I got to say, I freaking love Accidentally Engaged. It started off slow but the build up was off the charts. Like I did not know I was done until I reached the very last page. That's how addicting Accidentally Engaged is. Accidentally Engaged starts off with Reena feeding her adorable sourdough starters. Don't worry, you will understand what sourdough starters are and how adorable it is when Reena bonds over it with new potential love interest, Nadim. But before we get into their building romance, let's first discuss Reena and his crazy family. Reena has always had high expectations from her Muslim family. It may feel restricting at times but she found a way around it most of the times. Occasionally, it slips by especially when she notices her new neighbor, Nadim and he is supposed to be her fiance. Big shocker! It's definitely difficult for Reena when her parents meddle in her life constantly. I can definitely say that Nadim was meant for her because they keep running into each other. And once they start hanging out when Reena's career drives down, they become more closer each day.

Thank you so much Netgalley for providing an ARC review of Accidentally Engaged! .

This was such a fun and lovely OWN voices read! As I continue to stay in, baking shows have been an absolutely OBSESSION of mine and this fake-dating cook-off romance was the most delightful treat. Everything from the characterization to the humor was top notch and fun. I will admit the chemistry didn't hit off for me at first but it was still enjoyable.

3/5

Thank you @readforeverpub and @netgalley for a copy of Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron.

Accidentally Engaged is an Own Voices romance with a lot of bread baking, cute banter and Indian food and I am here for it. Do not go into this one hungry!
Reena is a former food blogger with a meddling family who wants her married. So much so, her father hopes to arrange a marriage for her with a business partner’s son. When this potential match moves next door, they find themselves helping each other out. Reena and Nadim join a cooking competition for couples. Now they are fake engaged on camera and promised in real life and to top it all off, they have some real chemistry!

This was a fun read. There were a few tough moments for both main characters discussing things about their families and past but mostly this one was a pretty light and fun read. The descriptions of food and the bread she bakes are well done and make your starving so watch out for that! Overall a lovely and fun story!

I really enjoyed this book, even though it made me hungry for most of it! Homemade bread, anyone? I loved the characters and their drama filled families. It was entertaining and fun. I loved that it was set in Canada but that it was also full of culture! The fake relationship (engagement) trope is so fitting for this book. I highly recommend checking it out!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

OH EM GEE this book is adorable and made me SO HUNGRY.

I was so excited to get Farah Heron's Accidentally Engaged ARC - the plot about Indian/East African parents arranging the engagement of their children was not only exciting but one I hadn't read much before. This book is so much more. Reena is perfection: struggling, dislikes her job but has amazing friends, vulnerable and sensitive. I loved her so much and I need her to make me bread. Nadim seems some one-note in the beginning but it hides a complexity that I loved. My favorite parts (besides the cooking, food scenes, and bread) was seeing Reena and Nadim get closer AND the family/friend dynamics. Reena's family each figuring out each other secrets was both hilarious and real. And Reena had some great friends behind her. I also loved her growing relationship with Saira. Overall, this was a super cute read with Indian/East African characters which is NEEDED in romance. Can't wait to read more Farah and I must read Amira and Duncan's story.

*DNF-ed/skim read after 55%*

The good ✨:
I can’t speak for the Tanzanian-Gujarati representation in this, but I loved the foodie and baking and traditional food aspects. It made me search up the dishes on Google and learn about how there is a big population of Gujarati people residing in Tanzania, which I did not know.

The bad:
I am not unfamiliar with people who have a different lifestyle, though I personally am a practicing Muslim. I have Muslim friends who do drink/gamble and do other things that Islam technically forbids, and everyone is entitled to do what they want so long as it’s through their own free will. BUT…

I am NOT a fan and do not appreciate how the publishers slapped a ‘Muslim rep’ sticker on this and called it a day. When you clearly promote a book with Muslim rep, I go into it expecting a somewhat accurate Muslim/Islamic experience, but all the characters in here (except for the heroine’s parents) were drinking/mentioning alcohol every 2 pages and it was just so shoved in your face that ‘Oh hey! They’re Muslims but they drink! And have premarital sex! Oh and yeah, they drink, remember, don’t forget that!!’

At the end of the day, this might be a good POC book, but I can see the rep to be quite damaging to practicing Muslims, in my opinion.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Accidentally Engaged - Farah Heron

Thank you so much to forever pub, netgalley a d hatchette book group for the gifted copy in exchange of an honest review!

This book is such a cute and fun romance and was the perfect palette cleanser for me between some thrillers! The characters are all so cute, I would honestly be thrilled if we got a sequel or another book in the same world (maybe from her sister?!). PSA though : this book will make you want all of the homemade bread!! My only complaint is that I wish we had gotten to see more of their relationship!

Overall, I think this book is always going to hold a super special place in my heart because it was my current read when I got engaged (but not accidentally!) and so it will always be a memorable romance for me!

This is a very sweet book, and while the family drama may feel over the top to some, I felt totally at home. If you have a close knit, dramatic family you'll get it.

For me, Nadim was the stand out of the book. He was trying so hard to right past wrongs and change opinions of him, and we have all been there. He was a Disney prince to Reena, wanting to do nothing but support her and her dream,  and be there for her.

My only concern is not specific to this book, but the representation of Indian culture in books, specifically romance, as a whole. Clearly, it is part of the plot and necessary in this book but I have yet to read a book with Indian characters, that doesn't talk about food. I understand food is very significant in some cultures, but is it mention in every story important? Is it just me?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I typically read steamier romances but surprisingly loved this fade-to-black story. I can't wait to read what Farah Heron writes next!

This book was SO fun. I read it in one sitting! The characters were immensely likable, and I'm a sucker for a fake-dating plot.

Rom coms aren’t my favorite but this was a cute read between thrillers. Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for the free copy in exchange for my honest review!

I’m so thrilled I had the opportunity to read this brilliant new to me author. Accidentally Engaged, was a most enjoyable experience!

Here’s what I loved:
The characters are brilliantly portrayed. They are fleshed out and real. On top of that, the chemistry between the two is palpable. Yummy!
The amazing family dynamic made this a real treat!
The storyline is delish! The fake relationship trope is my jam! I loved the setup and development!
Funny and features vibrant characters! I loved the details and feel of the novel.

I’m definitely looking forward to more from this fantastic author! Recommended!

All the stars for this cute, fun read! Loved the characters, loved the culture! What a fun escape! This story is full of family (those you are born into and the one you make), friends, cooking/baking, learning to be yourself, a fake relationship, humour and more.

I saw the fake-fiance-for-a-cooking-show premise and was sold on ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED. I loved the idea even more when I saw that he was a man her parents had picked out for her and suggested she marry. Surely they wouldn't 

Even though it took me an unnecessarily long time to read ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED, it was a very cute story that made me smile a ton. I adored it. It has a ton of excellent cultural references - Reena and Nadim are Indian and both of their parents lived in Africa for a time - and therefore great food to discuss. My mouth was watering the whole time. It doesn't help that Reena was a fantastic bread maker and the two often bonded over delicious-sounding beers. Gimme em both.

There were a tonnnnn of different elements and plot points at play here, but I never felt like there was too much going on. Reena is dealing with her job/career issues, wanting to bake bread, not wanting to date her neighbor/husband match, falling for him anyway, doing a cooking show, navigating a tough relationship with her sister and parents... the list goes on. Nadim had a bunch of things happening on his side too. I really liked seeing how all of those things connected and allowed for growth between them, both individually and as a couple. There were an insane amount of secrets and fetishes that I definitely didn't see coming (some were very random but I guess realistic?) that just added to the drama of Reena wondering what the hell is up with her family.

I learned that her best friend in this book is actually the MC of Heron's other romance, so I definitely have to get to that one soon - that sounded like the couple had some interesting barriers to their relationship too. I liked reading about Reena's friends and family, even though her parents and sister were SO frustrating at the beginning. I know a lot of it was cultural and/or things Reena had just put up with forever, but man - the payoff in the end when everyone got over themselves was lovely.

All in all, this book exceeded my expectations. It took me a little while to get into it for some reason but once I was 40-50% in, I was hooked and basically finished in one sitting. Part of that is my never-ending reading slump and the other part could be the slow and somewhat frustrating (see above about her parents/sister) start to the book. I highly recommend this one - but definitely recommend a porter and a piece of sourdough when you read.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and it didn’t disappoint!

Reena is 31, the middle child who often feels a bit unremarkable, she’s just been downsized from yet another company, her sourdough starter is refusing to cooperate, and her family keep meddling in her personal life—it feels like nothing is going right for her lately.

When her parents try to set her up with yet another eligible, Muslim bachelor, even going so far as moving him in across the hall from Reena, she is determined to have nothing to do with him.

I don’t want to spoil any of the delicious (pun intended) things that happen in this book so I’ll just tell you that the characters were all so amazing, both the main and the supporting ones. They felt like people I could have known for years, and they were an absolute delight to read about. The story is fun, and sweet, and includes one of my favorite tropes…fake relationships!

Plus, between Brian the uncooperative sourdough starter, and Nadim the brown Captain America with a British accent and a smokin’ caboose, there’s plenty to snack on. This book was really sexy without being explicit, so even though you could feel the sizzle of chemistry between these two it was closed-door, or maybe slightly ajar. It get’s two eggplants on my steam-meter.

You’re 100% going to want to binge this book once you start, so clear your schedule, grab your favorite beverage (and definitely some freshly-baked goods) and prepare to lose yourself in this fabulous book.

I read Accidentally Engaged over the weekend, and THIS BOOK Y’ALL!! Honestly the best decision🙏🏻

I really loved this book💙 Reena felt like such a relatable heroine— her fears around her work, her hyperfocus on a hobby (hellooo romance novels lol) and the way she struggled navigated complicated family dynamics felt very familiar. I appreciated the way Heron balanced some heavy tonal things with humor & levity, and the chemistry between Reena and Nasim🔥🔥🔥 so good!!

speaking of, Accidentally Engaged really nailed the fake relationship trope👩🏼‍🍳😘👌🏼 I think what I really love about it that theres a really delicious sort of intimacy that arises from ~pretending~ to be in love, and combined with the “but we can’t ACTUALLY be in love bc reasons👀” it just creates this fantastic push-pull that felt just electric between Reena & Nasim🙌🏼 Also as a fan of Great British Bake Off, the cooking stuff was a wonderful cherry on top!

There’s a lot I could gush about— Reena’s friend group fussing over her & Nasim to make sure their videos are PRISTINE, a hero with a ~sinfully hot~ accent who painstakingly tends to his heroine’s sourdough starter, the decadent food descriptions (there’s even a recipe at the end!!!)— but tbh you just gotta read it yourself to get the full experience😏

P.S.— this is a book book with fade-to-black sex scenes, which I don’t often read bc I like ‘em steamy, but the emotional core of Accidentally Engaged was so wonderful I didn’t care🙌🏼

Accidentally Engaged brings soap opera level drama with cultural influences, compelling characters, and endless amounts of delicious food! This is my first novel by this author and it won’t be my last! This story was humorous, light-hearted, and also covers the more heavier family dynamic and cultural topics.

Reena Manji is 31-years-old and single living in Toronto. She works in finance, but her true passion is baking bread! Her Indian parents would not approve of a career in baking, so she has stuck with financing to not disappoint them. When she returns home one day, she runs into her hot new neighbor, Nadim, an Indian gentleman with a British accent. They instantly hit it off and are about to agree to go on their first date when it is discovered that Reena is the woman that Nadim is to be together with in an arranged marriage set up by their parents! Being burned before by too many failed relationships, Reena is hesitant to pursue a relationship with Nadim. Instead, they eventually decide that friends might be the best way to go as they still have incredible chemistry and cannot avoid each other as neighbors.

In addition to her complicated love life, Reena has a messy relationship with her sister. At one time, Reena had a successful cooking blog, but it did not pan out due to some sabotaging by her sister. Now, her sister is going to write a cookbook of her own and Reena can’t help but feel crushed. Her sister keeps asking for help on developing recipes for the cookbook, but Reena has no interest in helping her sister as it was her dream to write a cookbook. Their complicated relationships are a great insight into family dynamics as it is not only Reena’s bond with her sister, but Reena also has her prying parents that are constantly butting into her life. All Reena wants is to be independent and have the choices that are made be her own.

When Reena thinks her life could not become more complicated, she loses her current job due to downsizing. Luckily, a cooking competition seems like a new career might be on the horizon as the prize would get her into culinary school! In a crazy series of events, Reena enters the contest with Nadim as the contest is only open to couples. Now that they have been accepted into the contest, Reena and Nadim must continue the ruse that the two of them are an engaged couple in order to advance them into each new round and, hopefully, win the entire competition. The more time they spend together, the more the both of them feel the increased chemistry between them.

With all of the new twists and turns, it truly becomes a fun and entertaining soap opera. We have Nadim and Reena who have feelings for each other and are pretending to be engaged for a cooking show, they want to date each other, but not get married, so they need to keep this secret, and the cherry on top is that they have to pretend to only be friends in order to avoid pressure by their parents. If this drama isn’t enough, there is a bigger twist that happens later on in the novel that adds a new level to the story! I really did not expect this much going on in what appeared to be, at first glance, a more traditional simple romcom novel.

The story is told from Reena’s point of view, so the reader becomes more connected to her story as they follow her ups and downs. Although Nadim was a compelling character, you miss some of his development as you don’t get to see his inner thoughts on the page. I loved the chemistry between Nadim and Reena as they seemed to have a genuine bond and I loved how they got to know each other on a deeper level. They had a more instant attraction, but there was also a deeper bond that they developed along the way, too. I do wish there was more time focused on just them though as sometimes it seemed that their alone bonding time was a little rushed as there was a lot of story to get through.

Overall, this story was very fun! I love Reena and she made a delightful main character that you want to root for to get a happy ending. The story develops in a fairly detailed manner for the majority of the story, so at times the pacing can seem a little slower. For me, it was not a problem and I preferred to have it this way as I get to enjoy each aspect of the story. The only negative was, as the story is fairly steady throughout, the ending goes faster, so it can seem rushed by comparison. The friendships in this story are amazing and enviable as they are perfect! I loved how they all come together and are supportive of the other. Amira, Duncan, Shayne, and Marley were all a delight. I was excited to find that Amira and Duncan have their own story, The Chai Factor, and I am very excited to add it to my TBR and any other novel written by this author! [4.5 rounded to 5]

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an ARC to read. The opinions expressed are completely my own. **

Let’s be honest – we don’t really pick up romance novels looking for an unpredictable, genre-bending read. We enjoy the happy endings and the journey that gets us to them. As a long-time fan, I can say that there is an amazing, awe inspiring amount of creativity that can happen within that equation, but sometimes the stories are simply a fun, if predictable, way to spend an afternoon. If you’re looking for the latter, Accidentally Engaged may be the book for you.

When Reena Manji first sees Nadim Remtulla enter her apartment building she is impressed with her hot new neighbor. Nadim asking her out minutes after their first greeting has her heart soaring – but it quickly plummets to earth seconds later. Once Nadim learns her name, he tells her something rather embarrassing for them both. It turns out Nadim is meant to be Reena’s new fiancé, an engagement arranged by her parents without her knowledge. Since Reena definitely doesn’t want to be married, especially to someone her mom and dad have chosen for her, she advises him there is no chance she will ever wed him and then keeps a polite but friendly distance from him, hoping Nadim will quickly go back to where he came from.

This being a romance novel it doesn’t, of course, work that way. One night Reena locks herself out of her apartment just as Nadim arrives at his. Seeing this lovely damsel in distress, he invites Reena to wait for the friend who has her spare key at his place. They share dinner and under the influence of alcohol, open up to each other a lot more than they would when sober. One of the secrets that comes out is Reena’s dream of winning a local cooking competition which would enable her to leave the boring world of finance and (possibly) live her bliss as a cookbook writer or café owner or baker. The only problem is that the program is about home family cooking and any audition tape sent in needs to have a couple who are either engaged or married. That’s a pretty limited way to look at family in the twenty-first century but, I digress. Nadim and Reena decide it would be fun to do a demo of them cooking together and they submit the resultant video to the contest site.

Naturally, their intoxicated selves have amazing chemistry and the food they make turns out picture perfect. Their clip is gold, the producers love it and Reena quickly receives an email informing her they’ve made it to the next round, which means she finds herself asking Nadim for a huge favor: will he pretend to be her fiancé for the duration of the competition? He, of course, says yes. The two start hanging out together for the sake of the show and I’m quite sure you know what happens next.

What works in this novel is the excellent prose and the fact that the story really captures the joy of meeting someone special and making the magical, life changing discovery that they are ‘the one’. Both Reena and Nadim were unlucky in love before meeting each other, and they take a lot of pleasure in figuring out just how right they are together. The tale also does a nice job of resolving the issues within Reena’s family; they love each other but have a difficult time communicating. When events force them to actually start talking to each other, rather than just at each other, they develop the close, open relationships they’ve always longed for.

Unfortunately however, I never really connected with the hero and heroine. I struggled with Reena because she has a tendency to blame others for her problems; for example, she blames the blog written by her younger sister about the trend towards healthier cooking for costing Reena’s carb rich blog sponsorships, thereby forcing her to close it. Seriously? Where has this woman been? Cameron Diaz was bemoaning not eating carbs as early as 2006 in The Holiday. Later, Reena believes her mother lost her a job she wanted when that wasn’t at all what occurred. Reena struggles to accept any responsibility for her own troubles.

I liked Nadim a bit better. He’s funny and charming and perfectly amiable, and he deals with Reena’s moodiness with patience and compassion. He seems able to get along with anyone and everyone and has a positive outlook on life, even when it isn’t going well. I did have a small issue with him though, and that is that he plays fast and loose with the truth – often. He prevaricates endlessly and as the story progresses, so does the scale of his deceptions. Once we get to know Nadim we realize why he so readily agrees to be Reena’s fake fiancé – much of his life has been about faking it.

I was also a bit disturbed by the fact that he’s come to Toronto planning to marry Reena, yet he hooks up with someone else almost immediately after getting to town and then tried to hook up with Reena before knowing who she was. That seemed a tad sleazy to me.

Nadim and Reena both share a unique cultural background: they are Guarati-Indian in Canada by way of Tanzania. The book doesn’t really examine what that means except through “these recipes, passed down from our mothers and grandmothers” which apparently “are like the cornerstone of our culture.” As a result, apart from some of the food mentioned, the book reads pretty much like the story of any other thirty-something couple with interfering families. Which is actually why the novel hasn’t received a higher grade – it reads like a lot of contemporaries, with nothing to really set it apart. Even the characters feel as though they come from central casting.

That said, there are a lot of books like Accidentally Engaged out there because fans of contemporary romance novels are looking for these kinds of tales. So I would cheerfully recommend it to anyone in the mood for well written familiarity with a dash of multicultural flair.

This book was fantastic! I was drawn in from the first page. This is a romance that is centered around food, muslim culture, fake dating, arranged marriage (yes both of those tropes), overbearing families, and even a touch of mental health. Oh and I forgot to add a food competition (seriously my dream book).
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Reena is our MC and she is passionate about cooking and specifically baking bread. Reena is in her thirties but her parents are constantly interfering in her work, personal, and romantic life. They even go as far as arranging her marriage. The story starts out with Reena meeting her new neighbor, Nadim, who is not only hot but has an English accent. Yes please. She is intrigued...until she realizes he is the man her father has planned for her to marry. After finding out this information she decides she wants nothing to do with the neighbor because she will NOT be marrying anyone her parents set her up with. Well...we all know how that is going to work out…
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Reena ends up wanting to enter a food competition to earn a scholarship to an artisan bread program. It turns out that a requirement is to cook in pairs with your partner. Reena and Nadim end up faking an engagement to participate in the competition. Spending so much time with one another they develop a beautiful friendship that eventually turns into more. Their relationship is seriously so swoon worthy. Reena is kind of broody and cranky at times and Nadim is such a charming cinnamon roll. I loved them both so much and they complemented each other in the best ways.
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Do not read this without snacks!! Seriously you will need them.
Best book I've read so far this year.

This is a delightful romantic comedy featuring a Muslim woman who fakes an engagement to the boy next door in the hopes of winning a couples cooking contest.

I thought this book was so fun. I loved the South Asian representation. It was very accurate while not being at the forefront all the time, hence normalizing it.

Nadim and Reena had such great chemistry from the second they met. I loved watching their dislike-to-friends-to-lovers. I absolutely love normalizing POC heroes and allowing viewers to see them as desirable, sexy men. Not to get too into it but there is a big stigma around Asian men as not being handsome or desirable. That stigma has definitely changed recently and books like this are helping us drive that normalization. Nadim was sexy, cultured, fun, kind, etc. He was great. I loved the main character. Reena's passion for bread and cooking was so unique and so fun to follow along with. All of the cooking scenes definitely made me ravenous for my mom's cooking.

The secondary characters were very well done. The plot was great, I loved all the cooking competition scenes. I will definitely be buying a hardcopy of this book 😍

- 4.5 stars - (Rounded up to 5 stars)

Thank you to NetGalley, Farah Heron, and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book for my honest opinion in return.