This poignant Young Adult debut follows Arjun Mehta and Madhuri Iyer as they navigate the complexities of love, friendship, and family dynamics against the backdrop of their senior year. Despite Madhuri's skepticism about fate and her struggle to reconcile cultural expectations with personal desires, she and Arjun embark on an experiment in destiny, leading to unexpected depths in their relationship. Alongside the tender romance, the novel skillfully explores themes of identity, self-acceptance, and the influence of family, though the pacing occasionally lags and character emotions are overly explicit. Nevertheless, the richly drawn characters and interwoven subplots make for a compelling and heartfelt read, celebrating the power of love and familial bonds.

Madhuri is a teenager who is struggling to find her identity. She is Indian and after an unfortunate bullying incident, she tries to repress all things that are culturally identified, including her horoscope. Both Madhuri and her best friend, Arjun, have Madhuri's mother read their yearly horoscope. With the stars pointing her toward one relationship, Madhuri wants to prove that she can change her destiny. Arjun likes Madhuri more than a friend, but he knows that she doesn't see him in that way. A proposal of a fake relationship to help Madhuri's future was risky, but Arjun has a plan to win her over.

I finally took the chance to read Kismat Connection and I loved it! This is a quick and cute story.

I received an advanced copy from the author, publisher and NetGalley; and I am voluntarily leaving an unbiased review.

Overall, though, this story sadly didn't work for me. I don't think it hits on an emotional level. There's great ideas and attempts at meaningful characterization, but for me they didn't quite land.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

My favorite trope is friends to lovers, so I was primed to love this one. However, for friends to lovers to work, they both need to be on even ground. One of them can't be pining for the other one at the start of the book. It just doesn't feel earned to me and so this book fell flat for me because of that.

This was such a cute YA romcom! I am loving this Desi romcom moment and I am so glad I had a chance to read this debut! Everyone in her family is fated to fall in love with the first person they date, and high school senior Madhuri is determined to break free and prove that she is too busy to fall in love with the first boy she dates. To prove her free will, Madhuri convinces her childhood best friend, Arjun, to fake a relationship and prove that they will not fall in love. I really liked both Madhuri and Arjun as the main characters. The book blends childhood friends to romantic interests and fake dating, both tropes I really love! I could see how Madhuri could be a lot, especially as she ignores her growing feelings towards Arjun, but I loved her character. As with any high schooler, Madhuri balances so much as she really tries to figure out what she wants from her life. Arjun is so supportive of her and I love the support he gets from Madhuri's family throughout. This is an overall lighthearted book, but there are some powerful moment and some very emotional scenes as both main characters interact with their families. The South Asian aspects of this story were so great and definitely had me reminiscing. I love reading South Asian American stories and I love that there are so many different stories finally out in the world. I really liked this debut and I am looking forward to reading more from Ananya Devarajan!!

This sounded like it would be a lot of fun, especially as fake dating while one of them is already in love is one of my favorite tropes, but I just couldn't get into it. The writing wasn't for me.

I feel like this is a cute romance for its intended audience — desi teens who may or may not feel represented in the YA romcom genre. I would have loved this as a teenager, seeing characters with similar cultural backgrounds as me falling in love. But as an adult reader, it just felt a bit cheesy and didn’t have much “meat” to it.

Enjoyed main characters Madhuri and Arjun individually and their journey through this was ok, although I didn't really feel the friendship between them. I felt like she didn't really care for him, even as just a friend. Overall though, great debut and sweet story. Just maybe not as memorable.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc.

The cultural messaging was a bit heavy-handed for an adult reader, but maybe for a younger audience, that would have been useful. I enjoyed the characters and felt warmly about them. At times, the novel felt more like it was about family than about the romantic relationship, which I didn't mind, but might matter if you picked this up thinking you were in for a major romance. Generally cute.

Oh my goodness, I <I>hated </I>Madhuri <I>so</I> damn much.

And was Arjun’s personality seriously just “I love my best friend” and “my mom is the worst”?

Oof.

See, I really thought I would enjoy this <i>Kismat Connection</i>. I’m usually such a huge fan of fake dating and avoiding destiny tropes, so this really should have been right up my alley. By all accounts, I should have adored this story so much. Instead…I just hated every single character.

And really, the most egregious of all were the two leads. If you can’t get past how much you dislike the two most important characters in a book, there really isn’t anything that will save it for you. And for me, I just found Madhuri so ridiculously self-centered, uncaring, and self-detrimentally stupid that it was exceedingly difficult to care about or root for her at all.

Arjun, on the other hand, I only felt anything for because I just felt so terribly bad for him that his best friend was such a selfish snot. But that doesn’t really make me like him because, much to my dismay, he literally had <i>zero</i> personality. His whole being existed for two purposes: one, to “love his best friend” despite her treating him horribly and having no redeeming qualities that really explained his love for her (being childhood best friends doesn’t count when she’s such a snot) and two, to have lots of issues with his mother for her shitty parenting behavior.

A book that should have been incredibly cute and magical and endearing just ended up being the epitome of annoyance. And it’s just so disappointing.

Ananya Devrajan did a great job at exploring and showing Madhuri's struggle to embrace her culture. I enjoyed the references to the Indian culture, and I appreciated the care the author took to show: the experiences of first generation children of immigrant parents. and the generational divide that can often arise when navigating cultural norms and expectations within family systems. While I think many teenagers will be able to connect with and understand Madhuri and Arjun choices and experiences in this book, I didn't personally connect with them (which can sometimes happen when I'm reading a book that is meant for a younger audience). Overall this was a quick and fun read. The two main characters were so cute and entertaining, and I thought their character arcs were well written. I do recommend Kismet Connection to teenagers and young adults who want a book about choosing your own destiny that also includes a really cute romance!

Madhuri is unhappy with her family curse (everyone in her family has married the first person they've dated).
She doesn't want this to happen to her, so she decides to fake-date her best friend, Arjun. Of course, Arjun has been in love with her their whole childhood. You can guess how it ends. This was cute, but I wish it had a little more "meat" to it.

First of all, how cute is this cover? It’s definitely what drew me to this book. I’m all for a cute desi romance and fake dating? a thousand times yes! However I definitely think the book lacked a bit in the writing even though it did have great potential overall. That did damper my experience a bit. It was a sweet read though.

Thank you to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

This book is really interesting! I really enjoyed the experimental nature of the story, but I have to admit that Madhuri's stubbornness did get a bit annoying. Arjun was my favorite character - he definitely has the boy next door vibes that I love! Reading about different cultures is always intriguing, so I really enjoyed that about this book as well. The author's writing style flowed really well, which made it super easy to read. I look forward to reading more of their books in the future.

this was so so cute!
the characters were great and i was rooting for them the whole novel. very unique idea, this author is one to watch for

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

This review will obviously be biased because Ananya Devarajan is one of my best friends and my (real) name is even in the acknowledgements; HOWEVER, I am still committed to reading and reviewing it since I did request it on Netgalley.

Arjun and Madhuri are best friends and Madhuri sets out to prove her parents wrong about every woman in their family marrying their first love. What she doesn't know is that Arjun already loves her (oops). When they begin dating, shenanigans occur and she really starts to fall for him!!!!

Anyway. If you believe in kismat or fate and want an adorable soulmates book with an element of Hindu astrology being borderline magical, this is the book for you!

The description of this story sounded so promising that I had to check this out.

I enjoyed the coming-of-age story that we got from Arjun and Madhuri as they navigated preparing for college, their familial relationships and seeing how their peers impacted their cultural views. It was heartwarming to experience the love Arjun received from his best-friends family.

Regarding their relationship as friends/romantic it felt one sided in some aspects which was unfortunate

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, all thoughts are my own!

Kismat Connection marks a captivating entrance into the world of YA romance, seamlessly intertwining Indian culture into its narrative. The novel boasts a plethora of delightful elements, but what stood out most for me was the central character, Madhuri. The premise, wherein Madhuri enters into a fabricated relationship with her best friend to debunk her astrology-inclined mother's beliefs, is a brilliant twist.

Similarly, Arjun's character development served as a complementary foil to Madhuri's journey. Unlike the typical supporting role, Arjun is not merely a prop for Madhuri; he faces his own trials and adversities, enriching the story with depth and complexity. One of the highlights is Devarajan's adept incorporation of Indian culture. From various subtle touches to the significant role of Bharatanatyam in Madhuri's identity, the cultural elements enhance the overall richness of the narrative.

Kismat Connection is a delightful blend of charm and accomplishment.