Scan barcode
heroicandromache's review
4.0
WHAT A WONDERFUL BOOK.
After coming from a very bad experience with The Spanish Love Deception, I was delighted with reading this and finding exactly what I was looking for.
The banter is there, the scenes absolutely swoon worthy and the writing amazing. Ian and Kavya have so much life to them!
I would have liked a bit more character development in Kavya—the insistence that Ian must be protecting her and letting her win ultimately is a sore and sticky point I would have liked to see resolved better, but awesome nonetheless!
After coming from a very bad experience with The Spanish Love Deception, I was delighted with reading this and finding exactly what I was looking for.
The banter is there, the scenes absolutely swoon worthy and the writing amazing. Ian and Kavya have so much life to them!
I would have liked a bit more character development in Kavya—the insistence that Ian must be protecting her and letting her win ultimately is a sore and sticky point I would have liked to see resolved better, but awesome nonetheless!
shaelinsans's review
4.0
adding iankavya to my list of favorite academic rivals/friends to lovers list. I LOVE THEM<3333
what i love about this book is that it did the trope right and i just truly love seeing kavya compete with ian and their banters through out the whole book. loveddd how supportive ian is of kavya and the development of their friendship as kavya finally realizes her own feelings as well. there was this one scene of them just wanting to hold hands and my touch deprived ass loved it so much i'm sorry. i also liked kavya's side plot with her family especially her sister<333
there's not many that i didn't like about this book but the writing to ian and kavya's relationship to kavya's friendships with her friends felt different somehow, like when it was describing scenes of ian and kavya the writing felt a lot more mature than when kavya is with her friends. also i'm not a fan of reading modern pop culture references in books and this had a few so.
what i love about this book is that it did the trope right and i just truly love seeing kavya compete with ian and their banters through out the whole book. loveddd how supportive ian is of kavya and the development of their friendship as kavya finally realizes her own feelings as well. there was this one scene of them just wanting to hold hands and my touch deprived ass loved it so much i'm sorry. i also liked kavya's side plot with her family especially her sister<333
there's not many that i didn't like about this book but the writing to ian and kavya's relationship to kavya's friendships with her friends felt different somehow, like when it was describing scenes of ian and kavya the writing felt a lot more mature than when kavya is with her friends. also i'm not a fan of reading modern pop culture references in books and this had a few so.
sunfalls's review
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? Yes
4.0
thesempiternalreader's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you to the author for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Beauty and the Besharam is about Kavya, who was always considered to be too brash, ambitious and besharam. To make it worse, her public breakup is witnessed by her arch-nemesis Ian Jun so all she wants is to lay low during the summer. But instead, she's dragged into a competition to resolve her longstanding rivalry with Ian. I always like to read academic rivals to lovers and this book stayed true to this trope. I lived for the banter between Kavya and Ian. Their efforts to one-up each other in tests, reading challenges, and basically, everything was hilarious to read. Apart from the romance, I appreciated reading about the complex family dynamics, friendships and cruel taunts from 'well-meaning' acquaintances that are very frequent in the South Asian community. I was very envious of the moon girls as I wanted to have a group of friends who stood by me when I was young. I could see how smitten Ian was with Kavya that I was internally squealing with joy. My favourite part of the story was the character growth of every character. This made the entire book all the more enjoyable. I would recommend this book to everyone who is a fan of academic rivals to lovers, the hero falls in love first, messy siblings' relationship, a girl gang, and a hero who reads books. This has everything that makes a best contemporary romance.
Beauty and the Besharam is about Kavya, who was always considered to be too brash, ambitious and besharam. To make it worse, her public breakup is witnessed by her arch-nemesis Ian Jun so all she wants is to lay low during the summer. But instead, she's dragged into a competition to resolve her longstanding rivalry with Ian. I always like to read academic rivals to lovers and this book stayed true to this trope. I lived for the banter between Kavya and Ian. Their efforts to one-up each other in tests, reading challenges, and basically, everything was hilarious to read. Apart from the romance, I appreciated reading about the complex family dynamics, friendships and cruel taunts from 'well-meaning' acquaintances that are very frequent in the South Asian community. I was very envious of the moon girls as I wanted to have a group of friends who stood by me when I was young. I could see how smitten Ian was with Kavya that I was internally squealing with joy. My favourite part of the story was the character growth of every character. This made the entire book all the more enjoyable. I would recommend this book to everyone who is a fan of academic rivals to lovers, the hero falls in love first, messy siblings' relationship, a girl gang, and a hero who reads books. This has everything that makes a best contemporary romance.
ethannku's review
5.0
4.5 stars rounded up. Thank you to Penguin Teen for an ARC of this book! All opinions are my own.
Rep: South Asian MC, Korean American LI, bisexual MC, trans FTM side character, sapphic side character, lesbian side characters, South Asian side character.
Kavya Joshi has one goal in her high school life: be better than Ian Jun. So when her friends propose a series of contests between her and Ian to determine the final and true winner, she jumps at the chance. But Ian doesn’t seem as determined to keep their relationship strictly that of rivals… and slowly, Kavya doesn’t either.
This book was really cute! I loved Kavya and Ian’s relationship and their banter was A-tier. I am a sucker for academic rivals, so I was kind of disappointed that school ended within the first few chapters of the book, but the challenges that Kavya and Ian’s friends was a good continuation of their rivalry. Kavya was everything I wanted in a South Asian main character; she was unapologetic and unmoving in her morals, and she knew what she wanted. The exploration of Indian auntie culture was so accurate and moving to read about, since I have gone through many of the experiences that Kavya has. Ian’s backstory was also moving, though a little bit less so since we didn’t get to see inside his head and Kavya was an unreliable narrator at times. I still thought that they were very cute as a couple, and there are moments in this book that absolutely make it reread-worthy.
Rep: South Asian MC, Korean American LI, bisexual MC, trans FTM side character, sapphic side character, lesbian side characters, South Asian side character.
Kavya Joshi has one goal in her high school life: be better than Ian Jun. So when her friends propose a series of contests between her and Ian to determine the final and true winner, she jumps at the chance. But Ian doesn’t seem as determined to keep their relationship strictly that of rivals… and slowly, Kavya doesn’t either.
This book was really cute! I loved Kavya and Ian’s relationship and their banter was A-tier. I am a sucker for academic rivals, so I was kind of disappointed that school ended within the first few chapters of the book, but the challenges that Kavya and Ian’s friends was a good continuation of their rivalry. Kavya was everything I wanted in a South Asian main character; she was unapologetic and unmoving in her morals, and she knew what she wanted. The exploration of Indian auntie culture was so accurate and moving to read about, since I have gone through many of the experiences that Kavya has. Ian’s backstory was also moving, though a little bit less so since we didn’t get to see inside his head and Kavya was an unreliable narrator at times. I still thought that they were very cute as a couple, and there are moments in this book that absolutely make it reread-worthy.
booksonhermind's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
linaa13's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
o_o_o's review
4.0
super cute but kind of cringe at times. there were some things kavya would do where i was like "girl what are you thinking??" but it's overall a nice lighthearted read. i loved the south asian x east asian romance too since we don't see that very often o.o