Farah Heron does it again with the wonderful characters, culture, and food references. If you love a sweet love story that includes friendship and finding oneself, this one is for you. The chemistry between the character is really what kept me reading.

I typically enjoy Emma retellings but just wasn’t connecting with these characters. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

I really love Emma, and this one was a looose retelling of that. I enjoyed this slow burn, friends to lovers (one of my fav tropes). The two MCs are great characters. Kamila can be pretty extra, so I definitely don't relate to her, but I love how Rohan is with her. The miscommunication pieces were frustrating but overall the characters and their relationships felt real and solid.
I loved Rohan and loved the family friends angle that this started with-- growing up with all these not-really-cousins-but-you-grew-up-together relationships around you, I was interested to see how the relationship played out without being creepy (lol). I love that Rohan always had Kamila's back and showed up for her (dumb) themed Bollywood parties-- the parties and the over-the-top way that they were described felt a little like it was playing into stereotypes to me. Like it was cute, but also fetishizing Kamila's love for these films, if that makes sense?
Love that this was set in Toronto. Farah Heron is a great storyteller and I have enjoyed everything i've read by her so far!

This was a fun, feel-good if ultimately a little forgettable romcom. I loved the main characters and that it was an Emma retelling, but ultimately just wasn’t as invested as I wanted to be.

Kamila is too busy living a perfect life to think about falling in love with her family friend Rohan. However, a little "harmless flirting" might just turn her perfectly ordered life upside down.

It's a modern day retelling of Emma, and I really enjoyed it! I mean, there's a puppy prom!

This could have been my mood but I found it lackluster. I wanted to love it as I think Farah is really interesting and charismatic. I liked Kamila and Rohan as individuals together, but found the balance of the cast to be superfluous and wanted more chemistry between the MCs.
Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley for the early ARC. Farah Heron has become one of my favorite authors and this book was no different. I adore her writing and her plots, but this was definitely not my favorite book from her but I can appreciate a good classic redo and I think that she did a great job.

This friends-to-lovers, slow burn, “Jane Austen’s Emma gone Bollywood” re-telling was such a fun novel to read! While Emma isn’t my favorite Austen book, I do appreciate her banter and friendship with Mr. Knightly, and I loved that between Kamila and Rohan here! The banter and flirtation between them was great, and I especially loved how Rohan was a loyal support for Kamila’s dad, as well.

I also loved the emphasis Heron placed on society’s and other’s expectations of you vs. your own expectations and self-view. Both Kamila and Jana struggled with how others perceived them, and as a people-pleaser myself, I related to how Kamila always felt like she had to put on a happy face and push down her feelings to keep others happy and comfortable.

The only reason this one isn’t getting five stars from me? I felt the pacing was a little slow and that Kamila’s Bollywood parties became too repetitive. With a smidge more editing, I think the story would have flowed and moved at a faster clip. Overall though, I enjoyed this one, especially as a Jane Austen fan!

Thank you so much to @farahheronauthor @readforeverpub and @netgalley for my complimentary galley of Kamila Knows Best!

I really enjoyed Farah Heron's "Accidentally Engaged," and this was a great follow-up. The main character, Kamila, was extremely likable, and I loved her friends-to-lovers arc with Rohan, as well as her friendships.

I love a friends to lovers story and this one was done really well, and the two leads, as well as many other characters were very well developed!

Devoured another Farah story in a weekend. I loved this friends to lovers tale it was so sweet and full of banter and tender family moments. I cant wait to reread this

RATING: 3/5 STARS

Look at this cover... so cute! And the Bollywood vibes... swoon. I think I'm just over Emma retellings though; the FMC was hard to relate to.

This was cute, but not one of my fav romances. I liked the MC enough but the romance fell a little flat for me. Enjoyable, but ultimately not super memorable.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2023 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2023/01/2023-reading-list-announced-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

On Friday, I held a Clueless and Biryani party in honor of KAMILA KNOWS BEST by Farah Heron. (There was only one invited guest, me)

This novel is an EMMA retelling, but I feel that it's a CLUELESS retelling (which if you didn't know is an EMMA retelling, and hands down my favorite retelling).

Or more accurately, I can see Kamila being a modern day, and slightly older, Cher, and Rohan as Josh (luckily he's back to being her sister's brother-in-law, and not a former step brother).

She's hosts weekly themed Bollywood and Biryani nights for her friends on Fridays; her dog, Darcy, is an Instagram influencer; she's concerned about her father's health, and her closet sounds delightful.

He's the stuffy family friend/relation that's managing the accounting firm that their fathers founded.

The teasing on Kamila's end and Rohan's straight responses, are great.

Romance aside, at the heart of this story is Kamila trying to cement her place in the family accounting business. That she actively wants to expand the business, even if she takes in more than she should sometimes. I enjoyed watching her grow and the confidence she gains.

I enjoyed reading the print so much that when a friend said that the audio which is narrated by Soneela Nankani, was also great, I decided to borrow it from my library and listen to it. Yes, this book was still good when I read with my ears. Some parts were even better with the added urgency, and nuance. I don't think you can go wrong with either listening or reading

Content Notes: death of parent (off page, past), mentions of heart disease, car accident (off page, past), pregnancy (secondary character), medical/hospital.

Though this was a retelling of Emma, it was hands-down so much better. Loved the intricacies of the storytelling weaving in cultural dynamics of Kamila's family and personal expectations. Such a great read and instantly made me a fan of Farah Heron.

This Emma retelling--by way of Clueless--made it onto my 2022 Favorites list. Heron's books are funny, but they're also insightful and warm and pointed in certain ways. The matchmaking heroine, like Cher, is thought to be a fashion-obsessed, flighty party girl with no depth. She has a really popular Instagram account for her dog, after all. Even her family underestimates her. Kamila is so much more, though. She loves fashion and hosting parties, but she's also fantastic at building community. I loved that, in the end, Kamila realizes that she doesn't need to prove herself to everyone else--she just needs to find people who already see her worth. It's clear from the beginning that her longtime friend Rohan is pining for her, but Kamila (and the reader) spends so much time in her own head that she doesn't realize it for ages. (He even got married and then divorced while waiting for her!) Heron writes fade to black romance, but really ratchets up the tension. In this case, I think it's a great fit for the characters and their relationship.

This is a fantastic contemporary romance, even if you don't like Emma. Just make sure you have biryani around when you read this. You're going to be hungry.

Enjoyed this friends-to-lovers book. It seemed like a modern-day Emma retelling, which I'm always down for. A friend recommended I read this one and I'm glad I did. I can't wait to read Heron's other works.

Gosh, I am both saddened and delighted it took me so long to read this book! Delighted because I can read Jana’s story immediately, but sad because I knew it would be delightful. I loved Farah’s Accidentally Engaged and was looking forward to reading more from her, but my brain hasn’t been super cooperative with reading in the last couple years. But I finally read Kamila Knows Best, and it was a delight! I’m not familiar with Austen’s Emma (I never had a Jane Austen phase) but I loved the best-friends-to-lovers and the dogs and the whole dynamic of Kamila, Rohan, and their whole friend-and-family group. All around this was such a delightful, mostly low angst romance that brought so many smiles to my face!

I sadly was unable to finish this book because I struggled so much to connect to the story, characters, and kept putting this down. I was extremely disinterested in all content and tried this in ebook and audio but had to officially DNF it.