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.

Reena Manji is single, in a job she doesn't enjoy and can't seem to live her life without her parents meddling. Her dad hires and rents the apartment down the hall to Nadim Remtulla, with the expectation that they'll marry. They both love food, are from similar backgrounds, and seem to get along so they decide to be friends; until they enter a cooking competition that requires that contestants are "family" so they decide to pretend to be engaged. As they bond and become closer, their relationship becomes something more, but they keep their secrets, knowing sometimes with meddling family, some things are better left instead.

Hooray for an Ismaili/Gujarati/Canadian protagonist! I found her to be the perfect blend of cultures and found her so relatable as a Canadian with South Asian roots. I loved the incorporation of the food, the traditions, the family history; it was all done seamlessly and represented the community so well.

Her friendships and relationships with her siblings were well developed and I was glad that she had such a strong network, despite her interfering parents. Nadim was dreamy - he was ambitious and sweet, although a bit caught up in his own family drama as well.

The book touched on Reena and her sister being depressed and I thought that was important because it's always good to raise awareness for any form of mental illness.

4.5 '/ 5 stars, rounded up to 5.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing & NetGalley for the eGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

What a perfect book for foodie fans!

Loved this (very relatable) female main character's journey as she worked through her issues with her family, especially as they tried to meddle in the love department. She was "of age" and still didn't have the adulting thing figured out, and she wasn't a hot mess, which was refreshing to see in a novel like this. Very enjoyable!

Reena is a Muslim woman who works in finance and whose first love is baking bread and cooking mouth watering dishes from her culture. However, her parents want more from her and are constantly on her to find a good Muslim husband that they approve of. Which wouldn’t be so bad, except Reena is 31 and can’t take much more interference from her family even though she knows they mean well.
Enter, Nadim. Her new attractive, Muslim neighbor who also has a British accent 😍 One problem though: she finds out he works for her dad. Nope. No way. Friends only.
Except, Reena finds out about a cooking competition with the grand prize being a dream come true. The only clincher is that it’s a family competition and has to be done in pairs. Nadim, being the great guy he is, agrees to pretend to be engaged to her in order for her to enter the competition. Can they keep up the ruse long enough to complete the competition without their friends and family finding out? Go ahead and read to find out!

✨Review✨
Ok y’all, the hype is real about the food in this one! Bread, bread, and more bread. The way the author describes bread baking and the dishes Reena creates makes me want to go and eat all the food there. I was like salivating through the entire book 😂. The characters were fun and entertaining but Reena wasn’t my favorite. She came off a little to “woe is me” for a 31 year old and always seemed to think everything was against her. I think Nadim and Reena’s sister, Saira, were my favorite. Nadim just had that all around good guy thing going on and Saira was more open with her struggles and found ways to cope instead of feeling sorry for herself. Overall a great read with lots of diversity throughout!

I received an advance copy for an honest review

GIVE ME ALL THE BREAD!

Accidentally Engaged was my first book my Farah Heron but most definitely will not be my last. I love a story that centrally focuses on food and culture and this book has it all! This was also my first book set in Toronto, Canada and I loved getting a tiny glimpse of Indian life through the eyes of Reena. Throw in a cooking show competition and a hot male named Nadim with a British accent and I am hooked!

I will say that I appreciate Farah touching on mental health, especially mental health within a culture that doesn't discuss the topic openly. Not only is this a love story but we see how keeping secrets from your own immediate family can affect one's mental health and make them have self doubt with everything they do in life. Trust me that. by the end of this story you will want to make starters, that turn into multiple loaves of bread, and eat Indian food. Congratulations, Farah Heron! Another fav book of 2021 for me!

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Reading Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron was a delight. When Reena Manji finds out her parents have arranged for her to marry the new hot guy across the hall she is not happy. He seems nice enough but she wants to find her own relationship, but before she knows what’s hit her, she’s pretending to be engaged to Kadim Remtulla in order to enter a contest on a reality television cooking show and it's not just the food that's steaming. The story hits all my happy buttons, a fake relationship/friends to lovers storyline with excellent food, complicated family relationships, strong friendships, fan yourself steam, humour, angst and excitingly to me, it takes place in Toronto. Accidentally Engaged captivated me from beginning to end and I highly recommend it. SteamLevel: Quite Steamy. Publishing Date: March 2, 2021 #AccidentallyEngaged #FarahHeron #ForeverGrandCentralPublishing #ContemporaryRomance #FakeRelationship #FriendsToLovers #bookstagram #bookstagrammer

Please see the link below and attached for my blog’s review of Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron:

https://wordsofmysteryblog.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/what-i-read-in-february/

Accidentally Engaged really spoke to me. Even though we are from different places and have different problems, it felt so relatable to what many of us experience. The highs and lows of figuring out life. I haven’t had a book hit like that in a while. It also made me constantly hungry. Make sure you have plenty of reading snacks.

I voluntarily read an early copy.

Thoughts

This is a story about Reena who does not like her job in finance, has a younger sister who wants to use her recipes for a new cookbook, has had a total of 14 boyfriends and names her sourdough starters.  There is also the fact that her parents are always trying to find the perfect suitor for her so she can marry.  Reena lives in a building owned by her father so it should have come as no surprise when she finds out her hot new neighbor, Nadim, works for her dad…..and is her future husband.  Reena wants to enter a cooking contest, but it's for couples only.  One night her and Nadim have one too many drinks, jokingly film themselves cooking and submit the video for the contest.  The only problem is Reena doesn't remember doing that until she is informed that their video has been chosen and they are officially in the contest.  Now the pair has to fake a relationship to stay in the running.  What could go wrong with faking an engagement?! 

This was a fun read!  I loved that Reena named her sourdough starters, one being Brian.  One of my favorite parts was when Reena had to go out of town and she thought it would be a good idea for Nadim to watch after Brian.  Oh my lanta I rolled off the couch laughing when we learned what happened to Brian while she was away!  I kept expecting some steamy scenes when Reena and Nadim finally gave in to their feelings, but it was very G rated.  Give me some heat!

Overall this was an enjoyable read!  Thank you to Forever Pub and NetGalley for my #copy!  This one is out today!

Book Rating: 4/5

Wine Pairing: Ménage à Trois Pinot Noir

This book had lots of really fun moments that were intertwined with the mediocre story. The characters really shaped this story for me and influenced my rating quite a bit.

Reena was an interesting main character. I could feel that we were going to see a big change in her in the book, but she didn't change quite like I thought/as I'd hoped. Although she learned quite a bit in this book about herself, her family, and how she wanted to live her life, I felt like she was still making the same mistakes at the end. I didn't expect her to be somebody completely different, but she was still doing things she had pointed out were wrong earlier in the book.

Despite these things, I appreciated Reena's passion for bread and baking in general. And the unbashful way she loved and celebrated her culture. I loved that Nadim also shared this love and excitement for celebrating their culture. Specifically, It was fun for me to learn more about foods common to their culture.

Nadim was an interesting love interest. He was flirty from the beginning which made it hard for me to know if he actually liked Reena or just liked to flirt. Also, sadly, the more I learned about Nadim, the less I liked him. He had some cute moments, but those didn't outweigh everything else for me. Not loving the love interest really impacted this book for me.

One relationship I ended up really enjoying was the relationship between Reena and her sister. The rekindling of things between them really pushed me along at some points during this book.

Despite these things, I loved how real this book was. The characters weren't perfect and made mistakes all throughout the book. I think things could have been presented better, but I appreciate that this book tried to be more realistic than cutesy (although there were still some cute moments).

Overall, I wish this book could have been better, but it wasn't bad. There was humor, romance, and honesty (and lots of bread. Literally). We see a lot of different relationships represented here and get to ride on this crazy roller coaster with Reena and co. 3.5 stars from me.

I really, truly had to force myself to get through this book and I wish I DNF’ed it. It was not for me but if you’re looking for a light-hearted rom com with all your favorite cliches and no other plot other than the MC drooling over men explicitly, this is for you. These are not the type of romance books I read so I was not expecting to not like this book at all. My first and most immediate turn off was the ridicule of Islam. Saying over and over that you “respect it but...” does not make the ridicule okay. Islam is not a culture - it’s a religion that is practiced by billions of people. It’s not strict customs and traditions that force people to either choose fun or a cult. Again — these are my opinions and mine alone because I practice Islam but those who don’t might enjoy it.

After finishing reading Farah Heron's The Chai Factor, and not really enjoying it, I didn't expect to fly through Accidentally Engaged. Not sure if Heron has had a complete change in publishers, or if she's keeping her more women's fiction books separate from her romantic comedies. This book has definitely benefited in any editorial changes made. While the main characters from The Chai Factor make an appearance, it is not necessary to read it first.

The banter between Reena and Nadim, is fabulous from the beginning. Best part, their meet-cute/this book does not involve any humiliation/embarrassing scenario from the heroine.
Additionally, Nadim is gone for Reena from the moment they meet, which is right up my alley in hero characteristics. Any book where there is hero pining from the start is tops in my book.

If you love fake relationships, hiding from meddling families, bread, cooking competitions, then make sure to add this book to your TBR. There's still time to pre-order ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED, or suggest for your library to purchase the book.

Fair warning: Don't start reading this at 2:00 AM, when you can't order Indian (or if you are lucky East African) takeout, and you've already got your meals planned for the day.

Content Warning: disordered eating,

I really enjoy learning about other cultures and what better way to do that then to read a contemporary romance novel written by an own voices author! Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron is one of the most entertaining romance novels I have read. The fact that this author is a fellow Canadian makes her easily another of my auto-buy authors.

Reena Manji is a single woman, in a job she doesn’t enjoy, and tired of her family’s constant interference in her life. Her greatest sense of comfort is tending to her sourdough starters and baking bread. When her father moves his newest employee, Nadim, to the apartment across the hall, Reena is instantly attracted. That is, until she learns of his association with her father and the fact that he has been brought to Canada in part to marry Reena.

Serendipity throws Reena and Nadim together and the two decide to become friends. When Reena loses her job and starts exploring her options, she learns of an upcoming TV cooking contest which would open opportunities for Reena. The only problem is that this is a couple’s contest and the pair need to be married or engaged. During an evening involving alcohol, the two agree to a fake engagement, record a video and submit it for the contest. This hilarious charade continues as the contest unfolds.

I loved this book! Although it is marketed as a romance novel, I would classify this more as a romantic comedy with multicultural interest. I was enlightened by the discussion of the culture and highly entertained by the banter of Reena and Nadim. I loved how they enjoyed a shared passion for food and, of course, Reena’s bread. The discussion of secrets withheld by family members was hilarious! The characters were well developed and very likeable. The pacing of the book was perfect and I felt fully engaged throughout. If you’re looking for a joyful, funny love story, this book is for you.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for the honest review provided here.

If you want a book that will give you all the feels, like literally ALL of them: love, frustration, flutters, tears (it made me tear up more than once!!) then this is the book for you!!

At first it seems like your typically ‘fake dating/engagement’ but it’s much more than that, we got crappy parents, who I didn’t really enjoy but realize the depth and realism it added to the story itself. We have cooking!!! And there’s even recipes for one of the cuisines cooked within the book, amazing!! We have talks on mental health and realizing our worth and going for what WE want rather than letting people influence us (in negative ways).

We have the frustration of watching two characters who are clearly destined for each other pull away and dismiss real feelings (it’s incredibly frustrating in the most romance novel way possible). We have embracing ones culture and it shying away from it or letting the world ‘white wash’ it. Loving your own trade and being proud of it!!

And if all of that doesn’t make you pick up this book, the hero is referenced, within the first few pages of the book, as a ‘Brown Captain America’ which if you don’t like superhero’s or Chris Evans I get it, but HOLY COW YES.

If I had to pick one thing I didn’t like about this book, besides the crappy parents, would be that the steam and tension was definitely there but it was more fade to black than anything else, so a bit more steam would of be amazing!

I highly suggest thing book!!! Please do yourself and your heart a favor and read it!!

Small tw for people who don’t like feet, there’s a small foot fetish within this book, it’s more poetic than distasteful though lmao.

This book ticked a lot of my boxes: Fake relationship? Check. Baking? Check. Humor? Check.

From the meet cute between Reena and Nadim to the drunken filming to the ladies "book club," there's an excellent mix of sweetness and humor. But it also deals with more complex family dynamics and mental health issues. The relationship between Reena and her sister is nicely navigated, and Reena's recognition of her own coping mechanisms was appreciated.

Culture is important to Reena and Nadim, so the glimpses into Indian-East African food and life were excellent.

And I haven't touched on the cooking competition that initiates the fake engagement! Or the way Reena is resisting her parents match making!

All in all, I really enjoyed this! I'll be looking eagerly for Farah Heron's next book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*Do not read while hungry* You have been warned.
What a delightful book! It hit on all counts with representation, banter (OMG the banter!), and the glorious food. Romance tropes are awesome when done well and this had the “Fake engagement” one which is always quite delightful.

Reena feels so real with all her family- and self- expectations and I just adored seeing her forge new paths, shake off past failings and find her purpose. This might be a small thing, but I appreciated that she didn’t think Nadim was hot immediately she saw him (I mean ofc she noticed the buns 😊) but the attraction and connection grew between them during subsequent meetings and I just liked that a lot. Nadim also being from Tanzania made me smile.

As with the Chai Factor (hello Amira and Duncan), but done even more masterfully here, I liked that people didn’t fit into designed boxes and instead were warm and multifaceted. I really enjoyed this book and it made me so hungry! LOL.

Thanks so much for the ARC Forever Books and NetGalley.

This is a very engaging book, though it wasn't as much of a romance as I would have liked. I understand the choice to have a single POV, but there are long stretches of the book in which the male main character is not around, because the family drama is at the forefront. That drama is interesting, but it left me with a hazier impression of Nadim than I wanted. I also understand the choice to close the door on sex, but it left me wanting more of them together in some intimate way (that did not involve head lice!!!!). The food is described extraordinarily lovingly, and there are recipes at the back of the book, which I love as a detail. It's a romance that investigates the complications that arise when family is very involved in one's life.

As alluded to, the one thing that almost threw me out of this book was a head lice subplot. It was a way to bring Reena and Nadim together but I just wish it would have been anything else. There is also a subplot with Reena's sister and it can be uncomfortable to read if people who are sort of toxically virtuous and judgmental about food bother you.

3.5, rounded up. The plot is a little far-fetched, and the physical intimacy is not descriptive (which some may see as a plus), but I still loved the characters--Reena is sarcastic, smart, and funny while also able to admit her flaws, and Nadim adores her while also retaining his own personality and values. I also appreciated the South Asian representation and Heron's outlining mental health stigmas in communities of color.

Bonus: there are a couple of delicious-looking recipes in the back--I can't wait to try them!