Damn. Maye it’s the quarantine, but this book was fantastic. It really took me back to a time where I could leave the house. Do you guys remember that? Traveling outside of one’s home/neighborhood/city/country? Wild. But forreal, there was a lot of travel and large group gatherings, which is nice. A lot of books have solitary characters who think a lot, which is often interesting, but not during a quarantine.

This book tackles serious topics like immigration, trauma, racism, cultural appropriation, adult relationships, accountability, etc. The book is funny, dramatic, emotional, and real. Sonya Lalli shows off her sharp wit and intelligence with her descriptions of gross hipster yoga studios and nightclub life.

Lalli, explores what happens when the good Indian girl (Anu) listens to her family who tells her:

“Yoga is a hobby, Anu, not a passion.”
“What kind of wife and mother teaches yoga?”

Anu realizes that her identity revolves around her husband, steady job, and a kid. So she leaves her husband and finally explores who she is. Chaos and self-discovery ensues.
Lalli is a writer coming out of Berkely Books that explores established relationships and how they function. This new wave that explores the highs and lows of relationships and how to balance your own autonomy.

I received an ARC from Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.

I love Sonya Lalli's books but if you didn't like The Matchmaker's List, this book might not be for you as it features similar themes and characters. Our main heroine is a mess despite her being a "grown-up" with a mortgage, a child, and a husband she takes very good care of. She has lost direction in what she wants to do, what she wants, and questions whether or not she missed out by only dating and marrying her husband. This book is about someone who makes mistakes, makes them again, and again, and again until she finally realizes maybe she should stop beating herself up and just learn from mistakes.

I totally get why this is a conflicting novel. It deals with frustrating situations and you're constantly bashing yourself on the head and asking why would you ever think that would be a plausible thing to do?! But it was still good to me. I trusted the novel to take me on this journey. I sympathized with our character who needed some space to figure it out and come out of the cloud she was stuck in.

Side note: I did not like her best friend, Jenny, and her other Yoga friend that I forgot the name of. They're snarky, rude, and wrong whenever they preached to Anu. I thought Anu would stand up for herself towards the end but nope, she believed in their words and blamed herself. Awful. Hated that part.

I also took a star off because the ending was a mess???? It just seemed like a last minute attempt at creating angst and making readers believe a happily ever after was not possible.

Overall, I still recommend this book!!

Anusha has always been the good Indian wife and daughter, never questioning her family’s demands or asking herself what she wants from her own life. But when she is tempted to kiss a coworker one night, she realizes she can’t stop ignoring her own unhappiness. She decides then and there to start following her heart, even if it leads her away from the comfortable life she’s created for herself.

MY THOUGHTS
Don’t let the cartoony cover fool you… This is actually a surprisingly serious (but hopeful) story about a woman trying to redefine herself after years of marriage and parenting have left her worn out, dissatisfied, and lost. The story line isn’t perfect; in fact, it’s downright clunky more times than it should be. Part of the problem is there are SO many issues packed in here: separation, divorce, friendship drama, dating after separation, one-night stands, travel abroad, small business issues, parenting woes, fights with parents, fights with in-laws, mental illness, and drug overdose. Did I get everything? Yeesh. It’s a lot, and it’s hard to cover all that without making the book feel like it’s jumping all over the place.

The other part of the problem is that it’s basically impossible to explore so many relationship dynamics at once and still do each one justice. Anusha’s relationship with her husband is mostly believable, but the ending is a little hard to accept. Her friendships struck me as odd, too, mostly because she and her girlfriends are SO mean to each other. Lots of catty comments between alleged besties means the relationships didn’t always ring true.

Still, I’m giving this book four stars because I relate to Anusha as a wife and mother, and I understand and appreciate her struggle to find balance, to find herself. I also like that this book focuses on an Indian family. It adds some diversity to my otherwise often humdrum reading lineup, and I enjoyed taking a peek into a different culture. Maybe I’m not supposed to boost my star rating for that, but I did.

Ultimately, this is a fast-moving and thoughtful look at one woman’s struggle to “be herself” while meeting the needs of so many other people in her life. I enjoyed it.

I loved this book! It was a perfect blend of romance and serious issues. I like how it was about finding yourself but also living in reality. Anusha is a great character, she is determined but at the same time has no idea what she really wants. Any and her husband Neil are trying to deal with the separation of their marriage while keeping things normal for their daughter. Now separation stories are really not my favourite but this one was different and not incredibly sad! I was rooting for Neil throughout the book! .
.
I really enjoyed the flashbacks to their teenage years and first years of marriage. I liked that Anusha looked at why she was unhappy and came to terms with the issues she had caused herself.

Back in the eighties, Cyndi Lauper reached the top of the charts with her free spirited ballad, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which celebrates the party girl lifestyle. Grown-Up Pose is the story of what happens when a young woman, after years of being perfectly responsible, decides she’d like to pursue that more freewheeling way of living.

Anu (Anusha) Desai has always tried to meet everyone’s expectations. When she wanted to make a career of yoga and her family said no, she studied nursing. When her family insisted she make her dating relationship ‘legitimate’, she became a young, virginal bride. When her mother-in-law and mother came by her house (which was often) and told her to change the way she cooked or cleaned, she obeyed them. When the other parents at daycare wouldn’t help with the class play, she wrote it and worked on the sets herself. She is pushed to the breaking point however, when her husband Neil begins to treat her like a cooking uterus, giving her attention only when she is sliding a plate of food in front of him or making a baby. The night Neil fails to shovel the driveway after a big snow storm, she decides she’s had enough. In spite of the uproar she knows it will cause, she asks him to move out and starts dating the white guy at work who showed some interest in her. She knows this is hard for her four-year-old daughter Kanika, but for once in her life Anu is determined to put herself first.

Almost everything goes wrong for Anu as she discovers herself. The white guy cheats on her, her family is angry with her, her ex is angry with her, the guy she made out with to help her forget the cheater turned out to be eighteen, and the only bright spot in her life is discovering a new to her, perfect for her, yoga studio. Of course it is going out of business and in desperate need of a new owner. Which has Anu considering her most ambitious change yet: opening her own yoga studio.

The author does some things incredibly right in this story. For one, she captures Anu’s frustrations perfectly. “Obsessing, obtruding, berating, – this was the way so many Indian parents loved” she tells us, which left her with a feeling like “she’d been pinned down on the floor with a boot flattened to her chest.” The author depicts in a few key flashbacks how Anu had been smothered by her mother and mother-in-law ganging up on her regarding her house and the manner in which she ran it. Those scenes also emphasized how little affection or consideration Neil had shown Anu once Kanika was born. There’s a poignant moment where she has to watch her parents lovingly banter as Neil walks past her in complete silence, not even acknowledging her existence, which really underlined the fact she had become nearly invisible to him.

Those scenes depicting Anu’s struggles in the recent past are juxtaposed with her bitterness over the events that led to them. As I mentioned at the start, Anu married at her parents’ insistence and had also chosen her career based on their desires. But beneath her outward compliance resentments seethed. She hadn’t wanted to be a nurse, but she had wanted to have the opportunity to date more, travel and just be young. That angst comes across in a very sympathetic manner in the book and I felt the author did a very nice job of capturing the sense of entrapment Anu felt.

Sonia Lalli has a mildly humorous, clear and elegant writing style that made this book a very quick read. I appreciated how she tackled some tough subjects with enough respect that she wasn’t dismissive of them, but with a light enough hand that the book didn’t lose the (primarily) joyful vibe the cover art promises.

There is one very large flaw, however, that knocked what could have been a great book into simply above average territory – and that is the timing within the novel. The author makes the mistake of telling us much of the critical information that makes Anu’s story sympathetic in flashback. That means that when we first meet Anu, we see behavior that is utterly self-absorbed, done with little to no consideration of how her words and actions affect the people around her. We see her putting herself first by essentially steamrolling over everyone rather than attempting to work things out with them or respecting their feelings. Once we understand why she felt the need to implode her life in order to feel she could live it on her terms, this conduct becomes a bit more understandable. Even with that insight, though, I had some issues with her deeds, with the biggest one being the physical altercation she and one of her friends had with the man who ‘cheated’ on her. The text seemed to imply that it was okay for Anu and her buddy to take turns punching the guy in the nose in the lobby of the building where they work because of Anu’s hurt feelings. Given that Anu is still technically married, I found it oddly ironic that the single guy without a commitment to her was the one considered the cheater and frankly, a fist fight at work is never the right response to a bruised heart.

Another factor that disturbed me – again relating to timing – was when Anu chose to have her meltdown. She should have shaken things up prior to getting married and having a daughter, not after she dragged a husband and child into the fray. The author waves the magic wand of fiction over Anu’s actions and has her family, friends and ex be very forgiving of the trouble she puts them through, creating a happy ending that lacks the messiness such real life events would have led to, but I think most readers are savvy enough to realize the ending would only happen so smoothly in a book.

This is women’s fiction so we aren’t guaranteed an HEA but we do have one. It’s impossible to talk about the specifics without giving away spoilers, but while I was pleased it was there, I also felt the author glossed over it too quickly. It was a relationship that, given the circumstances that surrounded it, needed more conversations and romance between Anu and her hero. Like so much about this story, this is a mixed bag because so much potential was there but we are given only a taste of that, not the whole dish.

Women are still judged more harshly than men when we behave in anything but a loving, responsible manner and I have a feeling that for many readers, Anu’s antics as she arrives a bit late and battered to the wife and mother she was always meant to be might have them strongly disliking Grown-Up Pose. However, if you like your women’s fiction/chick lit novels with a heavy dose of female empowerment, I think this just might be the tale for you.

3,5 stars

This was really sweet and heartwarming.I find it refreshing and I read it in one sitting which is good!It has great potentials to be a really strong book, but I found myself getting lost a lot through the story.It might be the fact that I have something else in mind when I picked this up!It's not a bad book it's fast paced and it kept my interest but it was lacking at some points!I will definitely read another book from this author!

This book was not what I expected. I expected this book to a funny take on "growing up". This was not the case, if that's what you are looking for, this is not the book for you.

It took me awhile to get into the book because initially I hated the family and the friends. I also could tell some of the plot twists from the beginning.

However, the family and friends actually turned out great and I enjoyed the second half of the book much more. It is an easy and endearing read for a relaxing weekend.

Grown Up Pose is a romance book beginning with separation. Told interspersed with memories of the past, it's a story about both figuring out what went wrong in our relationship, and how we can fix it. Grown Up Pose focuses on Anu's journey of self re-discovery. At the same time, it's focused on her Indian family (and family in law) who constantly challenge her ideas of tradition versus modernity. What does it mean for women now as opposed to before? Anu struggles with their expectations of her as well as the ways their beliefs have filtered into her own mind.

There is fabulous diversity as Anu talks both about beliefs her mother has, that differ with her own, as well as looking at these various images of women - herself, her mother, and her friends. I loved how seamlessly her culture is interwoven whether it be those memories of food, the relationships and superstitions we have, or even just the way we celebrate. But Grown Up Pose is about more than balancing modernity and tradition. It's about Anu's journey to find herself.

Thank you Berkley Pub and NetGalley for a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Anu Desai always strives to be the "good Indian girl". She got married young to her first boyfriend Neil, runs their home, takes care of their daughter Kanika, and always listens to her parents. Growing tired of all the expectations, she asks Neil for a separation and finally takes her life into her own hands to pursue her dreams and have some fun.

Hm, where to begin. This is a work of women's fiction so if you are looking for a feel good romance, I don't think this is going to be it. In fact, I had a really hard time supporting any of Anu's decisions. I get that sometimes we lose ourselves once we have children and self care is very important, but I think her decisions were selfish and rash without thinking how it would affect her child at all. I just couldn't root for her and mostly felt bad for her daughter. The writing was good, just a little choppy with some of the transitions between past and present. If you are looking for a women's fiction novel that features culture and representation, check it out.

Back in the eighties, Cyndi Lauper reached the top of the charts with her free spirited ballad, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which celebrates the party girl lifestyle.  Grown-Up Pose is the story of what happens when a young woman, after years of being perfectly responsible, decides she’d like to pursue that more freewheeling way of living.

Anu (Anusha) Desai has always tried to meet everyone’s expectations. When she wanted to make a career of yoga and her family said no, she studied nursing. When her family insisted she make her dating relationship ‘legitimate’, she became a young, virginal bride. When her mother-in-law and mother came by her house (which was often) and told her to change the way she cooked or cleaned, she obeyed them. When the other parents at daycare wouldn’t help with the class play, she wrote it and worked on the sets herself.  She is pushed to the breaking point however, when her husband Neil begins to treat her like a cooking uterus, giving her attention only when she is sliding a plate of food in front of him or making a baby. The night Neil fails to shovel the driveway after a big snow storm, she decides she’s had enough.  In spite of the uproar she knows it will cause, she asks him to move out and starts dating the white guy at work who showed some interest in her. She knows this is hard for her four-year-old daughter Kanika, but for once in her life Anu is determined to put herself first.

Almost everything goes wrong for Anu as she discovers herself. The white guy cheats on her, her family is angry with her, her ex is angry with her, the guy she made out with to help her forget the cheater turned out to be eighteen, and the only bright spot in her life is  discovering a new to her, perfect for her, yoga studio. Of course it is going out of business and in desperate need of a new owner.  Which has Anu considering her most ambitious change yet: opening her own yoga studio.

The author does some things incredibly right in this story. For one, she captures Anu’s frustrations perfectly. “Obsessing, obtruding, berating, - this was the way so many Indian parents loved” she tells us, which left her with a feeling like “she’d been pinned down on the floor with a boot flattened to her chest.” The author depicts in a few key flashbacks how Anu had been smothered by her mother and mother-in-law ganging up on her regarding her house and the manner in which she ran it. Those scenes also emphasized how little affection or consideration Neil had shown Anu once Kanika was born. There’s a poignant moment where she has to watch her parents lovingly banter as Neil walks past her  in complete silence, not even acknowledging her existence, which really underlined the fact she had become nearly invisible to him.

Those scenes depicting Anu’s struggles in the recent past are juxtaposed with her bitterness over the events that led to them. As I mentioned at the start, Anu married at her parents' insistence and had also chosen her career based on their desires. But beneath her outward compliance resentments seethed. She hadn’t wanted to be a nurse, but she had wanted to have the opportunity to date more, travel and just be young. That angst comes across in a very sympathetic manner in the book and I felt the author did a very nice job of capturing the sense of entrapment Anu felt.

Sonia Lalli has a mildly humorous, clear and elegant writing style that made this book a very quick read. I appreciated how she tackled some tough subjects with enough respect that she wasn’t dismissive of them, but with a light enough hand that the book didn’t lose the (primarily) joyful vibe the cover art promises.

There is one very large flaw, however, that knocked what could have been a great book into simply above average territory - and that is the timing within the novel. The author makes the mistake of telling us much of the critical information that makes Anu’s story sympathetic in flashback. That means that when we first meet Anu, we see behavior that is  utterly self-absorbed, done with little to no consideration of how her words and actions affect the people around her. We see her putting herself first by essentially steamrolling over everyone rather than attempting to work things out with them or respecting their feelings. Once we understand why she felt the need to implode her life in order to feel she could live it on her terms, this conduct becomes a bit more understandable. Even with that insight, though, I had some issues with her deeds, with the biggest one being the physical altercation she and one of her friends had with the man who ‘cheated’ on her.  The text seemed to imply that it was okay for Anu and her buddy to take turns punching the guy in the nose in the lobby of the building where they work because of Anu’s hurt feelings. Given that Anu is still technically married, I found it oddly ironic that the single guy without a commitment to her was the one considered the cheater and frankly, a fist fight at work is never the right response to a bruised heart.

Another factor that disturbed me – again relating to timing - was when Anu chose to have her meltdown. She should have shaken things up prior to getting married and having a daughter, not after she dragged a husband and child into the fray. The author waves the magic wand of fiction over Anu’s actions and has her family, friends and ex be very forgiving of the trouble she puts them through, creating a happy ending that lacks the messiness such real life events would have led to, but I think most readers are savvy enough to realize the ending would only happen so smoothly in a book.

This is women’s fiction so we aren’t guaranteed an HEA but we do have one. It’s impossible to talk about the specifics without giving away spoilers, but while I was pleased it was there, I also felt the author glossed over it too quickly. It was a relationship that, given the circumstances that surrounded it, needed more conversations and romance between Anu and her hero. Like so much about this story, this is a mixed bag because so much potential was there but we are given only a taste of that, not the whole dish.

Women are still judged more harshly than men when we behave in anything but a loving, responsible manner and I have a feeling that for many readers, Anu’s antics as she arrives a bit late and battered to the wife and mother she was always meant to be might have them strongly disliking Grown-Up Pose. However, if you like your women’s fiction/chick lit novels with a heavy dose of female empowerment, I think this just might be the tale for you.

Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
Visit our Amazon Storefront

Anusha has lived her life so far exactly as her parents wanted her to. She married young to the first man she dated, had a beautiful daughter, and did everything she could to be the perfect wife and mother. But now, she realizes that she's starting to look a lot like her own mom. And is that the role model she wants to be for her daughter? Eager to do some soul searching, she leaves her husband and creates a list of things she must do to become the kind of grown-up she wants to be.

Anusha is a great protagonist, messy and confused and full of desire that she doesn't understand. The plot is a little tangled at times, but so is Anu, so it worked. I love the own voices representation in this book, and the message at the end is really nice. Definitely an enjoyable read!

Thank you for this ARC loan. I was happy to purchase Sonya Lalli's most recent novel for my library.

Amusing yet heart-aching story of a woman whose entire life has been surrounded by traditions and expectations and decides to break free. A grown up version of a coming of age story, and finding out if the grass is really greener on the other side of the fence or not.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Anu is an adult, but she doesn’t really have life figured out. She is busy being a single mom and figuring out co-parenting with her soon-to-be ex-husband. She already endured telling her parents and in-laws that she and Neil were separating. Now she has to break the news that she is finally following her dream of opening up a yoga studio. With some bumps along the way, 30-year-old Anu begins to discover herself and figure out what she truly wants.

I wanted to love this story because it features an Indian-American woman in a contemporary romance, something I don’t often find in my reads. This could have been a really strong book, but I found myself getting lost a lot of the time. Anu was frustrating as a protagonist. I kept rooting for her, but it seemed like she just kept making impulsive decisions and hoping for the best. The time jumps in the book made it confusing. It wasn’t always clear why they were there, and they did not follow a singular pattern.

Despite those cons, it was a good story. I thought there was a bit too much extra stuff (like the countless impulsive decisions and time jumps) that made the story hard to follow. Had it been more linear, I would not have been able to put it down. Instead, I was trying to keep up with what is happening in the present, last year, eight years ago, and with several minor characters. I did enjoy the representation and diversity the story offered. With yoga becoming a mainstream activity, it was refreshing reading passages that call out the appropriation and issues with many studios.

If you are looking for a contemporary romance that features culture and representation, give this one a shot. I didn’t enjoy the timeline switches, but if you can look past that, then this may be the perfect read for you.

The characters in this book are surprisingly complicated, and they deal with some very relatable midlife/parenting/career/relationship issues. I enjoyed this book and look forward to recommending it to readers who enjoy women's fiction.

This is sweet, charming, emotional and also a motivational reading…

Growing up is not only a physical thing. You need to open yourself to grow mentally by experiencing new things, learning new life lessons, touching people’s lives. But it’s mostly about discovering who you are, what you want to do with your life and what makes you happy. So in my opinion Sonya Lalli chose a very good subject and work on the story of Anu Desai, still young and is imposed to believe that growing up means being responsible, building a family, obeying the rules of the society, doing what your family tells you. But at some part of her life, she understands that she is not happy with her marriage, prying eyes of her in laws. She feels trapped, depressed and wanting a divorce. So she leaves her husband and start dating with somebody else but she is not ready to tell this to her parents.

She is hanging out with her best two friends and criticized by them for being so predictable, over responsible. She never tried to discover herself and her hopes, dreams about the life but one day she takes a step into a yoga studio where she feels so peaceful and let the serenity capture her soul. And she takes a risk for the first time in her life and decides to buy the place.

So this book is about: awakening your soul, discovering yourself, rebuilding life. I enjoyed the idea and fast pacing of the book that helps you never lose your interest. And the ending was also satisfying. But I think the romance, emotional depth of the story were missing elements. Maybe this should be thought and classified as a women’s fiction because there are not much romantic parts and I couldn’t get attached to the characters and feel for them. The idea about a woman’s losing herself and experiencing the life to learn how to be real grown-up was great but when it comes to Anu’s story, she acts like she coincidentally finds everything about her life and I couldn’t get her emotional struggle, her pain, her anger or any other specific feeling that I could hold on. At some parts, I found her a little annoying.

I was expecting a little more and I have to admit this book served to my brain so well with its brilliant ideas but it didn’t serve to my heart and warm or melt it. I wanted something more to shake me to the core. I wish to read something more effective, angsty, riveting.

So I’m giving my solid 3 stars. It’s still fast, easy, soft women’s fiction reading.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this ARC in exchange my honest review.

Anusha is going through a separation in her marriage and trying to find some direction in her life. She feels unappreciated in her marriage and worried that they married too young, before they could both be true adults. She wants to be the best mother she can be for her daughter Kanika. She also wonders if she should open a yoga studio, which used to be her passion, before she was convinced it wasn't a serious enough career for a good Indian-American woman. Anu learns to take some risks, evaluate what she wants in her life and relationships, and leans on her friends and parents to help her through a difficult time.

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend to fans of women's fiction. Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

A friend told me that if this book ended with the main character getting back together with her husband to give it a one star. Not only did he take her back but he begged her to come back. He begged the woman who left him for another man, who left their child on Christmas to go to another country to find herself, who takes out a business loan without telling him even though they are legally still married, and never apologized for hurting him.

This is the most aggravatingly selfish characters I've ever read. Every time I think she's can't be more self involved, she does. In the end, she says that she's glad that she left her husband because it made her realize how much she loved him. How did he take her back?

I wanted to read this book for the desi representation but I feel I might have gotten as confused in the plot as the main character seemed in her life. Anu is having a bit of a midlife crisis and the book covers how that transpires. However, I found the switching between time (present to past) was confusing. There were so many extra characters that I was not sure if I should be keeping track and it turned out I didn't need to be. This book could have done with some more character development and less unnecessary fluff. I enjoyed the desi factors and how that was represented and enjoyed the smattering of references to bollywood and Indian food. Anu's relationship with her mother might have been the only thing I truly felt emotional about in this book.
If you're looking for a fluff read with desi representation this might be a book for you.

I'm so happy to see more diversity popping up in mainstream romance. This is the story of Anu, a woman who finds herself lost and questing who she is and what she wants. She makes the decision to leave her husband, upset her family, and risk it all to invest in a yoga studio. The story largely focuses on her relationships with her family, friends, and herself, as she tries to find herself. The plot was a little all over the place but the story overall was enjoyable.

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the chance to preview this!