This is a typical romance novel but what makes it a little different is that the characters are Indian and Indian culture, especially things related to weddings is prominent. That's the part I enjoyed.

I found the overall storyline of the main character irritating and unbelievable. Her love interest far too perfect even by romance novel standards.

I have another book by this author which I'll probably read someday but if it doesn't grab me fast I'm going to abandon it.

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Part of the Book Riot read harder challenge. Melodramatic and florid writing. Some glimpses of Indian culture. ( )

I did really enjoy reading this and liked the characters. Ria was so broken that I wanted to reach into the book and give her a big hug. But at the same time, the angst reached almost unbearable levels a number of times, and much of the problems could have resolved themselves easily if Ria actually opened up to somebody instead of defaulting to avoiding her feelings or running away.

I liked this book enough to go buy Dev's first book, which one the main characters I noticed had a brief cameo in this one. So readers who enjoyed A Bollywood Affair would get a nice smile from that.

I appreciated that Dev avoided many of the pitfalls of the romance genre, with characters and plots that seemed cliched and fake. Her characters were human, with flaws and real emotions that despite all the drama in their backstories, never veered into soap opera levels of unbelievable. The obstacles between Ria and Vikram's happily ever after are personal and self-inflicted. There are no outside forces keeping them apart. It would have been very easy for Vikram's meddling mother to have been given a larger part in the story, and I appreciated that she wasn't. Instead, the main characters had to work through their own issues and come to terms with them.

This was a very warm book, despite the darkness in Ria's past. Dev showcases love in many forms, not just romantic love. Familial love, friend-love, and love within a community are all present. And throughout the entire book, there is love of culture. Dev, through Ria, shows the love and respet she has for Indian and Hindu culture, and it was enlightening as an outsider to see it through Ria's eyes.

So I obviously appreciated the book a lot, and enjoyed reading it. But at the end of the day, as invested as I was in the character and the story, I still felt there was a veneer of shallowness to everything. Not that the book was superficial - it wasn't. "Ice Princess" Ria as the POV character seemed as stand-offish to the reader as she was to the other characters in the book. Her voice made me feel as if there was an invisible wall between me and the story, which made me unable to fully immerse myself as I would have liked.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley ( )

Okay, so we all know that romance is not my cuppa. That's my disclaimer going in, and if there are nuances of the genre that I criticize without fair cause, do let me know.

That said, there were some interesting mysteries with a lotta OOF moments mixed in. There are parts Persuasion mixed in with Jane Eyre, which is...fascinating. Also, there are so many emotions and drama and POOR COMMUNICATION that I had to go to my Narnia Happy Place and just pretend I wasn't extremely irritated with the overwroughtness of certain emotional nonconfrontations. Also, the HOW of Ria's getting into film was not fleshed out as well as I would have liked. I know the mystery is not supposed to be the focus, but I found the romance a lot less interesting than the other aspects that Dev introduced. ( )

If you enjoyed or didn't enjoy Dev's other book, The Bollywood Bride, you'll likely feel the same about this one. These two Bollywood books are high on drama, with a decent amount of sexual tensions, some pretty steamy sex scenes, and cookie-cutter protagonists.

Ria and Vikram were lovers when they were younger, but hadn't seen each other for 10 years when Ria returns to her family's home for her cousin's wedding. Drama and sexual tension ensues. While Ria and Vikram haven't seen or spoken to each other in a decade, they apparently remember every waking moment they spent together when they were younger and as the reader, we have to live through it. They also, apparently, haven't experienced even the slightest wane in their burning desire for one another, despite the long years of no contact and the dramatic events that tore them apart. I wasn't really, buying it, but I just told myself to think of it as a soap opera. Also, at one point, Ria apparently jogged for 3 hours and she's never trained for a marathon or anything, so I found that really unbelievable too.

I'm a fan of some of Dev's other works, but these Bollywood novels didn't do it for me. They were entertaining enough not to DNF, but the drama and emotions were too over the top for my tastes. If this is something you really enjoy in your romances, then these might be for you. ( )