Note: A big thanks to BookSirens and the author, Luana Ferraz, for providing me with a copy of Welcome to New York in exchange for an honest review.
Name: Welcome to New York
Author: Luana Ferraz
Genre: Modern Fiction
Book In One Sentence
Welcome to New York by Luana Ferraz documents the journey of Harry and Alana, two people, completely different from each other and withholding a secret – and how they end up together and becoming the biggest support system for each other.
Introduction
The story starts in a coffee shop named Green Bean in New York. Harry is a British lad, who moved from Oxford to New York a few years ago. From the very beginning, it has been indicated that he is harbouring a secret – something that made him uproot his life at Oxford and move across the waters to New York. He meets Alana in the coffee shop. Both of them work there. While Alana is intrigued by Harry’s mysterious demeanour (the hair, tattoos, eyes and accent – let’s face it), she, too, has secrets that nobody is aware of. The story moves on, depicting the lives of these two people, how they end up uncovering each other’s secrets and becoming substantial parts of the other’s life.
Themes
Romance
Like most Modern Fictions, the novel has romance in it. In fact, it takes up an important role as it revolves around both Harry and Alana’s lives – the two of them being in a relationship. We also get minor characters in the story and a peek into their love lives. The story shows how love can change and encourage you to take daring steps and move forward. How it helps you become mature and follow your dreams because when you know that the person you love the most is by your side, you get the courage to take more risks in order to fulfil your dreams and ambitions.
Modern Fiction
There is no doubt that this is Modern/Contemporary Fiction. It tells the story of two major characters – along with a set of minor characters – in the modern setting of New York and Oxford. Over the last few months, I’ve had read historical novels reflecting past times and science fiction highlighting the future. For once, I thought it was a nice change to come back to the current times and read about the [fictional] lives of people my age and mentality. I related to most of their struggles and dilemmas, which made the story interesting for me.
The Ending
If you have watched a Rom-Com, you would know how the ending turned out to be. Almost everyone got a happy ending. This is not surprising, considering how the genre of Modern Fiction focuses on happy ending (or at least, it was so in the ones I’ve read till now). I still have one question, though – did Alana’s parents finally came to know about the truth? How did they take it? I would not spoil anything for future readers, but I was very much looking forward to their interaction.
Significance of the Title
The title – Welcome to New York – is appropriate for the story. Both Harry and Alana came to New York to fulfil their dreams and ambition. New York is often symbolised as the city where dreams come true. And, it holds significance for both Harry and Alana.
Final Take
All in all, it was good as a light-read. Sometimes, the story dragged on for quite a bit. It did become a bit boring at times but overall, it held the essence throughout the narration. As mentioned earlier, there are some gaps in the story – such as the secret Alana was hiding from her parents. I wish the author focussed more on it and let the readers know how it turned out in the epilogue. Harry’s true parentage is another concern that could have been explored more. However, these gaps are not addressed much – not even as a passing remark.
That we should stick together. We’re a minority.
Harry Crawley
My Rating
You can read my other book reviews here.
Anwesha RC 