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jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Though certainly perfect for one another, the toxicity of the surrounding bachelor and business drama just put a grey cloud over the book for me. Neeshas DV experience I feel was handled well though. Overall, it seemed like a great representation of the diversity of Indian culture but as I’m not part of the culture myself it’s an opinion to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Graphic: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Body shaming, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Misogyny, and Medical content
overflowingshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Narrator Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Medical content
Minor: Death and Misogyny
vj_thompson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Graphic: Sexism, Cursing, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny
Moderate: Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Grief, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death, Vomit, Violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Car accident
lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Sexism
angelfireeast24's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Car accident, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Drug use
sweetchocolatez's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Car accident, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Grief, and Medical content
Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Sexism, Vomit, Violence, and Misogyny
Minor: Emotional abuse
harmonashleyn's review against another edition
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, and Medical trauma
starklinqs's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
1.0
I really wanted to like this. I love reading books from other desi authors and I LOVE cheesy romcom books. But there was way too much I thought was…super gross while reading this:
- My biggest issue: Sam is just super misogynistic and kind of creepy the entire book. If this was something he actually grew from, that would be great! But while Layla rightfully calls him out at the climax of the book, he doesn’t actually change his behavior. He’s “overprotective” of Layla to the point that he’s causing fights, or almost getting into fights, with every possible suitor he meets (and he barely knows Layla at this point!). He says misogynistic shit like “the man should drive” (????) and at the end still holds onto this stuff and says the man should propose. He has HORRIBLE friends except for John (who tbh, I started shipping with Layla more lmao. Sam’s ass deserved to get dumped) but despite all his friends being terrible people they continue to be in his life. Not to mention the climax of the book gets brushed over remarkably fast - Layla’s parents weren’t too keen on Sam BEFORE that climax, and I don’t know how what happened after didn’t completely sever any form of reconciliation.
- Sam’s protectiveness is just dressed up possessiveness, this dude is just covered in red flags but I guess I’m supposed to root for him because he’s hot and has a tragic backstory (which isn’t even his, it’s his sister’s, and even after being called out about trying to get Justice without seeing what she wants he….still does that). It’s just really weird to me, that in a book that specifically calls out the sexism of the suitors and the abuse of another character, that the love interest is then consistently misogynistic and displays weird, creepy behavior throughout the book.
- The objectification. I love seeing characters attracted to each other but this was so much and so often. I don’t need to read Layla’s “breasts bounced gently under her filmy blouse”. There were so many lines that drew me out of the book that I looked back at the author because it felt so much like it was written from a man who sees women as sex objects (I guess kudos to Desai on that since it’s from Sam’s POV). Sam himself is borderline sexually harassed by a character in the book and it’s treated as a quirky funny thing, because he’s sooo hot that these things just happen.
- So. Much. Miscommunication. About the viral video. About the dating. About the design papers. About the dating again. Characters don’t have to be completely mature all the time but Jesus Christ.
There were also little things that bothered me - her dad apparently knows her the best out of everyone but then sets her up with objectively horrendous men (like an ex gang member slash current criminal? Seriously? That made it into his list of yes-es?), the need to explain just about everything (like not just Indian things, at some point the book explained who Gordon Ramsey was), the weird entitled behavior Daisy and Layla had when they first used the office - even if I hate Sam, that whole thing was super weird on their part.
This book ultimately reads about a woman who’s had horrible relationship after horrible relationship and then ends up with a walking red flag.
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Misogyny
Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Infidelity
rensreading's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
i don’t mind cheesy rom-coms in the least. so that’s not the reason i didn’t really like this.
i hated the love interest. i hated all the undealt with misogyny. i hated the way the author wrote when in sam’s pov and didn’t seem to find a problem with what they were writing.
the plot was fine. the story was okay. layla was underwhelmingly average and sam was awful. i liked royce better than i did him and that says a LOT.
i did understand sam’s need to get justice for his sister though. i think others calling him selfish for putting his sister first is also misogynistic and stupid. its wrong of him to quit being a doctor and get his sister’s ex-husband in jail for what he did to her simply bc he isn’t fulfilling every poc parents’ dream by being a doctor? bullshit.
all in all, i’d give this 3 stars and 2 🌶🌶 as well.
Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, Vomit, Sexual assault, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Car accident, and Death
the main characters do get in a car accident but don’t die. the death tag is related to an off-screen death that happened years before the events in the book.ame_lepage's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Let's just get the few positives out of the way.
First, I liked Sam's sister, John and Layla's father. That's pretty much it.
Second, I did enjoy the cultural aspect of the story, with the restaurant and everything that surrounded it.
But oh man the rest...
This book was filled with unlikeable characters, full of stereotypes and misogyny. I initially thought that the author would seize the opportunity to strongly criticize toxic masculinity, hypersexualisation and just sexism in general. But she just gave us mixed signals.
Layla was constantly saying people were sexist and she was telling people they were sexist. But then? She tolerated similar things from other people and it infuriated me.
Sam was sexist. At many occasions, he objectified Layla and he pulled misogynistic comments. I understand physical attraction, but I just felt so uncomfortable. He talked about her as if she was his to look at how he wanted when he wanted.
All the female workers were portrayed as unprofessional and constantly trying to get laid. There was not one single female character who was not trying to get Sam to sleep with him.
Layla and Sam were most of the time horrible people. They were disrespectful and I sometimes thought they were alone, but realised they were saying these horrible things in front of the person in question. They annoyed the hell out of me.
Every single men Layla met were heavily stereotyped, no nuances or depth in their characters. Can someone explain to the author that not every single guy is an asshole.
Anyway, one of the worst books I have read this year. And the worst thing is that I might read the two other books in the series. We'll see.
Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny