During the recent 3-day weekend, I have successfully achieved my targets; namely to sleep, enjoy homemade food, chill at home and practically do nothing. This was much needed especially since I had such a hectic week last week. But being me,  the max I can go on house quarantine is just 2 days,  so comes Sunday night I got extremely bored already and I told my husband “You must take me out tomorrow, I’m already miserable!” (muahahaha) Nonetheless, during this “do nothing” period, I managed to finish reading “Dekatnya Cinta” and here is my review on it.

(Major spoiler alert!)

Dekatnya Cinta is a continuation from the best-selling novel by Aisya Sofea, Adam dan Hawa, which had enjoyed equal success as a TV drama adaptation. The story takes place roughly 3 years after the main characters (pilot captain Adam Mukhriz and his wife Ain Hawani) solved their differences and finally leads their lives as husband and wife. Their happiness is now doubled with the birth of their daughter Arissa.

Oh well, the conflict begins when Ain voiced out her desire to pursue her studies in DBA. Adam was a bit reluctant in the beginning as he feared that she won’t be able divide her time between career, family and studies but he eventually gives in as Ain being very persistent and promises that she will keep family as priority.

As the classes commenced and the workload mounted, Ain began to feel the pressure. She hardly cook for the family, she felt lethargic all the time, and Am constantly complained that they hardly spend time together anymore. As best as she tried, she didn’t seem to please anyone. One thing led to another and the cold war between Am and Ain became inevitable. Due to one unfortunate misunderstanding, Am decided to divorce Ain. (You waited for her for 8 years and now you decided to divorce her?! What an idiot.) But you can’t really blame him. Why? Because Ain has ignored and neglected him for a long time, and had the tendency of praising other man (her professor) to him (It’s a big NO, NO girl!) So one day when Ain didn’t pick up his calls and his mom’s calls (their child was sick), Am went to search for her only to saw her receiving a bouquet of roses from another man in a dark place. Am had enough. He was furious. Even Am’s mom and family would not side with Ain this time around. It also didn’t help when someone was secretly admiring Am and this particular lady purposely added fire to the flame.

I feel the quarrels between Am and Ain is very realistic, solely because hubs and I used to have the arguments. For instance, before Ain left for work, she promised Am that she will cook his favourite dish only later to break the promise because she has to stay longer for group discussion. Or when Ain promised to go out with Am but totally forgotten about it because she’s too engrossed with her works. I also remembered the days when I insisted that I have sent a text message to hubs to inform him on my whereabouts , only to discover later, yes I composed the text message but I forgot to press “send”.

The sacrifices made by the other half while the other spouse is trying to achieve their dreams should not go unappreciated. Therefore, I have so much respect of my former MBA classmates for being able to juggle their families, careers and studies. Also, not to forget, much respect to their spouses for being very supportive and understanding. (If in the novel says Ain managed to reach home by 10pm, I find that amazing, cuz our group discussion used to last till 1-2 am!)

I am definitely glad that when I did my MBA I did it together with my hubs. We understood each other even that we still quarreled. We have to put our plan to conceive on hold (plus the doctor said I was not fit for treatment due to high stress) because I set a target that I would like to complete the course within the stipulated time with minimum 3.5 CGPA , which Alhamdulillah I have successfully achieve it. (Dear hubs, in case I forgot to thank you for the sacrifices, a big THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.)

Enough about me, basically lessons learned from this novel are:

1)       Never take your loved ones for granted (even Aisya Sofea has expressed this several times in the novel)

2)       Never, ever praise another man in front of your husband (That’s a big blow to their ego). Besides that don’t compare your spouse with others.

3)       Don’t compare your life and or marriage with others

4)       Communicate, Communicate and Communicate! Should you have any problem discuss calmly about it. Don’t wait until you both are to angry to discuss

5)       Always listen to both side of stories and don’t make decisions when you are angry.

6)       Little things count. Even at your busiest, do send some nice messages to your spouse. A simple message such as I love you or I miss you can make a big difference. It only took a minute at most!

I give this book 3 ½ stars. Could have given it 4 if not for the numerous typo and spelling mistakes. It was really disappointing to see the typo start as early as second page and it continues to appear as I further read the book. I find it very hard to ignore, and honestly it kills my mood to read this book. Thankfully comes to second act the story gets more interesting.

  I actually marked all the typo/spelling mistakes that I discovered 😛 

I must say Aisya Sofea is still one of my favourite local novelists and this book is not disappointing as I first anticipated it. The story is a bit more matured and certainly different from the typical storyline that flooding the market. The issue she brought up in the book is very much relevant to real life couples.

Last but not least after reading the book, I’m seriously reconsidering my idea of pursuing DBA!