Rating: 
Summary: A Gorgeous Tale
Review: I loved this book. I also thoroughly enjoyed the first part to this story. It continues the story of Anju and Sudha who are now reunited in America. Anju has suffered a miscarriage and her relationship with her husband, Sunil, is fragile at best. When Sudha arrives in the U.S. and lives with Anju and Sunil, old wounds are reopened and new passions flare. How all three characters grow and learn makes this story worthwhile. The writing is beautiful, almost lyrical. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I really enjoy "The vine of Desire". It was great, The story took me back home. The friendship between the two cousine was one you don't see in real life. I should have read the "sister of my heart" first. I didnot like how the sequal ended. I had hope Sudha went back with her first love.
Otherwise, It was great reading, hope the author will have new
novels soon.
Rating: 
Summary: I hope there's a 3rd in the series...
Review: I really enjoy CBD's books but I have not yet made up my mind about Vine of Desire. Sister Of My Heart left me with a sense of excitement and hope for Sudha's unknown future in America. But after finishing Vine Of Desire I was left only with a feeling of sadness, and that something was irreplaceably broken. The fact that it bothers me so much is probably a testament to Divakaruni's writing. I found myself rooting for Sunil & Sudha to unite later on, partly because of Dayita. Regardless, I did not feel that the story wrapped up as tidily as it should have. I hope Divakaruni writes another in this series just so this isn't the note that I leave Anju, Sudha, and Sunil on.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I should point out from the start that I've always loved Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's books, and own most of them. They're the kind of books I'm always recommending to friends. But this was just awful - to be honest I didn't make it past page 50 because it was such a struggle to read. The language was very "flowery" and overdone compared to her previous books, and I didn't feel as strongly towards the characters as I'd done in the previous book. I'll undoubtedly read her next book when it comes out, but I'm not sure I'll be as eager as usual to get it.
Rating:
Summary: ~Tried too hard~
Review: I struggled through the first few chapters before deciding that it would be a feat in patience to continue with this book. I had thoroughly enjoyed the book that preceded this, Sister of My Heart and looked so forward to finding out what happened to the sisters. But it was a major annoyance to have 10 "descriptive" words in each sentence and for me that distracted from the story and after a few chapters I simply found it too distracting to continue. Sister of My Heart was descriptive and poetic in much of the writing but I think our author here tried too hard to duplicate that achievment and overdid it! Shame..it detracted from an otherwise good story.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth persisting
Review: I struggled to connect with the characters and for the story to develop in the beginning of this book after being rapt throughout "Sister of My Heart". Soon I was wrapped back into the atmosphere though. Don't discard the book early and you'll enjoy a classic tale beautifully told. I especially enjoyed the author's unusual techniques to flesh out the characters from many angles.
Rating:
Summary: Waiting for the 3rd part of the series...
Review: I was delighted to find out this sequel to my favourite book "Sister of my Heart". I enjoyed each and every chapter, each and every character of this book. Divakaruni shows us, once more, the enormous love between the 2 cousins, Sudha and Anju, and the choices one has to make in his life, sometimes between his/her own good and the persons he/she loves and cares.
This time the story takes place in US, a new place to our characters, which emphasizes not only the love between the two and the choices they have to make, but also the great hopes and dreams an emigrant has. Choice in life aren't easy to Sudha and Anju even when they are away from their 3 mothers and the customs of the society they know.
Most of all, I like Divakaruni's way to show us each character from different angles of view: the way each character sees the same problems, the letters they get or send, secondary characters' thoughts etc. I recommand this book to everyone of you, but mostly to those of you who know what cousins' love is like. For an even more enjoyable read, you must read first "Sister of My Heart".
I hope the third book of this serie is already on its way to the bookstores.
Rating:
Summary: A turning point for the writer...but not her best book
Review: I've read all of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's fiction, and have frequently recommended this tremendously gifted writer to my friends. I eagerly awaited this book, only to be disappointed. Sister of My Heart, of course, doesn't need a sequel, and the author herself has said that she considered the story finished. Only many years later after other projects did she find she still had more to say about Anju and Sudha. And what she has to say is very different from the earlier book. Where Sister affirmed the loving if tangled connections between its characters, Vine finds them tearing each other apart. Unfortunately, there's not enough movement in the story's first half, just an ever-elaborated atmosphere of tension. Worse, the author's trademark sumptuous language is overdone, and it throws off the balance of wordcraft with story. She delivers gem-like descriptions of trash rolling down the street but leaves the characters curiously opaque, their motivations described in artificial and thoroughly unconvincing ways. I never understood why the women acted the way they did, and felt, sadly, that I was missing the drama of present desire contending with past affection, since the loving friendship here threatened was nowhere in evidence. Given these problems with the plot and the characters, I found the language distracting and ineffective, despite some lovely images. I did however find the book grew stronger and more powerful in the second half, after the uncomfortable menage a trois is broken up and the characters pursue their lives separately. Towards the end Divakaruni delivers some truly moving insights into the emotional realities we all share, reminding me that she's a writer worth listening to, even in her weaker efforts. Unlike several of the other readers, I don't think the book's shortcomings derive from being set in the US rather than India, because CBD has already shown that she can tell stunning American tales in her two short story collections. Rather, I think it's that she's in a transitional mode, reinventing herself as a writer on a different scope. You can see this in her use of more varied and sophisticated techniques--five narrators (one of them omniscent) give the story a very different, less intimate texture than Sister of My Heart. Other voices crowd in through letters from India and assignments from Anju's creative writing class. CBD's authorial gaze spirals outward to take in the expanse of the city and the San Francisco bay area, the larger world that swirls around her characters. She makes pointed reference to ongoing world events, and tries (rather clumsily) to weave the OJ Simpson trial into her plot. On the whole, her voice is more experimental and self-conscious in its address to the reader. Some of these features I loved (particularly the last chapter told in Lalit's voice) and others I found distracting, but on most of them I reserve judgment. I think they'll work better in her next book. In summary, I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone who isn't already a Divakaruni fan; Sister of My Heart needs no sequel. I would and do, however, encourage anyone to encounter this talented author through her short stories, collected in Arranged Marriage and (my personal favorite of all her books) The Unknown Errors in Her Lives. And I await her next book with curiosity, eager to see how she grows into her new skin.
Rating: 
Summary: Victorian melodrama in a sari
Review: In the typical Victorian potboiler, the bad temptress repents, rejects her sexuality and ends up either dead, or humbled and living in a convent. Fast forward to the United States in the present-day and you have The Vine of Desire. This novel features stock characters (with an Indian patina) and a cliched plot. The writing alternately gushes and stammers. The female characters have three dimensional moments but the male characters are one-dimensional cardboard.
Rating:
Summary: Not even worth borrowing from the library
Review: Poorly edited without the strong sense of emotion that normally pervades Chitra Divakaruni's writing. This book was extremely disappointing, and I couldn't even finish it. Sister of My Heart and Arranged Marraiges were absolutely stunning works. Please don't read this one.
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