This book held so much promise for me: a sweet friends-to-something-more trope, Indian cultural representation, and some good old-fashioned "written in the stars" hallmark-esque plot. But sadly, this book did not live up to expectations.
For starters, the two main characters, Madhuri and Arjun, have no chemistry. For some reason, the author did not provide enough moments of them together in order for me, the reader, to feel like they were developing a real connection, especially for Madhuri, who was reticent until all of a sudden she wasn't.
My main problem is with Madhuri because she is so unlikeable just on her own. For one thing, she uses Arjun (and has been using him their whole relationship) for her own gains and pretty much never apologizes for it. It's almost as if her "falling in love" with him is thanks enough for what he's done for her his whole life (i.e. be there for her in every way, always say yes to what she wants, etc). Her whole "experiment" is contrived and her personality is so ungrateful. The only humanizing moments we get from her are when she recounts how she's been bullied out of liking her own culture. But even these moments are so poorly discussed or presented that it all feels cliche rather than upsetting. The big takeaway I get from this is that the author wanted to describe some of the racism/bullying she has received because of her Indian heritage through Madhuri, but it just doesn't come across as believable because of such a shallow representation. Hardly any time in the book is devoted to it and ultimately it isn't resolved in any way, it's just "Oh, I can dance again because I've finally, somehow, gotten over my bullied past. Everything is okay now."
But, ultimately, this is the problem of the book as a whole. It's too short to tackle all that it wants to tackle. Arjun's character is perhaps a little more believable, though his situation is also equally depressing. Instead of feeling bullied, he's accepted because he's hot. But his father has a new family and is completely out of the picture and his mother basically abandons him for weeks/months at a time due to her job. I find all of this a bit questionable in the believability department, but since it's not one of the more egregious issues of the book, for me, it doesn't bother me as mucha s Arjun's hopeless love for a girl who uses him like a well-worn sofa. Poor Arjun is in love with Madhuri (has been for their whole time knowing each other), and doesn't care that she wants to use him to prove her family "curse" wrong and enters a fake relationship that is scheduled to be terminated.
This premise would be fun for a rom-com if there was any comedy at all in this book. Instead, almost any time that Arjun and Madhuri are in the same room they end up fighting, or one of them worries (mostly Arjun, because he has more at stake with this relationship, being the only one who seems to actually be in love) if what they said will totally ruin their relationship for the other person. They spend so much time walking on eggshells around each other that it ends up feeling more like a toxic relationship than anything. At the end of the day, it just feels forced, like the author thought up this fun idea for a romance book, but then didn't actually know how to write characters who were believably in love with each other. They almost seem afraid of each other, more than anything. It comes of as so wildly unbelievable that I do think it's actual magic that keeps them together in the end. The curse must be real because if it isn't then I don't get how they'd make it more than a week being together for real.
The main issue I have with this story is that it's supposed to come off as this fun romantic comedy, but instead, it's weirdly tragic, the characters have no chemistry, and the ending is a bit like "magic!!!!" without really explaining whether or not it's actually magic. The book is short but it feels much longer because the same arguments/elements keep happening over and over again in slightly different ways. The characters say almost the same things to each other every time they are together. It's nuts.
From the characters to the plot, this book is just poorly executed. It has a fun idea at its base, it's nice to see some diversity in the romance genre, but it lands way far of the mark for me.
For starters, the two main characters, Madhuri and Arjun, have no chemistry. For some reason, the author did not provide enough moments of them together in order for me, the reader, to feel like they were developing a real connection, especially for Madhuri, who was reticent until all of a sudden she wasn't.
My main problem is with Madhuri because she is so unlikeable just on her own. For one thing, she uses Arjun (and has been using him their whole relationship) for her own gains and pretty much never apologizes for it. It's almost as if her "falling in love" with him is thanks enough for what he's done for her his whole life (i.e. be there for her in every way, always say yes to what she wants, etc). Her whole "experiment" is contrived and her personality is so ungrateful. The only humanizing moments we get from her are when she recounts how she's been bullied out of liking her own culture. But even these moments are so poorly discussed or presented that it all feels cliche rather than upsetting. The big takeaway I get from this is that the author wanted to describe some of the racism/bullying she has received because of her Indian heritage through Madhuri, but it just doesn't come across as believable because of such a shallow representation. Hardly any time in the book is devoted to it and ultimately it isn't resolved in any way, it's just "Oh, I can dance again because I've finally, somehow, gotten over my bullied past. Everything is okay now."
But, ultimately, this is the problem of the book as a whole. It's too short to tackle all that it wants to tackle. Arjun's character is perhaps a little more believable, though his situation is also equally depressing. Instead of feeling bullied, he's accepted because he's hot. But his father has a new family and is completely out of the picture and his mother basically abandons him for weeks/months at a time due to her job. I find all of this a bit questionable in the believability department, but since it's not one of the more egregious issues of the book, for me, it doesn't bother me as mucha s Arjun's hopeless love for a girl who uses him like a well-worn sofa. Poor Arjun is in love with Madhuri (has been for their whole time knowing each other), and doesn't care that she wants to use him to prove her family "curse" wrong and enters a fake relationship that is scheduled to be terminated.
This premise would be fun for a rom-com if there was any comedy at all in this book. Instead, almost any time that Arjun and Madhuri are in the same room they end up fighting, or one of them worries (mostly Arjun, because he has more at stake with this relationship, being the only one who seems to actually be in love) if what they said will totally ruin their relationship for the other person. They spend so much time walking on eggshells around each other that it ends up feeling more like a toxic relationship than anything. At the end of the day, it just feels forced, like the author thought up this fun idea for a romance book, but then didn't actually know how to write characters who were believably in love with each other. They almost seem afraid of each other, more than anything. It comes of as so wildly unbelievable that I do think it's actual magic that keeps them together in the end. The curse must be real because if it isn't then I don't get how they'd make it more than a week being together for real.
The main issue I have with this story is that it's supposed to come off as this fun romantic comedy, but instead, it's weirdly tragic, the characters have no chemistry, and the ending is a bit like "magic!!!!" without really explaining whether or not it's actually magic. The book is short but it feels much longer because the same arguments/elements keep happening over and over again in slightly different ways. The characters say almost the same things to each other every time they are together. It's nuts.
From the characters to the plot, this book is just poorly executed. It has a fun idea at its base, it's nice to see some diversity in the romance genre, but it lands way far of the mark for me.