Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment was a refreshing novel about marriage, love, high school, and relationships. As a current high school senior, I was easily able to understand Arya’s pressure to maintain her friendships, her family relationships and do well in school at the same time. Don’t even get me started on college applications. There were so many relatable moments in this book like:

“I ignore the tightness in my stomach and return to my laptop. It’s Tuesday morning, and we’re working on college essays in the library before class, though neither of us has done more than pull up our Google Drives. I decide to be the responsible one and click on the folder titled: college apps </3. Then I switch over to the Sephora tab open on my browser and add a new blush palette I definitely can’t afford to my cart.”

I liked seeing the brown representation, and as an Indian girl myself, it was super funny to see Arya and her sister, Alina, dealing with all the things that come with encountering Indian aunties at parties. Arya’s family dynamic was complicated and Arushi Avachat did a great job of building tension and resolving it all at the end. I wasn’t too satisfied with how Arya’s relationship with her Mamma at the end, but it was cool to see her grow throughout the book and begin to prioritize her own feelings.

Arya’s enemies-to-lovers romance with Dean was super cute and everything that I want in a high school romance. A man to read Pride and Prejudice with me? A dream. Arya and Dean’s easy banter was fun and I especially loved how they paid special attention to each other’s likes and dislikes. Indian girls can like country music too! (Although I am not a Thomas Rhett or Kane Brown fan :/). Additionally, Avachat does a great job of portraying what high school is actually like: studying, planning events, being sad, and more studying. Her references to actual Civics material was funny to see as I’m currently learning a lot of the same Supreme Court cases in my class as a high school senior. Their willingness to open up to each other and discuss the true reasons for their initial frostiness was so mature and handled really well.

Overall, the conflict with Arya’s best friend, Lisa, was my least favorite part of the book. It feels like it was just thrown in there to compound Arya’s problems and I didn’t like how there was no real stepping points leading up to the resolution at the end for the two of them.

Highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun read centered around a Bollywood-style marriage, family drama, and the life of a high school senior.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC of this novel.

I feel like this is a perfect story for south Asian girls, specifically gen ! I love all of the Bollywood references such as film and songs, family dynamics and the wonderful wedding of course. I truly enjoyed the concept but the plot and pacing did fall a little flat for me. But, I still would recommend this. 
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I wanted to like this, but this did not work for me.

I need to start off with the writing because it was so distracting. Clunky and awkward and overly expositional, it was painful to read at times. Like I do not need someone's first and last name and occupation/student council title every time a new character's introduced. Arya had no real voice, and the overall writing was just dull and dry and made it hard to get into the story.

Speaking of Arya, let's talk about the characters. They were so disappointingly flat. The Never Have I Ever comp is an insult to the Netflix series which, despite its weaknesses, never had a problem with its characters arcs or development. Both the main and supporting characters had distinct personalities in Never Have I Ever and Arya Khanna's Bollywood Moment...didn't. Arya's was probably the most distinct, but she's the title character. Also, her biggest personality trait was that she was kinda annoying, so I don't know that that's necessarily a win. What I remember about everyone else can be described in a few words: her mom was sad all the time, her dad was "a good man but maybe not a good husband," and her sister was the flaky, artsy, selfish, rebellious one who made Arya's life oh so difficult (more on that later.) I don't even know what to say about her best friends other than one was a science nerd and the other was MIA for half the book so 🤷🏻‍♀️

As for the romance, I was ready to love it. Maybe it's because I was coming off a reread of the book that dethroned Anne and Gilbert as my favorite academic-rivals-to-lovers ship, but this was not it. Something was just off about it; it was like the imitation version of academic-rivals-to-lovers but not the actual thing, I felt like there were consistency issues that made it hard for me to define their actual dynamic, let alone believe it. Dean was fine, I guess. Like in a generic cute-but-forgettable love interest kind of a way. I guess his one distinguishing factor was supposed to be that he's kinda Jewish? But he's definitely not a character I'm going to remember by the end of the month.

For the actual story, it was, like, not there? The plot was sort of chopped up and jumbled, and even if I had the mental energy to go back and string it all together, I don't know that it'd be a particularly strong one. The various subplots (which basically just chronicled Arya's relational angst with everyone in her life) never came together as a full story. If writing is interweaving various plot lines to make a coherent story, Avachat gave us three strings knotted at the top and bottom and called it a braid.

One of the pitches for Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment is that it's "structured like a Bollywood film (entertaining intermission included!)." I have never in my life watched a Bollywood movie, but if introducing a bunch of random episodes separately and then revisiting them individually at a later time is how they do storytelling, the story structure did not translate well in this particular case. The storytelling was choppy and piecemeal, making it incredibly difficult to get emotionally invested as a reader (as if boring writing and bland characters weren't enough of an obstacle.) It didn't help that the pacing was off, either.

The story essentially went like this: 1) Arya has issues with Dean, 2) Arya has issues with her sister, 3) Arya's best friend has issues with her (maybe). Then, one-by-one, we watched these get better or worse until they each reached their resolution which weren't even all that satisfying, to be honest.

Throughout the story, Arya came across as lacking self-awareness and a little self-absorbed. Look, totally understandable if you're writing a story about teenagers. That's what the whole "coming-of-age" bit is about, right? Like yes, make childish decisions and do dumb stuff! Your frontal lobes are still developing. But do so in a way that's interesting and believable; otherwise, I can go watch the teenagers in my own life make poor life choices. (If anyone I know is reading this, please know that I love you and don't actually mean that.)

But watching Arya navigate her self-induced problems wasn't the least bit enjoyable. Because she wasn't really developed as a character otherwise, Arya came off as, well, kind of annoying--and not even in an interesting, complex "unlikable heroine" kind of a way which I can totally be on board with. She was just kind of a grating, slightly cringe "wah, life is so hard" kind of narrator which got old real quick. The worst part is, she didn't really have a strong enough arc to make sitting through 320 pages of her whining worth it.

I'm getting tired of all this ranting, so I'll make this part brief. Most of the conflicts in the book were interesting but not nearly developed enough. Being caught in the middle of your two best friends' break-up? Love it. Having your sister back after she essentially ghosted you for three years? Fascinating. Dealing with the stress of trying to keep your family from imploding? Give me more. Except Avachat barely skimmed the surface, so instead of an interesting story full of complexity and nuance, we got...not that. I personally think the biggest miss was the way Arya's mom's depression was handled like an afterthought. It like "oh we should include something about how Asians don't talk about mental health" but not actually engage with the idea in any kind of meaningful way. Avachat just kind of dropped it in the story and left it there.

Arya Khanna's Bollywood Moment did not, as promised, make me swoon, laugh, cry, think, nod your head in agreement, and definitely didn't make me get up and dance. I am, once again, in the small minority of early reviewers who didn't enjoy Arushi Avachat's debut, so if you see the other reviewers or feel particularly invested in the synopsis, by all means, read it for yourself. Otherwise, there are plenty of other Bollywood-inspired YA contemporary romances--and Desi-wedding ones--out there.

This is the perfect book for millennial south Asian girls! So many references to old Bollywood songs and films, the complex family dynamics, and the wedding shenanigans make you feel like you are there with Arya. Many highlighted texts later, I realized why I couldn't put it down: there were so many scenarios that had happened to myself or friends. I felt seen in this, and I'm definitely not a teenager. I love Arya's love story and the way she truly found herself. Navigating through friendships and relationships is hard, no matter your age.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books/St.Martins Publishing for the ARC of "Arya Khanna's" in exchange for an honest review.
Pure fun all the way through. These days, you can never have enough books that keep you smiling and entertained from first page to last and this one surely fits that description.
Just about every single YA rom-com essential gets thrown into the mix here. High school seniors sweating out their college applications while on the verge of preparing for their next big life journey.......an adorable competitive rivals-to-friends matchup that's been in the works since middle school......a unshakable trio of best friends gone hurtfully askew.......siblings troubled with a history of misunderstanding and unspoken resentment.......
As if that isn't enough for you, on top of all that (and actually best of all)......an upcoming full fledged Bollywood wedding, with multiple events leading to the ceremony, endless food delicacies, gorgeous clothing and that spectacular music and dancing guaranteed to lift anyone with a pulse off their chairs and on their feet.
All of the above things keep swirling about Arya Khanna as she navigates her way through each one.....the thaw in her rivalry with arch-nemesis (but not for long) Dean, repairing the friendship-gone-asunder with BFFs Lisa and Andy, and coming to terms with big sister Alina, the upcoming Bollywood bride whose independent career as an artist provoked a deep family rift.
I don't know how she did it, but author Arushi Avadhat somehow keeps all of these situations in the air at the same time, making for a busy story handled with humor, sweetly tender romance, high emotion.......and that impossibly infectious Bollywood playlist (which you'll want to sample either while reading the book or right after.)
Never been easier to rate a book 5 stars.

**Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This review is my opinion**

Why do books with Bollywood culture always fascinate me? Read this book right here and you'll understand!

Lately, I have been steering clear of YA because of how immature the characters can be. Maybe it's because I'm getting older (in my early 30s), but I'm glad I got this ARC. Arya is such a lively character that ensnared my heart with her sense of humor and her passion. This coming of age story reminded me of why I enjoy YA. Sure, Arya could be a bit annoying at times, but she still won me over. This book took me on a Bollywood adventure, reminding me why I love those films.

The cover is what drew me in and I’m so glad I was able to read this. It had a fun concept and the characters worked in this story. I enjoyed how well everything worked in the story and the characters had a great feel to them. I enjoyed what Arushi Avachat wrote and can’t wait for more.

I was given this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that this was a fun book. I really enjoyed the relationships that Arya had in this. She had complex and unique relationships with all her different family and friends and everyone seemed like their own unique character which is good. I really liked the book showed how complex family can be especially when some family members have had a falling out. However, at times it could be hard to keep track of everyone. Still it was a great book.

Overall I give it four stars!

this book was super duper cute and lighthearted to read. the relationships between arya and her friends was a great development i enjoyed.

i expected more from arya's relationship with her mother and lisa actually, because i thought it would have been more interesting to see more development in that aspect. i would recommend this to someone who wants a lightheart read!

i would give this 4 stars

thank you netgalley and the publisher

4.5 stars.

Arya Khanna’s was a really enjoyable coming of age story (with a sweet romance too!). I loved that this was more than a YA romance story.

Arya’s family was actually pretty complex; her mother struggling with depression, her sweet but emotionally absent father, her estranged sister. And then Arya, feeling the pressure to keep them all together for her sister’s wedding. All while applying for colleges and struggling with being VP on student council to her academic rival, Dean.

I really enjoyed the progression of her sisterhood with Alina, but the friendship with Dean was hashtag goals for me. He reads Pride and Prejudice for her. Brings her brownies. Watches Bollywood movies. And he is emotionally mature enough to realize when she’s struggling with other aspects of her life and taking it out on him, and he calls her out for it. SWOON.

Overall, there was a great balance of family, culture, and romance and I am thoroughly impressed by Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment and surprised this is a debut.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the review copy.

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫

Arya Khanna's Bollywood Moment is a delightful, bollywood influenced YA debut novel by Arushi Avachat.
Arya's tendency to meddle, her arrogance and her inclination to instigate conflict, did not make her a character I was drawn to.
That being said, I did enjoy the animosity to love trope, auntie and family drama, wedding festivities and Bollywood influence in this book.

This was cute and fun, and exactly what I was in the mood for today, but ultimately I'm not sure it'll be very memorable for me. There was a lot about this to enjoy, and I liked that aside from the romance, there was a focus on Arya's life as a whole, including her friends, family and work at the bookstore. I feel like for a book centered around a wedding, it could have had even more wedding vibes. All in all I had a good time, but I don't think this will really stay with me.

RATING: 4/5 STARS

I breezed through ARYA KHANNA'S BOLLYWOOD MOMENT in a single morning and enjoyed it thoroughly! I think there are certain books that you read where all the references just click and the author’s writing feels familiar/relatable, and this was one of them for me. If you are a fan of the show Never Have I Ever, Bollywood movies, Jane Austen, Indian food, indie bookstores, and/or Taylor Swift, I recommend trying this book. It's a fun YA romance, but also delves deep into messy family dynamics, academic pressures, and complicated friendships in a way that felt authentic to a Desi teen. A really solid debut!

Arya Khanna's Bollywood Moment by Arushi Avachat is a dazzling debut rom-com.
Woah! I can’t believe this is Arushi’s debut! Like what?
This book was beautiful and heartwarming.
I absolutely loved it. Arushi Avachat is a phenomenal contemporary author, creating genuine characters and a sincere storyline.
I personally thought this was the perfect book! The concept, the characters, the writing.... everything. I loved how unique it was and I found that I was intrigued the entire time.
This was truly a charming and heartwarming story that I wasn’t able to put down.
This book was a real page turner.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

DNF - thanks #netgalley for the chance to read this book. It is well rated and other reviewers adored it. So I assume it is just a me thing but I just couldn't get into it.

Rating: 4.5

I’m not one to reach out for YA fiction at my age but I was intrigued by the synopsis. This is definitely a book for folks who enjoy Bollywood as it’s filled with references. Overall, I had fun reading this and it was quick to get through and wasn’t dragged out.
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Arya: I was jealous of Arya on varying levels - I loved that she works at a bookstore and I would like that. However, the jealousy really stemmed from her love interest being the popular jock who beat her at class president and that she had to work with him as the vice-president. It just made me realize that I had a very different high school experience having gone to an all girls boarding school.
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Dean: Boy do I wish I had a guy like Dean to crush on me back. I’m 28 and I’d be really happy if a guy told me that I looked really pretty but in high school? I’d have been over the moon! The fact that he read “Pride and Prejudice” after finding out that it was Arya’s fave book - immediate winner right there. Let’s also add that he sat and watched the entirety of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (K3G) and also cried during it!? My jealousy continued when he asked to slow dance with her and then later on asked her on a date - I need men in their 20s-30s to learn here! I continued swooning when he left her a hand-written letter and wrote that he wanted to watch more Bollywood movies with her and signed it “Yours, Dean”🥹.
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Alina: I was very thrown off by Alina wanting to get married at the age of 22! I couldn’t understand the rush to get married and I think it added to my dislike of her. Her age made sense given her annoying personality but she was so immature and didn’t seem like she was a good sister, let alone a good older sister.
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The Writing: Loved that we had chapter titles, and I loved the titles themselves - “Desi Girls” and “You Are My Soniya”! Also, is “Desi Girl” the song all of us brown girls taught our non-brown girlfriends!?!😂 I remember seeing a TikTok about a book character named Sheila Jawani and I didn’t realize it’s this book. I let out a cackle because it’s so funny (Note: she’s named after the song “Sheila Ki Jawani”). Avachat did not hold back with her Bollywood references and continued to add to the humor with her dig that Ranbir Kapoor is a 5 on a good day 😂 and the prevalent nepotism in Bollywood! I honestly wasn’t prepared for how funny this was and I adored that.
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Again, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend this to my fellow brown sisters!

Arya Khanna's Bollywood Moment caught my attention because I'm sold on anything involving the possibility of Bollywood (and Shah Rukh Khan). It follows Arya's story and life in the months leading up to her sister's shaadi ceremonies. I have struggled with high school stories ever since I started reading again, the characters too often appearing incredibly juvenile for my taste. Unfortunately, this was the case with Arya Khanna, I wanted so badly to be on her side but I could not stop seeing her decisions and viewpoints as childish. That being said, I still greatly enjoyed all the Bollywood references (shoutout K3G) and Dean Merriweather. Solid 3 stars.

Teenage drama fills this YA novel about Anya' senior year when her best friend is mad at her, her archnemsis beat her out for student council president, and her sister is getting married. It is a fun read but does have a lot of drama. I did struggle at times just to get through it.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC

4.5 stars.
First of all, I think I read this book at the perfect time of the year because I love all the fall details that were present! From Arya's love for seasonal coffee-shop treats (girl, same) to the school's Fall Festival with a pumpkin patch and Halloween costume contest, I could easily picture everything that was described, and I'm usually more of a spring and summer girl, but it all made me appreciate fall so much more.
The comparison to Never Have I Ever feels very accurate, but this book lacked everything I didn't like about Never Have I Ever (dead-parent trope and constant love triangle/romantic drama). Arya wasn't as infuriating to watch as Devi can be, although she does frequently toe the line between the fun kind of chaos and the exhausting kind of chaos (mostly because she's trying to help others and has it backfire).
I'm very different from Arya, and my family is very different from hers, but I could somewhat relate to how she felt the need to mitigate conflict between friends and family members. Although there's one person she never seems to want to help, and that's Alina. And I wish she didn't treat her the way she did. I'll try to be as spoiler-free here, but early in the book, Alina invites Arya to her catering consultation and specifically says that she doesn't want their mother involved. Arya goes behind Alina's back and invites her at the last-minute without telling Alina, justifying it by saying something like "they need to fix their relationship ASAP, so I'm doing Alina a favor." Why would anyone, even a teenager, think this is a good idea that would actually help? There's a time and place for working out family issues, and a meeting with someone you're about to hire to cook for your wedding is not it. It felt almost selfish of her. Did she not stop and think "this could end up leading to more arguments and be a bad idea?" And then it inevitably doesn't go well, but Arya apparently learns nothing, because at Alina's dress fitting (which Alina did invite their mom to), she says she debated whether or not to do the same thing (invite her without Alina's consent) before she knew her mom was invited. Her boss, Mindy (my favorite SC, besides Emilia) even calls her on this, and she seems to agree with Mindy, but she never seems to lend Alina the same kind of empathy she gives to literally anyone else in her life (her parents, Lisa, Andy, even Dean before they're on good terms). If she can have a whole conversation rationalizing to Alina why their mom is the way she is despite her fuckups, why can't she rationalize why Alina is the way she is? I get that she missed her. I have an older sibling, and if he just up and moved out and never kept in touch, I'd understandably be upset and miss that connection we used to have. I'm not saying Alina did everything right-- I definitely don't think she realized the impact her lack of contact would have on Arya, and she could've done better, but Arya literally calling her the most selfish person she knows was too far. So was Arya literally telling Alina to her face that she is to blame for their mom's depression while admitting to the reader that she knows this is wrong, all while being the peacemaker in EVERY other person's situation. This felt out-of-character even for someone who did what she did with the catering consultation. At least in that case, she was trying to help, even if she was severely misguided. This was just cruel. And I also completely understand why she was so angry when she found out that Alina planned to move even farther away after her wedding. While Alina had her reasons for not telling Arya, she definitely should've told her earlier, but I hated how Arya reacted-- instead of confronting her right away, she started skipping out on plans with no explanation and performatively showing passive-aggression any time Alina tried to talk (not even argue, just talk about anything) with her. At one point Mindy even tells her to just talk to Alina, but she doesn't listen. And don't even get me started on the scene where she goes into Alina's art studio and finds a painting that seems relevant to her struggles with both her mom and sister, and instead of thinking "oh shit, she's struggling too and I need to be more compassionate," she thinks "how dare she exploit our family's pain to further her art career." She didn't think about the fact that maybe Alina would paint as a coping mechanism? She didn't even consider it until Alina explained that to her when they reconciled at the end.
That being said, this doesn't mean I think Arya is a terrible person who didn't deserve any of the good things she got. She just should've tried to understand Alina the same way she tried to understand her mom.
And I agree with the reviewer who said the conflict between Arya and Lisa was entirely Lisa's fault for ghosting Arya. But at least Lisa acknowledged this, so it's not affecting my review.
Even if it felt like they went from hating each other to not hating each other too fast, I really liked Arya and Dean's relationship. And one plus of the constant conflict with Alina was that there was no third-act breakup with Dean, which I was grateful for. And the amount of mutual respect and getting to know each other that went into it (he watched Pride & Prejudice and wrote a letter for her! She started listening to country music for him and got to know his mom and sister!) was something I loved to see.
Also, the bookstore Arya works at is literally my dream workplace. And I liked that the chapters have names, but the names don't spoil them. And that there's a Bollywood song assigned to all the important characters at the end.

Can I write about “Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment” without mentioning its more complicated cousin, “Never Have I Ever”?

The resemblance is striking and difficult to miss, also because even the author - the young and talented Arushi Avachat - has said how much she loved Devi and how much she inspired her in writing Arya.
Personally, the comparison was the buzz kill: I've loved the show, I've been watching it since its first season, and while reading this story, I couldn't help but compare the two of them and wish Arya could have a tiny bit of Devi’s temper and delusion.

Why, you could ask. Well, this is not just a cute and funny story about an Indian girl’s first love.
Starting with Arya’s relationship with her sister, the latter is such a hypocrite who ends up making things worse than before. She’s the one who's more similar to Devi, making mistakes and never properly apologizing, other than being aware of having a terrible relationship with her mother but still deciding to do nothing about it, and knowing of having hurt her sister and still giving a poor excuse to her.
Then we have Lisa, who we don't know anything about, if not that she doesn't want to be friends with our protagonist. Arya doesn't say a single bad word about her, and even if she was in the wrong about all Andy’s stuff, she wasn't the one to shut down and push what was supposed to be her best friend since fourth grade away.
Finally, Dean. I get what the author tried to do with him and their enemies-to-lovers relationship, but we don't get enough of it to properly see that. Also, from her POV, I see why Arya got mad over the years about his comments and his attitude towards her. More than an enemies-to-lovers it felt more of a “If a guy pulls a girl’s ponytail…” type of situation.

Overall, this is what was promised.
But her lack of badassness - if that’s even a word - and her constant need to apologize without biting back made me so angry I couldn't enjoy it.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.