I loved this book. A rom-com filled with Indian and Muslim culture. The food was such a great highlight. I could smell the bread baking while reading about it. I loved the characters .I loved the cooking show part of it and thought the characters were the perfect fit for eachother.

This was an easy 5 stars for me! Within the first 10 minutes of picking this up, I already knew this was going to be fabulous. It has all the ingredients I like- an introspective slightly neurotic heroine, complex family dynamics, female friendships, an instantly emotionally-available hero, and the most delectable breads (my favourite) and food. This book is absolute rom-com gold.

The premise of this book is that Reena is an aspiring baker and all round cooking/bread making savant stuck in a financial job she doesn’t really care about and trying to keep her head above water when it comes to her meddling family. When said meddling family hooks her up with recently arrived to Canada, Nadim, she instantly rejects him so as not to reward their meddling even though she’s super attracted to him. When the worst of days leads to Reena and Nadim inadvertently entering entering a tv cooking competition for families, the two find themselves accidentally engaged.

Everything about this book is absolutely adorable. Indeed I need to read this author’s debut, The Chai Factor, which I believe featured Reena’s best friend in this book. I need more of her engaging, eminently readable humour and wit and understanding of family and people and society. But have no fear, you CAN start with this book. It is completely standalone and makes absolute sense even if you haven’t read the previous book. What’s great about this is that it follows traditional rom-com plotting in terms of the way the story is told, but the FOOD!!!! The culture!!!! The family!!! All of that adds colour and life and vibrancy to what is a standard rom-com plot.

There’s as much intrigue and tension in this as there is emotion and vulnerability. There’s humour and there’s brokenness. There’s relationships being healed and truths being told, but also the recognition that some relationships are beyond healing. I love the amount of growth in both protagonists as characters. The amount of learning to go beyond past toxic acceptance of situations and relationships with themselves and others that no longer serve them. I adored the complexity of the family dynamics from Reena’s fraught relationship with her parents, and with her sister Saira. Nadim was an absolute delight- imperfect but adorable and likable with his kinks and closed off openness. He was a perfect match to Reena who was more reserved and self-protective.

Heat-wise, this felt immensely spicy even though it’s more a closed door romance or at least, one with the door ajar. It’s not explicit but there’s so much chemistry and banter foreplay and food foreplay that it feels hotter than it probably is in truth. The characters in this are Muslim but it’s not a book in which religion is a significant theme. Culture and social norms are more significant in this novel than religion is. I felt like I got new insights into East African Indian food and diaspora culture and it was a joy to experience. I HIGHLY recommend this to any fans of food-based romances or rom-coms. This book is gentle but also dramatic and a perfect read if you’re looking to be consumed by your next read.

I got a complimentary copy of this book from Forever (Grand Central Publishing) in exchange for an honest review.

What a great book! This book follows Reena who works in a dead end job, is single, lives in an apartment her father owns, and bakes for fun. This book was delightful - it had family including family drama (and I thought my family was bad!), friendships, finding yourself and your home, and great food - read this with a platter of Indian food and a loaf of sourdough! I really loved Nadim’s character so much. I really connected with him especially having moved around a lot and never really settling one place and finding my own version of home. Although the book was fairly predictable, I loved how the author got there especially with the wonderful supporting characters - like Reena’s parents (love her mom so much), her quirky sister, and her best friends. Definitely a feel good book with a delicious ending!!!

Accidentally Engaged will have readers laughing out loud and craving allll the bread!

Reena Manji is a witty, strong and independent woman. Her deep passion for baking and love of bread has carried her through some tough times. When her sweet and traditional — yet meddlesome and slightly controlling — parents try to set her up with another potential husband, she is determined to pay him no attention. Nadim Remtulla is incredibly sexy, charming and his love of food makes it easy for the two of them to bond. His British accent is really just a bonus. She tries to resist....until an opportunity to enter a cooking competition comes up that she can't turn down. The problem? It's a couple's competition and Reena needs a partner!

The fake dating trope is one of my favourites when it comes to romantic comedies and I'm a complete sucker for reality TV. This whole book kept me engaged from start to finish, with the right amount of steam, a healthy dose of humour and a touch of mystery. Farah Heron has created a wonderful cast of diverse characters. Each one was funny and stood out on their own. I appreciated how supportive Reena's friends were and at times, her family too. By the end, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face!

I enjoyed the unique cultural aspects in this book. The descriptions of the food were enough to make me want to explore new cuisines. There was a fine line between Reena pushing cultural boundaries and her loyalty to her family, and I felt the frustration of her struggle to make decisions.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good rom-com. I didn't want to put it down. But be sure to have snacks on hand because this book will make you hungry!

Thanks to @netgalley and @readforeverpub for the eARC to review.

Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron is what desi, rom-com dreams are made of. 💚 Thanks to the publisher for the free review copy. 4.5/5 🌟

I’ve been obsessed with *fictional* south-asian couples since last year (just brown girl things lol) and Accidentally Engaged was just the book I needed to fall in love with them even more. This book had everything that I want in a romantic comedy novel!
▪A witty heroine with a love for cooking (which was a bonus)
▪ A hero with dimples & a british accent (TS’s London Boy plays on the background)
▪ Desi touch to fake dating – A FAKE ENGAGEMENT. 😂
▪ Big-brown family drama
▪ Mouth-watering descriptions of food
▪ Muslim culture representation

Accidentally Engaged had me laughing from the very first chapter. The storyline was so entertaining and addictive, I couldn’t keep it down at all! If you’re looking for a book to get out of slump, this book is THE ONE. 😍
Reena was such a relatable character, OMG. Her deeply-ingrained wish to please her parents, trust issues and insecurities about life not turning out the way she wants it to ~ made me connect with her really easily. If only I knew how to bake/cook like her! 😭

Experiencing Reena’s relationship with Nadim was such a fun ride! There were endless comedic moments along the way. Reena and Nadim’s conversations were filled with the perfect amount of banter and humor! It’s been a while since I laughed so much while reading a novel, so many thanks to the author for writing such an amazing story. :’) The fake-engagement trope was just the best thing ever. Seeing Reena and Nadim navigate their relationship with complex family dynamics playing in the background made reading the book so addictive! 😍

I wish we had chapters from Nadim’s point of view though ~ it would have given the romance a more acute sense of closure, in my opinion. The drama that unfolded in the last few chapters seemed a bit far-stretched at times too. These stopped me from rating the book with 4.5 stars instead of 5 😭 But please don’t let that stop you from reading the book though. I highly recommend reading it to add a bit of fun to your lives! 💕

ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED was absolutely hilarious! I was pulled in immediately and was such a pickup book. This book was a very lighthearted rom-com with elements of family and friends that add to the story without straying away from the romance or the comedy aspect. One of my favorite things about this book is the thorough description of making starters of bread -- the main character's love for baking bread is so admirable and honestly made me want to start making my own bread.

Another aspect that I enjoyed about ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED was learning about Reena and Nadim's culture and how being a diaspora has affected their connection to their culture. Their discussion of the different ways they try to preserve their culture was also an important conversation and something I feel like many diasporas can connect to. The author brings up such important issues and the way their culture is taught to us feels so smooth and easy to follow along with still staying to the storyline.

The characters WERE ABSOLUTELY LOVABLE. I loved Nadim and Reena so much! Seeing their growth together and their fun conversations were so entertaining. There are some side characters also later introduced in the book that I think is vital to the story and are also just as lovable.

Overall this is a book I would recommend to people who love the fake-dating trope! If you need a good easy read to get you through the day and love rom-com, definitely pick this up.

This book had me hooked right from the ending of that first chapter! Right away, our main character Reena stumbles into the man her parents want her to marry, Nadim, as he is entering the apartment building she lives in, which he himself just moved to.

Nadim right away was such an adorable love interest. He was attractive yes, but underneath that he has such a goofy and sweet nature. I instantly liked him and was glad of that! It made this reading experience so much better. Also.. have never read a romance book with a character who has a foot fetish. Oddly endearing! Especially during a particular scene near the end of the book, it almost brought me to tears with how sweet of a gesture it was.

I also adored Reena, I’d say she’s my favourite character from this book. She’s a mess, yes but a mess in the way that we all are. I found her so relatable especially as she went on the journey of figuring out how to cope with life and admitting to not only her family and friends, but to herself that she does deal with depression but that it can be managed. The mental health rep was well done, in my opinion at least!

I especially loved her love for cooking! Honestly, all of the food talk in this book just made me so hungry!

This book really delves into family life and everything surrounding it, the good, the bad, the secrets and lies and drama. But also, the love and support that only family can bring to the table. (Found family counts as family too!) Reena’s journey with her sister and mother and father, those plot points helped us see more of Reena in different lights and really highlighted how she became the person she was today. The growth that her and her family go through was so touching and made me love her and them all the more.

One of my only complaints for the book is that I wish the food competition had a bit more spotlight. All of the scenes during the competition were so great, I guess I was just greedy for more of those interactions and well… more food! I also just wanted a tad bit more on the fake dating plot but I really can’t complain too much. I loved Nadim and Reena together from the start.

Overall, this story was so good and is a great, great addition to the romance genre. Please go pick up a copy for yourself! Especially if you enjoy cooking (especially bread), family, fake dating, food competition!, and so much more.

4/5⭐️

TW: depression, eating disorder.

This is a charming romance from Farah Heron! I was hooked by the adorable meet-cute at the beginning of the story, and I flew through the rest. This is my favorite kind of romance, where entertaining moments of romance and humor are balanced with thoughtful themes like cultural expectations and mental health. Plus, the food descriptions were AMAZING. 😍 I'm looking forward to reading more from the author.

Accidentally Engaged was an unexpected and absolute gem of a book. Equal parts laugh out loud funny, sweet, and emotional, this is the food-centric, hearty, fake dating book of your dreams.
Summary: Reena Manji just wants to come home in the evenings from her unsatisfying job and bake bread with what independence she has managed to wrest from her meddling family. All of her plans are thrown for a loop when her hunky new neighbor Nadim turns out to be her father’s new partner at work and the latest man whom her family wants her to marry. Reena doesn’t want to have anything to do with an arranged marriage but when a couples/family only cooking competition with a dream opportunity comes up, spending more time with Nadim may be exactly what’s in store. No spoilers, but what follows was just really entertaining and sweet and swoon-worthy and gosh Nadim and Reena are just so dang precious together.
I loved this book so much, there was so much to love, you basically have my attention anytime you’ve got fake dating/fake engagement or anything along those lines but this book just had a little bit more oomph to it. I liked that they were neighbors and foodies, it just added more lovely domesticity to it that I just ate up with a spoon (pun fully intended). I always enjoy the slow burn and pining that comes with fake dating and boy did Heron nail it in this book. I really loved watching them fall in love with each other and learning to open up and trust each other. It was beautiful.
This book just had a lot going for it on top of a wonderful romance. iN addition to great friendships, I loved the over-the-top family and the dynamics within the family as the book went on. I especially liked the development between Reena and her sister Saira as the book went on, as a sister myself, that did my heart good. But while the family could be frustrating and convoluted at times, it could also be so funny and sweet and just like family: very complicated but there for you. I loved it.
I also really appreciated the depression representation in this book. It’s something that’s really important to me and I thought it was well handled and I appreciated the different ways that the two characters who dealt with it experienced it in different ways and had to learn and unlearn different coping mechanisms. That was lovely to see. There are so many people like Reena who may struggle with depression who don’t feel comfortable calling it that or don’t know how to deal with that and getting to see it dealt with in books like thi, I like to think can have positive real-world effects and I love to see it.
Overall, I had such a good time reading this book. It was full of rich diversity and culture and love and also so much food! No seriously, do not read this book hungry! Don’t be a hero, stock up on snacks before reading this amazing book. Thank you so much Netgalley and the fine folks at Forever Publishing for providing me with an e-ARC of this wonderful book. Definitely adding this to my recommended reading list.

This book was so much fun and full of things that I love - fun, flirty banter between characters, family cooking shows, BREAD - SO MUCH BREAD. I loved this book and it was exactly the light, fun, rom-com that I needed to get me out of a bit of a reading slump.

I loved Reena's character, her relationships with her friends and the effortless chemistry between her and Nadim. The fake romance story got an extra spin given the almost-arranged marriage which gave it a little bit of an enemies to lovers feel - though it was more the idea of the marriage that they hated and not each other. Either way, I got all the feels and found myself smiling though the majority of it (and maybe drooling through the rest given all the descriptions of meals and bread...mmm, bread).

Baking bread was maybe the one hobby I didn't attempt to pick up during this pandemic, but this book has me desperately wanting my own sourdough starter to name and feed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for granting my wish on this one - I adored it, and can't wait to read more by Farah Heron.

Reena, an avid bread baker comes home one day and finds an incredibly handsome stranger moving into the apartment across the hall. One swoon worthy, eye catching man with an accent to die for.

Reena has some personal challenges, with work, and her family, she hopes that an arrangement with the handsome neighbour will help her get back on solid footing.

I love how Farah showed a different side to family dynamics and how surface relationships aren't always what they seem to be. It was really refreshing to see 'taboo' topics being brought to light and discussed.

Thank you to @farahheronauthor and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this amazing book.

Such a fun book! I thought that I would love this book because of the baking aspect and, of course, the fake dating. I wasn't wrong! Laugh out loud funny and an abundance of carbs - a recipe for success!

Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron
Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for a copy of this book!

This novel is so great! I loved reading about Reena and her love of cooking and baking and how this hobby leads her to self reflection and discovery. A lot of this novel focuses on discovering who you are, what makes you happy and the importance of communication. I loved seeing multiple relationships develop. There is development of romantic love but also development of sibling and parental relationships and friendships. I loved the discussions on mental health, normalizing therapy and the discussions on different cultures in a relationship.

I loved reading a novel set in Canada! And seeing and learning about Reena’s culture and food - everything sounded so good!Accidentally Engaged published today and I highly recommend it!

Content/triggers: discussion of eating disorders, some body shaming, death of a parent discussed in memories, racism towards Muslim individuals, cheating (discussed in memories)

I enjoyed this book a lot. I love that Reena realized she needed to make herself happy & not rely on others to do so. I loved her dysfunctional family & how they learned in in trying to protect each other they were keeping sectets that caused strife. I loved learning more about Tanzanian & Indian food & culture. I would have really liked to hear more from Nadim's POV, I feel like that would have completed the story more for me.

Do you like fake engagments? Because I freaking love them and in this one is so good!I loved it, it's fun,sweet and heartwarming.

I loved everything about this book, the heroine is so unique and you can easily relate to her.She is amazing.And the hero is so swoon worthy!

This is about family,food and love.Such a good combination and the writing was phenomenal, that once you start it you cannot stop until you finish it!

Highly relatable, quirky, and fun! Accidentally Engaged is just what I was looking for. This arranged marriage story was engaging and so hard to put down!

I think this is a book has some important themes for the young desi crowd especially with the discussion of familial ties and mental health. I do think the book struggled to land on one of the several topics of discussion the book brought up.
If you are going into this book for romance and wholesome content you will get it. Nadim and Reena were two characters struggling with their identity and found themselves and their future together. The background plot and familial drama fits that of a bollywood movie but for me it did not translate well as I could not focus on 10 things at once especially when the character was going through it all with her life. Even though I could not focus on the 10 things I was gasping and laughing along with the characters.

Things I liked:
- funny family moments
- Brown Captain America
- the foooooodddddd
- home prose
- normalized foot fetish ( bc we do not kink shame here)


Things I did not like:
- Saira did not need to betray her sister like that
- book did not have a strong subplot
- I wanted to know more about her friends and was given crumbs

In the wise, wise words of Oprah, “I love bread!”. I’m also a huge fan of romance novels - put both of them together (and add a cooking reality show), and you have Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron.

Farah Heron had a great way of infusing comedy into every scene - there were several times when I laughed out loud (which I don’t often do while reading). She also had a real knack for building chemistry between Reena and Nadim - even though Reena did not want to like Nadim (due to her parents arranging their marriage) they were clearly very attracted to each other and had some serious sparks flying.

One of my gripes with this book was the ending - it felt a bit rushed - like the couple skipped over a whole bunch of steps in their relationship. While the two definitely had a lot of chemistry and sexual tension, it just didn’t make sense to me for them to get so serious so quickly. I wish the last part of the book had been a bit more organic.

I loved Reena - she was a strong female character who was struggling with hating her career, being stifled by her family’s constant interference (especially in her love life), and wanting to follow her baking dreams. Throughout the book one of her key areas of growth was in learning to let the people around her in - in the beginning her walls were so high up she couldn’t see the good intentions of the people around her.

As the story progressed, Nadim slowly helped her crumble her walls, and by the end of the book Reena was not only more open, she was also brave enough to pursue her dreams and be open about her life to her parents. There were also strong themes of Reena trying to figure out how she fit into her culture - how she could be herself while also being a part of her community.

This is the perfect rom-com for anyone who loves love stories and has been baking bread during quarantine (or even just considering making a sourdough starter). Nadim and Reena’s chemistry was off the charts and I loved the themes of learning how to find your own way while still being a part of your community. If you enjoyed this book, you should check out The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez and The Dating Plan by Sarah Desai. 4/5

I received an advanced reading copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Reena Manji is stuck, at 31, she is doing a job she hates because of the betrayal by her sister and is thoroughly annoyed by her family's constant meddling in her life. Reena just wants to be independent and establish herself as an individual.

Nadim, Reena's sexy new neighbor with a British accent with a flirtatious nature to match his gorgeous looks, unfortunately for Reena, he works for her father and is the guy her parents expect her to marry.

One drunken night, they decide to film a cooking video together as a joke and end up going viral, fortunately for Reena they become a finalist in a cooking show she is desperately trying to be a contestant on to receive the scholarship for the baking school she wants to attend after a popular food blog imploded, but the cooking contest turns out to be for couples. Reena, knowing she can win decides to ask Nadim to be her fake fiancee, surprisingly he says 'yes'.

With Reena's family ecstatic over their relationship and Nadim keeping a big secret, Reena knows nothing can stay quiet for long with the Manji. and has to deal with the fallout of these secrets for her burgeoning relationship with Nadim.

I loved the chemistry between Nadim and Reena, obviously, I enjoyed the food aspect and I especially enjoyed all the drama and the scandalous secrets of the Manji family. this book was the perfect balance between Reena trying to establish her independence whilst slowly falling in love with Nadim and the idea that her parents just want her to be happy.

This book was great! Very sweet. The love story was delightful and relatable. I loved the focus on family and knowing yourself while still relying on those around you.