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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
I'm taking part in a romance genre study. This isn't a genre I read a whole lot of, which is why I decided that I needed to learn more about what this genre offers.
The current assignment for the study is contemporary romance. Going through the list of authors and what books were available at the library I work at, I ended up choosing this title as one of the two books I need to read. I choose it in part because it was a romance featuring non-white main characters, and a culture that I have a passing familiarity with.
All told, it was a fun story, that was rather predictable, but in a way that I didn't really mind. It was like a good rom-com, but one of the more enjoyable ones. I mean, you know how the story will end, and you know that there's going to be bumps on the way. And you know the characters are impossibly perfect beings with flaws like "stubborn" and "arrogant".
But the writing was fun, and the look into another culture was fun to learn for me. Not sure that this makes me a fan of romance, but I didn't hate this one, and would actually say I enjoyed it.
The current assignment for the study is contemporary romance. Going through the list of authors and what books were available at the library I work at, I ended up choosing this title as one of the two books I need to read. I choose it in part because it was a romance featuring non-white main characters, and a culture that I have a passing familiarity with.
All told, it was a fun story, that was rather predictable, but in a way that I didn't really mind. It was like a good rom-com, but one of the more enjoyable ones. I mean, you know how the story will end, and you know that there's going to be bumps on the way. And you know the characters are impossibly perfect beings with flaws like "stubborn" and "arrogant".
But the writing was fun, and the look into another culture was fun to learn for me. Not sure that this makes me a fan of romance, but I didn't hate this one, and would actually say I enjoyed it.
The second book in a row where I have a liar. But here the lie was bigger and worse somehow.
Mili got married at 4. She has not seen her husband since that, but she waits, and tries to learn how to be a good wife. So yes in one aspect she was a bit naive. But in another way not. She had waited all her life, so whole waiting she thought if I am better at this or that then maybe...
Samir has some issues from his childhood, but he is now a big time director of Bollywood movies. He only had this bad boy rep, but he is a real sweetie underneath. And now he is gonna save his brother from an unwanted marriage.
So his brother could not remember he was married and married someone else...I guess they are not big on bureaucracy there.
Samir lies and Mili starts to like him. That had me worried. He was only after an annulment for his brother. He played her...until he started to fall for her. That is a lot to forgive.
Mili was supersweet, and Samir was too, even if he was lying much of the time. But this was a romance so everyone lived happily ever after
And yes I expected more since everyone was all, best romance ever! It was good. Nothing groundbreaking like I thought.
Mili got married at 4. She has not seen her husband since that, but she waits, and tries to learn how to be a good wife. So yes in one aspect she was a bit naive. But in another way not. She had waited all her life, so whole waiting she thought if I am better at this or that then maybe...
Samir has some issues from his childhood, but he is now a big time director of Bollywood movies. He only had this bad boy rep, but he is a real sweetie underneath. And now he is gonna save his brother from an unwanted marriage.
So his brother could not remember he was married and married someone else...I guess they are not big on bureaucracy there.
Samir lies and Mili starts to like him. That had me worried. He was only after an annulment for his brother. He played her...until he started to fall for her. That is a lot to forgive.
Mili was supersweet, and Samir was too, even if he was lying much of the time. But this was a romance so everyone lived happily ever after
And yes I expected more since everyone was all, best romance ever! It was good. Nothing groundbreaking like I thought.
Mili was married to Samir's brother at age 4, she hasn't seen him in the 20 years since that day but still believes that if she becomes good enough he will come for her. Meanwhile Samir's brother is married to someone else and expecting his first child when he finds out that he is still technically married because of an obscure piece of law unless he can convince Mili to agree to an annulment. When he meets with a terrible accident he's forced to ask his movie producer brother(suffering from writer's block) to track her down for him.
Mili suffers an accident just as she meets Samir and he winds up caring for her for a few weeks without explaining why he's there. This was entertaining, I didn't love the self inflicted/culturally inflicted slut shaming, thankfully it was short lived. The family members were all fun and interesting, her friend was annoying but that was the point so it worked with the story.
Mili suffers an accident just as she meets Samir and he winds up caring for her for a few weeks without explaining why he's there. This was entertaining, I didn't love the self inflicted/culturally inflicted slut shaming, thankfully it was short lived. The family members were all fun and interesting, her friend was annoying but that was the point so it worked with the story.
Some funny moments, ridiculously over the top and cliche in a lot of ways and like 20% over long. I liked parts a lot but it played on things that make me want to rip my hair out about the romance genre. I still might read the author's next book though.
This story takes place in an alternate universe where Corvettes have back seats.
I liked Mili and Samir and while it was pretty obvious what would happen I still enjoyed reading it.
What I didn't enjoy reading was (and here comes the list) the slut shaming, the way that every women seems to be rated on an attractiveness scale, the way that Mili was always tripping and almost injuring herself- yes having a guy come to the rescue makes the guy seem great but she seems barely able to walk without him there.
That our heroine was such a 'good' girl- and that was defined as being totally self-sacrificing and not valuing herself very much. I just feel like having a higher sense of self worth shouldn't be something that's seen as bad. She's spent her whole life trying to become the perfect husband for a man she met once 20 years ago, I find it difficult to respect that choice and don't think that level of self-sacrifice should be idolised and seen as a good thing.
I didn't like the fake accusation of domestic abuse- for some reason there's this perception that a lot of accusations of domestic abuse/sexual assault/rape are fake, it's somewhere between 1.5-8% (those results were across a few studies) but people have this perception that vastly more accusations (up to 50%) are false. I just don't like fiction that normalises an attitude that's really damaging.
So while I did enjoy reading this there were just too many moments which made me feel really uncomfortable.
What I didn't enjoy reading was (and here comes the list) the slut shaming, the way that every women seems to be rated on an attractiveness scale, the way that Mili was always tripping and almost injuring herself- yes having a guy come to the rescue makes the guy seem great but she seems barely able to walk without him there.
That our heroine was such a 'good' girl- and that was defined as being totally self-sacrificing and not valuing herself very much. I just feel like having a higher sense of self worth shouldn't be something that's seen as bad. She's spent her whole life trying to become the perfect husband for a man she met once 20 years ago, I find it difficult to respect that choice and don't think that level of self-sacrifice should be idolised and seen as a good thing.
I didn't like the fake accusation of domestic abuse- for some reason there's this perception that a lot of accusations of domestic abuse/sexual assault/rape are fake, it's somewhere between 1.5-8% (those results were across a few studies) but people have this perception that vastly more accusations (up to 50%) are false. I just don't like fiction that normalises an attitude that's really damaging.
So while I did enjoy reading this there were just too many moments which made me feel really uncomfortable.
I liked this a lot, though I worried at the beginning that the premise would lend itself to all kinds of creepiness - forced marriage at the age of 4, the boy's family requests to have it annulled and thinks it's done with but the girl's family rejects it and the girl spends 20 years waiting to actually be married to the guy she was married to when she was a child - but the thing that's interesting is that Mili is shown to be a strong and smart and independent woman. She's a victim of this bananas plot, of course, but she manages to exercise quite a bit of power and agency, and even tho she is poor and the love interest is rich, he never uses that as a way to manipulate her.
Things that were awesome: all the details about place and culture and food; some of it was very funny; great familial relationships. Things that were not as awesome: too many plot things happening at times, pacing was rushed; Samir is too perfect; some of the language was ridiculous cliche, which stuck out because much of the rest of it was quite good. But generally a good read, and some very interesting subtext going on about race and class and gender and the patriarchy in modern India/America.
Things that were awesome: all the details about place and culture and food; some of it was very funny; great familial relationships. Things that were not as awesome: too many plot things happening at times, pacing was rushed; Samir is too perfect; some of the language was ridiculous cliche, which stuck out because much of the rest of it was quite good. But generally a good read, and some very interesting subtext going on about race and class and gender and the patriarchy in modern India/America.
I enjoyed the Indian elements of the book, and it was a good rom-com read. However, I was taken aback by the erotic parts. If you can skim over those then you'll be fine, but just be prepared for them. They were uncomfortably explicit. For that reason I would probably rate this book 2.5
This book is everything
I guess I could start by saying that I wouldn't have normally picked up his book because I didn't think I'd be interested in a Bolllywood book. I know nothing of the Indian culture and thought, foolishly that I wouldn't be able to relate to the setting or characters. How wrong I was! I didn't just relate to the characters, I felt like I'd known them forever. This book reads like a movie and the love story that unfolds is so natural you fall into the story easily. So easily that I devoured the book in one sitting. Loved it!
I guess I could start by saying that I wouldn't have normally picked up his book because I didn't think I'd be interested in a Bolllywood book. I know nothing of the Indian culture and thought, foolishly that I wouldn't be able to relate to the setting or characters. How wrong I was! I didn't just relate to the characters, I felt like I'd known them forever. This book reads like a movie and the love story that unfolds is so natural you fall into the story easily. So easily that I devoured the book in one sitting. Loved it!
I hardly ever give up on a book, but at 125 pages in I decided I could not keep reading. There are just too many books and so little time. I picked this up wanting it to be a great Indian romance. After all, marginalized groups need to be highlighted in the romance genre, and I will say this is an authentically Indian story. It instantly begins dealing with "child weddings" and that is an issue definitely worthy of discussion. A romance novel is a unique place to have this discussion and I think it starts to touch upon some great theory. The food within the novel is authentically Indian and really leaves you wanting to go eat great Indian food. The family's reaction to young women wanting to follow their heart and marry the 'wrong guy' (the one the family did not pick out) is so authentic (for really any culture, but so great for Indian culture). So, rest assured, there are elements here that should make this a really good, really authentic Indian romance.
Where did it lose me then? Our heroine cannot even walk without falling over, tripping, injuring herself. Barf, honestly, barf. Why does our heroine have to be so helpless? One of the main guys in the story even mentions it in his thoughts -- that is a sign we have an issue! We need a stronger, more independent woman to start with.
Say what you will, the main man is just a jerk. He's constantly doing things that, in real life, you would say "he's an ass" and you'd never deal with him again. Combine these two things and you have such a great world with which to work in good characters and you end up with boring, silly characters. I finally gave up. I wanted to love it but with this damsel in distress (constantly) nonsense, and all of her crying (seriously, get her help, she cries way, way too much!), and the jerk of a leading man, I just could no longer stick through this.
Where did it lose me then? Our heroine cannot even walk without falling over, tripping, injuring herself. Barf, honestly, barf. Why does our heroine have to be so helpless? One of the main guys in the story even mentions it in his thoughts -- that is a sign we have an issue! We need a stronger, more independent woman to start with.
Say what you will, the main man is just a jerk. He's constantly doing things that, in real life, you would say "he's an ass" and you'd never deal with him again. Combine these two things and you have such a great world with which to work in good characters and you end up with boring, silly characters. I finally gave up. I wanted to love it but with this damsel in distress (constantly) nonsense, and all of her crying (seriously, get her help, she cries way, way too much!), and the jerk of a leading man, I just could no longer stick through this.