sagarific 's review for:

Marriage & Masti by Nisha Sharma

4.0

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I'd heard a lot of not-great things about the first two books in the "Is Shakespeare was an Auntie" series, so I really wasn't looking to read this one, but I'm glad I picked this up! The parallels to Twelfth Night were there, woven in subtly, which I absolutely appreciated; I've read a lot of retellings in my time, and sometimes the author's need to match story beats overwhelms the originality of a story, and I liked that Sharma chose to focus on tangible concerns of tense family dynamics and misogyny through Veera's relationship with her father and her resulting trauma. The romance was well-balanced as well, and Veera and Deepak consistently had great chemistry! There's one instance in one of the sex scenes that felt a bit out of place, so I'm still thinking about how that came a little out of nowhere, but since the sex scenes are relatively minimal and the protagonists' chemistry is palpable in other ways throughout, I wasn't too bothered by it. I thoroughly enjoyed the third act (and hurrah for the lack of a contrived breakup! I will never not celebrate this!) and the jeevansathi scene had me cackling because it was very dramatic for no reason (but delightful all the same). Overall, a fan!