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Sari, Not Sari
This debut rom-com follows the adventures of a woman trying to connect with her South Asian roots and introduces readers to a memorable cast of characters in a veritable feast of food, family traditions, and fun.
Manny Dogra is the beautiful young CEO of Breakup, a highly successful company that helps people manage their relationship breakups. As preoccupied as she is with her business, she’s also planning her wedding to handsome architect Adam Jamieson while dealing with the loss of her beloved parents.
For reasons Manny has never understood, her mother and father, who were both born in India, always wanted her to become an “All-American” girl. So that’s what she did. She knows next to nothing about her South Asian heritage, and that’s never been a problem—until her parents are no longer around, and an image of Manny that’s been Photoshopped to make her skin look more white appears on a major magazine cover. Suddenly, the woman who built an empire encouraging people to be true to themselves is having her own identity crisis.
But when an irritating client named Sammy Patel approaches Manny with an odd breakup request, the perfect solution presents itself: If they both agree to certain terms, he’ll give her a crash course in being “Indian” at his brother’s wedding.
What follows is days of dancing and dal, masala and mehndi as Manny meets the lovable, if endlessly interfering, aunties and uncles of the Patel family, and, along the way, discovers much more than she could ever have anticipated.
Manny Dogra is the beautiful young CEO of Breakup, a highly successful company that helps people manage their relationship breakups. As preoccupied as she is with her business, she’s also planning her wedding to handsome architect Adam Jamieson while dealing with the loss of her beloved parents.
For reasons Manny has never understood, her mother and father, who were both born in India, always wanted her to become an “All-American” girl. So that’s what she did. She knows next to nothing about her South Asian heritage, and that’s never been a problem—until her parents are no longer around, and an image of Manny that’s been Photoshopped to make her skin look more white appears on a major magazine cover. Suddenly, the woman who built an empire encouraging people to be true to themselves is having her own identity crisis.
But when an irritating client named Sammy Patel approaches Manny with an odd breakup request, the perfect solution presents itself: If they both agree to certain terms, he’ll give her a crash course in being “Indian” at his brother’s wedding.
What follows is days of dancing and dal, masala and mehndi as Manny meets the lovable, if endlessly interfering, aunties and uncles of the Patel family, and, along the way, discovers much more than she could ever have anticipated.
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2022
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March 1, 2022
thank you to netgalley and simon & schuster for providing me with an arc!
sari, not sari is pitched as rom-com following ceo manny dongra who goes to an indian wedding with one of her clients, sammy patel, in order to reclaim her indian roots. as an indian-american, i firmly believe that this book was written for a white, western audience, going so far as to be downright offensive towards indians and members of the indian diaspora.
the premise itself starts off as problematic. implying that there’s a single week-long “crash course” to take in order to be a true indian is culturally insensitive. there are numerous cultural differences throughout india, with states and regions having different customs and traditions surrounding weddings. these traditions are given different levels of importance and have different names across state and regional borders and manny acting as though she’s becoming an expert in indian/indian-american culture after attending a few events at a single (presumably, based on the last name patel) gujarati wedding is insensitive and downright harmful.
without any major spoilers, let me dive into the specific problems i had with the plot and the way certain characters were written.
the indian immigrants (who were all in manny’s parents’ generation) were written as stereotypical caricatures who spoke broken english and were feverishly obsessed with marriage and relationships. rajiv, a man who owned an indian food truck in manny’s hometown frequently teased her about not knowing about her indian culture and repeatedly implored her to find an ideal indian boyfriend/husband in broken english. manny repeatedly brushed him off and ignored his attempts to connect her to her roots. i was willing to dismiss this as a one-off occurrence, but it happened again throughout the book. both of sammy’s parents spoke in fragmented english as well, for no apparent reason. in both the conversations that sammy’s mom was part of, she brought up manny’s upcoming wedding and her daughter’s inability to find the ideal fiancé. of course, this is a book centered around a wedding, but there’s no need for “traditional” indian parental figures to repeatedly bring up prospective weddings in short conversations that have almost no bearing on the plot and lean into the stereotypes of indians being obsessed with finding the perfect spouse.
rob, one of the side characters, is a gay white man who feels the need to consistently tell jokes and puns with hindi words as the punchline. when manny first has a crisis over whether or not she is “indian enough” after the whitewashed magazine cover is released, she goes to rob’s house to vent and seek his advice. this didn’t sit right with me for multiple reasons. the main one, of course, is that rob is white. there’s no way he can understand the unique experience of being the child of indian immigrants and growing up to realize that you aren’t as connected to your heritage as you’d like to be. my discomfort was only heightened by the fact that manny emphasizes that she does have an indian friend at work (anjali) repeatedly throughout the first few chapters. yes, it’s possible that she didn’t want to bother anjali outside of work hours and keep their relationship strictly professional, but the fact remains that rob is also her coworker and manny had no qualms over bringing her personal struggles to him. furthermore, it feels like rob doesn’t take manny seriously at all. like i said before, i don’t think he’s in any position to offer substantial advice because of his race, but as manny’s supposed best friend, the least he can do is be understanding. instead, he laughs at manny and asks how best “to get some of this indian back into her” as though you can become a “real” indian by taking a supplement. rob also compares people not viewing manny as indian as people not realizing that he is gay after their first look at him. lgbt white people likening their sexuality and gender identity to race is a well-documented issue that’s become even more prevalent in the past few years, and i did not expect a south asian author to include this kind of incident and portray it as harmless and well-intentioned. as a reader, i did feel like we were supposed to empathize with rob and believe that he was doing his best as a white ally, but, frankly, he was in no position to. in terms of his poorly executed puns, when manny is leaving rob’s apartment, she asks him not to pity her, to which rob responds that she means “sarry for your sari,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. later on, when manny calls rob from the wedding, he calls her a “masala mama” and refers to sammy as a “dosa daddy.” again, i don’t understand why rob, as a white man, is being applauded as comic relief using hindi words and indian foods as the punchline. i don’t understand why no one bothers to put him in his place. i don’t understand why he feels he has any right to make these jokes in the first place, and why one of these jokes is where the book gets its title from.
manny asks anjali to pack for her before she leaves on a last-minute flight to go to the wedding. anjali brings up how manny doesn’t own any indian clothes, to which manny responds that it’s fine. after all, the wedding is in california wine country in the fall and if worst comes to worst, she can just wear shorts. anjali rightfully gasps at this and reminds manny that no one ever wears shorts to an indian wedding, and that she’ll need to go to some sort of indian boutique as soon as she lands in california. despite this, it still takes manny a few minutes to register that she can’t wear shorts to an indian wedding and she tries to tell herself and anjali that it’ll be busy enough that “no one will look at what she’s wearing.” regardless of how culturally whitewashed and removed from indian culture she is, i find it hard to believe that manny wouldn’t know that you don’t wear shorts to an indian wedding. in fact, you don’t wear shorts to a wedding, period. the only case i can think of in which shorts would be appropriate would be at a christian beach wedding afterparty or something along those lines, and the fact that she tries to justify wearing those shorts didn’t sit right with me at all. for someone who is so eager to reclaim her indian roots, manny seems incredibly reluctant to respect the customs and traditions of indian weddings.
because the book hasn’t been published, i don’t want to go further into any of my thoughts about any more specific scenes quite yet and want to keep the rest of this review as spoiler free as possible. that being said, i was appalled by how offensive this book was, as india was treated as a cultural monolith with archaic and outdated traditions. on top of that, the romance aspect of the book was rushed and felt as though it had been thrown in at the last minute. overall, this was an ill-conceived book that left me dissatisfied at best and disrespected at worst.
sari, not sari is pitched as rom-com following ceo manny dongra who goes to an indian wedding with one of her clients, sammy patel, in order to reclaim her indian roots. as an indian-american, i firmly believe that this book was written for a white, western audience, going so far as to be downright offensive towards indians and members of the indian diaspora.
the premise itself starts off as problematic. implying that there’s a single week-long “crash course” to take in order to be a true indian is culturally insensitive. there are numerous cultural differences throughout india, with states and regions having different customs and traditions surrounding weddings. these traditions are given different levels of importance and have different names across state and regional borders and manny acting as though she’s becoming an expert in indian/indian-american culture after attending a few events at a single (presumably, based on the last name patel) gujarati wedding is insensitive and downright harmful.
without any major spoilers, let me dive into the specific problems i had with the plot and the way certain characters were written.
the indian immigrants (who were all in manny’s parents’ generation) were written as stereotypical caricatures who spoke broken english and were feverishly obsessed with marriage and relationships. rajiv, a man who owned an indian food truck in manny’s hometown frequently teased her about not knowing about her indian culture and repeatedly implored her to find an ideal indian boyfriend/husband in broken english. manny repeatedly brushed him off and ignored his attempts to connect her to her roots. i was willing to dismiss this as a one-off occurrence, but it happened again throughout the book. both of sammy’s parents spoke in fragmented english as well, for no apparent reason. in both the conversations that sammy’s mom was part of, she brought up manny’s upcoming wedding and her daughter’s inability to find the ideal fiancé. of course, this is a book centered around a wedding, but there’s no need for “traditional” indian parental figures to repeatedly bring up prospective weddings in short conversations that have almost no bearing on the plot and lean into the stereotypes of indians being obsessed with finding the perfect spouse.
rob, one of the side characters, is a gay white man who feels the need to consistently tell jokes and puns with hindi words as the punchline. when manny first has a crisis over whether or not she is “indian enough” after the whitewashed magazine cover is released, she goes to rob’s house to vent and seek his advice. this didn’t sit right with me for multiple reasons. the main one, of course, is that rob is white. there’s no way he can understand the unique experience of being the child of indian immigrants and growing up to realize that you aren’t as connected to your heritage as you’d like to be. my discomfort was only heightened by the fact that manny emphasizes that she does have an indian friend at work (anjali) repeatedly throughout the first few chapters. yes, it’s possible that she didn’t want to bother anjali outside of work hours and keep their relationship strictly professional, but the fact remains that rob is also her coworker and manny had no qualms over bringing her personal struggles to him. furthermore, it feels like rob doesn’t take manny seriously at all. like i said before, i don’t think he’s in any position to offer substantial advice because of his race, but as manny’s supposed best friend, the least he can do is be understanding. instead, he laughs at manny and asks how best “to get some of this indian back into her” as though you can become a “real” indian by taking a supplement. rob also compares people not viewing manny as indian as people not realizing that he is gay after their first look at him. lgbt white people likening their sexuality and gender identity to race is a well-documented issue that’s become even more prevalent in the past few years, and i did not expect a south asian author to include this kind of incident and portray it as harmless and well-intentioned. as a reader, i did feel like we were supposed to empathize with rob and believe that he was doing his best as a white ally, but, frankly, he was in no position to. in terms of his poorly executed puns, when manny is leaving rob’s apartment, she asks him not to pity her, to which rob responds that she means “sarry for your sari,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. later on, when manny calls rob from the wedding, he calls her a “masala mama” and refers to sammy as a “dosa daddy.” again, i don’t understand why rob, as a white man, is being applauded as comic relief using hindi words and indian foods as the punchline. i don’t understand why no one bothers to put him in his place. i don’t understand why he feels he has any right to make these jokes in the first place, and why one of these jokes is where the book gets its title from.
manny asks anjali to pack for her before she leaves on a last-minute flight to go to the wedding. anjali brings up how manny doesn’t own any indian clothes, to which manny responds that it’s fine. after all, the wedding is in california wine country in the fall and if worst comes to worst, she can just wear shorts. anjali rightfully gasps at this and reminds manny that no one ever wears shorts to an indian wedding, and that she’ll need to go to some sort of indian boutique as soon as she lands in california. despite this, it still takes manny a few minutes to register that she can’t wear shorts to an indian wedding and she tries to tell herself and anjali that it’ll be busy enough that “no one will look at what she’s wearing.” regardless of how culturally whitewashed and removed from indian culture she is, i find it hard to believe that manny wouldn’t know that you don’t wear shorts to an indian wedding. in fact, you don’t wear shorts to a wedding, period. the only case i can think of in which shorts would be appropriate would be at a christian beach wedding afterparty or something along those lines, and the fact that she tries to justify wearing those shorts didn’t sit right with me at all. for someone who is so eager to reclaim her indian roots, manny seems incredibly reluctant to respect the customs and traditions of indian weddings.
because the book hasn’t been published, i don’t want to go further into any of my thoughts about any more specific scenes quite yet and want to keep the rest of this review as spoiler free as possible. that being said, i was appalled by how offensive this book was, as india was treated as a cultural monolith with archaic and outdated traditions. on top of that, the romance aspect of the book was rushed and felt as though it had been thrown in at the last minute. overall, this was an ill-conceived book that left me dissatisfied at best and disrespected at worst.
May 27, 2022
Okay! This is definitely cute, entertaining, educational introduction to Indian culture and wedding rituals, such an easy read:promising debut contemporary multicultural romance! ( wow, I feel exhausted after using too much words incessantly to define a book! I’m taking water break. Kidding I’m sipping my chilled Chardonnay!)
I had great reading time! So you may ask me why the hell I only gave three stars! Because I normal gave them to my neutral reads which neither I liked nor I hated!
But this time I lowered some stars not because of disliking or visiting Switzerland zone of my readings ( that zone also created for my mediocre reads)!
I lowered my stars at the last chapters. We didn’t need that way too much rushed HEA! And I didn’t buy main characters’ instant romance. Of course there are romance books focused on love at first but this story didn’t match with the elements of those books. So abrupt conclusion was a little questionable for me!
I still enjoyed the author’s writing skills. And if she decides to make specific and more logical changing in the end, I may still round up my stars!
But for this conclusion, I decided to keep my 3 solid stars and I still want reading future works of the author!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon& Schuster Canada for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
I had great reading time! So you may ask me why the hell I only gave three stars! Because I normal gave them to my neutral reads which neither I liked nor I hated!
But this time I lowered some stars not because of disliking or visiting Switzerland zone of my readings ( that zone also created for my mediocre reads)!
I lowered my stars at the last chapters. We didn’t need that way too much rushed HEA! And I didn’t buy main characters’ instant romance. Of course there are romance books focused on love at first but this story didn’t match with the elements of those books. So abrupt conclusion was a little questionable for me!
I still enjoyed the author’s writing skills. And if she decides to make specific and more logical changing in the end, I may still round up my stars!
But for this conclusion, I decided to keep my 3 solid stars and I still want reading future works of the author!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon& Schuster Canada for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
April 1, 2022
I am DELIGHTED by this book!! I loved soooooooooooo much about it! First of all, Manny, the main characters, is kick-ass, confident, capable, and has the coolest job in the world (A BREAKUP MANAGER??? I LOVE IT!!). The premise is pure romcom gold (Manny and Sammy are fake dating at a big Indian wedding 🥰🥰🥰) and the secondary characters are funny and charming and sooo fascinating! And, I looved reading about Manny rediscovering her identity and finding love. A super fun, swoony read, and I cannot wait to see what Sonya Singh gives us next😍😍😍
Disclosure: received an ARC from the publisher; the author and I share an agency (SDLA)
Disclosure: received an ARC from the publisher; the author and I share an agency (SDLA)
May 16, 2023
huge thank you to netgalley and simon & schuster for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!
this book was a debut novel and i tried to keep that in mind while reading but it was tough due to the fact that there was a lot of stuff i didn't enjoy about the book. i'm not gonna do a deep dive due to the fact that this book isn't published yet.
first off, i feel as though i should say i'm indian. in fact, i'm gujarati which is the same place sammy (the love interest) is from if we base it off his last name. because of this, i feel as though i can accurately judge this novel for its misinterpretations and such.
starting with our main character, manny. i can easily say that manny is one of the worst romance protagonists i have had the non-pleasure of meeting. she was annoying and quite rude at times. like, i understand that she's not that connected to her culture but that doesn't give her an excuse. i could relate to her a tiny bit because i'm an indian living in a town where i'm one of maybe 4 poc families. but i definitely could not relate to her disdain for the culture. she almost seemed disgusted by it at first? refusing to drink things such as chai and saying that wearing shorts would be appropriate for an indian wedding is pure ignorance and disrespectful. also the fact that she outright refused to believe sammy when he was telling her about how indian families act was so rude. she fails to believe that other indian families weren't brought up like her.
on another note, there are multiple gay characters in this book. one of them is a gay white man named rob who's manny's best friend and get this, he compared him being a queer white man to being a poc. like? this issue has been talked about in recent years for how inappropriate it is and i did not expect to find it in this book. when i read that, i automatically wanted to dnf. also, the book specifies that rob is gay in like... every other sentence he speaks. he commonly refers to himself as "manny's gay ex-boyfriend and best friend." it feels like he was just added for a sprinkle of representation and for the gay best friend trope.
now this is a romance novel so i might as well talk about that to. it sucked. it was absolutely terrible. i don't want to spoil so i won't say much but this whole book is in the span of a week i think? and a week is definitely too short to be saying the l word and even moving beyond that. the ending of the book was garbage and made me drop this from a 2 star to a 1. it was just so unexpected and came out of nowhere? like you barely know each other and BAM! suddenly you're doing this?
there's so much more i could complain about from the interpretation of indians to how manny's whole company is built on breaking up with people through email but i might save that for when this book comes out. or maybe not because i really don't want to experience this book again.
this book had cringe dialogue and even though it was a debut, i feel like there was too much wrong with the story for me to enjoy it. i did like the sprinkles of indian pop culture though. it was nice seeing them refer to songs that are on my bollywood playlist and actors i grew up watching with my dad.
bottom line: i dislike gulab jamun and i dislike this book. but of course, i recommend you pick it up for yourself and see how it is!
this book was a debut novel and i tried to keep that in mind while reading but it was tough due to the fact that there was a lot of stuff i didn't enjoy about the book. i'm not gonna do a deep dive due to the fact that this book isn't published yet.
first off, i feel as though i should say i'm indian. in fact, i'm gujarati which is the same place sammy (the love interest) is from if we base it off his last name. because of this, i feel as though i can accurately judge this novel for its misinterpretations and such.
starting with our main character, manny. i can easily say that manny is one of the worst romance protagonists i have had the non-pleasure of meeting. she was annoying and quite rude at times. like, i understand that she's not that connected to her culture but that doesn't give her an excuse. i could relate to her a tiny bit because i'm an indian living in a town where i'm one of maybe 4 poc families. but i definitely could not relate to her disdain for the culture. she almost seemed disgusted by it at first? refusing to drink things such as chai and saying that wearing shorts would be appropriate for an indian wedding is pure ignorance and disrespectful. also the fact that she outright refused to believe sammy when he was telling her about how indian families act was so rude. she fails to believe that other indian families weren't brought up like her.
on another note, there are multiple gay characters in this book. one of them is a gay white man named rob who's manny's best friend and get this, he compared him being a queer white man to being a poc. like? this issue has been talked about in recent years for how inappropriate it is and i did not expect to find it in this book. when i read that, i automatically wanted to dnf. also, the book specifies that rob is gay in like... every other sentence he speaks. he commonly refers to himself as "manny's gay ex-boyfriend and best friend." it feels like he was just added for a sprinkle of representation and for the gay best friend trope.
now this is a romance novel so i might as well talk about that to. it sucked. it was absolutely terrible. i don't want to spoil so i won't say much but this whole book is in the span of a week i think? and a week is definitely too short to be saying the l word and even moving beyond that. the ending of the book was garbage and made me drop this from a 2 star to a 1. it was just so unexpected and came out of nowhere? like you barely know each other and BAM! suddenly you're doing this?
there's so much more i could complain about from the interpretation of indians to how manny's whole company is built on breaking up with people through email but i might save that for when this book comes out. or maybe not because i really don't want to experience this book again.
this book had cringe dialogue and even though it was a debut, i feel like there was too much wrong with the story for me to enjoy it. i did like the sprinkles of indian pop culture though. it was nice seeing them refer to songs that are on my bollywood playlist and actors i grew up watching with my dad.
bottom line: i dislike gulab jamun and i dislike this book. but of course, i recommend you pick it up for yourself and see how it is!
March 30, 2022
Manny is the highly successful CEO of an online company, Breakup, specializing in easy, painless, and permanent breakups by email. She has been immersed in the American way of life by her Indian immigrant parents and was raised without knowledge of Indian traditions, culture, or holidays. Her few Indian acquaintances, including her business manager, Allayn, and a food truck owner, are bewildered over her ignorance regarding her Indian heritage. I found it challenging to connect with the characters.
Manny is engaged to Adam, who is frequently away on business, and I was confused about the extent of his companies. He is described as an architect and involved in his wealthy family's wine business and Breakup.com. Manny does not seem wholly invested in their relationship. He was a comfort when she was stricken with grief over her parent's death, and she poured extra time into growing her company. Manny blames Adam for being away too often on business and neglecting their relationship, when in fact, she has been emotionally absent as well. I found her business colleagues interesting, but the gay man seemed included as a stereotype to add diversity, as was a relative of Allayn, whom we meet later.
I felt that the story's pace was uneven and rushed at the end. Much was heavy with unrealistic dialogue. I found the premise intriguing based on a person attempting to connect with their identity. The book's cover was eye-catching. I was very interested in reading this story. One of my most vivid, colourful memories was attending a dazzling celebration and wedding in New Delhi almost 30 years ago.
Letters from prospective clients began each chapter with descriptions of reasons to break up with significant partners. These added a touch of humour, and I was disappointed not to learn how Breakup responded to these requests and how the following emails would read. The company rejects Sammy Patel's request because he wants only a temporary breakup from his girlfriend, and Breakup only does final endings to relationships. He is angry and rude because he has been turned down, wanting something against company policy. He keeps returning to Breakup's office, badgering them to comply with his request. He only wants to break up with his girlfriend for a week while he attends his younger brother's wedding celebrations. It would cause a family rift if he brought his white girlfriend. Finally, Manny gives in. She is annoyed that her photo has been whitewashed on a magazine cover, her skin lightened, and her mother's Indian necklace photoshopped out.
Manny agrees to a temporary breakup letter if Sammy will take her to the wedding pretending to be his business guest and teach her about Indian culture. This is where it began to feel unrealistic to me. His large, extended, wealthy Indian family seemed replete with stereotypes that seemed straight out of a fabulous Bollywood movie. Manny is uneasy at first. She attends numerous parties and celebrations leading up to the wedding and has crash courses in music and dance. Manny has appropriate, elaborate clothing and accessories sent in by her business manager. She enjoys learning about Indian culture from the Patels' who have added some of their own family traditions. During the week, she feels more at ease and connected with the Patel family members, who are mostly kind and accepting of her. Manny and Sammy's romantic feelings seemed rushed and came out of nowhere, but it works in this type of story.
I wish to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review.
Manny is engaged to Adam, who is frequently away on business, and I was confused about the extent of his companies. He is described as an architect and involved in his wealthy family's wine business and Breakup.com. Manny does not seem wholly invested in their relationship. He was a comfort when she was stricken with grief over her parent's death, and she poured extra time into growing her company. Manny blames Adam for being away too often on business and neglecting their relationship, when in fact, she has been emotionally absent as well. I found her business colleagues interesting, but the gay man seemed included as a stereotype to add diversity, as was a relative of Allayn, whom we meet later.
I felt that the story's pace was uneven and rushed at the end. Much was heavy with unrealistic dialogue. I found the premise intriguing based on a person attempting to connect with their identity. The book's cover was eye-catching. I was very interested in reading this story. One of my most vivid, colourful memories was attending a dazzling celebration and wedding in New Delhi almost 30 years ago.
Letters from prospective clients began each chapter with descriptions of reasons to break up with significant partners. These added a touch of humour, and I was disappointed not to learn how Breakup responded to these requests and how the following emails would read. The company rejects Sammy Patel's request because he wants only a temporary breakup from his girlfriend, and Breakup only does final endings to relationships. He is angry and rude because he has been turned down, wanting something against company policy. He keeps returning to Breakup's office, badgering them to comply with his request. He only wants to break up with his girlfriend for a week while he attends his younger brother's wedding celebrations. It would cause a family rift if he brought his white girlfriend. Finally, Manny gives in. She is annoyed that her photo has been whitewashed on a magazine cover, her skin lightened, and her mother's Indian necklace photoshopped out.
Manny agrees to a temporary breakup letter if Sammy will take her to the wedding pretending to be his business guest and teach her about Indian culture. This is where it began to feel unrealistic to me. His large, extended, wealthy Indian family seemed replete with stereotypes that seemed straight out of a fabulous Bollywood movie. Manny is uneasy at first. She attends numerous parties and celebrations leading up to the wedding and has crash courses in music and dance. Manny has appropriate, elaborate clothing and accessories sent in by her business manager. She enjoys learning about Indian culture from the Patels' who have added some of their own family traditions. During the week, she feels more at ease and connected with the Patel family members, who are mostly kind and accepting of her. Manny and Sammy's romantic feelings seemed rushed and came out of nowhere, but it works in this type of story.
I wish to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review.
March 16, 2022
trigger warnings: homophobia, alcohol, bigotry, racist microaggressions, colorism
This book was a huge disappointment as an Indian American who was excited to read about another Indian American.
To start, both characters are filthy rich capitalists which already makes them unrelatable. Fortunately it's accurate to the way a lot of upper class South Asian families exist in the states so that tracks.
To put it plainly, this book is written by a South Asian for white people who want to read about the Indian American experience. The way the main character is introduced to Indian culture is the exact superficial way I'd introduce a white person to my culture. I know they won't grasp the nuance so I'm not wasting my time.
The fact that Manny the mc is running a company that sends out BREAK UP EMAILS??? And that's just like...normal. Like sending an email isn't the most cold hearted and cowardly way of breaking up with someone (with exceptions especially ones that pertain to safety). And it's not even addressed, it's the quirky premise of the book. wtf
Sammy, the romantic lead is dating a white girl and doesn't want to bring her to the wedding so he goes with Manny. It's funny that they end up together though because the way he talks about the brown girls his family sets him up with gives me Shake from Love is Blind and The Big Sick vibes. Both incredible sources of internalised racism and indications that said brown man is a walking red flag who looks down upon women from his own culture. Disgusting. Just based on that he's a terrible romantic lead.
The author does a fantastic job of demonstrating that she only has 2% understanding of brown culture or that she didn't care to put in any nuance into the book. This shit is the dramatic, glitzy bullshit of Bollywood movies, not an actual representation of what being Indian is supposed to be. There's no nuance, there's only the superficial capitalist/commercial, entertainment driven caricature of culture. Fucking disgusting to read.
The fat character in the book is described as a bumbling loud mouth fool who takes up too much space. Nearly identical to how Bollywood movies represent fat characters with not a single sight of a critique of that harmful trope. There are also two gay characters, which would have been wonderful if they weren't relegated to one dimensional gay best friend characters. Both of them are hyper sexualised, effeminate caricatures of queerness. As a queer South Asian this pissed me off because AGAIN Bollywood cinema has maybe five total movies with respectful queer rep? The rest are the same caricatures mentioned above.
The language and accent is also mocked a whole lot. All the brown elders have heavy accents for no goddamn reason. It would have been accurate but with the rest of the missteps it was more insulting than on brand. Additionally the Hinglish was also piss poor. Gave me the same vibes as the American Dirt author who just randomly threw in words to give it a cultural vibe. No understanding of code switching and how Hinglish operates as a mixed language on its own.
This book was a real fucking disappointment and a goddamn insult.
The only positive is that this book does a good job of mentioning that there is no proper way of being Indian. If you were born to Indian parents that is what you are. Diaspora kids need to hear that and I appreciated it. Nothing else though.
This book was a huge disappointment as an Indian American who was excited to read about another Indian American.
To start, both characters are filthy rich capitalists which already makes them unrelatable. Fortunately it's accurate to the way a lot of upper class South Asian families exist in the states so that tracks.
To put it plainly, this book is written by a South Asian for white people who want to read about the Indian American experience. The way the main character is introduced to Indian culture is the exact superficial way I'd introduce a white person to my culture. I know they won't grasp the nuance so I'm not wasting my time.
The fact that Manny the mc is running a company that sends out BREAK UP EMAILS??? And that's just like...normal. Like sending an email isn't the most cold hearted and cowardly way of breaking up with someone (with exceptions especially ones that pertain to safety). And it's not even addressed, it's the quirky premise of the book. wtf
Sammy, the romantic lead is dating a white girl and doesn't want to bring her to the wedding so he goes with Manny. It's funny that they end up together though because the way he talks about the brown girls his family sets him up with gives me Shake from Love is Blind and The Big Sick vibes. Both incredible sources of internalised racism and indications that said brown man is a walking red flag who looks down upon women from his own culture. Disgusting. Just based on that he's a terrible romantic lead.
The author does a fantastic job of demonstrating that she only has 2% understanding of brown culture or that she didn't care to put in any nuance into the book. This shit is the dramatic, glitzy bullshit of Bollywood movies, not an actual representation of what being Indian is supposed to be. There's no nuance, there's only the superficial capitalist/commercial, entertainment driven caricature of culture. Fucking disgusting to read.
The fat character in the book is described as a bumbling loud mouth fool who takes up too much space. Nearly identical to how Bollywood movies represent fat characters with not a single sight of a critique of that harmful trope. There are also two gay characters, which would have been wonderful if they weren't relegated to one dimensional gay best friend characters. Both of them are hyper sexualised, effeminate caricatures of queerness. As a queer South Asian this pissed me off because AGAIN Bollywood cinema has maybe five total movies with respectful queer rep? The rest are the same caricatures mentioned above.
The language and accent is also mocked a whole lot. All the brown elders have heavy accents for no goddamn reason. It would have been accurate but with the rest of the missteps it was more insulting than on brand. Additionally the Hinglish was also piss poor. Gave me the same vibes as the American Dirt author who just randomly threw in words to give it a cultural vibe. No understanding of code switching and how Hinglish operates as a mixed language on its own.
This book was a real fucking disappointment and a goddamn insult.
The only positive is that this book does a good job of mentioning that there is no proper way of being Indian. If you were born to Indian parents that is what you are. Diaspora kids need to hear that and I appreciated it. Nothing else though.
April 21, 2022
Thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for providing an ARC of Sari, Not Sari in exchange for an honest review.
Since the book has been released, this is the full review!
⇢Description
Manny Dogra is the beautiful young CEO of Breakup, a highly successful company that helps people manage their relationship breakups. As preoccupied as she is with her business, she’s also planning her wedding to handsome architect Adam Jamieson while dealing with the loss of her beloved parents.
For reasons Manny has never understood, her mother and father, who were both born in India, always wanted her to become an “All-American” girl. So that’s what she did. She knows next to nothing about her South Asian heritage, and that’s never been a problem—until her parents are no longer around, and an image of Manny that’s been Photoshopped to make her skin look more white appears on a major magazine cover. Suddenly, the woman who built an empire encouraging people to be true to themselves is having her own identity crisis.
But when an irritating client named Sammy Patel approaches Manny with an odd breakup request, the perfect solution presents itself: If they both agree to certain terms, he’ll give her a crash course in being “Indian” at his brother’s wedding.
What follows is days of dancing and dal, masala and mehndi as Manny meets the lovable, if endlessly interfering, aunties and uncles of the Patel family, and, along the way, discovers much more than she could ever have anticipated.
⇢Thoughts
This book started off well. Really well. I was a big fan of the cultural aspects, and the hilarious emails that began every chapter. And overall, I will say that reading this book wasn’t a bad experience by any means. However, the ending really disappointed me because the way the romance played out just didn’t make sense :(
First, the characters literally only knew each other for a week. Plus, they literally disliked each other before that. And I mean, I can look past that. But the fact that at the end of that week they were already… that committed to their relationship?? When literally a day before they had both thought they were with other people?? And the MC WAS LITERALLY ENGAGED? TO ANOTHER PERSON? ONE DAY BEFORE? I guess it’s technically not impossible to convince me of all that because anything can happen, but if you’re going to try to convince me of a relationship that moved so quickly, the couple is going to need to be REALLY GOOD. AMAZING even. And this couple just wasn’t, unfortunately.
I will say that like I previously mentioned, there were parts of this book that I enjoyed. But there needed to be a lot more positives to outweigh the negatives that came from the romance, and that just didn’t happen. Not through side characters or plot or the main character or anything else.
my carrd ❦
BOOKISH PRODUCTS: USE MY CODE JAZ10 ❦
BOOKMARKS, BLIND DATE WITH A BOOK ETC: USE MY CODE JAZ10 ❦
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Since the book has been released, this is the full review!
⇢Description
Manny Dogra is the beautiful young CEO of Breakup, a highly successful company that helps people manage their relationship breakups. As preoccupied as she is with her business, she’s also planning her wedding to handsome architect Adam Jamieson while dealing with the loss of her beloved parents.
For reasons Manny has never understood, her mother and father, who were both born in India, always wanted her to become an “All-American” girl. So that’s what she did. She knows next to nothing about her South Asian heritage, and that’s never been a problem—until her parents are no longer around, and an image of Manny that’s been Photoshopped to make her skin look more white appears on a major magazine cover. Suddenly, the woman who built an empire encouraging people to be true to themselves is having her own identity crisis.
But when an irritating client named Sammy Patel approaches Manny with an odd breakup request, the perfect solution presents itself: If they both agree to certain terms, he’ll give her a crash course in being “Indian” at his brother’s wedding.
What follows is days of dancing and dal, masala and mehndi as Manny meets the lovable, if endlessly interfering, aunties and uncles of the Patel family, and, along the way, discovers much more than she could ever have anticipated.
⇢Thoughts
This book started off well. Really well. I was a big fan of the cultural aspects, and the hilarious emails that began every chapter. And overall, I will say that reading this book wasn’t a bad experience by any means. However, the ending really disappointed me because the way the romance played out just didn’t make sense :(
First, the characters literally only knew each other for a week. Plus, they literally disliked each other before that. And I mean, I can look past that. But the fact that at the end of that week they were already… that committed to their relationship?? When literally a day before they had both thought they were with other people?? And the MC WAS LITERALLY ENGAGED? TO ANOTHER PERSON? ONE DAY BEFORE? I guess it’s technically not impossible to convince me of all that because anything can happen, but if you’re going to try to convince me of a relationship that moved so quickly, the couple is going to need to be REALLY GOOD. AMAZING even. And this couple just wasn’t, unfortunately.
I will say that like I previously mentioned, there were parts of this book that I enjoyed. But there needed to be a lot more positives to outweigh the negatives that came from the romance, and that just didn’t happen. Not through side characters or plot or the main character or anything else.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
my carrd ❦
BOOKISH PRODUCTS: USE MY CODE JAZ10 ❦
BOOKMARKS, BLIND DATE WITH A BOOK ETC: USE MY CODE JAZ10 ❦
BOOKMARKS AND CANDLES: USE MY CODE JAZ10 ❦
April 8, 2022
DNF @ 25%
I couldn't even make it a third of way through. Contemporary romcoms are either a hit or miss for me, and this one falls into the latter category.
I was expecting something fun, but that never came, I was bored and I decided it was best to end it early. That's all there is to it.
Some of the characters made me a bit uncomfortable in their behaviours, and while I can't speak on the rep, as I'm not Indian, I'd encourage you to read this review if you want to learn more about why it was problematic:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I couldn't even make it a third of way through. Contemporary romcoms are either a hit or miss for me, and this one falls into the latter category.
I was expecting something fun, but that never came, I was bored and I decided it was best to end it early. That's all there is to it.
Some of the characters made me a bit uncomfortable in their behaviours, and while I can't speak on the rep, as I'm not Indian, I'd encourage you to read this review if you want to learn more about why it was problematic:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
April 15, 2022
1.5 ⭐️ Started fine but by the end, I was done
My issues with this story aren't necessarily with the writing/sentence structure, but more with the concept, the characters, and the romance. I was expecting a fun rom-com filled with rich Indian culture but was let down.
First off, the romance between Manny and Sammy was forced. They had absolutely no connection, so when they finally got together it felt random and abrupt. The author literally just announces that they suddenly like, no LOVE, each other without hardly any romantic buildup besides him picking a leaf out of her hair one night.
Second, and most problematic, there was a lot of stereotyping of Indian and LGBT characters/culture. Many characters were portrayed as caricatures and it was honestly uncomfortable and somewhat offensive.
Third, everything surrounding Adam and his relationship with Manny was bizarre. Adam was the most one-dimensional character I think I've ever met. He's a rich, business-driven white guy who doesn't have time for family and 'doesn't see color'. (If anyone has seen The Wedding Singer, he reminds me of an even more boring version of Julia's finance, Glenn Guglia. Like all we really know is that he's a massive jerk lol). And Manny, who is a beautiful, successful CEO is with him because . . . he helped her ignore the pain of her parent's death by encouraging her to work hard on building her company. They don't ever spend time together and when they do, it's all work. For a woman who runs a business that deals with relationships, she's unbelievably shite at them herself.
Fourth, most of the side characters act so immaturely that I couldn't believe they're supposed to be in their 30s.
As I mentioned earlier, the actual writing shows promise, so I don’t want to discourage the author. I genuinely believe she has talent, but the plot and its development needed a lot more work, and I blame the editors and publishers for that.
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review! As always, all opinions are my own.
My issues with this story aren't necessarily with the writing/sentence structure, but more with the concept, the characters, and the romance. I was expecting a fun rom-com filled with rich Indian culture but was let down.
First off, the romance between Manny and Sammy was forced. They had absolutely no connection, so when they finally got together it felt random and abrupt. The author literally just announces that they suddenly like, no LOVE, each other without hardly any romantic buildup besides him picking a leaf out of her hair one night.
Second, and most problematic, there was a lot of stereotyping of Indian and LGBT characters/culture. Many characters were portrayed as caricatures and it was honestly uncomfortable and somewhat offensive.
Third, everything surrounding Adam and his relationship with Manny was bizarre. Adam was the most one-dimensional character I think I've ever met. He's a rich, business-driven white guy who doesn't have time for family and 'doesn't see color'. (If anyone has seen The Wedding Singer, he reminds me of an even more boring version of Julia's finance, Glenn Guglia. Like all we really know is that he's a massive jerk lol). And Manny, who is a beautiful, successful CEO is with him because . . . he helped her ignore the pain of her parent's death by encouraging her to work hard on building her company. They don't ever spend time together and when they do, it's all work. For a woman who runs a business that deals with relationships, she's unbelievably shite at them herself.
Fourth, most of the side characters act so immaturely that I couldn't believe they're supposed to be in their 30s.
As I mentioned earlier, the actual writing shows promise, so I don’t want to discourage the author. I genuinely believe she has talent, but the plot and its development needed a lot more work, and I blame the editors and publishers for that.
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review! As always, all opinions are my own.
August 28, 2022
This was a cute story about connecting with your heritage and figuring out where you belong. I loved learning about South Asian culture, the food, traditions, and expressions. I also loved the big raucous family celebrations. The emails that opened every chapter were hysterical too.
What I did not enjoy is the Insta love. Not only Insta love but the fastest Insta love in the history of Insta love. All in all a cute book though.
What I did not enjoy is the Insta love. Not only Insta love but the fastest Insta love in the history of Insta love. All in all a cute book though.
January 7, 2025
This was good.
I enjoyed the friendship that developed between Sammy & Manny and all the family dramatics along the way.
It was really fun following Manny on her journey of self discovery.
I enjoyed the friendship that developed between Sammy & Manny and all the family dramatics along the way.
It was really fun following Manny on her journey of self discovery.
May 1, 2022
I received a copy of this book for free as part of a read along.
This was such a simple and sweet story!
I loved the premise of the story. I love stories about women reconnecting with their heritage and roots, so naturally liked this. I enjoyed learning more about Indian culture, especially their wedding customs. I also liked that the book explored being “white-washed” and how it can make people feel disconnected towards their culture.
The book is a very light and easy read. The prose flows nicely and the chapters are short which makes reading a breeze. The beginning of each chapter includes an email from a client that added a consistent touch of humor throughout the book.
However, the book is very heavy on instalove. The characters fell in love after only knowing each other for a week which did not feel realistic. Also, Manny’s company, Breakup, did not seem like a viable company (it was an interesting concept but I don’t think that many people want to breakup via email). But this book is a romantic comedy so some suspension of disbelief is needed.
Overall, despite a few flaws, I still enjoyed this debut novel and am looking forward to seeing what else the author publishes in the future. If you’re looking for an entertaining romance with some Indian culture woven throughout, consider picking this one up!
This was such a simple and sweet story!
I loved the premise of the story. I love stories about women reconnecting with their heritage and roots, so naturally liked this. I enjoyed learning more about Indian culture, especially their wedding customs. I also liked that the book explored being “white-washed” and how it can make people feel disconnected towards their culture.
The book is a very light and easy read. The prose flows nicely and the chapters are short which makes reading a breeze. The beginning of each chapter includes an email from a client that added a consistent touch of humor throughout the book.
However, the book is very heavy on instalove. The characters fell in love after only knowing each other for a week which did not feel realistic. Also, Manny’s company, Breakup, did not seem like a viable company (it was an interesting concept but I don’t think that many people want to breakup via email). But this book is a romantic comedy so some suspension of disbelief is needed.
Overall, despite a few flaws, I still enjoyed this debut novel and am looking forward to seeing what else the author publishes in the future. If you’re looking for an entertaining romance with some Indian culture woven throughout, consider picking this one up!
November 8, 2022
the idea was good but the execution fell extremely short
December 8, 2021
Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I was pretty excited to read this novel, after seeing the title and the models (the sari looks gorgeous!) on the cover. While this story has a ton of fun aspects, big Indian weddings, Bollywood dances, and mentions of yummy food, and references to Indian culture, I think those were the only aspects I enjoyed in this book. The actual romance was a let-down for me. I felt like Manny and Sammy barely interact or have any chemistry before they declare their feelings for each other. Their romance was honestly a whirlwind, in between Manny learning about her heritage and the wedding preparations, that I wish there were more slower, grounded moments between her and Sammy.
I also felt like this novel was heavily influenced by millennial culture, which was kind of a turn-off for me. Some of the pop culture references felt outdated (for example, the book talks about Priyanka Chopra and Lilly Singh in a positive light), not to mention how strange the dialogue felt at times? I was a little taken aback at the way that Manny ran her company. The employees (even the C-suite execs) seemed super disorganized and all over the place for a savvy, trendy company/start-up. There are also some typical stereotypes about Indian, and South Asian culture in general, dispersed throughout the novel that I cringed at as well. I feel like there also should have been a moment where Manny finds out where exactly in India she's from. There's so many sub-cultures and languages and religions present in India and I think if she had found out where exactly her parents had been from, it would have allowed for some cool opportunities for her to learn about the specific aspects of her--for example, North or South Indian culture, rather than classifying her as a generic Indian person.
Overall, I think that this book was pretty unforgettable for me. There are definitely better South Asian rom-coms out there and I’d recommend saving your time by reading those instead of this one.
I was pretty excited to read this novel, after seeing the title and the models (the sari looks gorgeous!) on the cover. While this story has a ton of fun aspects, big Indian weddings, Bollywood dances, and mentions of yummy food, and references to Indian culture, I think those were the only aspects I enjoyed in this book. The actual romance was a let-down for me. I felt like Manny and Sammy barely interact or have any chemistry before they declare their feelings for each other. Their romance was honestly a whirlwind, in between Manny learning about her heritage and the wedding preparations, that I wish there were more slower, grounded moments between her and Sammy.
I also felt like this novel was heavily influenced by millennial culture, which was kind of a turn-off for me. Some of the pop culture references felt outdated (for example, the book talks about Priyanka Chopra and Lilly Singh in a positive light), not to mention how strange the dialogue felt at times? I was a little taken aback at the way that Manny ran her company. The employees (even the C-suite execs) seemed super disorganized and all over the place for a savvy, trendy company/start-up. There are also some typical stereotypes about Indian, and South Asian culture in general, dispersed throughout the novel that I cringed at as well. I feel like there also should have been a moment where Manny finds out where exactly in India she's from. There's so many sub-cultures and languages and religions present in India and I think if she had found out where exactly her parents had been from, it would have allowed for some cool opportunities for her to learn about the specific aspects of her--for example, North or South Indian culture, rather than classifying her as a generic Indian person.
Overall, I think that this book was pretty unforgettable for me. There are definitely better South Asian rom-coms out there and I’d recommend saving your time by reading those instead of this one.
September 7, 2023
i think the author was having some sort of identity crisis when she wrote this.
there are so many things i hated about this book, the main thing being how indian culture was portrayed like it's something that can be studied from one of those 'for dummies' books. there are so many different traditions, customs & languages throughout india that are not even remotely similar and unique in their own ways which can't be generalized into one. the author does a wonderful job at just how well she doesn't understand indian culture.
i would say that this book was disrespectful and insensitive.
the plot of the book is how manny (the main character) goes to a week long wedding to essentially 'become indian', at the end of this book she even thinks that she has mastered the act of 'being indian'. at the beginning of the book she says many harmful words regarding indian culture, disregarding it, and the people.
when she is on a magazine cover on which she is whitewashed she runs over her white gay best friend to rant and hopefully help her feel better over the magazine (he doesn't help but instead makes her a drink and makes jokes about it) when she can go over to her other friend anjali who is also indian, who would understand her feelings much better.
the side characters are incredibly cliché, especially the gay best friend(s) (there are multiple times where he compared being gay to being a poc), a fat character who is loud and shamed for her weight and her personality, the parents and other older characters all have bad accents, are obsessed with marriage and have no boundaries.
as for the romance, considering this is supposed to be one. they fell in love in 1 week, while they were engaged to other people, there was hardly any development, nothing.
the dialogue was incredibly cringy and the humor was not funny.
i should also add, manny here owns a company that sends break up emails and thinks that wearing shorts to a wedding is acceptable.
there is so much that i could go on about but i want to move on from this book and never look back.
there are so many things i hated about this book, the main thing being how indian culture was portrayed like it's something that can be studied from one of those 'for dummies' books. there are so many different traditions, customs & languages throughout india that are not even remotely similar and unique in their own ways which can't be generalized into one. the author does a wonderful job at just how well she doesn't understand indian culture.
i would say that this book was disrespectful and insensitive.
the plot of the book is how manny (the main character) goes to a week long wedding to essentially 'become indian', at the end of this book she even thinks that she has mastered the act of 'being indian'. at the beginning of the book she says many harmful words regarding indian culture, disregarding it, and the people.
when she is on a magazine cover on which she is whitewashed she runs over her white gay best friend to rant and hopefully help her feel better over the magazine (he doesn't help but instead makes her a drink and makes jokes about it) when she can go over to her other friend anjali who is also indian, who would understand her feelings much better.
the side characters are incredibly cliché, especially the gay best friend(s) (there are multiple times where he compared being gay to being a poc), a fat character who is loud and shamed for her weight and her personality, the parents and other older characters all have bad accents, are obsessed with marriage and have no boundaries.
as for the romance, considering this is supposed to be one. they fell in love in 1 week, while they were engaged to other people, there was hardly any development, nothing.
the dialogue was incredibly cringy and the humor was not funny.
i should also add, manny here owns a company that sends break up emails and thinks that wearing shorts to a wedding is acceptable.
there is so much that i could go on about but i want to move on from this book and never look back.
December 7, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
➼ three stars
Sari not Sari did not disappoint but it did not blow my mind either. As someone who grew up watching Indian movies and tv shows I was so excited to read this book and follow the journey of the main character while she tried to connect with her culture and find out what it actually means to be a “real Indian”.
The heartwarming parts of this book were definitely those where Manny finally realised that there is not only one way to be a part of a certain culture and that you can always come back to it.
In my opinion the book should have been a bit longer because the plot felt super rushed and I didn’t really find it realistic that everything happened in a span of only one week.
The romance suffered because of this too. I didn’t feel any connection between Sammy and Manny and the miscommunication was too much for me. It is what I hate the most in romance books. Arguments also happened and then were resolved too quickly. Some dialogue was also cringey but I can survive through that.
I get that this is a debut novel and because of that I was open minded and I did like this book in the end. I related to the family bits a lot which is a plus. In conclusion it was a sweet and quick read!
➼ three stars
Sari not Sari did not disappoint but it did not blow my mind either. As someone who grew up watching Indian movies and tv shows I was so excited to read this book and follow the journey of the main character while she tried to connect with her culture and find out what it actually means to be a “real Indian”.
The heartwarming parts of this book were definitely those where Manny finally realised that there is not only one way to be a part of a certain culture and that you can always come back to it.
In my opinion the book should have been a bit longer because the plot felt super rushed and I didn’t really find it realistic that everything happened in a span of only one week.
The romance suffered because of this too. I didn’t feel any connection between Sammy and Manny and the miscommunication was too much for me. It is what I hate the most in romance books. Arguments also happened and then were resolved too quickly. Some dialogue was also cringey but I can survive through that.
I get that this is a debut novel and because of that I was open minded and I did like this book in the end. I related to the family bits a lot which is a plus. In conclusion it was a sweet and quick read!
February 13, 2023
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Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.
Sari, Not Sari had a good premise when reading the description of the book. I love to read about Indian culture and I love a good Girl Boss vibe. But unfortunately this book has lost its mark with me.
Our main character is Manny who is a CEO of her own company called Break Up. Where they have clients request personalized break ups done for them that is communicated through email.
Now Manny was unfortunately never really taught about her culture because her parents desire to ingrain her in America. Now that her parents are gone due to a tragic accident, she is still dealing with her grief of that loss and chooses to engross herself with work in her company.
Alongside her working all the time is her fiancé Adam who isn’t really there a lot and pushes her to work more. He also can’t make a commitment to set a date for them to start planning their wedding.
Through a mishap of magazine white washing her features on the cover. Manny realizes that she needs to understand her own self and her Indian culture.
In comes Sammy, and some of my issues with this plot. Sammy is an Indian man who has a non Indian girlfriend. He needs Manny's services to do a “temporary” break up with his girlfriend for just a week for his brother's wedding. Sammy explained that Indian culture is so tight on marrying other Indian’s women that he was also afraid that his family of Patels would cancel his brother's wedding due to his choice of a girlfriend.
Manny addressed, why can’t you just be honest with family instead of temporarily breaking up with his girlfriend? But Sammy was adamant that this was the only “solution.” Which to me, was kinda shallow and didn’t make sense to me.
So in exchange for doing this personalized email for Sammy, she asked him to take her to his brother's wedding to have a crash course about the culture. Which to me from an outsider's perspective, Manny experienced it and not really learned about it.
So the book goes on where she is getting to know Sammy’s family and on with the family wedding festivities. That's where they eventually got to know one another and realized that they loved one another. With the reason’s below, not sure how that happened.
My biggest issue of this book are these:
It took maybe 45-50% of the book to finally really start to see Sammy in Sari, Not Sari. For a rom-com, that felt like forever! I felt like the love interest should have been introduced and the relationship built a lot sooner than it did in the book.
You don’t really get to know Sammy, heck you barely see them interact with each other in the book. So it was Insta Romance that happened in a span of a week. A lot of the story is Manny interacting with everyone but Sammy. Actually, you may know more about Sammy through his family than Sammy himself. So I felt there was no chemistry there and no true build of romance.
Both Manny and Sammy were in separate relationships throughout the book, which I felt wasn’t really addressed as a good conclusion in the book. It was half haphazardly mentioned and dealt with and then it was over.
Not sure why this bothers me but here it is. One of the family members gets upset with Manny about using their family to learn about Indian culture. The girl told Manny to leave and not come back. But for reasons I really can’t remember, Manny decides to stay for the wedding. Well, you don’t see that situation get resolved at all. So I am wondering, why build that relationship throughout the book with that relative and without a peep of that situation you don’t read of that person again. No resolution, just tossed through the window as if it never happened.
The resolution of the ending in the last 5% of the book was not great. It felt quick and it didn't make sense. I really feel the ending needs to be stronger because the ending is what really made me feel this book wasn’t good.
This book had good potential but I feel that romance wasn’t strong for a rom-com and the ending wasn’t that good.
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Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.
Sari, Not Sari had a good premise when reading the description of the book. I love to read about Indian culture and I love a good Girl Boss vibe. But unfortunately this book has lost its mark with me.
Our main character is Manny who is a CEO of her own company called Break Up. Where they have clients request personalized break ups done for them that is communicated through email.
Now Manny was unfortunately never really taught about her culture because her parents desire to ingrain her in America. Now that her parents are gone due to a tragic accident, she is still dealing with her grief of that loss and chooses to engross herself with work in her company.
Alongside her working all the time is her fiancé Adam who isn’t really there a lot and pushes her to work more. He also can’t make a commitment to set a date for them to start planning their wedding.
Through a mishap of magazine white washing her features on the cover. Manny realizes that she needs to understand her own self and her Indian culture.
In comes Sammy, and some of my issues with this plot. Sammy is an Indian man who has a non Indian girlfriend. He needs Manny's services to do a “temporary” break up with his girlfriend for just a week for his brother's wedding. Sammy explained that Indian culture is so tight on marrying other Indian’s women that he was also afraid that his family of Patels would cancel his brother's wedding due to his choice of a girlfriend.
Manny addressed, why can’t you just be honest with family instead of temporarily breaking up with his girlfriend? But Sammy was adamant that this was the only “solution.” Which to me, was kinda shallow and didn’t make sense to me.
So in exchange for doing this personalized email for Sammy, she asked him to take her to his brother's wedding to have a crash course about the culture. Which to me from an outsider's perspective, Manny experienced it and not really learned about it.
So the book goes on where she is getting to know Sammy’s family and on with the family wedding festivities. That's where they eventually got to know one another and realized that they loved one another. With the reason’s below, not sure how that happened.
My biggest issue of this book are these:
It took maybe 45-50% of the book to finally really start to see Sammy in Sari, Not Sari. For a rom-com, that felt like forever! I felt like the love interest should have been introduced and the relationship built a lot sooner than it did in the book.
You don’t really get to know Sammy, heck you barely see them interact with each other in the book. So it was Insta Romance that happened in a span of a week. A lot of the story is Manny interacting with everyone but Sammy. Actually, you may know more about Sammy through his family than Sammy himself. So I felt there was no chemistry there and no true build of romance.
Both Manny and Sammy were in separate relationships throughout the book, which I felt wasn’t really addressed as a good conclusion in the book. It was half haphazardly mentioned and dealt with and then it was over.
Not sure why this bothers me but here it is. One of the family members gets upset with Manny about using their family to learn about Indian culture. The girl told Manny to leave and not come back. But for reasons I really can’t remember, Manny decides to stay for the wedding. Well, you don’t see that situation get resolved at all. So I am wondering, why build that relationship throughout the book with that relative and without a peep of that situation you don’t read of that person again. No resolution, just tossed through the window as if it never happened.
The resolution of the ending in the last 5% of the book was not great. It felt quick and it didn't make sense. I really feel the ending needs to be stronger because the ending is what really made me feel this book wasn’t good.
This book had good potential but I feel that romance wasn’t strong for a rom-com and the ending wasn’t that good.
Read
March 4, 2022I was excited when I got this book, and there were aspects that I liked; the story was strongest when presenting examples of whitewashing in media and advertising, etc. Except that this was not supposed to be an issues book, but a romance.
Sadly, the romance felt tacked on (though there were some lovely descriptions of the love interest once it finally got going), and overshadowing all of it was a strong sense of discomfort at the heroine having made pots of money inventing a breakup app. Really, who thinks this is a good idea, being dumped by app? The author did her best to make it believable, but it tended to reinforce some of the other uncomfortable impressions, such as "Indian" being used too frequently as if all of Inda was one monolith of culture, custom, language, and religion.
Finally I don't think the book knew what it wanted to be. A stronger editor and a few more passes might have brought it better into focus. Though again, it did have some lovely elements, and I will certainly look for more from this author.
Copy provided by NetGaley
Sadly, the romance felt tacked on (though there were some lovely descriptions of the love interest once it finally got going), and overshadowing all of it was a strong sense of discomfort at the heroine having made pots of money inventing a breakup app. Really, who thinks this is a good idea, being dumped by app? The author did her best to make it believable, but it tended to reinforce some of the other uncomfortable impressions, such as "Indian" being used too frequently as if all of Inda was one monolith of culture, custom, language, and religion.
Finally I don't think the book knew what it wanted to be. A stronger editor and a few more passes might have brought it better into focus. Though again, it did have some lovely elements, and I will certainly look for more from this author.
Copy provided by NetGaley
April 27, 2022
Love can happen on the journey to self discovery and in Sari, Not Sari , that is what happened to business woman, Manny Dogra. As the CEO, focused on her one of a kind and wildly successful business of helping people write break-up emails, Manny’s face hits the cover of a magazine looking less ethnic and much whiter than in real life. Raised by her parents to be American, she is curious about her undiscovered South Asian roots and is disturbed by how she was portrayed. At work, faced with a difficult client with an unusual request, Manny agrees to help him, and in return he will introduce her to his big Indian family and teach her all he can by taking her to his brother’s traditional Indian wedding. Introduced to the elegant clothing, flavorful foods and all the chatty aunties while being encouraged to embrace tradition, Manny begins to find herself and see others in a different light.
Sari, Not Sari is a fun, romantic comedy that provides a window in to the head and heart of a young woman who has lost sight of where she came from. She craves connection to her family and her culture and ultimately realizes the unspoken camaraderie and understanding of others when surrounding herself with people from the same background and embracing tradition. An enjoyable read from debut author, Sonya Singh… I love when love works out!
Sari, Not Sari is a fun, romantic comedy that provides a window in to the head and heart of a young woman who has lost sight of where she came from. She craves connection to her family and her culture and ultimately realizes the unspoken camaraderie and understanding of others when surrounding herself with people from the same background and embracing tradition. An enjoyable read from debut author, Sonya Singh… I love when love works out!
March 24, 2022
Review to come later today-I just woke up and haven't even finished one cup of coffee!!! So I couldn't possibly write a coherent review yet!
Now that I have fortified myself with enough coffee to sink a battleship, I can safely say that this was a very cute romance/finding yourself novel. I, too, was brought up like Manny was, and that was to embrace being American with my Italian/Hungarian sides being secondary. I knew about the foods but very little about the traditions of either family. So I can easily see myself jumping at the chance that Manny did.
Sammy was a tad more difficult to get to know, but eventually, he grew on me, and so did his whole family. I actually wish this book had spent less time on discussing Manny's company (it was the entire first quarter of the book---and let me tell you, I was amazed to find out such companies exist! I am soooo in the dark ages!) and more time on Manny learning about her heritage.
All in all, a quick, fun, and flirty novel, perfect for the beach.
*ARC supplied by Simon and Schuster, NetGalley, and the author. My thanks.
Now that I have fortified myself with enough coffee to sink a battleship, I can safely say that this was a very cute romance/finding yourself novel. I, too, was brought up like Manny was, and that was to embrace being American with my Italian/Hungarian sides being secondary. I knew about the foods but very little about the traditions of either family. So I can easily see myself jumping at the chance that Manny did.
Sammy was a tad more difficult to get to know, but eventually, he grew on me, and so did his whole family. I actually wish this book had spent less time on discussing Manny's company (it was the entire first quarter of the book---and let me tell you, I was amazed to find out such companies exist! I am soooo in the dark ages!) and more time on Manny learning about her heritage.
All in all, a quick, fun, and flirty novel, perfect for the beach.
*ARC supplied by Simon and Schuster, NetGalley, and the author. My thanks.
May 19, 2023
3.5/5 stars
You know what, for a debut novel this is actually pretty amaz! And um hello a Canadian author writing Indian romance sign me up!!!
I have only a few complaints about the book:
I don't know why but I felt like there was more a best friend vibe between Manny and Sammy but maybe thats just a me thing. Also, the romance felt really rushed towards the end. I guess I was expecting a bit more "literal" chemistry to be written
All in all the plot was great, the characters were great, and CULTURAL ACCURACY WAS ALSO THERE!!!
this was a very fun read <33
You know what, for a debut novel this is actually pretty amaz! And um hello a Canadian author writing Indian romance sign me up!!!
I have only a few complaints about the book:
I don't know why but I felt like there was more a best friend vibe between Manny and Sammy but maybe thats just a me thing. Also, the romance felt really rushed towards the end. I guess I was expecting a bit more "literal" chemistry to be written
All in all the plot was great, the characters were great, and CULTURAL ACCURACY WAS ALSO THERE!!!
this was a very fun read <33
March 9, 2022
4.25 STARS 🇮🇳💃🏾🍾
First things first, I was given a copy of this book as an ARC. A big thank-you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Sonya Singh for allowing me to be an early reader!
Manny Dogra is a CEO of a company called Breakup. The aim of this company is to write emails for people who wish to split from their partners, allowing for a smooth breakup.
Manny’s parents passed away in a car accident, so she does not have many people to ask about her cultural roots. Manny is surrounded with friends who are South Asian like herself, but she often feels that she is unable to relate to them and their lives.
One day, Manny receives a request from a client named Sammy Patel. The request is to write an email to his girlfriend, for a temporary breakup. Manny declines, as her company only writes emails for clients who wish to have permanent breakups.
Sammy is insistent, and he explains his extenuating circumstance to Manny. After listening, Manny agrees to provide her company services for Sammy, only if he teaches her about the Indian culture and lifestyle. Sammy accepts, and decides what better way to show Manny the culture than taking her to his younger brother’s wedding?
On their trip together, Manny is able to learn more about herself, family structure, and the cultural traditions. While spending time with Sammy, she is also able to build a connection with him and realize that she’s been sheltering herself for quite some time.
I wish at times that there were more substantial conversations between Manny and Sammy. I felt that their relationship was a bit rushed at times and they never truly got to know each other. However, I still thought that this book was a lovely and realistic way to depict what it’s like to not be in touch with your roots. I loved that Manny was willing to learn, and the way that she was able to immerse herself in the culture.
If you are looking for a book with desi representation that features the cultural traditions and a journey of love, then I’d recommend checking this book out! Sari, Not Sari is set to release on April 5th, 2020 so keep an eye out! x
First things first, I was given a copy of this book as an ARC. A big thank-you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Sonya Singh for allowing me to be an early reader!
Manny Dogra is a CEO of a company called Breakup. The aim of this company is to write emails for people who wish to split from their partners, allowing for a smooth breakup.
Manny’s parents passed away in a car accident, so she does not have many people to ask about her cultural roots. Manny is surrounded with friends who are South Asian like herself, but she often feels that she is unable to relate to them and their lives.
One day, Manny receives a request from a client named Sammy Patel. The request is to write an email to his girlfriend, for a temporary breakup. Manny declines, as her company only writes emails for clients who wish to have permanent breakups.
Sammy is insistent, and he explains his extenuating circumstance to Manny. After listening, Manny agrees to provide her company services for Sammy, only if he teaches her about the Indian culture and lifestyle. Sammy accepts, and decides what better way to show Manny the culture than taking her to his younger brother’s wedding?
On their trip together, Manny is able to learn more about herself, family structure, and the cultural traditions. While spending time with Sammy, she is also able to build a connection with him and realize that she’s been sheltering herself for quite some time.
I wish at times that there were more substantial conversations between Manny and Sammy. I felt that their relationship was a bit rushed at times and they never truly got to know each other. However, I still thought that this book was a lovely and realistic way to depict what it’s like to not be in touch with your roots. I loved that Manny was willing to learn, and the way that she was able to immerse herself in the culture.
If you are looking for a book with desi representation that features the cultural traditions and a journey of love, then I’d recommend checking this book out! Sari, Not Sari is set to release on April 5th, 2020 so keep an eye out! x
September 29, 2022
Just had a hard time getting into the characters and the story. I had to keep going back through spots because I kept losing interest. Was just okay.
May 14, 2022
Do you love bad romance movies but think that they’re just too short? Would you like the disaster to last 5 hours instead of 1 and a half? Then, boy, do I have a book for you.
There are two things that were fine about this book: the message that you are Indian no matter whether you choose to participate in traditions or not and the dressing room scenario (only as a concept for a scene and not the actual scene due to issue number 1 below).
There are many things I didn’t like about this book.
First of all, let’s start with some of the lesser evils of this book.
It’s just not well written. It reads like it has never seen an editor and that doesn’t make for a great experience.
Manny, as a main character, is rather inconsistent and, due to her wealth, pretty far removed from the average, non-rich reader. She seems completely blind to how Adam is very much a bad person despite it being emphasized how she’s a strong and empowered woman, over and over and over again. Manny even refuses to believe Sammy when he tells her about how traditional his family is.
Second of all, the romance between Sammy and Manny just doesn’t have any chemistry. It borders on insta-love and the ending does not make sense. Sammy reads like a Hallmark love interest getting the business woman to rediscover life outside business, which is essentially what he is. He’s pretty much just Manny’s guide to Indian culture until he suddenly isn’t.
Now, onto the middle ground evil which is: Manny’s company as a concept. It’s a company that enables you to break up with your partner through email, which a) is honestly callous and a rather cruel way to break up with someone and b) means that she’s made a business of profiting off of people’s vulnerability. And it’s never genuinely challenged. It could have made for an interesting character trait in another book.
There are somethings about this book that are even more uncomfortable and, frankly, sickening.
At every turn in the story, Manny makes a point of emphasizing how different and odd and alien Indian culture is to her. The book leans into stereotypes. White characters make rather insensitive jokes and are let off the hook for it. Adam who behaves despicably, ends up being let off the hook without a confrontation. It is not my place to talk about this, so please read Aashna’s review to fully understand.
The LGBTQ representation in this book is borderline offensive. There are multiple gay men in this story and every single one of them is written the exact same way and relegated to the exact same role: the Hypersexual Gay Best Friend. There is no depth to any them. Every other line they say is either something about how gay they are or something sexual. It was honestly pretty sickening to read. Representation has gotten much better in the last decade and this reads as an outdated and horrible stereotype.
Next, the only non-skinny character in this book is written to be comedic relief in the same way early 2000s TV wrote non-skinny characters as comedic relief. Characters are just allowed to make remarks about her body weight and, while the main character worries about her carb intake (perpetrating diet culture) the non-skinny girl is showing eating lots of bread and butter. Again, upsetting and I thought we, collectively, were better than this by now.
There are two things that were fine about this book: the message that you are Indian no matter whether you choose to participate in traditions or not and the dressing room scenario (only as a concept for a scene and not the actual scene due to issue number 1 below).
There are many things I didn’t like about this book.
First of all, let’s start with some of the lesser evils of this book.
It’s just not well written. It reads like it has never seen an editor and that doesn’t make for a great experience.
Manny, as a main character, is rather inconsistent and, due to her wealth, pretty far removed from the average, non-rich reader. She seems completely blind to how Adam is very much a bad person despite it being emphasized how she’s a strong and empowered woman, over and over and over again. Manny even refuses to believe Sammy when he tells her about how traditional his family is.
Second of all, the romance between Sammy and Manny just doesn’t have any chemistry. It borders on insta-love and the ending does not make sense. Sammy reads like a Hallmark love interest getting the business woman to rediscover life outside business, which is essentially what he is. He’s pretty much just Manny’s guide to Indian culture until he suddenly isn’t.
Now, onto the middle ground evil which is: Manny’s company as a concept. It’s a company that enables you to break up with your partner through email, which a) is honestly callous and a rather cruel way to break up with someone and b) means that she’s made a business of profiting off of people’s vulnerability. And it’s never genuinely challenged. It could have made for an interesting character trait in another book.
There are somethings about this book that are even more uncomfortable and, frankly, sickening.
At every turn in the story, Manny makes a point of emphasizing how different and odd and alien Indian culture is to her. The book leans into stereotypes. White characters make rather insensitive jokes and are let off the hook for it. Adam who behaves despicably, ends up being let off the hook without a confrontation. It is not my place to talk about this, so please read Aashna’s review to fully understand.
The LGBTQ representation in this book is borderline offensive. There are multiple gay men in this story and every single one of them is written the exact same way and relegated to the exact same role: the Hypersexual Gay Best Friend. There is no depth to any them. Every other line they say is either something about how gay they are or something sexual. It was honestly pretty sickening to read. Representation has gotten much better in the last decade and this reads as an outdated and horrible stereotype.
Next, the only non-skinny character in this book is written to be comedic relief in the same way early 2000s TV wrote non-skinny characters as comedic relief. Characters are just allowed to make remarks about her body weight and, while the main character worries about her carb intake (perpetrating diet culture) the non-skinny girl is showing eating lots of bread and butter. Again, upsetting and I thought we, collectively, were better than this by now.
July 30, 2022
From the bat, the writing was painfully bad. But as I kept going, it somehow got even worse. Every single person in this book was a caricature, I could not point to a single one who had any depth. It’s hard to see any actual chemistry between the MCs when it’s so surface level. I can also now understand why people hate the miscommunication trope if they are talking about the kind of miscommunication in this book. Most of the conflict was nonsensical and was remedied without proper resolution because the conflict never made sense anyway. Every bit of dialogue spoken by a white person felt like a microaggression. This whole book felt like a microaggression.
The premise of a South Asian woman wanting to be more connected to her culture is not bad itself but the way it’s done in this book makes it clear it was written for a white audience. We never actually learn what part of India any of the characters are from, except for the fact that Manny’s mother is from a village near New Delhi. The book homogenizes all Indian cultures into one and dangerously implies that a few days of dancing and partying is enough to learn about your culture. Manny barely learns about the actual wedding rituals and traditions, which would’ve taught her more about “Indian culture” than whatever goes on in this book.
The other half of the premise was even worse to me. I know that our communities have a problem with our elders wanting younger generations to marry into or be with people with the same cultural background and I’m not saying to skirt around that but this book enables toxic brown men behavior of not being honest about this with their partners, there was no reason why Sammy couldn’t just be honest with his girlfriend. And if she wasn’t okay with it, that would be valid and just points to another reason why the couple isn’t compatible.
And then, to end it off, insta-love, which I hate. After knowing each other for a few days, not only do Manny and Sammy confess their love, they also get engaged, technically before Manny has even ended it with her other fiancé.
All in all, I hated it. 1 star.
The premise of a South Asian woman wanting to be more connected to her culture is not bad itself but the way it’s done in this book makes it clear it was written for a white audience. We never actually learn what part of India any of the characters are from, except for the fact that Manny’s mother is from a village near New Delhi. The book homogenizes all Indian cultures into one and dangerously implies that a few days of dancing and partying is enough to learn about your culture. Manny barely learns about the actual wedding rituals and traditions, which would’ve taught her more about “Indian culture” than whatever goes on in this book.
The other half of the premise was even worse to me. I know that our communities have a problem with our elders wanting younger generations to marry into or be with people with the same cultural background and I’m not saying to skirt around that but this book enables toxic brown men behavior of not being honest about this with their partners, there was no reason why Sammy couldn’t just be honest with his girlfriend. And if she wasn’t okay with it, that would be valid and just points to another reason why the couple isn’t compatible.
And then, to end it off, insta-love, which I hate. After knowing each other for a few days, not only do Manny and Sammy confess their love, they also get engaged, technically before Manny has even ended it with her other fiancé.
All in all, I hated it. 1 star.
May 1, 2022
You'd think an own voices rom-com would be less likely to be lowkey racist, but no dice. Very cringe and stereotypical characters, odd pacing, and the WORST puns.
December 1, 2021
My first arc review. So I guess I need to say that this was given to me by Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley. So this is my honest review.
Sari, not Sari is a debut book from Sonya Sigh and I was excited to read since I’m really enjoying this whole wave of new books by POC authors.
Sari, not Sari is the story of Manny Dogra a first generation Indian American. She is running a flourishing business that’s keeps growing, she’s engage to a very successful man and her life seems happy. Her business is actually an interesting concept. She breaks up with people. As in people hire her to help them end their relationship via email. This is how she meets Sammy Patel. Sammy needs to head to wedding in 2 days and wants Manny to temporarily break up with his non Indian girlfriend Lisa. I should also mention that Manny is not really all the happy. Her parents passed away a few years back and she’s just thrown herself into work and is now having an identity crisis. A few too many people have mentioned to her that she’s “not really Indian” and now Manny wants to find her Indian roots. So she somehow gets Sammy to agree to bring her to his family wedding.
So the good:
1. much like Manny, I enjoyed the Indian 101 lessons.
2. Manny has a good found family that may not be blood but supports her choices.
3. I love the whole work for me and we might fall in love set up!!
The bad:
1. Gahhh the first 3rd of this book is sloooooow. The couple don’t officially meet till I was at 30%! Too much set up..
2. I really don’t think it’s cool to break up with someone over email:
3. Family secrets!!! It wanted to roll my eyes at the last big secret revel..
Final words?
Good book, very nice debut. Hope she writes more and improves. I would love to read about the Patel cousins.
Sari, not Sari is a debut book from Sonya Sigh and I was excited to read since I’m really enjoying this whole wave of new books by POC authors.
Sari, not Sari is the story of Manny Dogra a first generation Indian American. She is running a flourishing business that’s keeps growing, she’s engage to a very successful man and her life seems happy. Her business is actually an interesting concept. She breaks up with people. As in people hire her to help them end their relationship via email. This is how she meets Sammy Patel. Sammy needs to head to wedding in 2 days and wants Manny to temporarily break up with his non Indian girlfriend Lisa. I should also mention that Manny is not really all the happy. Her parents passed away a few years back and she’s just thrown herself into work and is now having an identity crisis. A few too many people have mentioned to her that she’s “not really Indian” and now Manny wants to find her Indian roots. So she somehow gets Sammy to agree to bring her to his family wedding.
So the good:
1. much like Manny, I enjoyed the Indian 101 lessons.
2. Manny has a good found family that may not be blood but supports her choices.
3. I love the whole work for me and we might fall in love set up!!
The bad:
1. Gahhh the first 3rd of this book is sloooooow. The couple don’t officially meet till I was at 30%! Too much set up..
2. I really don’t think it’s cool to break up with someone over email:
3. Family secrets!!! It wanted to roll my eyes at the last big secret revel..
Final words?
Good book, very nice debut. Hope she writes more and improves. I would love to read about the Patel cousins.
April 6, 2022
3.5 rounded up
I really enjoyed this fake dating romance debut by a new Canadian author. There are some truly talented South Asian romance authors writing today and their books always go straight to the top of my tbr. This book is a great addition to that cadre and I'm excited to read what the author writes next!
The story features Manny, a strong businesswoman and CEO to her own company that provides people with break up services. After her parents' death she feels lost and wants to get in touch with her South Asian heritage (something her India born parents never embraced as she was growing up). An opportunity with a new client, Sammy, provides Manny a chance to pose as his fake girlfriend while attending his brother's wedding and learn all about traditional South Asian culture.
Full of delicious food descriptions, Bollywood dancing, traditional dress and the full gamut of Indian wedding customs. Manny can't help falling in love with her heritage and the whole Patel family, including Sammy. My only critique was that it took practically until the very end of the book for Manny and Sammy to admit their feelings for one another.
This was definitely more of a women's fiction/sweet love story with kissing only. Perfect for fans of Sonya Lalli, Sajni Patel, Sara Desai, Farah Heron or Sonali Dev. It was also great on audio narrated by Avita Jay. Much thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed this fake dating romance debut by a new Canadian author. There are some truly talented South Asian romance authors writing today and their books always go straight to the top of my tbr. This book is a great addition to that cadre and I'm excited to read what the author writes next!
The story features Manny, a strong businesswoman and CEO to her own company that provides people with break up services. After her parents' death she feels lost and wants to get in touch with her South Asian heritage (something her India born parents never embraced as she was growing up). An opportunity with a new client, Sammy, provides Manny a chance to pose as his fake girlfriend while attending his brother's wedding and learn all about traditional South Asian culture.
Full of delicious food descriptions, Bollywood dancing, traditional dress and the full gamut of Indian wedding customs. Manny can't help falling in love with her heritage and the whole Patel family, including Sammy. My only critique was that it took practically until the very end of the book for Manny and Sammy to admit their feelings for one another.
This was definitely more of a women's fiction/sweet love story with kissing only. Perfect for fans of Sonya Lalli, Sajni Patel, Sara Desai, Farah Heron or Sonali Dev. It was also great on audio narrated by Avita Jay. Much thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
December 30, 2021
My thanks to netgalley for the arc! I absolutely loved Manny and her quest to learn more about her heritage and her culture. Learning about Indian culture through this book was wonderful!! Everything was vibrant and full of joy and color. I also thought the concept of the company Breakup was really interesting and unique! And I loved how close Manny was to everyone there. They were truly like a work family.
I did not love Sammy. Well, I loved Sammy when he was surrounded by his family, but otherwise, he seemed to have a serious attitude problem, yelling, hanging up, saying things he regretted, storming off. He also spent a significant amount of his time lying to his family. I really wish he had recognized those behaviors and that he had chosen to go to therapy to work on them.
Lastly, I hated that last breakup letter. I understand why, but I still thought it was poorly timed and really mindless.
Overall, I would have given the cultural aspect of this book a 5, but the Sammy aspect of the book a 1, so settled on 3 stars. I’m glad I read it but left feeling pretty frustrated with certain parts.
I did not love Sammy. Well, I loved Sammy when he was surrounded by his family, but otherwise, he seemed to have a serious attitude problem, yelling, hanging up, saying things he regretted, storming off. He also spent a significant amount of his time lying to his family. I really wish he had recognized those behaviors and that he had chosen to go to therapy to work on them.
Lastly, I hated that last breakup letter. I understand why, but I still thought it was poorly timed and really mindless.
Overall, I would have given the cultural aspect of this book a 5, but the Sammy aspect of the book a 1, so settled on 3 stars. I’m glad I read it but left feeling pretty frustrated with certain parts.
April 28, 2022
I love multicultural reads, especially since I’m Asian. I often find them relatable to an extent. So I was excited to read this one.
This one had a lot of potential, but just didn’t hit the spot for me. Unfortunately, it fell kinda flat. I loved the openers for each chapter, and wished it came with an answer. I feel like it would have made for a much funnier read. Personally, I thought it was slow. I’m an impatient reader, so I think that part was a me thing.
The relationship between Sammy & Manny could have happened sooner in my opinion and felt rushed. I don’t know. Again, maybe it’s just me, but I wasn’t convinced of their connection. *sigh* Mood reader struggles?
I think others will enjoy this more than I did, I think perhaps my personal taste and expectations got in the way.
**Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada & NetGalley for my eARC**
This one had a lot of potential, but just didn’t hit the spot for me. Unfortunately, it fell kinda flat. I loved the openers for each chapter, and wished it came with an answer. I feel like it would have made for a much funnier read. Personally, I thought it was slow. I’m an impatient reader, so I think that part was a me thing.
The relationship between Sammy & Manny could have happened sooner in my opinion and felt rushed. I don’t know. Again, maybe it’s just me, but I wasn’t convinced of their connection. *sigh* Mood reader struggles?
I think others will enjoy this more than I did, I think perhaps my personal taste and expectations got in the way.
**Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada & NetGalley for my eARC**
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