Let's have coffee

by Parul A. Mittal

Working as an assistant wedding planner at an ex-boyfriend’s wedding, Meha encounters the delectably handsome wedding photographer, Samir. Conceited and a flirt, Samir reveals that the bride happens to be his ex. But when Meha finds out that Samir is using their relationship only as experiential material for his novel, she leads him to believe that he means nothing to her. Their chapter closes.

But life has other plans for Meha. Five years later, she finds herself in an online reality show living-in with the same Samir and trying to understand the true meaning of love. Will she find the forever-wala love in a world where relationships can be as brief as the messages we send each other and where we are spoilt for choices, whether it’s the screensaver on our phone or the flavours of a condom?

An interesting take on relationships in our times, Let’s Have Coffee is funny and witty, warm and wonderfully realistic story of two very different people who fall in love.

240 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2017

About the author

Parul (Agarwal) Mittal is the author of national bestseller novel “Heartbreaks & Dreams! – The Girls @ IIT”. Her second book “Arranged Love” captured the hearts of Indian youth. She has just released her third novel Let's Have Coffee with Rupa Publications.

Apart from reading and writing fiction, the author loves listening to old Hindi music, playing board games, painting, trekking and lawn tennis.

She did her BTech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1995, followed by Masters in Computer Science from UMich, Ann Arbor. She has worked in the corporate world (Hughes, IBM Research, Nextag, Yatra) for over thirteen years. She co-founded an online parenting website called RivoKids. At present she is running recreational math camps for kids and trying to find her FLOW.

Born and brought up in Delhi, she did her schooling at Lady Irwin School, New Delhi and Navrachna School, Baroda. She is married to Alok Mittal and has two amazing daughters - Smiti and Muskaan.
You can read more about her at www.parulmittal.com, join her Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/parulmittalbooks or email her at parulmittal@gmail.com


Apart from reading and writing fiction, the author loves listening to old Hindi music, cannot resist jiving to dance beats, loves to party with friends, and has a keen interest in staying fit.

She did her BTech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1995, followed by Masters in Computer Science from UMich, Ann Arbor. After twelve years in the corporate world (Hughes, IBM Research and Nextag), she is currently running an e-venture called RivoKids . RivoKids offer parents smart ideas to raise bright happy kids and free online memory books to capture fun parenting moments.

Born and brought up in Delhi, she did her schooling at Lady Irwin School, New Delhi and Navrachna School, Baroda. She is married to Alok Mittal and has two daughters - Smiti and Muskaan.

You can read more about her at www.parulmittal.com, join her Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/parulmittalbooks or email her at parulmittal@gmail.com

Reviews

[Surabhi Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
Do you believe in quick and fun relationships or in a foreverwala love? In the age of quick messaging and dating apps, do you expect to find someone who believes in long-lasting relationships? Let’s have Coffee by Parul A. Mittal is a story of new age and big city lovers juggling many lives simultaneously.

Recommended for romance readers. The story is like crunchy wafer wrapped in a chocolate. The author draws an interesting sketch of the life of the lovers of a new age. She tries to untangle love and relationships in today’s digital world. It’s witty and romantic. I find it little filmy. The story has lots of drama you find in Bollywood romantic movie. Let’s have Coffee is a sexy story.

https://thereviewauthor.com/

[Sarmistha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A refreshing read in an unusual setup which has a healthy amount of friendship, love, heartbreaks, superstition,weddings and humor.

Meha an assistant wedding planner meets Samir a freelance photographer at the wedding of their respective ex-es at Goa.Both feel the strong darts of attraction.They feel an instant connection.But things take an ugly turn when Meha discover that Samir is using their experiences for his writing project.Feeling betrayed she abandons him and put a stop to the whole thing.But five years later, they again face each other in a strange situation.
Will the dead old flame reignite or they will again become strangers? Read the book to find all your answers.

The author has finely projected the trends of today's relationship,love, friendship and work relation through her work.She has kept the language simple with a healthy mix of Bollywood songs which suits the situation.The characters are well developed and greatly complement the story.The plot beautifully brings out the fine flaws of human relationships which often escapes the eye.
The readers can easily connect to the central characters. Meha a creative,Straight forward not-so-perfect bookish girl who believes in forever love and smart,caring and witty Samir who wants to experience love in small moments.They are two different entities but yet share an inexplicable bond.The climax was quite predictable.I liked the beautiful cover and the story well justified the title.
Certain things that didn't go well with me are few subplots require more detailing.At times, the central protagonists seems too good to be true.There are lots of twists and turns which sometimes threatened to throttle the life of the story.

I would recommend it to everyone who love reading romantic stories. I want to thank the publisher for the review copy in exchange of honest review.

[Bookish Indulgenges with b00k r3vi3ws · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meha and Samir meet at a wedding; a wedding of their exes! Meha finds herself attracted to Samir only to find out that he has a motive behind indulging her. So, they part ways, only to meet again after a few years for an online project. Meha is looking for her happily ever after in an age when people change their partners faster than android updates on their phones. Will she ever find it?

I have to admit that it took me quite some time to get over the way the protagonists meet. It is hard to believe that both the bride and groom has their exes deeply involved in their wedding. Then again, few years down the line Meha and Samir find themselves involved in the same project! Coincidence much? It just threw me off balance… Once I managed to put that behind me, the romance played out quite well. There was some chemistry between the protagonists that made the whole journey bit more interesting.

Read the full review on Bookish Indulgences with b00k r3vi3ws

[Shreya Vaid · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not a big fan of love stories, somehow they all seem fake to me because I am unable to find a single element that may be connected to the real life of a person. I recently read another love story, Let's Have Coffee by Parul A Mittal, and it was as below.

The story of Let's Have Coffee revolves around Meha who is working as an assistant wedding planner at an ex-boyfriend's wedding. She encounters a dashing, handsome man, Samir, who is the wedding photographer and coincidently, is attending his ex's wedding too. Meha and Samir's instant connection of fate, of ending up at each other's ex-wedding sparks a relationship between them. One day, Meha realizes that Samir is using their relationship as a research ticket for his upcoming novel, and Meha leads him to believe that Samir means nothing to her and their chapter is over. 

But will Meha find the forever love that we have always read in Mills Boons? Will her relationship be always a brief as text messages we send to each other these days?

Now, coming back to the book, I did not like it. The reason can be explained simply in the first part of this review. Did the summary of the plot make any sense to you? Do we still invite our ex's to our wedding let alone attend theirs? Let's Have Coffee did capture the Millennial side of love, but then when I was reading it, and I am a millennial just for the record, the whole time my mind was like "Are you kidding me? Things really happen like that?" Or maybe I am one of those boring millennial who hasn't come across such experiences! 

All in all, this book was not my cup of tea. It can be a quick metro read or a beginner's guide to reading novels, but I will not recommend this to anyone! 

[Sonal Bansal · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Lets have coffee' is like a breath of fresh air! Superbly written, extremely engrossing and depicts today's gen X pulse!

This is one of the best books I have read lately. Once you start reading you can't put it down. The story line is very simple yet extremely engaging. All the characters fit in so well. It's not the typical romantic novel. The one liners are amazing. The usage of Hindi songs every now and then is extremely unique. Reading this book makes me feel the pulse of the gen X! Highly recommend!

[Manvitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute loved it 💕

[Shriya Dasgupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book Let’s Have Coffee, like coffee, is a bitter-sweet tale of two millenials trying to find the true meaning of love. When wedding designer Meha meets the extremely hot photographer Samir at both their ex’s wedding, she instantly falls for him. Samir reciprocates by giving her attention and Meha ends up thinking that she has finally found her ‘foreverwala love’, only to learn one morning that Samir has been using all these experiences to write his book. Dejected and feeling used, Meha leaves instantly leaving a note asking Samir not to contact her.

What is significant here is the difference in the definition of love to Samir and Meha which brings diversity. While Meha wants a permanent someone to hold on to, Samir doesn’t believe in forevers and love to him means having fun.

The novel has shared the message of body positivity through a plump Meha unlike most breathtakingly beautiful female protagonists in romantic novels.

The entire novel is replete with tongue-in-cheek humour with Bollywood songs playing in Meha’s head suiting the situation.

Samir and Meha meets five years later when Meha is hired as the designer for a surprise arranged by Samir’s current girlfriend to propose him. Samir refuses to commit. The island is struck by a tsunami and they somehow escape- Meha and Samir together.

In a twist of fate, Samir and Meha register for an online reality show as live-in partners so that Meha can pay off her debt. When they gradually start to get to know each other and the readers begin to think that it’s now time for a happy ending, Meha learns that Samir has again used all their experiences in his new book, Let’s Have Coffee. Feeling violated and disgusted, Meha breaks up with him. But will the wind and cloud never meet?

Written in easy, lucid language, this book is a nice quick and light read. Pompous weddings, love, breakups, drama,entertainment- it has all the ingredients for a perfect Bollywood masala movie.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading a newspaper article on an Invisible Boyfriend app inspired Parul A. Mittal to wonder how she would behave if random hookups and sex were so accessible and acceptable when she was in her twenties. Was her belief in love outdated and overrated? Why do people get (and stay) married? It was while talking about how having sex has become as casual as having coffee that the book’s title took shape. In Let’s Have Coffee, Mittal chose to untangle love and relationships in today’s digital world.

“Is a relationship nothing more than an intimate cup of coffee shared with an attractive stranger?” That’s the premise behind amateur photographer/secret author Samir’s latest book. When he meets wedding planner extraordinaire Meha. Capturing beauty on camera is his passion; making dreams come true is hers. Like wind and water, Samir and Meha seem like a match made in heaven. When they discover they’ve met at a wedding planned by their EXes, they decide to further EXplore their connection.

After a five year separation due to a misunderstanding, they reconnect and sign up for a reality TV show to fulfil his long-held dream and to fulfil her debt for a lost engagement ring. The catch? They have to live together. “‘When you start living together with someone and get to know the real person, it’s possible to fall out of love. But that only implies that you were really in love with the wrong person to begin with. So I think the show should be titled, ‘Live in, Love the real, False out.’” Romance is brewing right under their nose and they don’t even know. Will these frienemies reconnect over coffee?

“The book reads well. I especially like the online reality show twist.” Parul A. Mittal’s Let’s Have Coffee is “awesome (as in like OhSam).” You’ll savour it like your favourite Frappuccino, “I swear by Starbucks.”

[Mhonchumi Kikon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parul Mittal’s Novel ‘Let’s Have Coffee' recounts the story of a girl named Meha who is a wedding planner and as fate could have it, she was called to assist her ex-boyfriend’s wedding.
While prepping up for her ex’s big day, she encountered Samir, introduced to us as a flirty and snobbish wedding photographer, who coincidentally happened to be the bride’s ex- boyfriend. Talk about major co-incidence?
Spark flew and later a fling follows, until Meha finds out how Samir was using their relationship as an experiment to write his novel, this irks Meha and she had to leave Samir, without his notice.

Fast forward to five years…. Fate played its role again and brings both of them together. But, this time it was when Meha was helping Soniya plan for her grand proposal to Samir (yes, that’s exactly what I was talking about). Soniya happened to be Samir’s girlfriend and as the big day approached, it did not go as planned, everything was ruined and Samir realized he still has a thing for Meha. Soniya made Meha pay for all the expenses of the entire event, especially for the expensive engagement ring that went missing. The only way to pay back the amount of money at the shortest span of time was to take part in a reality show where one has go as a couple.
Meha seek for Samir’s favor, as he was the reason for all the dramas. During the phase of the show, both ‘once upon a time lovers’ tries to understand the meaning of love as they fake their relationship for the show.
Will the spark light again? Will the 2nd time be lucky for Meha in finding her 'forever wala' love? You will have to grab a copy of “Let’s have Coffee’ to find out.
In the meantime you can read my take on the book.

Read the full review on my blog post https://bit.ly/2HCmxy9

[Brinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parul A. MittalLet's have coffeeThe book is amazing! The author has clearly summarized her thoughts on the current trends on relationship. I initially bought the book to read it and give it away once I'm done but after i finished it, i think it's one of the books i can't let go off. It definitely always has to be there in my book shelves 'forever'. What makes it more fun is that the book includes of a few hindi songs that goes well with the situation. It's captivating, makes you wanna think what going on in Samir's head most of the time. The characters are so detailed which makes it easy for the readers to vizualise it. And the poem in the chapter 'Reality Show Week 5', that was so simple, yet witty. It's a definitely must read book if you're fond of romance books.

[Aishwarya Achu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the plot, somewhat different compared to other Contemporary fiction from Indian Authors

I loved how a reality show plot was added to the book midway. Few wordings were on fire. Characterization were all upto the mark.

Meha what a beautiful and strong character. She tends to motivate others, but in-between the plot she kinda feels demotivated by her size l seeing other Zero size, slim girls. But she always finds ways to motivate her self and boost her confidence by not changing her self. What i absolutely love about this character .

Samir portrayed as being a very flirtatious guy in the novel, his cheesy lines or humor was all fun. I love how his character started building up after a few chapters - more towards the end.

My verdict : Pick It up for a cute contemporary read .

[Vidhya Thakkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

t's always difficult to face your EX when you know you still love them. The story is all about how Samir and Meha finally got into a Committed relationship after many tragedies and challenges that life had for them. The Plot of the story is well written with some Hinglish and Hindi songs which connect with the reader and feel like living that moment. The other characters Tanu, Mansi, Sonia, Anusha, Varun, Sarika added twists to the story.

[Shrinidhi Hande · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story with lots of insights on wedding planning industry. Plot developed nicely with good number of twists and turns. Feels fairly realistic. Told from girl's first person point of view, teaches a thing or two about romance and relationship, besides being entertaining. No side plots, no deviation. Simple straight story telling.

do read

[Vaisali Sridharbabu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is always a pleasure to read the work of Indian writers. Parul nearly covers those bits of feelings that storm woman of late 20s. Indeed a fast read.

[Vaishnavi]

amazinggg. intimate storyy, great!

[Abhilash Ruhela · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are few authors whom you have seen progressing in the field of writing since their 1st book itself. Parul A. Mittal is one such author whom I am following since her first book itself. I am just done reading her latest book “Let’s Have Coffee”. By the name, it sounds as if the book is very casual in terms of story but I must say the story has enough ingredients to keep you interested. Parul’s writing style is still very friendly that makes it easy for readers to understand the pace of the story and thus, complete reading the book in a single sitting itself.

The writing style of Parul is very natural and you can feel the ease with which she pens down her stories. The book starts describing how two individuals meet in a wedding where surprisingly, their respective ex-es are getting married to each other. This is quite undigestible but the authoress takes the plot ahead in a very interesting manner where these two individuals start showing interest in each other i.e. Meha and Samir. Later on, Meha comes to know that Samir has been using her for his own writing project and her heart breaks. Co-incidentally, both of them meet each other again after years in a wedding. The story is totally Bollywood-ish and anyone who loves Hindi films’ drama will love this book.

The book is edited very well without overly describing small incidents or segments. Authoress has kept her story focused on the characters and maintained the same very well. Talking about the drawbacks of the story, I would say that it’s quite predictable and to make the story sound very fancy, authoress has written some parts which are hard to related with reality. But overall, the book is a nice read which you will enjoy once for sure. I give this book 3* out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA!!!

[Saksham · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway so it makes me sad to give this book such a low rating.
But however, I would be lying if I said this was an interesting book. The book is pretty much by numbers but lacks any interesting character or a solid storyline.

Hopefully, future books by the author would be better

[Aritri Chatterjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I try to stay distant from boy-meets-girl love stories, but I decided to give this new release a try.

The story starts with an unconventional protagonist who is not-so-perfect when it comes to her appearance or her career choices (she is into wedding planning). This bit of the book gave me hope with regards to the creativity in it. However, she soon meets (in her ex’s marriage) a handsome young wedding photographer who also happens to be the ex-boyfriend of the bride. What are the odds! This meeting soon transforms into a flirtatious and adorable romance which might appeal to some millennials (not me though) as this is mostly written for them.

Right after this, Meha, our protagonist, finds out that Samir, her beau and wedding photographer, was using her as a prospective plot for his sometime-in-future novel’s plot. She does the obvious and walks out on him. Frankly, I side with Meha. I would have been equally annoyed if I were to be the inspiration for a yet-another boring and unimaginative boy-meets-girl novel. What comes right after this short-lived tragedy is straight out of the numerous Mills and Boon novels I have grown reading and let’s not get into that.

I would recommend this book to someone who has been engrossed in too many dark and unhappy reads and is looking for a light and breezy book such as this. Other than the fact that it is a sweet and funny love story, I do not have too many praises for this book.