Serena Singh Flips the Script is a tale about the joy, sorrow, laughter and tears that relationships bring to our lives. It’s a sweet, funny, occasionally insightful story, that will remind you what a blessing good friends are.

Serena Singh has finally reached one of her big career goals. It hasn’t been easy. The advertising industry, especially in Washington D.C., is still very much a sexist boys’ club and Serena has put up with bosses taking credit for her work, co-workers speaking to (and of) her in truly disparaging ways and she’s been passed over for a hard-earned promotion more than once because she’s a woman. That’s finally over now though, and she is creative director at the popular Deborah Kim agency.

Serena quickly comes to realize however, that landing your dream job doesn’t mean you’ll instantly start living your best life. Her subordinates, especially a woman she nicknames Ginger Spice, treat her with cool hostility and her recently married sister is ignoring her in favor of bonding with her in-laws. Worst of all, Serena disconcertingly realizes that she is down to zero friends. Her new work colleagues have no desire to socialize with her, her former associates want nothing to do with her now that she’s left their company, and her old high school and college friends are all married with children and too busy to hang out. She has no problem finding guys to casually hook up with – her latest squeeze is the lovely Beckett who, like her, doesn’t seem to want anything serious – but making friends is a challenge for her.

Like any good Type- A personality Serena decides to tackle the issue head on. She joins book clubs, cooking classes and friend apps in order to meet new people. The results, of course, are disastrous. The first new ‘friend’ she meets for coffee turns out to be a teenager looking for an internship. Serena winds up at a sex club instead of a dinner club. Even the book club is calamitous and she finds herself being asked to leave. Expanding her social circle would be a complete disaster except for two fortuitous events. A fellow executive from another department named Ainsley invites Serena out for tea and the two instantly bond. And then, Serena runs into her ex Jesse and they agree it’s time to actually start living up to their agreement to remain friends. With two new buds, a fantastic job and a great boyfriend Serena should be perfectly happy. So why does she feel like everything is coming unraveled?

Easily the best part of the book is the author’s tender, discerning look at how tough adult friending can be for a lot of folks, and Serena’s discovery that life changes have meant losing connections to people whom she relied on socially and emotionally is very relatable. Her struggle to find the time between work, family, and boyfriend to make needed girlfriends is also completely understandable. I loved going on her awkward, frequently embarrassing, sometimes silly journey to making new ‘peeps’. I also appreciated how the author made Ainsley, her new bestie, someone very different from Serena. It would have been easy to have Serena fit perfectly with a carbon copy of herself but Ainsley makes Serena rethink her life and priorities while still allowing her to appreciate where she is and what she’s accomplished. We should all be so lucky in our friendships.

The author also takes a good look at how family relationships change as we age. Serena has remained in D.C. in large part to stay close to her parents and sister, but the bonds she has with them are far from ideal. She feels like her parents judge her for not being a good Indian girl focused on marriage and tradition, as well as feeling that her little sister takes advantage of her – a lot. As the story progresses we slowly learn why each character has behaved the way they have, some tears are shed, some truths are told and eventually, honest, new connections are built that allow their family to go from just being close in proximity to being close emotionally as well.

Ms. Lalli does a lovely job of making her characters very three dimensional and true to life. Ainsley especially is beautifully drawn – warm, brash, funny, outspoken, kind, down to earth, and smart, she’s exactly what Serena needs in a friend. Adding to the charm is Ainsley’s lovely husband Nikesh, who welcomes Serena into their little family circle and thus shows her how equitable a marriage between true partners can be. Serena feels her father treated the women of his household with disrespect, and watching Ainsley and Nikesh interact helps her internalize that her parents’ relationship doesn’t have to be a blueprint for her own.

Women’s fiction is meant to tap into the hopes, fears, and dreams of women today. It’s meant to be fun and realistic while addressing issues relating to the modern female experience. Serena Singh Flips the Script does all of that perfectly; It’s clear that the author understands her genre and audience and does an excellent job of meeting brand expectations.

I did have a few quibbles though. Women’s fiction doesn’t guarantee HEAs but this story has one at the very end. To avoid spoilers I won’t name the hero, but the problem with the romance is that the author never really develops it; the love interest is peripheral to the tale until almost the last few chapters of the book, and the love story needed a lot more development to justify its inclusion in the book as a result.

The only other flaw in the work is that Serena starts the story as a bit of a prickly, selfish mess, and while she gains some emotional awareness – realizing that heartfelt forgiveness is a needed component of any relationship, for example – she definitely still needs growth in this department when we leave her. Because the issue isn’t just her being able to forgive people for past mistakes and learning to accept others into her life, warts and all; the big problem is her learning to see that insisting on living life on her own terms has meant she has little regard for what other people want. Several key scenes with her mother and Becket – as well as how she treats her partner in a cooking class – really highlight this problem. Her lack of personal insight would have been fine and understandable in the tale of a younger woman but Serena is almost forty years old and should have learned this lesson about a decade or so earlier.

Serena’s lack of self-awareness was a bit irritating but this novel is a lovely look at grown up friendships and connections. I would recommend Serena Singh Flips the Script to anyone looking for a quick, fun read about modern adulting.

This was my last read of my quarantine, and it happened to be the best book I’ve read in 2021 so far. I loved this!

Serena Singh is 36, single + childless by choice, and very, very good at her job. After her sister gets married and pregnant, Serena realizes she has no friends - because most of them are married with babies. Encouraged by her (boy)friend Beckett, she starts working toward making new friends - eventually, she befriends Ainsley (who she originally wrote off because she was married with a kid), works on her relationship with her parents, and reconnects with an ex-boyfriend.

I felt like I could relate to Serena in a lot of ways, and I felt like her struggles to meet friends and maintain relationships in her 30’s was SO relatable. I loved her relationship with Ainsley. I loved how hard she works, and I believed her when she said she didn’t want children. I wouldn’t say she was perfect by any means - she was super closed off and she led Beckett on - but she grew. This was one of those romance books where the love story is between the heroine and herself, and I truly loved it.

Thank you for the gifted book @berkleypub and @Netgalley!

I absolutely loved this book! Serena Singh is a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants. She also knows what she doesn’t want: a big wedding or children. Over the past few years, she’s kept romance on the backburner while focusing intently on her career. Serena also suddenly finds herself without many close friends and decides to do something to change that. It was entertaining to walk through her friend “dates”. They literally had me in stitches.

My favourite part of the book was Serena’s relationship with her coworker, Ainsley. I enjoyed that this book didn’t just focus on romance love but family and friendships as well. It is a heartwarming read!

The story also flips between Serena and her mother, Sandeep’s, perspective which I found gave more depth and understanding to the story. It also delves into Serena’s strained relationship with her father that she has to confront in order to move on.

If you’re looking for a book that explores relationships and love between family and friends, this is for you!

Serena Singh Flips the Script by Sonya Lalli 💛

Happy Pub Day to Serena Singh Flips the Script! Thank you @berkleyromance for my eARC via @netgalley. ✨

The title of this book is a pretty accurate statement for the direction that this story takes with the traditional romance/women’s lit genre; Serena Singh Flips the Script does exactly that. Serena is a relatable thirty-something navigating her way through life, her career as an advertising exec in DC, romance, adult friendships, and her family relationships. While the romance subplot is definitely alive and well, the main focus of this story is centered more on Serena’s journey of self-discovery and being comfortable in her life choices as an adult. Sometimes making friends as an adult can be even more difficult than finding love! As a fellow struggling millennial (albeit a bit younger), I really connected with her story and found this to be a quick and enjoyable read. I also have a bit of a secret soft spot for novels set in DC, as I love being able to recognize locations hehe. I highly recommend this if you’re looking for a different type of contemporary fiction that’s not a traditional romance.

Oh my goodness - this book is so much more than I ever expected. While there were some elements of romance (second chance) this was definitely not a romance, but a story of self-discovery and friendship. I adored the insight into Sandeep (Serena’s mom) and her desire to be both a good mother and wife while balancing two different cultures. This book is hard and beautiful at the same time.

Cw: domestic abuse, alcoholism, microaggressions, divorce

Serena Singh is a career driven woman in her thirties, who finds tries her best to form a bonding with fellow adults. She feels that people around her, her friends, her sister are moving away from her as they start their own family. This makes Serena vulnerable and a bit self-centered. But instead of whining, she take steps to make friends by going to book clubs and classes. Since the results were not upto her expectations, Serena tries to make friends with her old acquaintance. Did she succeed? Thats the tender story!

When I first picked up this book, I thought this was going to be a full-on romance novel.. don’t mistake me, this story has romance, but it also deals with an important part of “making friends as adults”. I’m particularly awkward in this case, since its vert hard for me to make friends.. For this reason, I vibed very much with Serena. I loved each and every character in this book. They are funny, relatable and next-doorish ☺️

I definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a lighthearted story with fun and realistic characters. The story is more #womensfiction than #romance but its truly enjoyable for everyone especially for an adult #introvert like me 😉

Thank you Netgalley & Berkley Pub for the arc in exchange for an honest opinion! More reviews @monikasbookblog in instagram

Actual rating: 2.75

This is hard to review because gosh, I'm so sad. It started out great. Reading the first two chapters even made me feel like I was ready to fall in love with this story and the characters. It was funny and I liked that it's about Serena who is in her late 30's and struggling with being an immigrant and also reconnecting with her old friends while trying to make new ones. She's a woman who knows what she wants and that is to never get married and have kids. She's passionate about her job, always wanting to be on top of her game. I loved that this was about women empowerment, not giving a damn about societal expectations or what people have to say, and being true to one's self. Having said that, I couldn't deny that the second half of the book dragged too much. I found Serena's character a bit selfish and petty and immature for her age. The romance with a former flame also just didn't work for me. I felt no chemistry whatsoever and didn't care for their ending. There was so much telling without showing. I wanted to love this so bad! Unfortunately, it fell flat and I almost DNF'd.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for providing me with an earc in exchange for an honest review! This book releases today!

Serena Singh Flips the Script is a tale about the joy, sorrow, laughter and tears that relationships bring to our lives. It’s a sweet, funny, occasionally insightful story, that will remind you what a blessing good friends are.

Serena Singh has finally reached one of her big career goals. It hasn’t been easy. The advertising industry, especially in Washington D.C.,  is still very much a sexist boys’ club and Serena has put up with bosses taking credit for her work, co-workers  speaking to (and of) her in  truly disparaging ways and she’s  been passed over for a hard-earned promotion more than once because she’s a woman. That’s finally over now though, and she is creative director at  the popular Deborah Kim agency.

Serena quickly comes to realize however, that landing your dream job doesn’t mean you’ll instantly start living your best life. Her subordinates, especially a woman she nicknames Ginger Spice, treat her with cool hostility and her recently married sister is ignoring her in favor of bonding with her in-laws. Worst of all, Serena disconcertingly realizes that she is down to zero friends. Her new work colleagues have no desire to socialize with her, her former associates want nothing to do with her now that she’s left their company, and her old high school and college friends are all married with children and too busy to hang out. She has no problem finding guys to casually hook up with - her latest squeeze is the lovely Beckett who, like her, doesn’t seem to want anything serious - but making friends is a challenge for her.

Like any good Type- A personality Serena decides to tackle the issue head on. She joins book clubs, cooking classes and friend apps in order to meet new people. The results, of course, are disastrous. The first new ‘friend’ she meets for coffee turns out to be a teenager looking for an internship. Serena winds up at a sex club instead of a dinner club. Even the book club is calamitous and she finds herself being asked to leave. Expanding her social circle would be a complete disaster except for two fortuitous events. A fellow executive from another department named Ainsley invites Serena out for tea and the two instantly bond. And then, Serena runs into her ex Jesse and they agree it's time to actually start living up to their agreement to remain friends. With two new buds, a fantastic job and a great boyfriend Serena should be perfectly happy. So why does she feel like everything is coming unraveled?

Easily the best part of the book is the author’s tender, discerning look at how tough adult friending can be for a lot of folks, and Serena’s discovery that life changes have meant losing connections to people whom she relied on socially and emotionally is very relatable. Her struggle to find the time between work, family, and boyfriend to make needed girlfriends is also completely understandable. I loved going on her awkward, frequently embarrassing, sometimes silly journey to making new ‘peeps’. I also appreciated how the author made Ainsley, her new bestie, someone very different from Serena. It would have been easy to have Serena fit perfectly with a carbon copy of herself but Ainsley makes Serena rethink her life and priorities while still allowing her to appreciate where she is and what she’s accomplished. We should all be so lucky in our friendships.

The author also takes a good look at how family relationships change as we age. Serena has remained in D.C. in large part to stay close to her parents and sister, but the bonds she has with them are far from ideal. She feels like her parents judge her for not being a good Indian girl focused on marriage and tradition, as well as feeling that her little sister takes advantage of her - a lot. As the story progresses we slowly learn why each character has behaved the way they have, some tears are shed, some truths are told and eventually, honest, new connections are built that allow their family to go from just being close in proximity to being close emotionally as well.

Ms. Lalli does a lovely job of making her characters very three dimensional and true to life. Ainsley especially is beautifully drawn - warm, brash, funny, outspoken, kind, down to earth, and smart, she’s exactly what Serena needs in a friend. Adding to the charm is Ainsley’s lovely husband Nikesh, who welcomes Serena into their little family circle and thus shows her how equitable a marriage between true partners can be.  Serena feels her father treated the women of his household with disrespect, and watching Ainsley and Nikesh interact helps her internalize that her parents' relationship doesn’t have to be a blueprint for her own.

Women's fiction is meant to tap into the hopes, fears, and dreams of women today. It’s meant to be fun and realistic while addressing issues relating to the modern female experience. Serena Singh Flips the Script does all of that perfectly; It’s clear that the author understands her genre and audience and does an excellent job of meeting brand expectations.

I did have a few quibbles though. Women’s fiction doesn’t guarantee HEAs but this story has one at the very end. To avoid spoilers I won’t name the hero, but the problem with the romance is that the author never really develops it; the love interest is peripheral to the tale until almost the last few chapters of the book, and the love story needed a lot more development to justify its inclusion in the book as a result.

The only other flaw in the work is that Serena starts the story as a bit of a prickly, selfish mess,  and while she gains some emotional awareness - realizing that heartfelt forgiveness is a needed component of any relationship, for example - she definitely still needs growth in this department when we leave her. Because the issue isn’t just her being able to forgive people for past mistakes and learning to accept others into her life, warts and all; the big problem is her learning to see that insisting on living life on her own terms has meant she has little regard for what other people want. Several key scenes with her mother and Becket - as well as how she treats her partner in a cooking class - really highlight this problem.  Her lack of personal insight would have been fine and understandable in the tale of a younger woman but Serena is almost forty years old and should have learned this lesson about a decade or so earlier.

Serena’s lack of self-awareness was a bit irritating but this novel is a lovely look at grown up  friendships and connections. I would recommend Serena Singh Flips the Script to anyone looking for a quick, fun read about modern adulting.

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I unfortunately did not finish this book around the 25% mark, so my review is based on what I read up to that. I sadly found Serena’s character hard to like. I found myself irritated at her “woe is me” attitude about everyone in her life moving on. I feel if she was truly happy living a single life, she would own that, and not complain about everyone in her life moving on. She wasn’t young and recently made this decision. She was in her mid thirties, and it felt very childish. I enjoyed the small bit I read about Ainsley’s character and the sex club scene was funny. Just unfortunately fell flat for me.

I've read several books recently where the main character comes from Indian immigrant parents. Usually the focus of these books is on the pressure to get married. What I loved about Serena Singh Flips The Script, by Sonya Lallie, is that the focus of the book is on how the main character, Serena tries to form friendships with other adults. Yes, there's romance in this book, but the main difficulty for Serena is in making friends, something that many adults struggle with after they are out of school. This was a fun, refreshing look at the changing ways we connect with others as we enter the workforce. I adored this book.

What I Liked:

Characters:

Serena is a thirty-something who is driven to succeed in advertising. She has no interest in marriage or having children. While her parents can't understand this, they give her space, not mentioning how worried they are for her future. When her sister gets married, Serena frets that she is losing her best friend. Her experience with her college friends is that once they get married and have children, they never make time for Serena.

At first, I found Serena to be very self-centered. Whenever someone moved on with their life, Serena took it as a personal affront. While she didn't go so far as to judge her friends for getting married, she herself shifted away from them. But what I loved about Serena was that she realized that she was the one who had to make an effort to find friendships. Her search for friends is both funny and touching. I could easily identify with Serena as she navigates some of the new ways of finding friendships, from book clubs, to group activities. She awkwardly misses cues and misreads people most of the time. But, eventually, she does learn how to be a good friend.

Sandeep is Serena's mother. Serena has a very strained relationship with Sandeep due to incidents that occured when Serena was a child. It is very hard for Serena to understand and accept the choices Sandeep made in her marriage to Serena's father. I really liked how this relationship was explored. It can be difficult for adult children to see their parents as people. Serena learns to respect Sandeep's choices.

Friendships:

I can really identify with Serena's struggle to make friends. How can we, as adults, form the kind of deep friendships that we had with our school friends. Most of those relationships are based on the shared experiences of growing up. But can we form deep friendships with people we meet at work? When friends change jobs, do the friendships putter out? That's regularly happened to me.

Serena decides that since work friendships are too dependent on proximity, a friendship based on mutual interests might be the way to go. So she joins activities such as book clubs, and cooking classes to see if she can bond with anyone there. But she repeatedly fails to connect with anyone. What she finds is that any friendship, no matter how it starts, takes effort. She needs to be willing to spend time getting to know someone, getting to know their family, their lives, before bonds can be created. And older friendships can be re-established with effort. This book made me want to re-connect with old friends and figure out ways to connect with new ones.

Trigger Warning for domestic violence

I really liked this book! I loved how the focus wasn't on marriage and having children, but actually cultivating "grown-up" friendships. As an adult there's a place for both and you can choose whatever you want: get married or don't; pursue romantic relationships or don't; and have children or don't! It's all okay!

This story was written really well and I liked how layers were peeled back to reveal information that the reader didn't know. Serena really was a bada@@ all along. I love her life!

Serena Singh is an independent, smart, and "advertising ass-kicker" who is proving to her family, aunties, and anyone else that she doesn't need/want the conventional marriage, kids, and white picket fence in order to be happy. The story opens with her younger sister, Natasha, getting married, which doesn't ease the pressure Serena feels from her parents to get married and have kids. Serena is perfectly happy thriving in her career and dating, but she does want to find more friends. Luckily, she meets Ainsley, a co-worker from her new job, who seems to be able to juggle full-time work and domestic life. However, in every relationship--romantic or friendship--Serena finds herself still holding back and not wanting to open up to vulnerability.
This was a very cute story of Serena learning to be open and prioritize her relationships. She gets into hilariously embarrassing situations in her quest to find friendship. There were points where her relationship with her parents, especially her father, could have been more developed so that the revelation with her rocky relationship with her father didn't seem so out-of-left-field. The pace was a bit slow mid-way through, which made the end feel very rushed and summarized. However, I enjoyed reading a story about a self-reliant, career-driven Indian woman learning how to open up with the people around her without having to settle for what people expected from her. Very fun read!

This Galentine’s Day, I wanted to post about a love letter to female friendships: Serena Singh Flips the Script. This lovely book follows Serena Singh, advertising executive, as she navigates her relationships as an adult who doesn’t necessarily want the same thing as her peers. Serena knows she doesn’t want kids or a big wedding and keeps romance on the backburner, but after years of laser focus on her career she’s found that she’s let her hobbies and friendships slide too.

There is so much to love about this heartwarming read. First, the friendships. Friendships fizzle out and friend breakups are too real, but no one ever talks about it. I was touched to see these issues explored through Serena’s perspective. On the flip side, so many modern books focus on romantic love. Author Sonya Lalli flips the script (ha) by focusing on platonic and familial love for Serena. We also get a few chapters from Serena’s mother Sandeep’s perspective, which added a rich context to the story. This delightful book is an excellent read if you’re looking for a book that explores different dimensions of relationships and love. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Serena Singh Flips the Script is available on February 16th. Thank you to @berkleypub for sharing an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. You can purchase your own copy of Serena Singh Flips the Script on Bookshop.org through the link in my bio!

⚠ CW: abuse, alcoholism

I would give this 3.5 stars.

I had mixed feelings about Serena as a person. Honestly, the way she handles certain topics of her friends and family evolving in life and their relationships. It hit home a bit and I related to her sister Natasha in her experiences. I married younger and had my kids younger too.

I love the sisters' bond between Serena and Natasha. I agree with Serena and the author that making friends as an adult can be so hard sometimes especially when you get older and life becomes all consuming. I related to Serena in this aspect. Having moved away from home and settled down it was hard to make new friends.

I liked the Indian culture that is prominent throughout the book and the different storylines. I did struggle with Serena’s actions and personality and it left me not enjoying reading her as the lead character sometimes.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC.

I enjoyed this book and it’s premise. I liked seeing Serena having to figure out how to make friends as an adult; and having to come to terms with the way her high school/college friendships evolved over time. I also liked seeing Serena come to understand that she can be herself, have her career, and have a romantic partner. Just overall I felt connected to Serena in many ways.

Some things wrapped up a little too nicely in the end for me, but overall this was an enjoyable read. Definitely recommend to someone who is looking for a women’s fiction about finding friendship and finding yourself.

I was looking forward to reading this book, since I heard it was about a heroine who didn't want children or to get married, which isn't something we see often in "Romance," though this book was really more women's fiction.

Serena Singh is a mid-thirties professional in advertising living and working in Washington, DC. That's all I've got. There's no other plot to this book. Serena tries to make friends, tries to do great at her amazing job, and tries to figure out her romantic life. There is no plot to this book, which made it incredibly boring. I probably would have DNF'd it, had I not been provided a review copy.

There's things I liked, sure--I could really relate to Serena, in that I am also a professional woman in DC trying to make friends who likely does not want children. I liked that Serena was a bad@$$ in the top of her field, and a woman of color to boot. I liked seeing her friendship develop with Ainsley. But if you're NOT like me and have some similarities to Serena, I can see this book being incredibly annoying for a reader. Serena could be an incredibly frustrating character at times, as she was incredibly stubborn and closed off to the point of extremes. Her aggravating tendencies combined with the lack of plot really made this book a no-go for me.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review!

3 stars - 4/10

I stepped out of my usual genre for this one but the synopsis of this really appealed to me.

Serena Singh has a successful job at a top advertising firm in D.C. and she is so ready to prove to her family and everyone else that she does not need a husband to live a happy life. However, Serena has found her social circle growing smaller and once her you her sister gets married she knows that she can't depend on her to be her only friend. As she tries to reconnect with old friends and make new ones, Serena has to discover for herself that vulnerability is not always a weakness.

I felt that Serena's journey was a refreshing one. So often our society equates happiness to a spouse and children. However, that is far from the truth, you do not have to have those things in order to be happy. Serena knew what she wanted out of her life and did not let any outside sources sway that.
I also really enjoyed the friendship aspect. It represented the loss of a friendship in such a relateable way. It really shows how important women's friendships are and why they are so important to our lives.


Overall, I enjoyed this novel!
Thank you NetHalley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this, as it's not my usual genre, but the premise really appealed to me, and was one I really identified with.

I really loved the journey that Serena went through, I loved the self-exploration and honest look she took at herself and her relationships with her family, friends, and romantic partners. I loved the maturity and grace with which she looked at what she wanted in her life, and what changes she wanted to make.

It was extremely refreshing to see a story about a woman who knows what she wants and doesn’t compromise it despite the pressures of the people in her life (directly or indirectly). She doesn’t let a relationship change her mind because she knows her own mind outside of another person, be it a friend or a romantic partner. I loved the representation of how difficult it is when you lose a friend, the grief women feel when friendships end (and how it's almost worse in a lot of ways than losing a romantic partner). It was so truly indicative of how women's relationships are so pivotal and so ingrained in their lives.

Overall I just really loved this story and found it extremely refreshing.

2.75 stars rounded up; it took me about a third of the way through to start enjoying this book (and enjoying is a very relative term). I really wanted to root for Serena but I found her annoying and a little selfish. I appreciated the character growth throughout the story but it didn't really make me like her.

the thing that really threw me off was the pacing. I had truly no idea how much time was passing if it wasn't explicitly stated and some of the events, especially towards the end, are just glossed over. If some of those plot points were better developed, I would've given this a higher rating. the abuse plotline coming out of left field, the fact that her relationship with Jesse was just briefly mentioned without any discussion about the fact that she doesn't want kids but he has kids, and the fight with Ainsley being resolved for about thirty seconds before the book ended just left me unsatisfied.

the redeeming quality of this story, and the main reason I finished it, is Serena's friendship with Ainsley and her family. Ainsley was a fun character and their scenes together were actually entertaining. I liked that their friendship provided Serena the opportunity to grow without compromising what she wanted out of life.

overall, I was excited for a story about a brown woman in DC who was willing to fight for career growth regardless of societal expectations but this just fell flat.

In so many vulnerable ways, Serena Singh Flips the Script was so utterly relatable. Amidst a culture that seems to push marriage and children, Serena doesn't want any of that. She feels that as soon as her friends get married and have children, they lose time for their friendships. While they'd all be there for her in an emergency, she's talking about all the moments in between. So many things that Serena was saying, made so much sense. We live in a culture that, in some ways, seems to devalue female friendships.

But even if you don't agree with Serena, I think we can all empathize with how awful it feels to be left behind. To value a relationship and have a person seemingly forget us and the memories we shared. Throughout the book, Serena has to figure out not only how to find new friends, but how to be a good friend. As someone who isn't sure how to find friends as an adult, I empathize with her quest so much! Serena Singh Flips the Script is also a story about the pressures of being a professional woman of color.