I adored this rom com! A little spicy and a lot of fun. Meghan and Karthik are a great match throughout this novel. We'll paced and plotted. Swoonworthy and not to be missed.

A spectacularly well-executed fake dating story with a cultural twist — I loved SAY YOU’LL BE MINE and Naina Kumar is now an auto-buy author for me. I connected immediately with both Meghna and Karthik and loved their journey towards not just faking an engagement but being together for real. The stakes for both characters were clear and strong (not always the case for me with this trope) and their relationship built beautifully over time as both softened towards each other. Their support of each other was just the icing on a very well-baked cake.

At this point (mainly due to trad pub), fake dating has been regurgitated so many times. Despite that I still requested this book to see if it did it in a unique way amid the backdrop of a desi south Asian culture. It tried, but ultimately it still felt lacking. For a fake dating to genuinely work, the stakes need to be higggh. Otherwise why are 2 adults faking a date when they don’t need to. Granted it’s easier to navigate that dynamic in a toxic, immigrant culture. I think this book rushed too quickly into the fake dating dynamic. The entire premise of the book cannot hinge on the fake dating aspect. Apart from the main characters, there was a lot of stuff going on with the best friend, Seth, and her brother that Karthik and Meghna, both characters I liked, got lost in the chaos.

I love a good fake dating troupe and this book did NOT disappoint. I wasn't sure how I'd feel starting the book but I quickly fell in love with Meghna and Karthik's story. I enjoyed watching their love story unfold and I couldn't help but enjoy they families as well. I love that Naina Kumar used arranged marriage as the jumping point for her story. I will definitely be reading more books by this author in the future! This is a definite feel good 4 star read for me!

Meghna Raman and Karthik Murthy are from Indian families who arrange for them to meet. Karthik has no intentions of marrying at all as he fears he will become his cold, uncaring father. While Meghna cannot wait to marry, but wants to marry ‘the one’.

When an opportunity arises for them to fake an engagement for mutually beneficial terms, Meghna doesn’t jump on it, but is slowly convinced.

I enjoyed the story once I got past the first 5 chapters. I definitely learned more about the Indian culture beyond arranged marriages and that was enlightening.

After much turmoil, drama, and misunderstandings, Meghna and Karthik find their happy ending with each other.

Say You’ll Be Mine

Immediate swoon. Fake Engagement trope! He falls hard! Miscommunication trope! POC characters duh! The best parts of a romance with the dynamics of culture and family dynamics involved. I was so obsessed this book that I even delayed CC3 to finish reading it. Not too much spice but the tension was immaculate. It was beautiful to see them both grow into better people that not only deserved one another but knew that they were worthy of each other as well. Finding that person that they could trust and know fully and want in their lives everyday was such a beautiful story. I loved seeing the process from we won’t ever get married to I want to be wherever you are no matter where that it. Wow seriously wow. Thank you to Naina Kumar and Random House Publishing House for giving me the opportunity to read this book before it was released! I immediately went and bought a copy when it was released!

This was such a great debut novel! I loved the Indian-American representation and the fun educational/cultural tidbits thrown in. Kumar wrote beautifully! I enjoyed the twists to the plot she threw at us, but also that she gave us the happily every after we obviously wanted! Highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoy the following tropes:
• Fake engagement/Fake dating
• Indian-American Representation
• Grumpy Sunshine
• One Bed
• Opposites attract
• Sworn off relationships

Meghna and Karthik enter into a fake engagement arrangement for their mutual benefit. Though there is chemistry between them they each carry misconceptions about the other and spend much of the book denying their growing feelings.

Meghna believes herself to be in love with her college boyfriend who is an absolute USER. Thankfully the author handles this well and vengeance was sweet. Karthik is adamant that marriage is not for him and this gives Meghan the impression that he is cold and unyielding when in reality he is carrying past hurt and anxiety from his family upbringing.

As a debut I see that Kumar has a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing her growth as an author. My main complaint is that the misunderstanding and miscommunication trope was overdone and repetitive leaving me weary by the end. The two could have resolved the misunderstandings much sooner and it would have been a much more enjoyable read.

I did enjoy both main characters and felt that the author wrote them with excellent chemistry, I loved learning about South Asian culture and family dynamic, I felt like once the communication did finally clear between the two mains that they had a solid foundation for a relationship and believed in their HEA.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

So cute! An obviously predictable rom-com but the story throughout was great and I loved both of their personalities. They both became strong and more independent people through joining together which was beautiful. I’m glad she ditched Seth, he was not worth her time or affection. Overall it was a great story and I hope she writes more in the future!

I like this writers style of writing but the characters in the story were awful. The only tolerable one was the MMC. There was a ton of drama and stress added and it got to a point it felt unnecessary. The story also felt drawn out just to keep the drama going. I have never seen a book with so many misunderstandings every time the MMC did or said anything she immediately took it a bad/wrong way. This is the slowest burn I’ve ever read nothing spicy happened until 98% into the audiobook and by then I was so over the story I just wanted it to be over.

She glazed over her best friend betrayal about her hooking up with her brother and it’s like that’s okay! It was just so awful and then for her brother to ruin her friends marriage and say well I still don’t know if I want her …… it feels like this was just a set up for another book and took away from the main characters

Let’s not even talk about her Letting this person she claims is a friend take advantage of her how can she clearly see things with MMC but can’t see Seth BS 56% into the audiobook almost wanted to DNF. The only thing that stopped me was the amazing narrator. Had I just been reading, I would have to DNF.

So unrealistic in my opinion to stay in love with some guy from college who you dated a few months and now you don’t want to date in the hopes he regrets breaking up with you so you say yes to any and everything they want to hope he wants you back.

The main characters don’t tell each other how they feel until the very end of the book the rest is just drama and misunderstanding and lack of communication.

This book is a perfect example of someone (FMC) mad at everyone and everything but the true issues.

Fake engagement has to be my least favorite trope in a romance novel, but somehow Naina Kumar made me a believer. Meghna and Karthik managed to have great banter, good chemistry, and a believable love story. 4 stars from me.

Meghna is still in love with her college boyfriend, Seth, who broke her heart when he insisted that they would be much better off as friends. Meghna meets Karthik when their Indian parents arrange a meeting between the families. Karthik has promised his mom that he would be open to finding a wife through a traditional Indian arrangement, and so he asks Meghna to fake an engagement so that he can assuage his mothers wishes. Meghna, who recently received Seth's wedding invitation, agrees so that she can have a date to his wedding. Feelings develop, and I'm sure you can see where this is going to go! BUT, because quick engagements and arrangements are more common in Indian families, I just found this trope so much more believable and enjoyable as a reader!

Cozy up with this one and the characters favorite dish -- panipuri -- for a most enjoyable read.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

I wanted to absolutely love this book, I really did! It started off strong, and I enjoyed the “arranged marriage” setup for as a substitute for fake dating. However, as the book went on, I became frustrated by the lack of communication between the two MCs. It felt like many of their problems would have been solved if they’d only had a conversation about how they felt and what they wanted, instead of spending their whole inner monologue thinking that the other character wasn’t interested. I also felt that there was too much focus on secondary characters, and I would’ve preferred to spend more time with Meghna and Karthik.

Separately, I thought the MCs were really interesting and well written! Meghna’s struggle between her parent’s expectations and her own will resonate with anyone who’s defied their family to pursue their own path, and I thought Karthik was a fascinating study in what it looks like for an arranged marriage to go wrong. I understood both of their reasonings for their actions and thoughts, but again, I eventually grew tired of the lack of communication.

Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to future books from this author, because I think this was well-written and had a unique premise that I especially enjoyed!

3.5 rounded to 4

A respectable debut romance brings in Indian culture, which is a strong plus. Meghna, our heroine, became a teacher instead of the engineer her parents wanted. Karthik is being hassled to marry. It's pretty much the typical fake dating setup, both wanting to get their families to back off.

Complications are Meghna's friend having kissed Meghna's brother when she's engaged to a great guy, and the tension in their friendship, and the fact that she's to be "best man" at a guy friend's wedding--to someone else, which hurts Meghna. And Kathnik sees what's going on there.

Strengths? The cultural details and family dynamics. Could be stronger? The whole novel kind of ticks the plot boxes for fake dating to romance. Maeghna's friend's issue felt tacked on, and I wanted to skim, and I saw the problem with Seth from the gitgo. The inevitable Dark Moment could have been prevented with five minutes of talk, but at least it was worked out fairly quickly. Overall a fun read!

Say You'll Be Mine by Naina Kumar is a debut novel. Meghna has always followed her passion, writing. Even though it lead her to be teaching theater instead of writing her own plays, she still defied her parents to do so. When Meghna learns that her ex and writer partner is now engaged and want her to be his best man, she finally agrees to be set up by her parents. Karthik has allowed his mother 1 year of matchmaking before she calls it quits. He knows he'll never get married so outside of the time commitment, everyone wins. When he meets Meghna, he realizes they could pretend to get engaged and they can both get something out of this.
This was a really sweet rom com. I loved the conclusion at the end and the relationships between the main characters.

Meghna and Karthik are set up by their parents. Both of them basically agree to it to make their mothers happy. But Karthik actually agreed to a year of his mother’s match making and his mother is going all in. He recently had 8 dates in a row. He can’t tell his mom that he doesn’t want to get married.

Meghna and Karthik meet and soon realize that pretending to be engaged could help them both. It would mean Karthik’s mom will stop trying to find him a match and it will guarantee Meghna a date to her ex-boyfriend Seth’s wedding.

They start finding more reasons to spend time together. Despite them living in different states they become a regular part of each other’s lives.

But as they start to get closer, there’s still the lingering fact that Karthik doesn’t want to get married ever.

I enjoyed this story. I liked the characters, especially Meghna, and Karthik was so awkwardly romantic sometimes.

I also felt like the epilogue gave the reader a good, and believable, resolution to this story.

I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley. Thank you!

A super-sweet fake engagement/arranged marriage trope, with a touch of he falls first. Borderline unputdownable -- I was rooting for these two from the very start.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Dell for a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! The chemistry between Meghna and Karthik was excellent. The slow burn and fake dating were well executed.

My only complaint was how Seth’s story arc resolved. Seth is a manipulative and emotionally abusive man child who has never had an original thought in his life. He lures talented women who are in all ways better than him into his orbit and makes them question their creative self worth while plagiarizing their work for himself. When Meghna and Julie finally talked and realized that they had written literally everything good that Seth had published I expected the wedding to get called off and Seth to be exposed as a plagiarizing douche bag in front of everyone. I hated that Julie still married him because she was worried about how the scandal of calling off her wedding would impact her career….but wouldn’t that scandal have been completely overshadowed by the much bigger scandal of Seth’s plagiarism being exposed??? I wanted more justice for these women. I hated that he basically got away with his terrible behavior without any real consequences.

Overall, I was satisfied with how every other character’s stories resolved and I had a ton of fun reading this.

Thanks to NetGalley for this arc! Say You’ll Be Mine was a great read, with romance (and side characters who could have their own book), family dynamics, and fake dating. I hope I can read another book by this author, because I loved the world from this book!

This book was a very enjoyable read as the characters were well written and the storyline seemed realistic. I had not read this writer before but I will look for other books going forth. This is a story of two people looking to not hurt their families wishes while trying not to compromise their own goals. The families want their children to find a marriage match either through a family made match or a love match. Fake match ups seems to be a trend in many rom-coms these days but this was not over blown and silly. There were a few scenes that needed tightening up but overall, I give this story a thumbs up.

To say that I loved this book would not do my feelings justice. I more than loved this book. I loved every single moment of this book. This book tugged at my heart strings, it made me laugh, it made me feel cozy and comfy- just everything that you want in a cute little romance novel. It's not explicit which I found very refreshing, and overall I just loved both Meghna and Karthik! I absolutely love Desi culture and representation, especially coming from Desi author's themselves! This put Naina Kumar on the map for me, and I absolutely look forward to reading more of what she writes!