I’m a huge fan of Sajni Patel’s adult books so I was super curious to see what her YA books were like (I have not read THE KNOCKOUT but it’s on my TBR). Plus, nothing says desi culture like a big wedding and I have missed out on wedding season for so many years now that I was just ready to get immersed in all the wedding vibes.
We follow Zurika in this story, an aspiring violinist in her senior year of high school with designs on Juilliard. Her older sister is also getting married so it’s a pretty hectic time for her!

Much her dismay and a large amount of anxiety, her only shot of getting into Juilliard comes by in the form of a contest that’s being judged by top college scouts…. right smack dab in the middle of wedding festivities.
Zuri is a little bit of a troublemaker in her family – she’s fiercely independent, scrappy and sometimes impulsive and out-spoken. Yet despite those qualities of her that are not really desirable in a brown girl, she is extremely loyal and considerate of her family and their feelings. Her biggest fear is letting her family down.

That’s why the internal struggle in Zuri is so compelling in this story – she’s trying to toe the line between staying true to herself and following her dreams while still managing the expectations of her family’s – something that I think any diaspora child can relate to, no matter which culture you belong to.

While I liked the love interest, Naveen, I didn’t feel too much chemistry between him and Zuri. This book is marketed as an enemies-to-lovers type of situation and while, yes, they totally are enemies at first (he’s competing in the same competition as her), I feel like they definitely end up as friends as opposed to love interests – despite how much their respective families were pushing them together.

I did love the meddlesome, matching making aunties in this. They felt so visceral and real – this is totally how aunties in real life behave and Zuri definitely handled it much better than I did when I was in high school!
I especially adored the commentary about how brown families tend to value STEM and Zuri, who wishes to pursue music full time, definitely has a chip on her shoulder regarding this – for good reason! We definitely need more artists and non-traditional career paths to be more accepted in our community.

The descriptors of the food and clothes made me super nostalgic as well and had me wishing that one of my friends would get married soon so that I could dress up in a fancy salwar kameez or lehenga and eat all the delicious wedding foods!

What was really, especially fascinating to me was that this book had Indian-Trinidadian diaspora representation. This demographic is woefully underrepresented in brown communities so the unapologetic portrayal of it was heartening.

Overall, this was a really great book that portrays the difficulty of staying true to yourself and your goals while still honoring your cultural traditions and background – without compromising the either of the two.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Amulet Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this arc!

This is a very sweet and loveable book. The wedding atmosphere is warm and wonderful and I loved all the themes surrounding family, sisterhood and the celebration of Indian culture food.

Loved this book. After a traumatic year of the pandemic, it was refreshing to read the My sister's big fat wedding. I enjoyed reading this book so much, the food, music, dance, clothes and the romance. It was witty and fresh. I felt like I was there in the festivities. Great read.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! The food, the clothes, the events, the love.. it was all so well done. Zuri’s family is everything and I adored their dynamic. This book was a wonderful blend of modernism meets traditional family values and finding the balance in the two. I honestly enjoyed reading this so much and didn’t want it to end.