Despite having read so many books with brown main characters, this was my first time reading one set in Mumbai and I really enjoyed finally having a setting outside of New Jersey. ;p The city itself is filled with vitality and life just like any other character. I feel like without the detailed writing of the setting, the world outside of Aditi and Rian’s relationship wouldn’t feel as realistic.
Thank you to Good Girls PR and Rita Iyer for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I had so much fun following Aditi and Rian through navigating their feelings for each other while also trying to figure out how they fit into each others’ lives. The forced proximity of them unexpectedly living in the same house added so much fun suspense and tension to the story that had me unable to put the book down.
The only aspect of this story I really struggled with was the perspective. I assumed that the character names at the start of each chapter would delineate who was narrating, but that consistently wasn’t the case. While I don’t mind books with third-person omniscient narrators, having the chapters jump between the heads of the two main characters made it weird. I didn’t expect to fluidly move between their perspectives and sometimes into the minds of characters outside their relationship like Rian’s grandmother and his friends.
Other than that, the writing is vividly descriptive and Rian’s romantic gestures had me swooning, especially closer to the end of the book once I got used to the writing style and could truly immerse myself in the story.
Four out of five stars.
Paging Kait 