The Arctic Curry Club first came to my attention on Twitter as I saw a super cute promo banner from the publisher with a polar bear cub on it. I had no idea what the book was about, but I knew I had to read it. As it just went up on Netgalley, I went and requested it – despite the fact that food (especially Indian food) got a central part in the story, and that it was set on the Arctic. You have to know two things about me: I hate winter and I don’t care about food. At all. So, what could go wrong? I decided to trust my gut and give the book a go trying to set all of my prejudices aside. It was not exactly what I expected, but my instincts didn’t let me down this time around.

The book starts with Maya and her boyfriend, Ryan arriving at the Artic as Ryan got a rare opportunity to take part in research focusing on polar bears. Maya is absolutely out of her element as they arrived in the season when the days are equally dark as nights and the temperature is freezing all day round. It’s a big change after living in the UK. While she prefers staying inside and cozy up, Ryan is the outdoorsy type, enjoying all the adventures the Arctic throws at him. In an attempt to try to fit in, Maya takes on a job cooking for tourists at a cabin run by the rugged Mikkel and Adam with Rita helping out as well. Soon, Maya starts reconnecting with her Indian heritage through food, finding an unexpected link to her late mother. Which eventually turns her life upside down.

On the surface, The Arctic Curry Club is a heartwarming tale about adapting to your circumstances, finding your family – both literally and a home away from home – and how food can connect people no matter who they are or where they are from. But it’s so much more than that. It also deals with topics of mental illness (depression, anxiety), addiction, toxic relationships, trauma, etc. But despite the heaviness of these topics, they don’t crush the overall mood of the book or make it a slow read. On the contrary, it’s pretty hard to put it down.


“There was an old radio station, which had been converted to a luxury hotel, somewhere out there. And a Soviet ghost town. In Svalbard there was a rule that you weren’t allowed to demolish anything. Abandoned trappers’ huts, explorers’ camps, defunct mines – they were all still here, slowly degrading in the wind and being covered over by snow and ice. An archipelago of ghosts.”

Maya – from whose POV we see the events unfold – is very likable and relatable. She is half British and half Indian, although she left most of her Indian self behind when they moved to the UK when she was a kid. Losing all her memories before that time plays into it pretty much. She used to be a chef, but she doesn’t start cooking Indian food until she is asked to, and until she finally takes a trip to India – which is a huge change after the Arctic. What I found relatable about her is her constant battle with anxiety. There were many occasions where I was thinking “wow, that’s totally me”, although I never had such attacks as she does. Still, having something in common made it easy to connect to her. Plus, I really admired how she adapted to everything life kept throwing at her.

The Arctic Curry Club has a host of great side characters – I especially loved Mikkel and Adam and how their relationship was portrayed throughout the book. I also liked Jobin, a person from Maya’s past who is just such a sweet guy. Too bad he didn’t get more spotlight. Or more depth to his character, really. There were so many things packed into this book that some things got less attention than they should have gotten. On the other hand, it felt like there was just way too much description about the different dishes and what Maya was cooking – which, I think only was an issue to me. I was more interested in the characters and their relationships and problems than I was in the food. And in that regard, The Arctic Curry Club was a bit of a letdown.

And while we are at criticizing, I found the ending a bit underwhelming if I’m being honest. The book ended a bit abruptly for me, even though we get a quick recap of where some of the characters’ life ended up. Which was nice, but I still felt like something was missing. These are pretty much minor complaints, as I think The Arctic Curry Club is an ambitious debut novel. It has a nice balance between lighter moments and heavy topics and it’s great to watch Maya finding her courage and the power to take her life into her own hands. The ease with which Redd created these characters and images – both in the Arctic and India – makes The Arctic Curry Club a super easy and fast read. A perfect choice for cold winter nights to cozy up with a cup of tea.

The Arctic Curry Club hit me “home” in so many ways!

This debut novel is so well written and researched, that I am really glad to have read it.

Synopsis -

Maya leaves behind her life in England, following her boyfriend to a small town of Svalbard in the Arctic. Soon, the harsh climate and darkness begin to take a toll on her, not helping with her anxiety. As she struggles to live in these conditions, taking up a small cooking job, she begins to learn about herself and realizes the true meaning of finding a “home”.

Review -

The most interesting thing about this book is the setting – both the town of Longyearbyen in the Arctic and Maya’s journey to her place of birth – to my own city of Bangalore, India. It was fascinating to know about life in the Arctic and the level of endurance required to survive there.

Though her character wasn’t very likeable, I could empathize with her and understand her mental state given the circumstances. Sometimes her constant negative self-talk, low self-worth and inferiority complex were overwhelming, but I was pleased to see how she was equipped to deal with it every time.

Oh! The food references deserve special mention here. The author’s love for Indian culinary traditions, even regional delicacies clearly shines through the book, via Maya’s cooking endeavours. The vivid descriptions of the spices, aromas and recipes were so evocative, that they left me craving those dishes.

I marveled at the odds, that a book set in the arctic, takes the protagonist on a trip to my hometown, talking about “Food Street” that is 3 minutes away from my home, detailing my own local cuisines like “Saaru” and “Bisibelebath”??!! I found myself laughing at how small our world is!

I enjoyed Maya’s journey, following her all way, as the darkness of the Arctic magically transforms her, leading her towards light. I loved that it was food, that helped Maya in her process of self-discovery linking her to childhood memories.

The Arctic Curry Club is an uplifting, heartwarming book about making the hostile of places your "home", staying resilient, being connected to your roots and culture, yet readily embracing the future and making peace with the past.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Book UK for providing me with the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

A great novel set in the most northern settlement of the Arctic, freezing cold weather, no daylight for 4 months of the year. Sounds like a nightmare but this is the life Maya is trying after moving with her boyfriend Ryan after he gets a job researching polar bears. Maya suffers from anxiety and panic attacks and this environment doesn't help, until she meets Mikkel who wants
The Arctic Curry Club by @danireddwriter
A great debut novel set in the most northern settlement of the Arctic, freezing cold weather, no daylight for 4 months of the year. Sounds like a nightmare but this is the life Maya is trying after moving with her boyfriend Ryan after he gets a job researching polar bears. Maya suffers from anxiety and panic attacks and this environment doesn't help, until she meets Mikkel who wants a cook up at his cabins. And so begins Maya's rediscovery of her life. Interspersed with painful memories of her life in India, she deals with her anxiety whilst making new friends. A story of finding strength in the least likely places. Very vivid descriptions of the area and also the Indian cuisine that Maya cooks. Made my mouth water on many an occasion. I look forward to reading more from Dani if this debut novel is anything to go by. And as someone who comes from Norfolk I loved the brief references to my home city Norwich. Many thanks to Netgalley and Avon books for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this after reading some early reviews but I’m so glad I gave it a go. It’s not a romance, not a romcom, but rather about a character discovering herself in such a wonderfully written way.

Alarm bells rung for me immediately when Maya agrees to move to the Arctic with her boyfriend Ryan when he gets a job monitoring polar bears! Maya suffers with extreme anxiety so any changes in her life are a challenge.

Maya’s mum died when she was 7 so she was brought up by her Dad single handedly when he decided to leave their family home in India and start a new life in the UK. Maya can’t remember anything about her early years in India but when she starts cooking Indian recipes from her mum's cookbook she gets flashbacks involving her mum. It soon becomes clear that she has been kept in the dark about things.

Parts of this were really heartwarming and to read about Maya overcoming certain hurdles was such a joy to read. She certainly had to try to adapt to this new life in the arctic and deal with many new things and way of life.

There is a lot of mention about cooking, especially curries! Some of the recipes Maya makes along the way sound delicious so don’t read this if you’re hungry! 😂

📢 This does contain mental health issues but these are really well written about. The author has clear knowledge about the subject.

Many thanks to netgalley, the publishers and the author for an arc.

A wonderful read for these darkish times. Living in the cold and being called back to the wonders of India make this novel cone alive. A fun and festive read!

Maya travels with her boyfriend to live in the Arctic during the winter when the sun doesn't rise. Her boyfriend throws himself into the life while Maya's anxiety keeps her from leaving the house. To help herself, she starts cooking her late mother's recipe and discovers forgotten memories and a love for cooking.

This book does a good job balancing a character dealing with her anxiety in a high-pressure new environment while finding out family secrets that change how she looks at herself. I guessed the secrets her father hid from her, but I was still annoyed for Maya when it was revealed. Maya rightfully takes some time dealing with the lies, and good thing she found more Indian from her mother to make. Watching her become comfortable in the kitchen was heartwarming.

I love the locations, and it almost made me want to visit the Arctic. Only almost because I hate being cold. There are so many descriptions of food that it should come with a warning: Book makes you want to curl up and eat comforting food.

Review based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Maya leaves London and follows her boyfriend, Ryan, to the Arctic town of Svalbard where he has a fellowship. It's a surprising move for Maya as we find out because she is anxious and dealing with some mental health concerns that (as we find out) stem from childhood grief and trauma. Not only is it dark almost 24/7 but it's also lonely for Maya. She discovers her mother's recipe book. As she cooks from these recipes, she begins to remember events from her childhood she had forgotten.

I was drawn to this book because of the title and cover. I expected it to be a romance (and there is some romance, here) but you find very quickly that it isn't light-hearted, breezy romance. Instead you get an in-depth, authentic portrayal of someone who despite her anxiety begins to thrive as she cooks for outdoor tour groups. She creates a found family out of the people she meets working as a chef for the tour group and comes into her own as she learns more about her past and its long held secrets.

Redd does a wonderful job of placing the story. We learn about the beauty and the brutality of the Arctic. We also learn of the heat and the busy culture of Bangalore. The characters are interesting, flawed, complex. You really understand and root for Maya to find herself and follow her passion.

Please don't miss out on a wonderful story because you think this is romance as it is being marketed. It is contemporary fiction, with a focus on mental health, grief and overcoming trauma. It is rich with wonderful characters and found family. We also get foxes and polar bears. If you want to read something with a winter landscape and cheer on characters; if you want to immerse yourself in warm kitchens, and the smells and sounds of Indian cooking, please check out this debut novel..

A much more serious novel than the cover would lead you to believe- and a very good one. Maya has followed her boyfriend Ryan to the Arctic, where he's studying polar bears. She's got anxiety issues which are exacerbated by the move (the darkness, the cold and so on) but then she finds a friend in and later a job with Mikkel, who relishes her cooking. Then her father, who moved her to England from Bangalore after her mother died when she was 8, announces that he's marrying Uma, a long time friend of the family. Indian recipes provided by Uma provoke unusual memories and when Maya travels to their wedding, she finally learns a long held secret that is at the root of many of her issues, She also reconnects with Jobin, now a mental health professional. Readers of this genre will not be surprised that Ryan turns out to be a rat but will be pleased to see that Maya decides to stay and work with Mikkel and Adam- creating the Curry Club and a new stronger self. I liked Maya, I liked her friend Rita, and Mikkel and Adam are a treat. No spoilers but know that nothing everything goes smoothly with the Club and that there's both a funny and a sad scene involving the kitchen. This is about grief, recovery, mental health. and so much more. I went into it expecting something quite different and found myself engrossed. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm actually glad this didn't include recipes which would have made it feel somehow less but I'm off to order Indian food. Highly recommend.

“I wasn’t exactly sure what would go next, but it was important to mark a start.” The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd

3.5 stars. This was interesting. And when there’s a book set in cold cold places in the world, that’s a perfect escape from the humid weather here, I do my best to get them.

So we have Maya who followed her boyfriend to the Arctic circle and she’s not adjusting well due to her anxiety. Things happen that force her to re-examine her past, her present and her future.

The story starts rather slow but I didn’t mind it so much as the setting is unique and so is Maya and it did pick up when she stood on her own. Much more interesting then.

Love how she cooks Indian cuisine there in the Arctic. Can imagine how hearty a curry would be there. Makes me want to join her supper club.

Thank you Avon Books UK and NetGalley for this arc! I liked it.

Maya leaves her entire world behind to accompany her boyfriend to the Arctic. But it's a harsh environment, especially in the winter, and Maya finds herself struggling. After a trip to Bangalore for her father's wedding and a less than warm welcome back to the Arctic, Maya finds refuge in her mother's old recipe book, and decides to prove to everyone that she can thrive, even in this hostile environment.

So this was a bit of a heavier read than I was anticipating, but I think that is actually a good thing. Don't be fooled by the cover: I know it screams "cute wintery romance" but that's really not what this is. I appreciated that there was more to this story than a simple, light-hearted romance. There is a lot of exploration of mental health and the way anxiety and depression can be affected by your environment. Maya also doesn't have any childhood memories, something which has been chalked up to trauma due to immigrating as a child. But returning to Bangalore unexpectedly forces her to confront the gaps in her mind. I liked the journey she went on, and how we as readers discovered her story alongside her.

I found some of Maya's reasoning highly suspect (like following your boyfriend to the coldest place on Earth, or inviting a friend to the Arctic "for the weekend"--it's a 37-40 HOURS FLIGHT), but ignoring that, she's a pretty relatable and likeable character. The thing that bothered me the most is probably all the lists; Maya calls it her way of coping with anxiety, but I was really not interested in lists of all the times this or that happened to her and ended up skipping a couple of the longer ones because I couldn't be bothered.

On the upside, this book has plenty of mouth-watering descriptions of Indian cuisine, although I think I'll stick to chicken as a main protein rather than reindeer.

A book looking at the impact of anxiety and lies and betrayal.. Set in the beautiful arctic Maya sets about creating her late mother's recipes however the recipes stir up a lot of emotion and memories from the past.

Will Maya's time in the Arctic help with her past?


I couldn't put this down and loved the contrast between India and the Arctic.


A fantastic debut novel and look forward to reading more in the future.

This wasn't the light, fluffy rom com I was expecting, but sometimes it's good to be surprised. I enjoyed following Maya on her multiple journeys. When she followed her boyfriend to the arctic so he could pursue a research opportunity, it was (not surprisingly) more challenging than she expected.

I debated abandoning this in the early chapters because I feared Maya was going to be a weak, one-dimensional character, but she wasn't as predictable as I had feared. She struggles with past trauma and mental illness, learns about her roots, travels to India, tries new things, stumbles a few times, and makes friends with some interesting characters along the way.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for an Advanced Readers Copy. Available to the general public 12/9/21.

I would like to thank Dani Redd and Netgalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange of an honest review. The Arctic Curry Club follows Maya as she moves to the Arctic with her boyfriend who studies polar bears. However, upon arriving to the arctic she realizes that the cold isn’t her only problem. After accepting a job as a chef for a tourist company she starts to attempt to reconnect to her roots through traditional Indian cuisine. However, with every dish a new memory from her forgotten past resurfaces. Will Maya survive the Arctic and come to peace with her past and create a new future? The Arctic Curry club was a joy to read and the perfect read for around the holidays. However as much as it is a sweet read it also tackles mental illness. I believe that The Arctic Curry Club does a great job of portraying mental illness. It shows how people can overcome trauma and come together and that mental illness doesn’t always have to hold people back from doing the things they love. It paints the story of a young women taking charge of her life, being independent and changing the course of her life. It’s a story of hope and struggle and shows the reality and impacts of mental illness but also how it’s possible for people to take charge of their lives again. The Arctic Curry Club fills you with emotion and gives a warm feeling. Its impossible to put down and a book you don’t want to end. A story that was ended correctly but still leaves the reader craving for the warm emotion, feeling and enjoyment of reading. Dani Redd truly has talent in writing. I am not a chef or even a fan of spicey food yet as I was reading, I understood everything like I had gone to culinary school like Maya. The descriptions and recipes filled with spice created a warm and cozy feeling. Just how the Indian food Maya cooks fills your mouth with dozens of great flavours all in the right amount so does the writing of Dani Redd and The Arctic Curry Club. It was a true pleasure to read and one that certainly went by too fast. I will be keeping a look out for Dani Redd and her books.

Thank you to the author, Avon Books UK and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The cover and the blurb led me to expect a light-hearted chicklit read, skimming by issues of belonging and identity that are a siren song to me. Instead, I got a novel with depth, exploring the said issues but also family trauma, mental illness - which was well-written - and an empowering arc of a woman finding her feet and losing her fear of taking on life. The author obviously did her research on life in the Arctic, which added an interesting layer to the mix and really took it to the next level in terms of the heroine being cast adrift in foreign territory. Character development was good, although there were some "stereotype" moments. All in all, a great read and hard to believe this is a debut - I look forward to reading more from this author.

This was an ok read, didn’t hit the spot as I thought it would. Maybe my Christmas reads are exhausted for this year. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

0Maya Reed-Kaur moves to Longyearbyen with her boyfriend Ryan, who is starting a research job in the Arctic. Maya is quite an anxious person, and quickly discovers this decision wasn't the best choice for her, as she struggles with the cold and long, dark days. When she visits India for a family event, she discovers memories and parts of her she's not accessed before - leading her to make some brave life choices in her new home.

Before picking this up, I had an inkling I'd enjoy it, being set in an area I know well, but I also fully thought this was going to be a chick-lit type festive read. And it surprised me! It's so much more, going into a lot of depth with mental health, as well as the glorious descriptions of the meals Maya made and the travel elements of the story. It was very clear that the author was writing from experience (or has superb research skills) and that was the star of the show for me. I really enjoyed the writing and was engaged with it from the start; I felt it offered a fresh perspective. It was easy to guess what was going to happen with each of the plot points, but that really didn't make it less enjoyable. A nice escapist read with the added bonus of an accurate description of what it's like to live with anxiety - educational!
Also special mention for the cover, beautiful colours and super cute, and eye catching.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

Oh this was such a great book! Maya suffers from panic attacks and anxiety, yet still follows her boyfriend Ryan to the Arctic. We get to see how Maya uncovers secrets from her past, including details surrounding her youth living in India and the death of her mother. This book was pure joy to read - and Maya was definitely a character to fall in love with as she grows and develops into the person she truly is.

A beautiful, uplifting book with. Gorgeous setting. Maya was a relatable and likeable main character. Her story took me on a wonderful journey. Would recommend (4 ⭐️).

Maya suffers from chronic anxiety. It is so bad that there are lots of things that she does not do just in case it all goes wrong. She has no memory of her previous life in India before her mother died, only of when she and her father came to England.
When her boyfriend of two years, Ryan, gets, the opportunity to work in the Artic, she goes with him, knowing that he supports her in her needs.
However, the winter darkness and extreme toll take their toll on her and some days she doesn't leave the flat.
When her father tells her he is going to live in India, and is going to marry a friend of her mother, she is flabbergasted.
She goes to India alone, as Ryan cannot get time off of work, and spends time with her Dad and Ume, her Step Mum to be.
She has been introduced to recipes from her mother's cookbook and they start to invoke forgotten memories when she eats them. However when she speaks to her Dad about these memories he appears reluctant to discuss them. She overhears a conversation between and Uma and realises that there is more to it.
Over the course of her trip to India, her calls to Ryan seem increasing abrupt and when she returns home she discovers why.. She has decisions to make in all aspects of her life. Does she shrink away again or does she take the Polar Bear by the jaws and take charge of her life?
This is a very nice book and I really enjoyed reading it. Some bits you can predict, but others are a nice surprise.

After a couple of false starts I've finally read this and it was a delight. The setting of the Arctic made me want to snuggle deeper into my bed as I was reading, and the descriptions of the food made me drool! The characters were all relatable and watching Maya uncover family secrets and processing them was emotional. Thoroughly enjoyed it.