Other Possible Prompts: 5. Chapters have titles, 6. Household object on the cover, 15. A five-syllable title, 33. A bilingual character, 41. Involves a second chance, 45. A book with illustrated people on the cover, 46. A job title in the title, 50. A person of color as the main character, 52. Published in 2022
Another Book of the Month DOWN!! I am calling this an absolute win.
As for the book itself, I wasn’t *in love* with it, but I think there’s a lot of things it gets right. Let’s jump in!
Newly thirty, single lawyer Kareena feels like she faces a constant barrage from her family, aunties, and uncles about not yet being married. It’s not for lack of wanting to, she just hasn’t found her true love yet. In contrast, Prem doesn’t believe in true love: an arranged or approved marriage creates the most health and happiness in a home, and once he’s done building his health center, that’s how he’ll have it.
After a chance encounter at a bar, and an internet video gone viral, Prem and Kareena hate each other for this exact difference in relationship views. But as Kareena’s father prepares to sell her late-mother’s home, and Prem needs to secure the last of the funds for this health center, they realize they could have a mutually beneficial arrangement: engagement.
This wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from the book but I definitely enjoyed it. I thought the plot was going to be going in a different direction but I actually thoroughly enjoyed the “marriage for love/marriage for obligation” dynamic. It created really interesting tension and an engrossing story. I read this in a day! It’s a pretty fast and enjoyable read.
It’s always fun to be immersed into a different culture while you read, and I liked Dating Dr. Dil for this as well. While I found that the way her family treated Kareena was sad, in a cultural context of being from an Indian immigrant family, I understood why she went along with it even when it was painful. Additionally, the clothes and food interwoven into the story were magical details that helped me immerse myself.
The first couple pages into this book I made the mistake of reading some reviews on Goodreads…and while they’re incredibly entertaining thoughts on the subject, it was a bit of a deterrent. Pretty much everyone had one very, particular problem…by the name of Charlie. I won’t go into detail. I wish I hadn’t even written it here because I think reading it ruined that aspect of my reading experience, but, uh…it’s kind of hilarious. But definitely, definitely a con when we’re talking about the book. I’m not sure why the author chose to include “Charlie” or why his name is Charlie to begin with, but yeah.
Kareena and Prem were both pretty okay, they each had their annoying faults, but overall they were decent characters and I was invested in their happiness. In Kareena’s case, especially, I really felt like her family was working against her. They all pretty much sucked except the Aunties. They treated her pretty badly and it made me wish she would cut them off, but I get the dynamic. Prem was fine. Just…fine. Pretty unremarkable. When I thought he was a big television personality I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, because I don’t typically like the “famous people” romances, but that turned out to be a very small part of the plot, so it was fine. Everything’s fine.
Overall? I would recommend this book. I do plan to read the second one when it gets released, so she couldn’t have warned me off that much. My biggest complaints were just the immaturity of the writing and the whole…Charlie thing.
Have an awesome week!
The Charmed Librarian 