A review by lizanneyoung
The Shaadi Set-Up by Lillie Vale

3.0

 

⭐⭐⭐

TROPES

🐚 Second Chance

🐚 Miscommunication

This is my second Lillie Vale book this month, and it was a fun ride. Rita is a carpenter that refurbished old furniture. She’s pretty set in her life, though is struggling with how to introduce her family to her current boyfriend, Neil, due to their parents’ tangled past. All of that changes when Milan, her high school sweetheart, comes back into the picture.

I will say, there was nothing making me root against Neil originally. Shout out to the author for subtly adding the breadcrumbs as we went along. That was a welcome change, since I feel like most of the time the reader is poised from the start to hate the not-endgame romantic interest. It was great to watch as Rita realized what she wanted in life, and how Neil wasn’t the way to get that for her. They didn’t go out in a bad way, which was a breath of fresh air.

While I enjoyed watching Rita and Milan reconnect, especially because it is forced by their parents, I do think the miscommunication was misplaced. It ultimately didn’t add anything to the story. I think the character growth could’ve been achieved without it, and honestly, it may have packed more of a punch. It would’ve added a bit more to both characters and how they’ve changed over the last six years to hold firm in those previous decisions and not write it off as a miscommunication. ‘

With the setting of North Carolina, this felt like a great way to get my adult fix of The Summer I Turned Pretty, with the beach house and teen love interests reconnecting later in life.