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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
Mili was married as a child to a man she has been waiting 20 years to come and get her.
Samir has to go to America to find her and make her sign an annulment for his brother, wanting out of the marriage that took place when they were children.
My main issue with this book was the characters. I didn't like either of the main protags.
Mili just seemed unjustifiably irrational and eye roll worthy, taking a man at his word and never questioning him, despite of the situation they fall into. Probably because he's lyke sooooo hawt.
Samir is...a dickhead. Just, nothing redeeming about him, even if he's supposed to be gorgeous and a good cook, it doesn't make up for the way he talks about most of the women who aren't related to him or Mili. He just doesn't seem like a prize.
Not to mention that all the time Samir (asshole) is with her, he knows about her situation and takes advantage of her naivety and basically shits all over her trust. But you know HAWT, so it doesn't matter.
Honestly, I wanted this to be a fun, Bollywood-esque drama, but at least those are entertaining. This wasn't.
Samir has to go to America to find her and make her sign an annulment for his brother, wanting out of the marriage that took place when they were children.
My main issue with this book was the characters. I didn't like either of the main protags.
Mili just seemed unjustifiably irrational and eye roll worthy, taking a man at his word and never questioning him, despite of the situation they fall into. Probably because he's lyke sooooo hawt.
Samir is...a dickhead. Just, nothing redeeming about him, even if he's supposed to be gorgeous and a good cook, it doesn't make up for the way he talks about most of the women who aren't related to him or Mili. He just doesn't seem like a prize.
Spoiler
I also had issues with the way that their relationship progressed, from Mili considering Samir open and honest despite him lying to her, and after 4 weeks (I think?) of knowing each other and lying to each other, we're supposed to be convinced this is a love story?Not to mention that all the time Samir (asshole) is with her, he knows about her situation and takes advantage of her naivety and basically shits all over her trust. But you know HAWT, so it doesn't matter.
Honestly, I wanted this to be a fun, Bollywood-esque drama, but at least those are entertaining. This wasn't.
Totally predictable, but a complete page turner. This was a lot of fun to read, though don't expect to learn much about Indian culture.
It was at times corny but so cute I got over it and just loved the characters.
I don’t love miscommunication tropes that could be fixed with a 5 minute conversation. I really don’t love when one person decides instead of just having that conversation, to instead lie and just make things worse.
medium-paced
Somehow I found this story so fun and really enjoyed it.
It fell apart a little at the end. Everything was obsessively tied up in a bow. It seemed unrealistic.
emotional
hopeful
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:
Complicated
So good!! Could put it down. What wonderful writing
I wanted to like A Bollywood Affair, I really did, but it was hard.
To be absolutely truthful, Mili annoyed the shit out of me. She was a complete damsel in distress and was constantly crying. Samir annoyed me too with his amazing ability to only think using ‘Little Sam’. But together they were almost the perfect Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu couple. Mili was smart, kind, caring, understand. Her only faults? She was sensitive and clumsy. Samir was rich, famous, handsome, cared immensely for his family. His faults? He was a bit of a manipulative bastard.
I was hoping to get a glimpse of Indian culture and would take place in India more, but it really didn’t.
I know Mili spent her whole life believing she was married to a man she never met, but this is where I get confused. She is studying Women’s Studies in America and wants to make the world easier or Indian women (and she loves how free and independent American women are). But yet she still believes in an illegal marriage to a man she hasn’t see since she married him as a child. And she’s trying to make herself into the perfect Indian wife.
Mili also never gets mad at anyone except Samir. She doesn’t get angry at her ‘husband’ for never coming to get her or at least getting in contact with her after all these years. Doesn’t get angry at her grandmother who sent false lawsuits under her name. No, only gets mad at Samir because he failed to tell her who he really was. She was also way too trusting with him (letting him practically live with her after him just taking her to the hospital) and she overreacted when they first met.
Another thing that I found weird were Samir’s moms. I understand that he would resent his birth mom for giving him up. What I don’t understand is how his adoptive mom could be so welcoming to her. Perhaps I’m just not an understanding and forgiving person, but I can’t imagine getting on without a hitch with a woman who my husband had an affair and child with.
One thing that really stuck out to me was that everyone in the book agreed that Samir’s adoptive mom was the kindest, warmest person ever, yet in the prologue (which I really enjoyed) when child-Mili is crying, she doesn’t know whether to slap her or hug her.
Like I said, I wanted to like this book, but it was really hard.
Review can also be found at http://amydewolfe.blogspot.ca/
To be absolutely truthful, Mili annoyed the shit out of me. She was a complete damsel in distress and was constantly crying. Samir annoyed me too with his amazing ability to only think using ‘Little Sam’. But together they were almost the perfect Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu couple. Mili was smart, kind, caring, understand. Her only faults? She was sensitive and clumsy. Samir was rich, famous, handsome, cared immensely for his family. His faults? He was a bit of a manipulative bastard.
I was hoping to get a glimpse of Indian culture and would take place in India more, but it really didn’t.
I know Mili spent her whole life believing she was married to a man she never met, but this is where I get confused. She is studying Women’s Studies in America and wants to make the world easier or Indian women (and she loves how free and independent American women are). But yet she still believes in an illegal marriage to a man she hasn’t see since she married him as a child. And she’s trying to make herself into the perfect Indian wife.
Mili also never gets mad at anyone except Samir. She doesn’t get angry at her ‘husband’ for never coming to get her or at least getting in contact with her after all these years. Doesn’t get angry at her grandmother who sent false lawsuits under her name. No, only gets mad at Samir because he failed to tell her who he really was. She was also way too trusting with him (letting him practically live with her after him just taking her to the hospital) and she overreacted when they first met.
Another thing that I found weird were Samir’s moms. I understand that he would resent his birth mom for giving him up. What I don’t understand is how his adoptive mom could be so welcoming to her. Perhaps I’m just not an understanding and forgiving person, but I can’t imagine getting on without a hitch with a woman who my husband had an affair and child with.
One thing that really stuck out to me was that everyone in the book agreed that Samir’s adoptive mom was the kindest, warmest person ever, yet in the prologue (which I really enjoyed) when child-Mili is crying, she doesn’t know whether to slap her or hug her.
Like I said, I wanted to like this book, but it was really hard.
Review can also be found at http://amydewolfe.blogspot.ca/
I am really torn about this book. Like, the characters are (usually) very real and well-drawn and the stakes are satisfyingly high but there were some parts of it that just...bugged me. A lot. I have no idea how much of this is 'I have a cold and some things are bothering me more than usual' versus 'man, this book has Issues'.
And then there's Samir's mother. I have friends who were adopted. Some of them want to meet their birth parents, some don't. But Milli takes the decision entirely out of his hands and, in one of the great cliches of these sorts of stories, Samir's birth mother turns out to be dying so of course that makes it ok that a) Milli contacted her in the first place, without asking Samir's opinion on the matter and b) she then forces him to go see his birth mother.
It feels...wrong, somehow, that it all turned out ok. That it turned out fine because Milli Is Magic and can do no wrong. Honestly, I would have felt better about the whole thing if it had gone REALLY badly.
Then, Milli finds out about the grand deception and it occurs, of course, the morning after she and Samir have sex for the first time. So Milli decides he'd done everything in order to get her to sign these papers that he hasn't even mentioned yet, that this man she was so certain was Good that she attacked someone with a magazine was actually bad and awful. How about she's just upset about the deception, instead of thinking he's actually a big old faking faker who doesn't care about her at all?
Spoiler
At the beginning, I really thought Samir would grow to regret the way he treated the women he got involved with, but no. You see, the good women are the ones who are completely dependent on him (his employees) or related to him (his mother or his sister in law). Which makes Milli the One Good Woman and the book makes sure to tell you that Samir hasn't had sex with a virgin before!! And it's so special!! And the woman he treats badly at the beginning of the book turns out to be Way Worse Than You Thought because she lies about Samir abusing her, but Milli defends him!! Because he would never hit a woman!! How she decided this I don't know, especially considering she was supposed to have spent her career helping battered women leave their husbands. Funnily enough, domestic abusers look a lot like everybody else and they'd known each other a few weeks at that point. We meet the woman Samir was involved with at the beginning of the book later on and she not only falls short of Milli, but Samir seems contemptuous of her in a whole different way now. 'It isn't ok to treat woman like all they are is a place to stick your dick in' seems to be a better lesson to learn than 'the woman who I love is so much better than these whores I used to spend fuck' but the book is far more concerned that Samir was getting involved with the wrong women than that he treated those women like a glorified fleshlight.And then there's Samir's mother. I have friends who were adopted. Some of them want to meet their birth parents, some don't. But Milli takes the decision entirely out of his hands and, in one of the great cliches of these sorts of stories, Samir's birth mother turns out to be dying so of course that makes it ok that a) Milli contacted her in the first place, without asking Samir's opinion on the matter and b) she then forces him to go see his birth mother.
It feels...wrong, somehow, that it all turned out ok. That it turned out fine because Milli Is Magic and can do no wrong. Honestly, I would have felt better about the whole thing if it had gone REALLY badly.
Then, Milli finds out about the grand deception and it occurs, of course, the morning after she and Samir have sex for the first time. So Milli decides he'd done everything in order to get her to sign these papers that he hasn't even mentioned yet, that this man she was so certain was Good that she attacked someone with a magazine was actually bad and awful. How about she's just upset about the deception, instead of thinking he's actually a big old faking faker who doesn't care about her at all?