Nisha Sharma (1)Rezensionen

Jessie Ahuja, an aspiring engineer and studious student, and Ravi Kumar, a good-looking, popular, and privileged very rich kid are thrown together at college, due to their desire for the same library study space. When a campus prank locks them in the library's ghostly and abandoned tower, they discover a package of letters hidden in Jane Austen's Persuasion, written by two student lovers 20 years previously, who had mysteriously disappeared during a fire in the library's tower. They were thought to have perished in the fire, but the bodies were never found. Jessie and Ravi agree to read the letters together to try to solve the mystery of the missing student lovers. They also begin on a journey of an on-again, off-again romance. Jessie is confused about their relationship and knows she is not acceptable to his family.

This was overall a fun read. Thanks to the negative reviews, I was prepared to hear about Charlie, and it didn't matter to me, but when "he" was mentioned in the middle of intimate moments.



But I still love everything else so I think if I ever purchase the physical book, Charlie will be erased from existence in my copy

BOTM club book. DNF

I usually live a fake dating story but I forced myself 50% through this before giving up because I had such strong dislike for the male main character. He’s a jerk, has controlling behavior, and his sexual moves were really not my cup of tea. Once you are actively rooting for the main characters NOT to wind up together it’s time to move on.

Just OK

didn’t care enough about any of these characters

Two single people trying to find their way in life come together in an unlikely way with a business agreement to get engaged that just might help them both out. Their varying views of love offer conflict and heat. I enjoyed the rawness of the characters and their believable interactions.½

I wasn't sure I would like this one but read it for book club. Surprisingly, I was taken immediately. I didn't realize it was a modern take on Taming of the Shrew until I read the afterword but I still felt immediately for Kareena. Unlike Shakespeare, Sharma has given both her MCs 2 rid-or-die friends, who are obviously being set up for the series, but it makes a massive difference in making both characters more understandable and likeable.

My favourite scenes are at the crisis point, where Prem calls out Kareena's family for their poor treatment of her, and the subsequent quiet scene between Kareen and her father. Although my favourite line comes from the next chapter, after Prem talks to his mom.

"Dude, we're trying to break the desi mama's boy stereotype." Bunty said, shaking his head. "You're not helping us out."

Looking forward to the next book, which seems to be a take on Much Ado.

Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma is a fun, romantic comedy that is loosely based on Taming of the Shrew. The story starts out with Kareena helping her sister with her wedding planning, and finding out her dad wants to sell the family home. Kareena wants to buy the home but she can’t afford it. Her dad makes a deal — Kareena must find her soul mate and he will give her the house. One day she meets Dr. Prem Verma (aka Dr. Dil, who has a tv talk show), and they both have a heated debate about love (while on the air). He wants to open his own practice, but once his investors see the debate, they back out. Kareena and Prem decide to work together to get what they both want most, which may include finding love. This book is super fun! There’s romance, tons of humor (love the aunties!!), fake dating, and some spice. I met Nisha Sharma at a romance genre convention, and I’m so glad I did. I’m definitely a fan!! I can’t wait to read her next book in the series, Tastes like Shakkar.

Bunty aur Bobbi!
The name of our main characters is so reminiscent of one of my fab Bollywood movie so I already had a built-in bias

Tastes Like Shakkar by Nisha Sharma
2nd book in the If Shakespeare was an Auntie series. Contemporary romance. Own voice, Indian. Can be read as a stand-alone but better in series order. This story is the wedding of the couple from the first book. A retelling and play off of Much Ado About Nothing.
Bobbi Kaur is an event planner. She is planning to give her best friend an epic event that she’ll be able to remember with fondness. Bobbi has two major problems to overcome. First, she’ll need to work with Benjamin “Bunty” Padda and the two of them have been like oil and water since their younger days. And second, and most problematic, there is someone trying to sabotage thee wedding. Bobbi calls in the aunties to search out the guilty person that is messing with the wedding plans.
Bobbi and Bunty, sitting in a ….restaurant, realize working together may actually be more fun that anticipated.

A sexy and fun book as the two clash and then play on their attraction to each other. Conflicts and family issues can make arguments interesting and making up all the sweeter.
Filled with lots of cultural references on clothing, food and life. I personally learned a lot and look forward to the next book in the series.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley.

Was kind of boring. The main characters didn't have chemistry. Did love that Dr. Dil named his penis Charlie.½

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“We think someone is trying to sabotage Kareena and Prem's wedding.”

After getting a look at the combustible energy between Benjamin and Bobbi in Dating Dr. Dil, it was obvious that in this second in the series, the steam factor was going to be turned up. With some forced proximity, since Bobbi works for her uncle's wedding planning business, it's obvious she's going to be taking charge of Kareena's wedding but when the venue needs Chef Benjamin to explain and help with the menu, these two combatants need to work together, especially when it becomes clear that a shaadi saboteur is trying to ruin the wedding.

“Your heart is pounding,” she whispered against his shoulder.
He rested his large palm at the center of her chest, feeling the soft curve of her breasts against his fingers. The steady rhythm was as fast as his own. “So is yours,” he said.

With a prologue that gives us a flashback to why Bobbi and Benjamin are antagonistic towards each other, Benjamin ruined a heated moment with foot-in-the-mouth syndrome, we're then jumped to the present and impending wedding between their friends and main couple from book one. It would be possible to jump into the series here, like I did, but I did wonder at times if there was some foundation for Bobbi and Benjamin's relationship laid a bit in book one. These two had steamy chemistry, their first couple meetings, Benjamin having to tie up Bobbi's dress, was spine tingling and they had sparking byplay. Benjamin introduces Bobbi to rope play, and with contemporary romances slamming the door shut more often than not lately, it did add some nice heat. However, because Bobbi is dealing with trying to give Kareena the best wedding ever but having to contend with the saboteur and an uncle who seems to have lost faith in her ability to some day take over the business and Benjamin is dealing with pressure from his family to move back to the west coast, help his brother take over the family business and open his next restaurant out there, these two start spending more time apart than together.

They'd stopped pranking each other, stopped poking at each other in a way that had bite to it, and now every word had more meaning. She needed to know what that meaning was once and for all.

I liked all the dynamics at play here, family, friends, and romantic but it left Bobbi on the east coast and Benjamin on the west for too much of the second half of the book. Then when they did get some time to spend together, the focus became on the bedroom and the rope play. The bedroom scenes weren't necessarily long but I was just looking for more of their fun byplay to see some of that relationship development outside of the bedroom so I knew them better and could then enjoy their bedroom scenes more; this could have been shown more in book one. There was also a couple times that I was disappointed in how there would be an emotionally charged scene, then it would cut away from the aftermath/ending to the next day and readers would have to hear Bobbi or Benjamin talk about what happened, instead of “seeing” it, experiencing it with them.

She was in so much trouble. She had to be careful, so very careful, if she wanted to come out of this with her heart intact.

The ending gives us Benjamin working out if he wants to live his life according to what his father wants or for himself and Bobbi learning to ask for help and working things out with her uncle. I thought the reveal of the shaadi saboteur was a little obscure and the coming together of Bobbi and Benjamin went too far to the end with only a couple pages left to give them their happily ever after; it makes it feel rushed and harder to believe in and enjoy. There's one friend left in the circle of Bobbi and Kareena, Veera, and the epilogue gives a sneak-peek to what her book is going to be about. I enjoyed this because the author is always so good at family dynamics and creating a world with all it's emotions and layers that it ends up absorbing you, I just would have liked to have experienced more with Bobbi and Benjamin, as their time apart with only text message exchanges didn't hit as well as their face-to-face chemistry.

Kareena and Prem need things to happen in their life's and as a means to an end is the solution of working together presents itself.

I didn't love this book. But I did listen to the whole audiobook so it wasn't a complete loss.

Concerning things for me:
--For the age of the characters, in their 30s, they were both fairly immature about what expectations they would have in life, and love.
--In the end I could have done without the named appendage.
--the librarian reference in relation to Poem's sexual fantasies, Kareena was a lawyer

Topics I enjoyed:
--Aunties in action, mostly in the background but I love a good Auntie group.
--Kareena's girlfriends
--the concept of Kareena doing home renovation and automotive care as a means to connect with her mother, and be self sufficient

A contemporary desi retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. There’s money set aside for Kareena if she marries and without it Kareena can’t afford to buy her beloved family home which her father has decided to sell.

There were things I found really engaging and interesting, but the way the story unfolded… in hindsight, I’d have felt more invested in Kareena and Prem’s relationship if the book had showed their first conversation when it happened, rather than revealing some of those details later in flashbacks. Because while it’s immediately obvious that there’s mutual attraction, we don’t get to see them discover with delight that they enjoy each other’s company and have compatible perspectives (about some things!).

I also wasn’t wholly convinced by Prem’s reasons for (initially) believing love doesn’t make for stable relationships. (Cultural nuances around understandings of love languages which I don’t get?)

Probably I’d have liked this more if it had been just Kareena’s POV.

This book was a great read. It was funny and felt so real. The characters feel fully fleshed out and relatable. I cannot wait to read more because I have an inkling that the friends are going to get their own stories!

Rina and Prem do loathe to love and fake dating so well. Rina's online dating fiascos were hilarious but also similar to my own online dating duds

"He stepped toward her, swung her into a dip that would’ve made a Bollywood hero proud, and pressed his lips to hers. His head spun, but he held her close, even as Radha’s hands wrapped around his neck. Jai sank deeper into the kiss, as the slight drizzle turned into a downpour.
And then his heroine ran."

Radha and Jai's Recipe was romance was a mouthwatering desi romance set in Jersey that will have you in splits!
If I didn't I had to get up to make Maggii for myself ( the book made me do it ) , I would have finished it in one sitting. Safe to say, I thoroughly enjoyed both, the over the top characters as well as the spotlight on the complexity of a mother daughter relationship. Radha and Jai's Recipe for Romance was a classic Bollywood movie served with extra masala on top

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It was her blinding confidence, and a woman that confident pressed all his buttons.

Before you start this one, you'll want to read the first in the series (The Takeover Effect) as this picks up right where that one left off. The Singh family company, Bharat Inc., is still dealing with the fallout of some corporate espionage from WTA, a business trying to do a hostile buyout takeover. Ajay is the middle Singh brother and the one picked to takeover as CEO of Bharat when his father retires, which is soon. He's seen as more easygoing but with his new responsibilities, he's confidently stepping up to the plate. When he meets Rajneet Kaur Hothi at a Gen One Foundation gala, he's instantly drawn to her. Raj is bestfriends with Ajay's older brother Hem's girlfriend Mina (book 1) but also the one who alerted them to the corporate espionage that could have lost them the company because Raj's soon-to-be ex-husband Robert was the leak. Ajay's younger brother Zail blames Raj for getting one of their coders fired, a woman he seems to be in love with, and threatens to pull his support for Ajay's nomination to CEO if Ajay pursues a working relationship with Raj. If you couldn't tell, the Singh Family series is full of high-stakes family and business drama.

“Soni,” he said, knowing that the Punjabi word for beautiful fit her more perfectly than any English endearment could.

You're going to have to like some corporate world drama to like this series, it's about half of the story. I like how it gives the setting a sleek contemporary feel with high-level drama with all the power and money at stake. It also gives our characters something to do and provides a way for all our characters to interact. Raj was a fantastic strong character and I loved how it started off showing her arriving in America alone at eighteen, getting scammed, having to take those first steps alone, and then thriving and in charge with her own security business, RKH Collective. Her relationship with Robert is already on the outs when readers come in, remember he was part of the corporate espionage in book one, and they are getting a divorce. It also helps to put that relationship in the distance when Raj discusses how it was more of a partnership where they both benefited from each other's business connections, instead of a romance. This is also an Avon Impulse, so it leans more on the steamy side and my oh my is there a couple hot scenes in this. Raj owns her sexuality and a membership at an exclusive club, which leads to a possessive Ajay and some voyeurism.

Ajay grinned as he rolled his sleeves to his elbows. “You’ve made things more interesting since you’ve showed up, Rajneet Kaur Hothi. I’ll give you that.”

Ajay wasn't quite as captivating a character as Raj, he gets shadowed a lot by the business plot and I missed more scenes with his brothers, we get some battles with him and Zail over Raj but I wanted more of their loving bond. Raj has a little bit of her own family drama, we get introduced to her brother Guru, who turned her family against her when she refused to want to associate with their opium drug trading business or go back to Punjab and marry who they wanted. I liked the filling out of her character with this background but Guru just kind of hangs around getting ignored by Raj and then just leaves? The ending to Raj not going back to see her sick mother felt dropped off/open ended enough to feel very dissatisfying. Maybe Guru will show up in a spin-off series? Raj's family servant Kaka also didn't get enough scenes with her to solidify or satisfy me with the bond that could have provided some great emotions. The family connections laid out in the first book were there but not strengthen with emotional scenes in this one for me.

He grinned, pulling her close. “Soni, basa tusi itaraza karo.” Just you wait.

By 50% Ajay seems to already be all-in with Raj, he says a couple lines that allude to her being it for him and then at 60% when Raj gets scared, Ajay says she has to be the one to start things back up. Their separation doesn't last long and then they're working together again as Raj decides selling her business to Ajay will help him secure CEO and she can focus more on philanthropy work, which she has always wanted to do. The espionage is revealed to not quite be over as wrongly identified and yet to be identified moles are still a problem for Bharat, Inc. Raj takes care of business though, when her ex-husband, with some help from some of those Bharat, Inc. problems, gets a hit piece published on her. It was great how she handled it but also put Ajay more in the shadows as his character and their romance didn't shine as bright.

This was a glossy contemporary that had a lot of corporate espionage and a quick but steamy romance. The younger brother Zail looks to have some groveling to do with the misidentified mole and their cousin Bhram seems to have a tumultuous relationship with Ajay's assistant Rafael, the Singh family looks to have plenty of family, romance, and business drama on the horizon.

Cute but very slow. Seemed longer than it was.

"Never in a million years did Prem think his brain chemistry would betray him and make him doubt for the first time in his life that maybe, just maybe, love could be real."

This is such a funny, endearing, and spicy book. Enemies to Lovers. Fake Marriage. Happily Ever After. I LOVED IT! I literally laughed out loud and read my partner some parts of the book because it was so funny.

I also enjoyed learning more about Indian culture in America and how American customs can affect/change some of the traditions.

I really enjoyed the dive into Winnie's culture, and I'm absolutely going to track down some of the movies Sharma references, but this book is about as melodramatic and unrealistic as Winnie's love interests keep insisting Bollywood musicals are. (My only experience with Bollywood musicals is Bride and Prejudice, and I'm pretty sure that doesn't count. So I'll take their word for it.)

Unrealistic melodrama might be tolerable if Winnie's personal growth or developing relationships anchored the story, but Winnie spends the entire book skimming the surface of her own and others' emotional lives. Despite all the dithering over destiny and free will, all the ambition driving her film school dreams, all the warmth of friendship, family, and burgeoning romance, Winnie never seems to feel any of it deeply.

When things go right, she takes it as her due, as something she deserves. And when things go wrong, she finds a way to manipulate the situation, or the person, in question until everything comes out shiny and friendly and exactly what she wants. Nothing is ever her fault. Nothing prompts her to examine her actions or her motives, and nothing prompts her to examine other people's actions or motives. She just...floats...through it all.

As a result, while the Indian American culture comes across loud and clear, most of the other characters read like cardboard. The advisor is a rule-abiding tightwad. The ex-boyfriend is a smarmy chameleon. The new love interest is a smouldering film genius. The best friend is a girly blonde. Winnie's parents and grandmother are the most three-dimensional of the lot, and that's mostly due to the fact that they have Backstory...and that Winnie's grandmother is described as an older version of Winnie.

I'm sure this is probably a fun, frothy read for a lot of people, but to me, it was more akin to reading a film. Films are great, but they're a completely different medium. If I wanted to watch a film, I wouldn't be poring over the pages of a book.

I’m sure there are things to critique here, like the evil other woman and so on, but this book was such a fluffy fun read that I’m giving it 4 stars. It’s also really nice to read YA with good parents for a change.

Having put this book on my tbr for two readathons, I was very excited to get to it. But picking it up just after finishing another one which kinda depressed me a bit was the best decision I made, because this romance made my whole weekend.

I love the romance genre for what it gives me - predictability and happiness - and this was exactly that. I have read many books with billionaire heroes before and it was always a fun indulgence, but this series by Nisha feels aspirational because this time, the billionaires are desi. The writing is fast paced with things happening very quickly, and the corporate takeover backdrop gives way for some twisty suspense, betrayals and heated moments - all resulting in a thrilling romance read that I couldn’t put down even for a second. And I really really love the yummy Chole Bhature goodness (I’m desi.. I can’t help my love for our food).

I completely fell in love with the characters right from the get go. Ofcourse we’ve already met them in The Takeover Effect so that was a plus, and Raj left a strong impression on me even then when she was only a small presence. Here she truly shines. She is a self made woman who is confident in what she wants and doesn’t shy away from tackling obstacles head on when it comes to business. But vulnerability doesn’t come easy to her, so seeing her learn to navigate the matters of the heart was a joy.

Ajay on the other hand is the typical middle child - he is passionate in every aspect of his life but tempers it with a soft heart - which some might mistake for a weakness but that he is not. The chemistry between them is electric from their first interaction and the banter is so full of fire, I was thoroughly entertained. Just like the first book, the romance might feel a bit instalovey but I’ve never had problems with that. It was actually nice to see them realize what they wanted from each other, set the right expectations and support each other fully through troubling times.

It was also nice to see Hem and Mina again and just the three brothers being the awesome trio they are. Zail did piss me off for a little while but I was glad to see the issues resolved pretty quickly. The Singh family on the whole is just so amazing and none more so than their mother who is a formidable woman but also a sweetheart.

In the end, this was a super fiery romance with two passionate characters and a nice suspense to keep you engaged throughout. If you love your billionaire romance genre, then you can’t go wrong with this one at all. It is equal parts sexy as well as sweet, and I had such a lovely time reading. Can’t wait to see which direction the series takes next with Zail’s story.

What do you do when you are in a sort of reading slump and nothing looks interesting - I decided to pick up the latest romance by my favorite author, because Nisha Sharma totally delighted me in My So-Called Bollywood Life and I expected nothing less from this book. And I’m so glad it lived up to all the promise and hopefully, my slump is a thing of history.

I’m one of those readers who loves books with tropes, especially in romances because sometimes, the predictability can be comforting and just what I need. I also agree with the various discussions in the community that even though many readers are bored with tropey romances, it’s a fact that POC readers have not had much opportunity to enjoy these tropes with characters who look like them. And that’s why this book felt extra special to me. Nisha uses the common plot lines we see in lots of adult/erotic romances - billionaire alpha male hero, independent ambitious heroine, hostile business takeover and some good old corporate espionage - while rooting the story in desi culture, and that’s why it felt so relatable even though I’ve never met such rich people in my life 😉😉. While this book has a definite case of instalove, I found it convincing enough and the intensity of the interactions between the MCs was quite interesting. The author also managed to strike a great balance between the love story, the family dynamics of both the MCs and the subplot revolving around the business. All the references to delicious Indian food made me very hungry 😋, the discussions about nosy families were hilarious and I absolutely loved the little Punjabi words in conversations.

Hem is an interesting character - he loves his family, takes his duty as the eldest son seriously but also wants to chart his own path in life and career. I liked his loyalty and drive and self assured nature. My only pet peeve is that he is too alpha and possessive for my taste. I absolutely adored Mina. She is spunky, confident, ambitious and knows exactly what she wants in life - though she might not always be sure how to get there. I liked their romantic dynamic - sometimes sweet and vulnerable, others highly intense - but I never doubted their feelings despite everything happening fairly quickly. I really loved Hem’s brothers Ajay and Zail. The trio make for some great scenes and I especially enjoyed their dynamic at the workplace. Their mom is the typical Indian mother - a strong woman, the rock behind her husband’s success, who loves feeding everyone and just wants her sons to get married. Their father and the genius behind the business can be slightly hardheaded and proud, but I came to like him towards the end. I completely fell in love with this family and can’t wait to get to know more about them all.

This book was exactly what I needed for my current mood and I’m so thankful to Nisha for writing such wonderful books with Indian American characters. This is a fun, entertaining and exciting romance novel with very strong characters, rooted in our culture while also having a very interesting business takeover subplot. It also ends on a slightly mysterious note and I can only hope that the next book is going to be about Ajay and Mina’s bff Raj, with a whole lot of shenanigans.

May 8th, 2018 - Updated Review

I had to restrain myself from bursting into giggles every ten seconds. This book is hilarious throughout, with lots of cheese and OTT melodrama like a typical KJo movie and I loved every single word.

Winnie is a hard-core movie buff with a Hindi movie review blog, who wants to do Film Studies at NYU Tisch and pursue a career as a film critic. She (alongwith her parents) also believe in a prediction made by a Panditji in her childhood about meeting her soulmate whose name starts with ‘R’ before her eighteenth birthday. But, when a few months before the D-day, her long time boyfriend Raj breaks up and she starts feeling something for Dev, she has to choose between believing in kismet or wanting to make her own destiny.

Winnie is a normal teenager who is angry and devastated by her breakup and confused about wanting to be with Dev (especially when Raj starts pursuing her again) but through it all, she is strong in her convictions, knows what she wants from her future and never lets anyone change her mind. Her parents and nani are some of the best parental characters I’ve ever read. They might be slightly pushy, maybe even embarrass her a little in front of others, but they love her unconditionally and fully support her in her choices without pressuring her. I loved the idea of Indian parents not worried that their kid didn’t want to be an engineer or a doctor. They are also traditional, slightly superstitious but still progressive in their ideas and I admired them a lot.

Dev may look like a bad boy but he is the sweetest guy ever and so so precious *swoons*. Though Dev and Winnie’s relationship felt a little insta-lovey, I totally got swept up in it and was rooting for them from the get-go. Every single one of their dates is very very cute and I always wanted more. Raj is probably an okay guy but I didn’t like him from the moment he told Winnie that her career choices were silly and she should grow up and go to college with him. I could never warm up to him after that, and he probably only redeemed himself slightly towards the end when he helped resolve some misunderstandings. Bridget is Winnie’s BFFL (Best Freaking Friend for Life) and their mutual admiration society of 80’s movies and Jane Austen was very endearing.

However, for me, what makes this book so wonderful is that for the first time ever, I saw a part of myself on the page. Winnie’s obsession with Hindi movies, her love for their romanticism, songs and dances, SRK – all felt like a reflection of myself. The writing is also very light hearted with so many funny moments making the whole reading experience very enjoyable and entertaining. SRK showing up in Winnie’s dreams and giving her advice on her love life through his iconic movie dialogues was hysterical. The Hindi movie references are spot-on and the snippets from Winnie’s review blog about the most notable movies of the last two decades are a highlight.

This is a very typical and predictable high school romance if you go by the plot, but the humorous writing and the completely filmi aesthetic make this one of the most funniest books I have ever read. Definitely recommend for readers of YA rom-coms but this is a must read for all lovers of SRK and Bollywood.

Special LOL spoilery moments from the book:

1. Winnie’s favorite swear word – “Holy baby Shahrukh”
2. Referring to the iconic Bachchan starrer Deewar as “that Wall movie”
3. Every single translation of SRK’s most famous dialogues
4. “Pigeon, go, go, go, pigeon, go, go, go” – remember that song?
5. Dream Winnie running in a “sarson ka khet” and falling into the arms of SRK
6. Nani and her mom making food for the film festival because no movie experience is complete without samosas
7. Dev performing a Bollywood dance routine with a whole set of background dancers to impress Winnie (even though he hates dancing… isn’t he the best!!!!)

May 4th, 2018

This book ..... oh god this book... I would give it so many stars I wouldn’t be able to count.

I haven’t been able to stop laughing since I started it a few hours ago and I just abandoned everything I had to do at home to finish it. And I’m thrilled.. and excited... and super duper happy...

My insanely Bollywood and SRK obsessed self is feeling really seen and validated after reading this book.

Anyone who loves Indian movies, the corny, OTT and dramatic nature of our films, should definitely read this book. You will just love it and die laughing 😆😆😆

I know I’m rambling but I will need a lot of time to think and write a review for this one. Because, all I want to do is quote all the hysterical lines - which would essentially be most of the book.

teen fiction, love story that celebrates the classical dance roots of Bollywood, and Indian cooking (mental health - panic attacks)

tasty and romantic. A fast, fun read I can recommend.

diverse teen fiction (bollywood-inspired rom com)
This is probably fine, it just wasn't what I felt like reading at the time.