A review by ghostlydreamer
Never Meant to Stay by Trisha Das

emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.5

Well. First thing's first. This is pretty much nothing like what I normally read. You see, I'm not much of a romance reader, so rom-coms are almost never my thing. But sometimes change (and a little experimental reading) is in order. And anyway, I'm pretty sure I got this one for free somehow (Amazon Prime First Reads, maybe?) and it was already in my kindle library, and honestly, it sounded kinda fun? I figured if worst comes to worst, I just DNF. Fortunately, I did not have to DNF.

Anyway, this ended up being a fun, sometimes charming read. Despite the buckets full of drama, it's lighthearted, felt summery, and was a nice distraction from real world things. I smiled, I laughed, I cheered for our main character Samara, and I found myself ridiculously annoyed and outwardly cringing at Sharav's fiancée. So basically this book exceeded in making me feel things, including overall satisfaction. And secondhand embarrassment. Because let's be real; this book can cause plenty of that (looking at you, Samara, with your...spills...later on in the book). I guess that's normal with this genre though.

So, I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting going into this. I guess even though I went in with no expectations, I was still pretty...surprised? By the direction in which this book went. And that's not a bad thing. I'm less familiar with this genre, so the tropes didn't feel overdone, and while I knew *some* things were bound to happen by the end, I guess I couldn't detect any patterns typical for this genre to give me hints about whatever came next. That made this feel pretty refreshing. And ultimately, I really liked how things wrapped up by the end, even though the secondhand embarrassment only seemed to get worse the closer I got to the finale.

There are plenty of things I loved about this book, like its humor. But even more than that, it was the setting. I love reading books set in India, so I guess that was one of its main appeals. The culture in India is very different from where I live, and I found myself intrigued by these glimpses into other lives. For me, the standout was definitely all the descriptions of food. This book also made me hungry.

Speaking of culture, the Khanna's have a very particular dynamic amongst one another and in relation to their surroundings, and I love how much the reader gets to be a part of that. It almost felt like you were living with the Khanna's. Contrast this with Samara's mostly nomadic lifestyle, and I was in for a treat that led us into themes of found family and finding a place to call home, two themes I thoroughly enjoy reading about when done right.

I really liked the Khanna's despite all their dysfunction, and it was nice to see how they all came together despite their differences and grief by the end. Also, I really liked how Samara helped the Khanna's, even though that could be a little overbearing at times. I personally do not think I could be around Samara because she wants to fix everything and poke into everyone's business. But I can appreciate why she did that, and it led to some pretty positive, wholesome moments between her and the Khanna's that really cemented that found family trope that I love so much. It really helped the Khanna's come together and see past all their differences and issues. And I love that Samara got to figure out for herself what her dream really is and not live someone else's dream, even though some of this was fueled by jealousy. I also could not have put up with as much as she did. There really was some emphasis on self-discovery and positive change, and how sometimes what we want does not always look the way we think it would, or the way we dreamed it would years ago when we first made our plans.

Sharav was not the most likeable for a while, but he grew on me. They all did, minus the very obvious characters we are meant to detest. I mean, I thought I could be pretty rigid, but Sharav was...something else, at first. And his fiancée was...also something else. And I don't mean that politely. That being said, the shallow "I'm an influencer and nothing is good enough for me" trope is getting old. Looking at his fiancée, here. But it's fine. I can look past that.

This is probably just a me thing, because this is not my usual genre, but the romantic/sexual tension was a little overbearing after a while. I also didn't like that Sharav couldn't just end things with his fiancée. Even though I imagine it is way easier said than done, EVERYONE knew that was doomed and shouldn't go on, and he was given numerous chances to back out. I feel like a lot of issues would not have happened if there had been just a little more communication. But then where would all the fun and drama be, right? So I guess I can't knock that too hard.

Not my usual genre, but it was fun, and I think it had a lot of things going for it to make me more interested than the usual rom-coms do. Like likeable characters, interesting settings, and multiple other plots and lessons going on all at once. I might read more like this in the future when I'm in the mood for it. It was definitely a nice change of pace, and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened, so it never felt boring or taxing. I'd recommend it.