
The story of Yauvani and Shayne is expressed in the words of Yauvani in a journal-eque format which is a fresh take in romantic fiction. Yauvani’s recollection of her love is breathtakingly focused. Her love is all consuming, all enveloping and all enduring, to the exclusion of everything and everyone else.
Although we are told that yauvani is a mature PhD scholar, there is a distinct college girl feel to her love. The butterflies in the tummy brand of love that we read in Does Love Give a Second Chance? is bound to feel nostalgic, to remind the reader of his or her own first foray in the valley of love.
The moment a character named Rahul was mentioned, my interest was exponentially increased and I was hooked with the story.
Unfortunately, the biggest strength of the novel is also its greatest weakness. With the laser focussed description of the chain of events, it seems that there is hardly anything going on in the lives of these age-mismatched couple other than their own sort of unfulfilled love. The biggest element whose absence (or lack of prominence) I felt most acutely was of Rahul. He should have had a prominent role to play in the story (as I am sure he must have in real-life, given his relation with the protagonist).

At times it feels like a loop of one person doing something and the other person responding with the same answer and acting the same way over and over again – with some random change in behaviour which is impossible to explain.
Really serious conditions like depression and suicidal tendencies are brushed upon like temporary and casual states: which appear to fade after some time without leaving any lasting effect whatsoever on the person.
I feel the biggest unanswered question in the story was left for the epilogue, and even so, the story felt incomplete. Not the ‘first book in a series’ type of incomplete… just not fulfilling to read. But, the story isn't over - I am eager to see where the epilogue's cliffhanger leads.

Yamini's debut novel has, in its core, a story of heartbreak. But not the regular kind that you might expect - it is unbelievable how many times the heart of our protagonist in the story has been hammered, crushed, beaten and destroyed. And that, in my opinion, is the biggest strentgh of the novel and Yamini's writing.
If you are in a stage of your life where you have given up on love - this book is not for you.

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