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jplayjames's review
2.0
I should have known better from how much of the first page of the sample was about snot.
I picked it up because I want variety in sports in sports romances, and slogged through because I was interested in something Indian written for Indian audiences, but the latter aspect definitely made it a hard read. It wasn't just the inglish and hinglish elements, which I could at least Google a significant portion of the time, but also a lot of cultural touchstones and contexts without which references didn't necessarily make sense and jokes fell flat.
Which is fine, the book wasn't written for me, and while I think it is worth knowing if you go into this as a non-Indian reader, marking it down just because I chose to be out of my depth would be as churlish as buying a book in Portuguese and then marking it down because I don't speak Portuguese.
What did make me feel more justified was how much of the humour just didn't land for me. There was a lot of what i guess was gross-out humour, with discussions of snot, human and cow crap, the fmc character gets peed on by a small child for no reason related to the plot and later when they think someone is going to set themself on fire (we'll come back to this) it transpires that he is only peeing. There were also a bunch of gay jokes which do not land at all, especially a small child singing about AIDS (this same five year old is also a pervert, presumably also because the author thought that would be funny).
The self-immolation part above is a small symptom of how many times suicide is flippantly mentioned throughout the book. There are some cases where I feel like it is possibly cultural commentary from the author and I'm just missing context, especially the first and most shocking discussion, but definitely others where it just seems like a callous throwaway.
A bunch of the cultural commentary and description was interesting though, even as an outsider struggling to follow along at times. The sports element of the sports romance also felt prominent not just a tacked on way for the MMC to be a celebrity, which is good. The "luck" plotline and the way all the characters reacted to it felt novel and occasionally incisive, although again I'm guessing at contexts.
And as I hoped, it was interesting to see not just the stuff where the author was explicitly commenting on Indian society, but the more casual side of a book being written for an Indian audience, in terms of the settings, contexts, and dialect.
Anyway, leaving all that aside, the characters spent so much of the book falling out that it was exhausting. I guess maybe it was an enemies to lovers thing where they really were enemies, which is a trope that often stretches its definition of enemies, but they spent so much of the book fighting, and every time they made up they would argue again for much longer. Romances often present cartoonishly idealised versions of relationships. This seems instead to have decided to exaggerate the toxicity.
There was interesting stuff about self doubt and that, but it just happened so many times that it dragged.
Anyway I'm unsure how or whether to rate this book - I normally rate anything based on personal enjoyment but as mentioned above it feels unfair to rate down something because of my own lack or knowledge - but some of the other stuff I've mentioned makes me feel vindicated in being a little unfair.
I think I'm going to leave it as a thorough explanation of the pros and cons for now, with two red flags for potential readers being that you will have to work a little more for it and accept not getting everything if you have not lived in India, and that some of the humour will cross the line from an English POV.
I picked it up because I want variety in sports in sports romances, and slogged through because I was interested in something Indian written for Indian audiences, but the latter aspect definitely made it a hard read. It wasn't just the inglish and hinglish elements, which I could at least Google a significant portion of the time, but also a lot of cultural touchstones and contexts without which references didn't necessarily make sense and jokes fell flat.
Which is fine, the book wasn't written for me, and while I think it is worth knowing if you go into this as a non-Indian reader, marking it down just because I chose to be out of my depth would be as churlish as buying a book in Portuguese and then marking it down because I don't speak Portuguese.
What did make me feel more justified was how much of the humour just didn't land for me. There was a lot of what i guess was gross-out humour, with discussions of snot, human and cow crap, the fmc character gets peed on by a small child for no reason related to the plot and later when they think someone is going to set themself on fire (we'll come back to this) it transpires that he is only peeing. There were also a bunch of gay jokes which do not land at all, especially a small child singing about AIDS (this same five year old is also a pervert, presumably also because the author thought that would be funny).
The self-immolation part above is a small symptom of how many times suicide is flippantly mentioned throughout the book. There are some cases where I feel like it is possibly cultural commentary from the author and I'm just missing context, especially the first and most shocking discussion, but definitely others where it just seems like a callous throwaway.
A bunch of the cultural commentary and description was interesting though, even as an outsider struggling to follow along at times. The sports element of the sports romance also felt prominent not just a tacked on way for the MMC to be a celebrity, which is good. The "luck" plotline and the way all the characters reacted to it felt novel and occasionally incisive, although again I'm guessing at contexts.
And as I hoped, it was interesting to see not just the stuff where the author was explicitly commenting on Indian society, but the more casual side of a book being written for an Indian audience, in terms of the settings, contexts, and dialect.
Anyway, leaving all that aside, the characters spent so much of the book falling out that it was exhausting. I guess maybe it was an enemies to lovers thing where they really were enemies, which is a trope that often stretches its definition of enemies, but they spent so much of the book fighting, and every time they made up they would argue again for much longer. Romances often present cartoonishly idealised versions of relationships. This seems instead to have decided to exaggerate the toxicity.
There was interesting stuff about self doubt and that, but it just happened so many times that it dragged.
Anyway I'm unsure how or whether to rate this book - I normally rate anything based on personal enjoyment but as mentioned above it feels unfair to rate down something because of my own lack or knowledge - but some of the other stuff I've mentioned makes me feel vindicated in being a little unfair.
I think I'm going to leave it as a thorough explanation of the pros and cons for now, with two red flags for potential readers being that you will have to work a little more for it and accept not getting everything if you have not lived in India, and that some of the humour will cross the line from an English POV.
spicedragon's review
2.0
2/5
Truly I only put myself through these books for my friends so I can read a romcom(?) from the subcontinent. I feel like these books are only uber enjoyable if you're in the demographic of the main characters, well to-do UC Hindus.
There is so much.... so much wading through extra nonsense and many choices are made. I don't know why we need to know the background of Zoya's uncles IDK how it was relevant to her story and journey with Nikhil. Chauhan also makes such questionable writing choices.... what was the need to make a literal toddler a whole pervert??? It's genuinely not that funny like. On to the characters:
Zoya as a character is likeable to an extent but then around the halfway mark she fully dons the dunce cap. So much conflict could have been avoided if she used the 1 braincell she's apparently been blessed with. I don't know how she let the concept of her being a lucky charm get to her head to the point where she thought she'd be doing ads and burning bridges with others around her. She's self-aware but also not at the same time, it's a very confusing limbo.
Nikhil on the other hand weirdly spent the time flip flopping? He's a total dick if I'm being honest, like yea you got the awful weight of the country's expectations on your shoulders, but snapping at the girl you supposedly like isn't it. You're hot but that can only get you so far... At one point he tells Zoya to shut up, and Zoya mentions he says it with a nasty edge and this is when they're on good terms!! And into each other!!! I'm like the day I let some man say shut up to me in a nasty way is the last day you will see that man in one piece.
Despite the main couple hardly spending time with each other (something I've noticed is a trend in Chauhan's books) their chemistry and romance is still well done (that's why I'm giving the 2 stars) because despite the other nonsense the couple is believable. But I really do wish we spent less time talking about the marketing industry and more interactions between the main couple.
Truly I only put myself through these books for my friends so I can read a romcom(?) from the subcontinent. I feel like these books are only uber enjoyable if you're in the demographic of the main characters, well to-do UC Hindus.
There is so much.... so much wading through extra nonsense and many choices are made. I don't know why we need to know the background of Zoya's uncles IDK how it was relevant to her story and journey with Nikhil. Chauhan also makes such questionable writing choices.... what was the need to make a literal toddler a whole pervert??? It's genuinely not that funny like. On to the characters:
Zoya as a character is likeable to an extent but then around the halfway mark she fully dons the dunce cap. So much conflict could have been avoided if she used the 1 braincell she's apparently been blessed with. I don't know how she let the concept of her being a lucky charm get to her head to the point where she thought she'd be doing ads and burning bridges with others around her. She's self-aware but also not at the same time, it's a very confusing limbo.
Nikhil on the other hand weirdly spent the time flip flopping? He's a total dick if I'm being honest, like yea you got the awful weight of the country's expectations on your shoulders, but snapping at the girl you supposedly like isn't it. You're hot but that can only get you so far... At one point he tells Zoya to shut up, and Zoya mentions he says it with a nasty edge and this is when they're on good terms!! And into each other!!! I'm like the day I let some man say shut up to me in a nasty way is the last day you will see that man in one piece.
Despite the main couple hardly spending time with each other (something I've noticed is a trend in Chauhan's books) their chemistry and romance is still well done (that's why I'm giving the 2 stars) because despite the other nonsense the couple is believable. But I really do wish we spent less time talking about the marketing industry and more interactions between the main couple.
xxrouxx's review
4.0
This book was a little hard to read in parts without translations and it was all a little dramatic and both Zoya and Nikhil had moments of pure stupidity but overall I really enjoyed it! It was just a nice book I was able to sit back and enjoy without having to think too hard XD
anisha9's review
3.0
A hilarious take on cricket fever in the subcontinent. Doubles up as chick-lit too.
nidhi2023's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
maim_mona's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
ingenioussups's review against another edition
I really wanted to finish this book but there was so much that I didn't understand that made it difficult to follow. I'll probably come back to it at some point when I have more time to dedicate to googling.
moviemavengal's review
3.0
This book was on sale for 99 cents on Kindle, and I was very curious because of the casting of the upcoming movie adaptation starring Sonam Kapoor and Dulquer Salmaan
While I have no interest in cricket, and understand little about the game, I do have interest in Dulquer who is going to play Nikhil, the captain of the Indian cricket team.
Oh, yeah. Can't wait for this movie pairing. I think Sonam will be good as ad producer Zoya, who becomes the national cricket team's lucky mascot, the Zoya Factor.
I had trouble reading through the cricket game portions and really picturing what was going on, but a film will be great for those scenes. Some stuff from the book will likely be cut, and that will be fine. The core story is still good, but I hope they amp up the romantic scenes a bit. Wondering if there will be songs, because the night they explore the market area around her house would be perfect.
Nice romance with lots of twists! Dulquer will be perfect.
While I have no interest in cricket, and understand little about the game, I do have interest in Dulquer who is going to play Nikhil, the captain of the Indian cricket team.
Oh, yeah. Can't wait for this movie pairing. I think Sonam will be good as ad producer Zoya, who becomes the national cricket team's lucky mascot, the Zoya Factor.
I had trouble reading through the cricket game portions and really picturing what was going on, but a film will be great for those scenes. Some stuff from the book will likely be cut, and that will be fine. The core story is still good, but I hope they amp up the romantic scenes a bit. Wondering if there will be songs, because the night they explore the market area around her house would be perfect.
Nice romance with lots of twists! Dulquer will be perfect.
viveknshah's review
2.0
Hooter: A chick lit amongst the backdrop of the cricket world cup.
A "Karol bagh" ad executive trying to eke a name, born on the very moment India won the 1983 World Cup and hence being lucky for teams she supports ( though she hates cricket) is pretty much the side dishes amongst the main course of a love story between a celebrity and a regular person and their on- off relationship. To be honest , I focused on the side dishes to keep the story going for me. The cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the superstitions and how cricket truly is a religion in India. If you need super light reading and not walk away with an iota of weight of sense and sensibility, this is the book for you. Almost all of the supporting characters are caricatures sometimes really close to real life cricketers to help you visualise.
A "Karol bagh" ad executive trying to eke a name, born on the very moment India won the 1983 World Cup and hence being lucky for teams she supports ( though she hates cricket) is pretty much the side dishes amongst the main course of a love story between a celebrity and a regular person and their on- off relationship. To be honest , I focused on the side dishes to keep the story going for me. The cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the superstitions and how cricket truly is a religion in India. If you need super light reading and not walk away with an iota of weight of sense and sensibility, this is the book for you. Almost all of the supporting characters are caricatures sometimes really close to real life cricketers to help you visualise.