A young woman struggling to survive is offered an opportunity to start fresh. As she navigates what such an offer might mean, she deals with office politics and the utter ignorance many people have about her station in life. Debut author Reema Patel gives readers a story lush with details but slightly sluggish in plot in her book Such Big Dreams.

At the age of 23, Rakhi has absolutely no delusions about what she does for a living. Her lawyer boss, Gauri Verma—Gauri Ma’am to her—keeps calling her an office assistant, but Rakhi knows she’s just a gopher. Whether it’s clipping articles that quote Gauri Ma’am or making tea for everyone in the office, Rakhi does it all.

For the most part, Rakhi doesn’t mind. True, she lives in one of the slums in Bombay, but she has her own home and a decent salary. Gauri Ma’am gave her a cell phone and pays the bill; in fact, Gauri Ma’am is responsible for Rakhi being in Bombay and working at Justice for All, the charitable organization that campaigns for human rights. Rakhi knows the office does good work. She’s the poster child for it, an example of how Justice for All gives poor people a hand up and not a handout.

Still, Rakhi chafes under the rules Gauri Ma’am sets for her. Before coming to work for the lawyer, Rakhi arrived on a train in Bombay all alone at the age of seven and lived on the streets. She managed to survive for several years with a group of other kids until a terrible incident separated them and the government sent Rakhi to a group home. Gauri Ma’am rescued Rakhi from the home with promises of a stable job and a better life, and now her boss believes she can dictate what Rakhi does.

Rakhi tries to ignore the things she doesn’t like about Gauri Ma’am and focuses on the lawyers and interns in the office. When a new intern, Alex, arrives from Canada, all eyes are on him but he seems interested in Rakhi. Despite being half Indian himself, Alex knows nothing about his cultural roots and enlists Rakhi as his guide. In return, he says, he’ll help her figure out how to apply for college.

Alex’s internship coincides with the arrival of an aging Bollywood star looking to revive her career. She promises to get her real estate developer husband to invest in Justice for All, which has been struggling for funding. Gauri Ma’am is starstruck at first but realizes having a celebrity in the office could also mean trouble. If she’d asked Rakhi’s opinion, Rakhi could have told her but Gauri Ma’am doesn’t look to Rakhi for opinions. She looks to her for office supplies.

As the movie star begins to assert more of her influence, Rakhi finds herself more at odds with the whole situation. A surprise meeting with someone from her past throws Rakhi’s entire worldview off kilter. Now she doesn’t know if she should follow the path Gauri Ma’am set for her, the one Alex is encouraging, or something different altogether.

Author Reema Patel shares Mumbai in all of its glorious details; the book pays tribute to the city and hits several different corners of it. Readers will find themselves touring Mumbai as if they were really there. Patel makes the city one of the stars of her book, and the specificity in her descriptions will draw readers in right away.

Rakhi’s life, too, will fascinate those unfamiliar with slum dwellers and how this subset of society survives and supports itself. Patel shares in an author’s note that she lived in Mumbai for a short time, and her exposure to the people and the city shine in the book’s authenticity. For anyone who has never visited India, this book serves as a primer.

The novel doesn’t quite do Rakhi and her story justice, however. The scenes, at times, feel more like a series of journal entries rather than a cohesive narrative that has a defined beginning, middle, and end. Rakhi, too, can come off as slightly passive. While this may be directly related to her station in life and society’s dictates that she stay in her place, when she does assert herself it’s a refreshing change. Readers may wish she did more of it, if only to see how she emerges from the defined outline that Gauri has set for her.

Those readers who have never visited India would do well to read this book for a slice-of-life experience of the country. Readers who enjoy underdog stories will like this one.

Transport yourself to a law office in Mumbai. Rhaki is the main character, a young woman, in her 20's who has grown up in the slums of Mumbai, a very street smart kid with big dreams of changing her life and others. The office is called Justice for All. An inspiring but yet sad, depressing look at the obstacles that must be crossed.. The book gave me a real taste of life in Mumbai.

I generally tend to lean into books set in India, so it was a little disappointing when this one didn't hold up to the hype as well as I hoped it would. There was a lot of Indian words without context that made reading this one quite distracting and the pace was a little on the slower side for me.

Such Big Dreams transported me to Mumbai and I enjoyed reading about the culture and getting to know the characters. This was a really interesting novel with a really unique storyline and I really just loved everything about it!

I love a book with a big "build up" and Such Big Dreams does just that. Money, loss, identity are some of the major themes and the descriptions paint such a vivid picture of life in India. A great debut that would make a good book club pick.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.

Such Big Dreams is a debut novel about Rakhi, a former street child in Mumbai, who is now working as an office assistant at a civil rights law firm. The book gives an in depth look at street children, Bombay slums, classism, nonprofit organizations, celebrity-culture, and the "big" dreams of those who seek to make a better life for themselves.

Through Rakhi, the reader is immersed in the "real India," not the upper-class India that many foreigners would see. There is beauty in the people and culture in Mumbai, but there is also a corruption and gross classism. The rich exploit the poor whether it's to gain prestige for "charitable works" or literally taking their homes. Even Rakhi's benefactor is dismissive of her, expecting Rakhi to be an ever grateful servant with no real agency. Rakhi, however, defies the prejudice and strikes against her to reach for her dreams. That is the heart of this book.

Although this book is fiction, it is based on real life events and is not always an easy read from an emotional standpoint. It does, however, provide an interesting look at a people who are not given the dignity they deserve. There is much to like about this book, but I did find the use of so many Hindi words without context slowed the reading down for me. I didn't want to have to stop to look them up, so that left me with some gaps.

It's a 3.5 star read for me, rounded to a 4.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book.

Such Big Dreams by Reema Patel is the fascinating story of Rakhi, a young woman living on her own in Bombay. As a seven year old run away Rakhi joins a group of discarded children living on the streets and survives alongside them for many years. A terrible crime leads Rakhi to a girls rehabilitation home where she lives for about five years and is discovered by a woman that is looking for a girl to "make over". This woman, a successful lawyer, hires Rakhi as her assistant at her justice fighting law firm and helps her live a responsible life. It is Rakhi's character and the conflicts she faces that make Such Big Dreams so thought provoking. Rakhi lives in a slum, but works in an important office. She is well paid, but is treated poorly by her boss. Rakhi agrees to be a pseudo tour guide for a Canadian intern in her office and she is taken in by the kindness he shows her. Can Rakhi trust this man who advises her to follow her dreams?
Rakhi is an unforgettable character and Such Big Dreams provides important lessons for us all.
Thank you to Ballantine Books for the ARC of this novel.

I have never read a book that was written from the point of view of a "street person" in India. I think it's an interesting perspective to view the society in India, and ith3lps to understand their class system in a way. I also find it interesting that the author actually wrote the story based on her experiences in Mumbai, and the things she witnessed.
This book follows a young lady, Rakhi, who is a "street person" turned law office worker. She is basically the girl at the office who does everything, yet rarely gets credit for anything, and is treated as less then by pretty much everyone. She begins to befriend a Canadian intern, who tells her she should figure out what she wants for her future, and make moves toward what she wants.
Rakhi, who is so used to being put down and treated as if she will amount to nothing else besides an office helper, at first pushes back on the idea of becoming more until she realizes that she is better than everyone treats her.
It takes multiple disappointments, including loosing a friend in death and loosing some people she thought were true friends, for her to realize she needs to do something with herself and she needs to get there by herself. She develops confidence to move forward on her own, and she is destined for great things.
This book made me think a lot about class division in our society, as well as in others like India. It's horrible how we treat others, and we need to do better!

I really wanted to like this book much more than I did and I think the only thing holding me back was our protagonist, Rakhi. She is a very unlikeable protagonist and I just couldn't connect with her regardless of how much I wanted to root for her. The book paints a vivid image of India and the vast difference between the have and have nots, which I enjoyed. But, Rakhi was so petulant and judgy that I simply couldn't get behind her. The other small issue I had was the use of all the Hindu words without including something for me to refer to for translations. While I was able to get through the story, it would have been nice to learn the words instead of just guessing. It was nice that Alex wasn't the western hero coming in to save the girl and the portrayal of the westerner coming in and not realising they're making things worse was something I found pretty realistic.

I have, in the past, loved books on India - I love learning about the country and its amazing people and the cultural that surrounds everything and everybody there. This book seemed like it was just going to add to my knowledge of the country in an area that I haven't read much about [the slums of Mumbai]. Unfortunately, that was not what happened.

I wanted to like this book so much, but that was not meant to be. What should have been a book about a girl who rises from the homelessness and street-life to live a "normal" life [all while still living in one of the cities biggest slums and barely making it] turns out to be an extremely slow-moving read filled with dislikable characters [even the main character is unlikeable until the end, and even then, I found her to be puzzling and uninteresting] that you either have no interest in because they are just so horrible or just roll your eyes at, very little discussion about the slum life that two of the characters struggle with [I was hoping that it was going to be more about the MC's time there, trying to make a living, but alas, no] and a LOT of Hindi. Now, that is great if one actually SPEAKS Hindi, but I [and many others I assume] do not. No english translations either [I know how that sounds, but if a book is going to published to the masses, even a simple index of basic Hindi words would be helpful. I looked for a translator and could not find one that was able to translate what I was reading] so one has to muddle along and just try to figure out what they may or may not be saying. It became very frustrating. Add in that it was about 50 pages too long and it has a very unsatisfactory ending, this was just not the read for me. I was hoping for so much more and was just disappointed all the way around.

Thank you to NetGalley, Reema Patel, and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine Books for inviting me to read and providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a stunning debut novel telling the story of an orphaned young girl who overcomes seemingly endless adversity to have a better life. On the way, she comes to learn the hypocrisy of the very people who claim to be helping. This work of fiction felt very real. Thank you to Ballantine and PRH for the copy via NetGalley.

Thank you @randomhouse @netgalley for my review copy!

📖Rakhi is a young woman, living in a Mumbai slum and working as an office assistant for a human rights organization. As a child, she lived on the streets until an incident separated her and her best friend. When her past and present collide, Rakhi must decide what her future will look like.

💭This was a very interesting read set in India. It touched on topics such as classism and social injustice. I definitely felt transported when reading which was one of the things I liked best about this book. I was rooting for Rakhi and I couldn’t help but be invested in her story.

📚Read this if you enjoy books with political/social injustice themes, if you want to be transported to another place, or if you enjoy books with characters you want to root for.

Such Big Dreams is the story of Rakhi, a 23 year old haunted by an incident that killed her best friend 11 years ago., who is figuring out who she is and how to find her way. Rhaki was so lovable and the book overall was really enjoyable - it was so rich with Indian culture and gave the reader a perspective on a different kind of life. The book tackles life in the Bombay slums, NGOs and internships, and what dreaming of a great life can really mean.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC - Such Big Dreams is out now. Everyone should pick this one up!

I had a really hard time getting in to this book. Unfortunately, after about 100 pages, I just couldn't finish it. I thought the writing was good albeit a little haphazard, but ultimately I had a hard time connecting with the story.

Such Big Dreams by Reema Patel follows the story of Rakhi, alternating between her life as a child homeless in the streets of Bombay to her current life working in a law office. The story drew you in and was difficult to put down.

Author: Reema Patel
Available now

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Rakhi is a young woman working as an assistant in a Mumbai office that fights for housing rights in India. She lives in a nearby slum. The high powered woman who runs Justice For All saved her from an orphanage and gave her this job. The story bounces between now and back when Rakhi grew up on the streets with her fellow orphan friend, Babaloo.

This book will have the reader feeling all sorts of emotions from beginning to end. You will love some characters and hate others. You will love some at one point and hate them the next. I think these rich characters would lend itself perfectly to a book club discussion. The book also delves into Indian culture, class and housing.

One thing I think this book could’ve benefitted from was a glossary of all the Indian terms. Patel uses some frequently and I did get the gist of what they meant just by their usage, but I would’ve been interested in an actual definition. I know other books that have done this and it works well.

Read this insightful novel of current India from the perspective of an Bansari child [7 yr old] then as a yound adult {Rakhi]. Her name is changed to Rakhi by Babloo an 8 yr old who finds her at the train station in Bombay. She joins in with his three friends which forms a family. They all live 'on the street'.
When Babloo and Rakhi are 13 & 12 yrs old, they are caught and sent to separate places. Rahki tries to escape to find Babloo but is unsuccessful. She is discovered at the the girls retention home by Gauri Ma'am who said to Rakhi to do her lessons, learn English. Then she will give her a job with Justice for All.
Rahki does and at 18 joins this firm as an 'office body' -- running errands, making tea, and so forth. One day a new intern from Canada arrives. Rakhi is his informal guide as he is wanting to learn all that he is able in the two months he is with the firm.
Adventure abounds for Rakhi in these months which change the course of her life. Read and learn.

4.5, rounded up. This book went more slowly for me because I wanted to savor all the cutting remarks from Rakhi. It's an impressive satire of India's corruption and how the country is viewed so differently by foreigners, non-resident Indians, and even those with different levels of wealth within India. Rakhi's experience of living on the streets and being poor in India is glamorized in a problematic way, even more so than those who brush off her concerns. It's this insidiousness that permeates the novel and makes it a particularly engaging read.

Strength in the face of overwhelming odds. Mumbai today!

This is a BIG gutsy story. The real world behind slum Dog Millionaire is whatI kept thinking. We follow aspects of the life of a street kid in Mumbai, from the moments she arrives there as a child of seven, until she finds her voice.
Colorful, honest, and often confusing, Rakhi’s (Bansari) story moves from simple humor in the small things, to outrage and compliance when forced, but never to acceptance. Rakhi never loses sight of who she is despite the many things that happen.
I was absolutely engaged with her story, her friends, her living accommodations, the Farangis she comes into contact with and their ridiculous double standards (the reality of India seen through a hazy screen of misunderstanding and arrogance).
Little by little Rakhi’s life is explained. We first meet her undergoing treatment as part of her rescue by Gautier Verma (Gauri Ma’am) head of the NGO Justice for All. An organisation dedicated to helping those from the slums. For those coming from these lower echelons of society that assistance can be a huge step up on the ladder towards self determination, but Rakhi finds this life has its own set of burdens, it’s own double standards.
Patel loosely based this book on real life happenings in the “Behrampada slum, over seven acres in the middle of Mumbai.”
A strong story with an engaging heroine, easy to relate to. I cheered for Rakhi. I grieved for her.
She is so much more than a fictional character. Rakhi a real person facing real challenges, the enormity of which, we as privileged persons find hard to comprehend, and yet through Patel’s words we are given insights.

A Random House - Ballantine ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change

living in the world of her parents while trying to develop into who she is meant to be. So many people trying to break out of the old ways. A great way to build success.