigmatic Anya in a chance encounter during the Shimla Fest. Soon he falls head over heels in love with her, but Anya doesn’t reciprocate his feelings.

An accident leaves him in a coma and when he wakes up he makes a startling discovery – he can read minds! Now he can find out what goes on in Anya’s mind and maybe, just maybe, make her fall in love with him. But is Anya all she seems? Or is she hiding something? Deliciously plotted, full of morbid secrets and startling revelations, Secretly Yours will make you question what you see and who you trust. Sahil’s life is the living example of Murphy’s Law. Everything that could possibly go wrong in a teenager’s life has gone wrong in his and he takes to self-harm, smoking, and alcohol to momentarily forget the pain.

Sahil is not sure what his career would be, for he undecidedly thinks of being a musician, a guitarist until Anya enters. Anya enrolls in the music academy where Sahil is a student. The instructor there is too busy to attend to new students that he leaves the beginners to be taught by other students. 

Sahil teaches Anya how to play the guitar while falling in love with her hair, which he is obsessed with, and her. Anya, though gives Sahil all the signs of falling in love, rejects him when he tells her so which brings out the writer in Sahil and he gets halfway through his barely written book.

Amidst this half-baked love story, comes the thrill of a serial killer on loose committing murders and secret disappearances of Anya along with the unexplained behavior of her friends. His Grandma, who unapologetically blames him for the death of his parents dies in a car accident (guess who was driving the car?). 

For his skill to work, he has to be in physical contact with the person he wants to read the mind of. Will Sahil be able to find out Anya’s secret and save her from the impending doom? Will he be able to sort out his upturned life and his relationships? To find out, grab the book, but at your own risk.  I have read earlier books by Vikrant Khanna, I must say this book is a masterpiece.