My Big Fat Desi Wedding ed. Prerna Pickett

Pages: 282 

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books 

Released: 18th of January 2024 

Romance. Drama. And plenty of spice. You are invited to . . . MY BIG, FAT DESI WEDDING.

A prophecy of disaster.

A world where your soulmate's thoughts appear on your skin.

A boy forbidden from attending his brother's wedding.

A supernatural love that spans centuries.

And one particular auntie who loves to meddle.

So, send in your RSVP, put on your best outfit, and take a front row seat as enemies become friends, friends become lovers, sceptics are convinced by the power of romance, and guests fall head over heels - even if they're not the ones saying 'I do'.

Lose yourself in eight swoon-worthy and dreamy stories guaranteed to bring out the hopeless romantic in every reader. With a never-ending buffet of mouth-watering food, extravagant outfit changes and lots of drama!

What I Have to Say 

This was such a lovely read. It was a short story collection where I enjoyed pretty much every story. It was very relaxing and romantic and it was honestly just such a joy to read. I don't know why but desi teen romance is one of my favourite genres to relax to, with most of the stories in this book revolving around teenagers or people in early adulthood. 

Two of my particular favourite stories were Fate's Favourites, which played very much with the idea of soul mates and the idea that the thoughts of your soul mate would end up manifesting on your body and A Very Bloody Halyanam, which brought vampires into the mix. 

I really liked exploring the mix of cultures and the differences and similarities between the different marriage ceremonies. 

In all, it was a good, fun, relaxing read. 

4 stars 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hodder Children's Books for providing me a gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 512

Publisher: Penguin 

Released: 3rd of May 2018 

A princess, a traitor, a hunter and a thief. Four teenagers with the fate of the world in their hands. Four nations destined for conflict. 

In Brigant, Princess Catherine prepares for a loveless political marriage arranged by her brutal and ambitious father. In Calidor, downtrodden servant March seeks revenge on the prince who betrayed his people. In Pitoria, feckless Edyon steals cheap baubles for cheaper thrills as he drifts from town to town. And in the barren northern territories, thirteen-year-old Tash is running for her life as she plays bait for the gruff demon hunter Gravell.

As alliances shift and shatter, and old certainties are overturned, our four heroes find their past lives transformed and their futures inextricably linked by the unpredictable tides of magic and war. Who will rise and who will fall? And who will claim the ultimate prize?

What I Have to Say 

I enjoyed this a lot more than Half Bad, not that Half Bad wasn't a good book, but I found out that the voice put me off it a lot so I couldn't really get into it. With The Smoke Thieves though, it was in Third person and so much easier to get into. 

I loved the characters so much. Each character was so strong and it was great to see them coming from such different places and coming together in various ways. I think though I might have been more interested in hearing from the Prince that Catherine was engaged to though, because I would love to know his side of things, though it might have made for too many character's viewpoints because it was already quite a lot to follow. 

The story was so engrossing and I can't wait for the next book to come out. I want to see how everything works out and which side of things everyone ends up on. There's deception and allegiances and doubt and it really feels as though everything could change at any point. 

The next book is going to be very interesting to read. 

 

My thanks got to Netgalley and Penguin for sending me this copy for review. 

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 384

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Released: 13th of July 2017 

The arranged-marriage YA romcom you didn't know you wanted or needed... 

Meet Dimple.

Her main aim in life is to escape her traditional parents, get to university and begin her plan for tech world domination.

Meet Rishi.

He's rich, good-looking and a hopeless romantic. His parents think Dimple is the perfect match for him, but she's got other plans...

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

What I Have to Say 

This was such a cute book. I loved the concept other it. Even though it's an awful idea that Dimple's parents just sent this boy to meet her without telling her anything about it, it was just funny, the way it all played out and the way it was written. It showed a lot about both of the characters and I think definitely qualifies as a nice "meet cute" story to tell, even if it was rather upsetting for them when it was actually happening. 

I think they showed the culture very well in this book. I had to google a lot of things, especially the clothing that was referenced so that I had an idea of what they were talking about. There were just small references in so much of it, which showed how much culture was involved in both Dimple and Rishi's lives. 

The feelings that Dimple had were so real as well. Rishi was easy to empathise with as well, but Dimple's struggle between what she wants out of life and what her parents seem to want for her, how she can't see the middle ground because she's so sure that she wants to focus on her career rather than marrying or even dating boys, was just so real and interesting. 

This book was funny, cute and really showed a wonderful snapshot of India culture in America. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with this copy for review.