This book opened up really well!
Immediately upon opening the book, we meet Arjun, our male main character, as he gets his astrological chart read. As he hears he’ll do good academically and gain the love of someone important to him, his mind immediately thinks of his childhood friend and crush, Madhuri.
And then we meet Madhuri, who gets her astrological chart read and learns she… isn’t going to have a good year. Academically, romantically, or otherwise, her dreams will constantly been squashed and she’ll struggle in the coming months.
Yikes.
As any normal teenage girl does, Madhuri decides the best thing to do is to create an experiment of sorts. You see, her family is “cursed” to always fall in love with the first person they date, and Madhuri thinks she can circumvent this curse by fake-dating her childhood best friend, Arjun.
Y’all already know where this is going.
Interestingly, this is where the description of the book ends, but I don’t think that’s what this book is really about. Because soon after we set up this fake-dating relationship, we start focusing on other problems.
Throughout a lot of this book, Arjun has to deal with his feelings on his mother, who isn’t in his life and leaves him home alone most of the time, instead traveling out-of-state for work. He struggles a lot with being desperate for love no matter how it comes to him and figuring out the sorts of relationships that deserve to stay in his life versus those he should cut loose.
Madhuri, on the other hand, struggles a lot in this book with the perceptions of her peers. She is constantly shamed for her culture and has gone as far as dropping hobbies she used to love because of the bullying. She must figure out throughout this book how to enjoy the life she loves without caring for people’s opinions.
Romance-wise, the book could have used a little more development. I think its very important for readers to fall in love with the characters as much as the characters fall in love with each other, and while I definitely cared for Arjun and his struggles, I didn’t care for Madhuri as much. While Arjun was very sweet and dedicated to Madhuri, she was often self-centered. I couldn’t see why Arjun had a crush on her, though I did eventually come to really enjoy her character development throughout this book and cheer her on closer to the end.
I also found it difficult throughout to tell how much time had passed between scenes. There were multiple parts of the book where I thought weeks had passed, only to find it had been only a couple of hours. Other times, a few days had passed while I thought we were still in the same day.
I really enjoyed the idea of this story and seeing these characters’ develop throughout, but I think it markets itself more as a romance than it really is, and that disconnect had me struggling for a while.
Immediately upon opening the book, we meet Arjun, our male main character, as he gets his astrological chart read. As he hears he’ll do good academically and gain the love of someone important to him, his mind immediately thinks of his childhood friend and crush, Madhuri.
And then we meet Madhuri, who gets her astrological chart read and learns she… isn’t going to have a good year. Academically, romantically, or otherwise, her dreams will constantly been squashed and she’ll struggle in the coming months.
Yikes.
As any normal teenage girl does, Madhuri decides the best thing to do is to create an experiment of sorts. You see, her family is “cursed” to always fall in love with the first person they date, and Madhuri thinks she can circumvent this curse by fake-dating her childhood best friend, Arjun.
Y’all already know where this is going.
Interestingly, this is where the description of the book ends, but I don’t think that’s what this book is really about. Because soon after we set up this fake-dating relationship, we start focusing on other problems.
Throughout a lot of this book, Arjun has to deal with his feelings on his mother, who isn’t in his life and leaves him home alone most of the time, instead traveling out-of-state for work. He struggles a lot with being desperate for love no matter how it comes to him and figuring out the sorts of relationships that deserve to stay in his life versus those he should cut loose.
Madhuri, on the other hand, struggles a lot in this book with the perceptions of her peers. She is constantly shamed for her culture and has gone as far as dropping hobbies she used to love because of the bullying. She must figure out throughout this book how to enjoy the life she loves without caring for people’s opinions.
Romance-wise, the book could have used a little more development. I think its very important for readers to fall in love with the characters as much as the characters fall in love with each other, and while I definitely cared for Arjun and his struggles, I didn’t care for Madhuri as much. While Arjun was very sweet and dedicated to Madhuri, she was often self-centered. I couldn’t see why Arjun had a crush on her, though I did eventually come to really enjoy her character development throughout this book and cheer her on closer to the end.
I also found it difficult throughout to tell how much time had passed between scenes. There were multiple parts of the book where I thought weeks had passed, only to find it had been only a couple of hours. Other times, a few days had passed while I thought we were still in the same day.
I really enjoyed the idea of this story and seeing these characters’ develop throughout, but I think it markets itself more as a romance than it really is, and that disconnect had me struggling for a while.