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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The premise is interesting, but not executed well in my opinion. The 4 weeks of growing friendship/attraction was so boring and unbelievable that I nearly DNF, but the intrigue picked back up again at the end.
I found both characters to be unrealistic and contradictory. Especially Mili - we're meant to see her as an innocent village girl clinging to this "marriage" to someone she hasn't seen in 20+ years; and she was very naive and innocent about the world. But also she was fiercely independent and had gotten herself to America to study (which, kudos, that's awesome and intriguing). But then it just goes back and forth between that strength and bumbling through her innocence/naiveité. I think the characterization just needed to be fleshed out a bit more.
My biggest beef is that her reaction tohaving sex with Samir and losing her virginity made no sense. Her somewhat coming on to him just did not fit AT ALL with her innocent character who was so committed to her "husband". Idk, maybe it just felt preposterous to me because of how boring/unbelievable I found their falling in love montage to be. But even so, she was still blushing about saying the word "dick" even when she started seeing it as more than friendship. So how could that same person then be found in this scene?!
Also her friendship with her roommate felt odd, and the whole driving out for the wedding just felt like wasted pages because we never actually saw them as close friends, and just kinda had to believe because the author said so
I found both characters to be unrealistic and contradictory. Especially Mili - we're meant to see her as an innocent village girl clinging to this "marriage" to someone she hasn't seen in 20+ years; and she was very naive and innocent about the world. But also she was fiercely independent and had gotten herself to America to study (which, kudos, that's awesome and intriguing). But then it just goes back and forth between that strength and bumbling through her innocence/naiveité. I think the characterization just needed to be fleshed out a bit more.
My biggest beef is that her reaction to
Also her friendship with her roommate felt odd, and the whole driving out for the wedding just felt like wasted pages because we never actually saw them as close friends, and just kinda had to believe because the author said so
Okay, disclaimer: I'm a huge Bollywood fan. Ben watching Indian movies way before they even had subtitles, so this book was written for someone with my tastes.
What I loved most about this book is the details the author put in, she painted such a vivid picture that I could even smell the places the characters visited. This book was more entertaining, in a filmy way, than most Bollywood romances I've watched lately.
Samir. I can imagine Hrithik Roshan playing this role. It was that good. I want him to come alive onto screen. And Milli? Waa waa. Loved her. She was not a sniveling innocent, which was refreshing. And she was funny, and real.
It may not be for everyone, but the love story was sweet, and the writing was awesome. One of my favorite books of 2016, so far.
MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE, BOLLYWOOD!!! Sheesh!
What I loved most about this book is the details the author put in, she painted such a vivid picture that I could even smell the places the characters visited. This book was more entertaining, in a filmy way, than most Bollywood romances I've watched lately.
Samir. I can imagine Hrithik Roshan playing this role. It was that good. I want him to come alive onto screen. And Milli? Waa waa. Loved her. She was not a sniveling innocent, which was refreshing. And she was funny, and real.
It may not be for everyone, but the love story was sweet, and the writing was awesome. One of my favorite books of 2016, so far.
MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE, BOLLYWOOD!!! Sheesh!
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-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:
Yes
Listen, I get that the tone of the book is trying to invoke the over-the-top quality of Bollywood. I could forgive a lot of the cheesy dialogue and thin characters and improbable situations I've already encountered in the book because, while I'm not by any means a Bollywood super fan, I've seen enough and know enough to understand what I was signing up for by reading this at all.
But if you stack poor writing quality on top of that? I'm out. I'm not enjoying this premise or these characters enough to reread sentences constantly trying to parse them because of missing punctuation or dangling clauses.
Even if I could make myself keep going through this poorly-edited mess, I'm not confident the story is going anyplace good. Mili is the worst kind of helpless damsel, and Samir is an unrelenting asshole. I know the point of this romance will be to redeem him with the quirky helpless girl he can't help falling for, and I'm not into it. It's hard to share Mili's perspective of Samir being kind, when we know he's lying to and manipulating her, even if his outward actions of helping her are kindness.
I don't want these characters to get together, I don't believe a reasonable happy ending is possible for them given the circumstances of the plot, so there's no point in forcing myself to continue reading.
But if you stack poor writing quality on top of that? I'm out. I'm not enjoying this premise or these characters enough to reread sentences constantly trying to parse them because of missing punctuation or dangling clauses.
Even if I could make myself keep going through this poorly-edited mess, I'm not confident the story is going anyplace good. Mili is the worst kind of helpless damsel, and Samir is an unrelenting asshole. I know the point of this romance will be to redeem him with the quirky helpless girl he can't help falling for, and I'm not into it. It's hard to share Mili's perspective of Samir being kind, when we know he's lying to and manipulating her, even if his outward actions of helping her are kindness.
I don't want these characters to get together, I don't believe a reasonable happy ending is possible for them given the circumstances of the plot, so there's no point in forcing myself to continue reading.
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I usually don't care for romances. Every once in awhile I'll get in the mood for them but it ain't often.
I guess the moon was right or something like that. This one was cute.
Mili was married at the age of four. He was twelve at the time. Yes, I know. Her village believed in a now considered outdated ideal. Her entire life after that she believes she is married.
Years later she has gone to America to study. While there the guy she "married" has an accident and has a pregnant wife. He finds out that Mili believes she is married to him still. He sends his brother Samir to America to convince her to sign the annulment papers.
The good: These characters are very easy to like. They come to life in the story and I loved Mili.
The flipping food: the descriptions of food in this book will make you crave great Indian food. This weekend at my house will have a cooking frenzy going on. I'm still hungry after finishing this book last night.
The bad: There are some cringe worthy moments. Pure cheesey dialog at times but I still liked it enough that I kept reading. Bollywood references are factored into the story so it helped dissolve some of the teeth clenching I normally would have done. I think the aim sometimes was for "over the top".
This is the author's debut and her writing is really pretty good. I look forward from more of her work.
So anyways I enjoyed a romance:
I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I guess the moon was right or something like that. This one was cute.
Mili was married at the age of four. He was twelve at the time. Yes, I know. Her village believed in a now considered outdated ideal. Her entire life after that she believes she is married.
Years later she has gone to America to study. While there the guy she "married" has an accident and has a pregnant wife. He finds out that Mili believes she is married to him still. He sends his brother Samir to America to convince her to sign the annulment papers.
The good: These characters are very easy to like. They come to life in the story and I loved Mili.
The flipping food: the descriptions of food in this book will make you crave great Indian food. This weekend at my house will have a cooking frenzy going on. I'm still hungry after finishing this book last night.
The bad: There are some cringe worthy moments. Pure cheesey dialog at times but I still liked it enough that I kept reading. Bollywood references are factored into the story so it helped dissolve some of the teeth clenching I normally would have done. I think the aim sometimes was for "over the top".
This is the author's debut and her writing is really pretty good. I look forward from more of her work.
So anyways I enjoyed a romance:
I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
3 stars
This book had a rough start for me. It was kind of slow until the main people finally met. We have the famous Bollywood director Samir going to America to get his brother, Virat, out of a marriage that happened 20 years ago. He gets there only to realize that Mili is everything he could have dreamed of in a partner. They hit it off as friends and their relationship was quite sweet.
This book had many moments where I was rolling my eyes because of the amount of CHEESE in some scenes but other than that, it was a great story.
I liked how Dev went in depth with the Indian culture. Samir was a great male lead and Mili was a unique heroine! Great debut novel for Sonali Dev.
This book had a rough start for me. It was kind of slow until the main people finally met. We have the famous Bollywood director Samir going to America to get his brother, Virat, out of a marriage that happened 20 years ago. He gets there only to realize that Mili is everything he could have dreamed of in a partner. They hit it off as friends and their relationship was quite sweet.
This book had many moments where I was rolling my eyes because of the amount of CHEESE in some scenes but other than that, it was a great story.
I liked how Dev went in depth with the Indian culture. Samir was a great male lead and Mili was a unique heroine! Great debut novel for Sonali Dev.
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character