I absolutely loved this book! I wasn’t sure in the first few chapters but once the story started unraveling, I was hooked! I love Manny and her back story! I love Sammy and his Indian family! And most of all, I love all the feel good feelings I got with this book! So much fun! I would definitely recommend this sweet romcom to other readers! 4.5 stars for me!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for having me review this eARC for my honest opinion!

I was really excited about this book. It has been everywhere on social media. I loved the title and the premise. I, unfortunately, did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Right from the start, I didn't get the premise of being born to Indians but not knowing what it meant to be Indian and insinuating that you could take a crash course and somehow learn about your culture? That did not make any sense to me. When introduced to Adam and his family they comment about the fact that they never treated and acknowledged that Manny was not white. I do not want to go on about everything I didn't like but unfortunately, this book just did not work for me.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sari, Not Sari is a wonderful friends to lovers, light romance that features so many fun and interesting insights into Indian culture, embracing heritage, and self discovery. Our heroine is Manny, the CEO of Breakup, a highly successful company that helps people formulate the perfect breakup email or whatever else they need to end things with whomever they’re dating.

In the midst of planning her own wedding and taking on more clients, she starts thinking more about her South Asian heritage and realizes she knows very little about Indian culture, due to her parents (who Manny is still mourning the loss of) assimilating to American culture.

Ultimately, she agrees to take on a client, Sammy, who needs to pause his relationship with his girlfriend who isn’t Indian, so he can attend a relative’s wedding without judgment from the family. Manny sees this as an opportunity to go with him and learn as much as she can about her heritage.

I can’t speak to how accurate the portrayal of South Asian culture was since I’m not part of that culture, but as an outsider, I still highly enjoyed reading about the traditions, food, entertainment, and fashion they discussed and experienced. I also particularly found the family dynamics to be interesting, especially how there are certain expectations many families have for their members.

Sari, Not Sari is the perfect read for anyone wanting something light that still touches on some important subjects, and a nice balance of budding romance and self discovery. It will be out on April 5th!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story looks at both sides of the tale of two young Indian-Americans and how they are dealing with their heritage. Manny is a successful female CEO who was never exposed to what it truly meant to be Indian. Sammy is from a family that embraces his heritage and expects him to do the same. The story is told in somewhat of a chaotic and funny manner. The characters have big personalities which explodes colorfully on the pages. Sammy and Manny find that being Indian is a unique perspective but one that leads them to loving each other.

First, it is SO amazing to see more representation in romance novels. I've always loved reading YA and Romance books since I was 15 and at 23 finally being able to read about women who look like me makes me so happy. On top of that, this book was so incredible! I loved reading about Manny because she felt like such a relatable character! She is headstrong and confident. One of my favorite tropes is "fake dating" so if you're into that then you will love reading this!

I was really excited when I got a advance readers copy of Sari, not Sari , but I find I really don’t like it . The writing and the main character arejust not working for me .

Sari, Not Sari by debut author Sonya Singh is the story of an Indian American who heads a start up that helps people break up with their partners over carefully articulated emails. Manny Dogra is successful and engaged to a high flying architect but she is also struggling with her ethnic identity. After a fight with her fiancé over her ethnicity, Manny decides to help Sammy an India who wants to temporarily break up with his girl friend because he can't take her to his brothers wedding because his family wouldn't accept a white girlfriend, Manny who is not in touch with her Indian roots decides to go with Sammy as a business partner while she gets a crash course on Indianess by attending an Indian wedding. How Manny experiences Indian culture and figures out herself forms the premise of the book.

I have been wanting to read this book for a very long time because it was written by a promising debut author of South Asian origin. Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. I had issues with representation, Manny's work ethic, shallowness, infidelity and several more things. I found that the characters lacked depth and were all judgmental. I was deeply saddened that Indian culture represented here was loaded with cliches and had some cringe worthy moments. What I did like was some cool pop culture references. I loved the references to the trail blazing Indian women referenced as well.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster CA for the ARC of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an amazing debut novel, and I cant wait to see what Sonya Singh comes up with next. Her characters are lovable, relatable, and real. Who doesnt love a story that centres around a female boss! The "will they, wont they" will have you yelling at the pages, and bingeing this novel in record time!

Thank you to Netgalley, Simon Schuster and Sonya Singh for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVE reading culturally specific romances, especially Desi ones. I was so excited when I was granted approval for this book because I thought the concept was interesting, and at it's core it was a "finding your way" story. The cover, the brightness of the yellow in contrast to the two characters Manny and Sammy is show-stopping. The story itself started off super cute- I loved meeting Manny and learning about her life, and I liked that she didn't have this connection to her Indian culture because it gave the reader the opportunity to go on this beautiful journey with her. I though the concept of her company, Breakup, was super interesting- I think one emailer said it best when they said "oh great now I'm a millennial" lol. Well I AM a millennial and this is exactly a business concept we would get behind.

I wanted to love this book SO MUCH, but it was hard to get past the hectic writing. It was just...not good. It read like a brain dump with no editing, just dialogue upon dialogue with fake emotion expressed through an overuse of exclamation points. As mentioned the beginning was really, really good, but all the dialogue between Manny and Sammy was so boring and void of any and all emotion. I couldn't believe that they ever even liked each other let alone agreed to spend a week together for #OperationIndian. The only part that I could feel the emotion was the whitewashed magazine cover and the super out-of-touch in-laws; the anger, frustration and disappointment definitely came through in those parts, which makes me sad as it gives the reader the impression that the writer experienced those things which breaks my heart.

With all that being said, I would still recommend this book. The story is super cute and there were a lot of characters that were a lot of fun. If you like soap operas, honestly, you will really enjoy this book.

Sari, Not Sari out 4/5/22!

There are quite a few issues with this book. There was a cheating situation that wasn't addressed. there was also a kind of racist issue that wasn't really handled. You can't just put stuff like that in a book and not fucking handle it! the characters were very wishy-washy. One minute it's "You're a bitch and a liar" the next "I'm sorry I was mad at someone else and was taking it out on you." Like that's not toxic! (sarcasm) The end would've been better if the dude wouldn't have proposed to her after not talking to her for a week! Also, he had literally only met her 2 weeks before!

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Cananda for the ARC! Out April 5th!

Manny is a goal oriented CEO of Breakup, a company that helps their clients break up with their partner by email in a amicable way. Still dealing with the loss of her parents, Manny feels as though she has lost a piece of herself, specifically her Indian heritage. Manny ends of meeting Sammy and they come to an agreement. Sammy will help guide her through Indian customs at his brother’s wedding if Manny helps to temporarily break up with his girlfriend. Family, culture and hilarity ensues. Manny must find who she truly is and learn to embrace it all. This was a fun book, but I felt more could have been added the plot to make the story a bit more rich and complex. It just left a little to be desired in my opinion.

I was excited to read a debut by a fellow Indian-American. However, I am left VERY disappointed. This book was superficial, not nuanced, and way too rushed. I did not enjoy the romance aspect of it at all; and the characters felt forced and stereotyped. It takes years to understand a culture with depth, not days or weeks; and the least you would do is respect yourself & your culture enough to not water it down as much as was portrayed in this book. Unfortunately, not an author I would read again.

This book was so sweet. You can’t help but fall in love with Manny as she works through what it means to embrace her Indian heritage and culture throughout the book. As the CEO of a company called Breakup, which helps people to craft the perfect breakup emails to their not-so-significant-other, Manny knows the ins and outs of what relationships can look like, and what to stray away from. Luckily, she is engaged to Adam who seems like he cares more about his job than he does about Manny. Some of the things that you find out that he did and continues to do make you want to walk up to him and smack him, at least I did anyways. Then enter Sammy, a man looking for Breakup to help him pause-breakup his current relationship so he can go to his brother's very Indian wedding without his white girlfriend. At first I was hesitant about whether or not I liked Sammy, because breaking up with someone out of fear of your family not approving irked me, but eventually you can’t help but begin to like him a lot. Manny accompanies Sammy to his brother's wedding under the ruse of being business partners, but in reality, Manny helped Sammy pause his relationship and Sammy is showing Manny what having an Indian lifestyle can look like. It was all very sweet and you can’t help beginning to root for Sammy and Manny to fall for one another. However, at the end of the book, I do wish that he had respected the fact that Manny WAS engaged at the time of everything going on, I won’t spoil anything, but I really didn’t like certain lines being crossed that were! The side of Indian culture that you get to see is really neat and it feels a little bit like you’re learning alongside Manny as she experiences all these new things. Overall, this book was well written, it's a very sweet and unique premise, and I have a feeling that it will become a favorite romance once it's published.

Thank you Net Galley // Simon & Schuster Canada // Sonya Singh for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review! All of the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I am going to say this first, from the BAT, this book was not what I expected and all in a good way. There are reasons why these characters are all fictional, because honestly? I was not a huge fan of Manny, there was something about her I really didn't like, she is so put together but then a hot ass mess. Especially when it comes to her identity, I mean, for a woman who runs a business based on helping others breakup with people, she couldn't use her phone or her computer to find out more about her culture? I do it all the time, lol. But then she meets Sammy, and this is where everything changed and I was in LOVE with her, not only was Sammy a strong male character, he played no games, and he challenged Manny, which I loved. They struck up a deal, she helps him, and he helped her, or better yet she invited herself to his family wedding celebrations, which I LOVED!

Manny got to know more about how to be Indian, which is amazing, and THIS point in the book all the way to the end, were page turn worthy, at least for me. The family, the outfits, the events leading to the wedding day, some of Sammy's family secrets revealed, a ton of emotions, because I genuinely cried in some parts, and finally feeling like you belonged. I started to love Manny more and more, especially the moment she shared with Sammy's father, and even with Sammy as well.... I cant forget to mention how funny this book is as well, I had to hold back lots of laughs, this book gave me a lot of emotions, I went from annoyed, to excited, then happy, annoyed, then ugly crying, and the end left me with my mouth open and screaming "YASSSSSS GIRL!!!!!!"

Thanks netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

First. I have a soft spot for debuts. Especially Canadian authors that are adding their voices to the mix. So I went in with high hopes and left happy.

The premise isn’t one I would have been drawn towards but I think many readers would be. Call me old-fashioned but the dating world is wild online 😂 and so I had a hard time connecting.

That said, it’s definitely an easy read that so many will love. I look forward to seeing more from this author. Congrats on your first novel!

Thank you so much @netgalley and @simonandschuster for my e-arc copy of SARI NOT SARI by Sonya Singh! This one publishes April 5!

This one was a little hard for me to give a rating on. I read 85% of it in one day, so I obviously enjoyed it. I loved learning more about the south Asian culture- that was so interesting! Also loved having a female lead who was CEO of her own company 👏🏻 Manny, the MC also deals with racism, and sexism within her career choice. I really liked how the author dealt with this issues.

The part that made me not too sure how to rate this book is romance part. Manny is clearly in the wrong kind of relationship. Her fiancé is, in simple terms, awful. When Manny goes with a client to help him with his brothers wedding, they end up “falling in love” with each other. Except it was way too fast for me. It seemed (to me), within the last chapter, Manny and Sammy realized they were in love with each other, had broken things off with their significant others, and gotten engaged. That just seems way too fast and unrealistic to me.

I did enjoy the characters of Manny and Sammy, but I just think their romance happened way too fast.

3 1/2 stars. I will read more from this author.

Things I liked about this book: learning more about Indian culture, families, weddings, etc. Lots of fun details sprinkled into the book.

Things I didn't love about this book: seemed to repeat itself a bit, or just say the same thing in a different way, over and over. And, the last chapter/ending was so rushed. Very disappointed that 96% of the book is basically all the same, and the last 4% wraps it all up in a disheveled bow.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Sonya Singh’s Sari, Not Sari is a delicious treat of a rom-com, the perfect spring and summer read. It’s the book that once you finish the last sentence, you clutch it to your chest and start counting down until it makes its appearance on the silver screen (because you just KNOW it is meant to be adapted to film. The characters! The costumes!) What makes this delightful confection the perfect spring read? A fantastic Bollywood-inspired plot full of lovable characters, with a can’t wait to see what happens next plot, a deeper soul journey for the main character, and intersectional diversity all combine into this fun-filled, but with depth, book.

Manny Dogra is on the path to having it all: she’s the founder and CEO of a successful company founded on the principles of breaking up with dignity, engaged to a handsome architect, and is dealing with her grief over losing her parents by throwing herself into work. Manny is already feeling insecure about her lack of connection to her culture when a trifecta of circumstances hammers it home: a magazine cover whitewashes her, a potential client begins demanding exceptions be made due to cultural circumstances that he expects her to understand, and she has forgotten Diwali…again. Manny slowly begins to realize that her parents emphasized the American aspect of her Indian-American upbringing, and she’s tired of being on the outside looking in on all things Indian. She strikes a deal with her potential client: she’ll make an exception to her company’s policy and he will take her to his brother’s wedding, giving her a cultural crash course.


This novel absolutely swept me off of my feet. The whirlwind romance, coupled with the depth of relatable, lovable Manny confronting her grief and finding her way back to her culture, is a winning combination.

The cast of characters is part of what makes this novel so impossible to put down. Every character, from the main players to supporting roles, is well developed and relatable. The intersectionality of the characters, from LGBTQ+ representation to cultural representations, is part of what makes these characters so relatable. Our world is varied, diverse, and intersectional– and so is Manny’s. This kind of representation is crucial, and it is so satisfying to read a book that does this well (and this book does it so well). I love how there are universal themes but with spectacular Indian-American representation.

Sari truly feels like a book version of a Bollywood movie– the coincidences! The drama! The clothes! Don’t even get me started on the clothes. The outfits are a character unto themselves. Honestly, this novel has the best clothing descriptions I’ve ever read, all presented in a way that feels seamless and apt, without slowing the pace or bogging down the reader with extraneous details. Singh truly has the perfect balance with her imagery, so the reader can see the story play out in their mind’s eye with startling clarity.

The clothes won’t be the only imagery that has you drooling. The descriptions of food will have you DoorDashing your favorite South-Asian cuisines to your door every other chapter. I’m still dreaming of these delectable dishes, long after I finished the last sentence.

Though the plot wraps up a bit quick at the end, it left me hoping for a sequel… Maybe starring some of our favorite beloved side characters getting their own plot and we get to check in with Manny! The positive women friendships are also such a refreshing plot point. So many novels pit women against each other, and I love seeing positive friendships in books that mirror the women uplifting women I see in my everyday life.

Sari, Not Sari is perfect for fans of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, Sophie Kinsella readers, and Sonali Dev’s Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors, as all have strong, unapologetic women getting stuff done, intersectional representation, positive female friendships, hunky romantic leads through the female gaze, and food descriptions that basically require you to eat while reading.

Sonya Singh’s Sari, Not Sari will be available April 5, 2022. Thank you to the author, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for a free digital copy such that I could write this review. All opinions are my own.

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to love this one. I just couldn’t get invested in the story. I felt it hard to connect with the characters.

Points I Struggled with:
-She Manages a breakup company but is blindly disregarding her relationship issues.
-The company, unless I miss something, seems to manage breakups over email? How is that less problematic than a text. I only use my email at work so I have a hard time believing that is the best place for me to read about a breakup. Also, I just had a hard time suspending my disbelief that someone would consult this kind of business. I love a story of a woman owned business, especially a successful one, but I had a hard time buying in to this.
-She seems to compromise her companies core values for the sake of understanding herself. She’s a smart and capable woman, but she HAD someone in her life who was trying to introduce her to her things in her culture she had not been exposed to – why she needed to go on a trip (and not tell her boyfriend) was hard for me to understand.
-The conversations were written in a way that I found hard to follow.
-Why did all the Indian immigrants have choppy English? I feel like that’s not a cool stereotype.
-Who thinks it’s okay to wear shorts to a wedding? Even I you don’t know the culture, someone in the public eye simply should know that’s not something you do.


Things I liked:
-Learning more about the Indian Culture.
-A woman owned business at the core of the story.
-The emails at the beginning of each chapter were pretty funny.
-The writing style, it was easy to read, so I think I would try another book by the author.


I think I could have bought into a story about the company OR a story about searching for yourself in terms of your culture, but the way these meshed made it hard for me to get invested.

I wanted to love this book so much but it just fell a little flat for me. I loved the idea of the book and how Manny was going to find a way to reconnect with who she was and her family. I just thought some of the side characters were a little too much? I really didn't love all of the catchy titles and slogans and saying, I think at times I just wanted the characters to stop coming up with taglines for everything. The communication in the book kind of threw me off, it seemed like a lot of the characters were just kind of communicating at each other and it didn't always feel like an actual conversation. I loved that Manny was able to overcome everything and really fight for what she wanted and who she wanted to be. Adam was seriously the worst but I think he was such an important character because I know that so many people these days are exactly like him and don't see anything wrong with that.