Oh, CBR BookClub. I’m so excited for you to exist, but this was definitely not my choice to introduce folks to the romance genre. About two thirds of my reading every year is romance. I know what I like within the genre and this one hit upon so many of the things I can’t stand. So as you all know from reading this one yourselves this is the story of Ria and Vikram. They were once young lovers, but haven’t seen each other in 10 […]
Rules for The Bollywood Bride drinking game
Drink every time Ria’s aunties do something charming. Think about how you wish there was more about this lovely group of ladies in the book. Wouldn’t it be nice to find out how their friendships came to be? Drink whenever Jen and Nikhil are front and center in the story. Its their wedding. I’d like to know more about Jen. I know she’s a doctor and she’s uncomfortable in a sari. But what else makes her tick? Drink whenever the book actually alludes to Bollywood and how that […]
Maybe it’s me?
I’m not having a great week when it comes to book club picks. Come tomorrow, I’ll be sitting with my coworkers as they gush about the Nyquil-on-a-page memoir Comma Queen (at least that’s my bet. They love all the books I hate). And next week, I’ll be with you excellent Cannonballers, talking about another book that I tried so hard to like, Bollywood Bride. Ria is a Bollywood star, known for playing the ingénue who usually gets married by the end of the movie. She’s known […]
Pre-CBR Book Club notes.
A few fellow Cannonballers’ brief reviews have been trickling in with disclaimers about saving the good stuff for our book discussion, and I’ll follow their lead. I want to save my most salient thoughts for the Cannonball Read Book Club, and I’m eager to hear everyone else’s. In other news: hooray for Cannonball Read Book Club and faintingviolet for arranging it!!!! You can find the full list of NOTES on my blog, but here is one that I’ll post, and it was my immediate and […]
Show, Don’t Hide
Well, it wasn’t the best of books. It wasn’t the worst of books (but in the end, the one I selected as the worst of 2016 for me). It is definitely somewhere in the middle. I am not going to do an in depth review of The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev since we are going to be having a group discussion on March 1 for the Cannonball Book Club Reads Romance and I want to save topics to talk about then. But let’s do […]
I’d rather have read a romance featuring Ria’s cousin and his wife to be
2.5 stars Ria Parkar is a celebrated Bollywood star, frequently playing the innocent ingenue who ends up the bride. Professionally she’s intensely private, revealing very little about herself. When a paparazzi gets an incriminating photo of her looking deranged and as if she’s about to jump off a ledge (she was retrieving her phone), Ria is worried that all her deep dark secrets will be uncovered. Her cousin, who she was raised along-side, is getting married in Chicago, and she’s dreading her return there, she […]