margueritestjust 's review for:

A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev

4.5

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

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This is a book that by all rights, I should not have enjoyed as much as I did.  There would be moments where a cliche of romance would come along, or a character would be irritating (mostly Samir), but perhaps I shouldn't be too surprised that I loved it so much as I love Sonali Dev's work as an author.  One of her gifts is that she is capable of writing about deeply sorrowful issues with such gravitas and respect at the same time as writing beautiful romances.  

Mili is just wonderful as a character, painted so clearly and such an interesting, sweet and sometimes contradictory character.  Samir is...sigh.  Okay.  While I definitely rooted for their romance, and did tear up a bit for them, Samir would walk the line between being extremely sympathetic and charming and then he'd be downright unlikeable sometimes.  But for the most part, she really managed to make the tired setup of "sweet girl who believes in love vs. fuckboy who is allergic to feelings" work, which was served well by how intricate the plot became,

and how Samir pretended to be someone else and in search of something else for so long.  And even the cliché of "suddenly he's able to write around her again!  whoa!"  managed to work, or at least not be so cliché that it was a deal-breaker, lol.

I loved her side characters as I always do - one of her great strengths lies in writing familial relationships, no matter how loveable or fraught they may be, and that is no different here.  

This was a really well-done debut novel, incredibly sensitive and filled with observations about culture and society and pain and how that shapes us, as well as being a sweet romance of two people who have deserved to live happily finding that happiness within each other.