Very interesting to read. Wish there were more elements added. Otherwise love the references to Bollywood movies it was so nostalgic.

First of all, I would like to thank Xpresso Book Tours and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange of an honest review.
-
The synopsis of the book and the gorgeous cover really caught my attention, so I was really excited to read a Bollywood inspired romance. Sadly, from the very first chapter (the Prologue) all my excitement went down by 90%.
The prologue was all over the place, with information being carelessly throw in passing and characters being introduced in a flat manner. I thought maybe the rest of the book would be more fleshed out and the confusion would cease as I read, like when there’s an info dump of information in fantasy books and you get the hook of plot after the first three chapters. But oh boy, that did not happen.
-
First of all, Katrina acted as if she was an immature 14y old even thought she was 28y and the super serious and important manager of her family’s huge company. And the same can be applied to her cousins, sisters and even friends. The dialogue was cringe most of the time, and the constant reminder of how Katri was so hot, and sexy, and had huge boobs honestly started to annoy me after some time. And when her sisters and cousin literally started singing Body by Megan Thee Stallion (not once but twice) I had to stop and close the book.

And don’t even get me started on Evan. The first time he sees Katri five out of seven words is him lusting after her body and commenting on how good her English was. Dude, she’s literally born and raised in Chicago??? His friend Jaime was no better, and the constant remarks and comments about “Indian spice” “hot bodies” and other sexist and fetishisation passages did not seat well with me.

The plot of the book went nowhere. I was at 70% of it wondering what could possibly happen in the last 30% that had not happened yet. The last 10% of the book had a bunch of things happening at the same time and the epilogue was like a bucket of freezing water, with the book ending out of nowhere leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

The Pride and Prejudice reference was poorly written and executed, and absolutely did not make the plot move forward because in the next five pages Evan apologises and that’s it. His constant attitude and mood swings in the beginning of the book also left me confused and made the pace strange.

The main characters personalities in general were non existent apart from the fact that: a)Katri was hot and sexy and had lush curves and sexy; b) Evan did not want to be famous; c) they both had anxiety and panic attacks. The side characters were not much better, with their “personalities” being literally the same and all forgettable and just there to fill the gaps.
-
In addition, I’m not South Asian or Indian, so I was really excited to read about Katri’s culture and traditions but it was a bit of a let down. Apart from the wedding traditions I did not feel as if her culture was very explored. Even Katrina’s mother’s speech about her cousin marrying a black girl and how they should be accepted regardless of that, with her even comparing their situation with when she (a Pakistani) married Katri’s father, felt flat given how it was throw more like an afterthought and so out of sync with the rest of other scenes/paragraphs written.
-
I found a lot of typos and grammar mistakes in the book, not to mention the constant shifts between verbal tenses in scenes that were happening during the time period. The flashbacks scenes also felt a bit disconnected from the rest of the book, starting and finishing without warning.

The mental health topic is very important and interesting, but it was approached similarly with the rest of the “plot”: some lines here and there thrown in anyway, disconnected from the rest of the scene, later to be repeated countless times as the book progressed.

To be completely honest, the book read like a bad Wattpad fanfic written by a 13 year old. The ideia was innovative and had potential, which sadly was wasted. It desperately needs an editor to go through the mistakes I mentioned above, not so say to an agent and beta reader to sit down with the author and orient them on how to properly flesh out the plot and characters.
-
I thought about DNFing the book countless times, which pains me to say when I was kindly given the ARC to read. At the end, after powering through the reading all I can do is give it 1 (one) star out of 5 (five).

Sadly, I won’t be recommending this book to anyone I know any time soon.

I had such high expectations for this, but it ended up being really cliche. There was a consistent emphasis on wealth which was annoying.

I was so looking forward to reading a cute romance about two people who come from different backgrounds but are drawn together. Unfortunately, this didn’t work for me. Although the book alternates between Ethan and Katrina, they both sounded so similar in the way that they were written that it was difficult to distinguish between the two; the only real discernable way was because Ethan’s point of view was often sprinkled with his lust for Katrina. This might have been better served as being told from only one point of view because of this. This one just didn’t work for me.

I really wanted to like this book more, but it just didn't do it for me. While I liked the two main characters and thought they worked well together, it seemed to take more of a backseat to the rest of the plot instead of being the main story line. This book is an easy, light read so if that's what you're in the mood for you may still like this one.

I liked aspects of this and I think the mental health rep was pretty good. It felt authentic and gave enough detail of the cultures on display.

*ARC recieved via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

As over the top as Bollywood is, this book would fit right in. I liked that it showed the history of Pakistan/India instead of just saying the family was from India.

Pros:
The love quotes from famous Bollywood movies at the beginning of each chapter
The Bollywood songs mentioned throughout
The love between the family members and how much they take care of each other.
The respect between the siblings, your original ride or dies.
The main character (Katrina) not giving a damn what the aunties think and doing her best to hold herself up and not be brought down by the patriarchy and misogyny that is still happening today (both in the States and India)

Cons:
The constant F word. I am not against curse words, but sometimes it felt too much.
The description of things around but making sure you knew it was expensive (large computer monitor was a standout that I was like okay no need for “large”)
The switching between Katrina and Evan's persepctive wasnt streamlined, and the flashbacks to her previous moments was like a jump without any warning, you're like "what just happened?"

But at the end of the day you are looking for a super lovey-dovey book themed around elaborate weddings and clothes, then this book is for you and your auntie.

There truly needs to be more desi romance books out there. I've read with a few teen desi romances that are all wonderful, but this was my first adult romance featuring desi MCs and it gave me all the feels of my favorite Netflix romcoms. the wedding craze is so real and I loved the trope of the girl who hates fame colliding with.. fame itself. it's so funny to me to see them try to exist around each other despite him not being what she was looking for.

"A Not So Bollywood Meet Cute"

I would first like to start off by saying thank you for allowing me to be an ARC reviewer for this book.

I was super excited to read a book involving desi culture, however, I didn't like the book as much as I thought I would.
The writing style was just not for me.
In terms of the book itself, it was great to read a book involving mental health and desi culture/community. The relationship between the characters felt a little... forced to me. I just didn't feel what I wanted to feel.
The prologue at the start of the book threw me off a little.

Overall I would give this book a 3/5

Thank you so much again for allowing me to be an ARC reader for this book.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for this ARC of ‘A Not So Bollywood Meet Cute’ by Miya Malai.

A book that portrays mental health issues and therapy well is in instant must read in my opinion. This book not only does this but has a fantastic plot alongside it. I think the two main characters, Katrina and Evan, are so likeable too which made me more invested in this story. This ticked every single box and I cannot wait to read more from this author.

A not so Bollywood meet cute

Well this book was such a pleasure to read.
It handles topics as mental health really well, both main characters both experiencing anxiety and panic attacks but both having therapy.

Both main characters Katrina Shah and Evan Kristof are so likeable. I loved the side characters as well especially Katrina family.

There was so much chemistry between these two and you could definitely see the draw they had to each other.

Yes there is a third act breakup but a very happy ending.

Duo pov which is always fun to read.

If you are looking for a easy read that makes you feel good this is a good one.

I was kindly gifted this book by netgalley but the views are mine

🌟🌟🌟🌟

Interracial romance story? Yes please! Anyway, here are my thoughts.

A few character POVs are included. A couple of things I like about the book are the setting, some of the characters, and the culture. The writing is more of a casual style, which is okay for me. I sometimes get confused by some parts of a book that I have to re-read the paragraphs again before I understand. Some triggers are going on, like mental health problems and invasion of privacy. Overall, the story is decent. Not bad!

3.5 stars, close to 4.

*ARC recieved via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

HOO BOY! I'm about to go on a rant so pls bear with me. I was so excited about this book the moment I heard about it. I live and breathe Bollywood, so of course, finding a romance book which was so heavily Bollywood inspired, by a desi author at that, seemed like a dream come true.

I started reading and the author's note mentioned Yash Chopra & Aditya Chopra, and I got even more excited cause if you're a Bollywood buff, you know that these Chopra men basically invented romance. The book opened with a quote from a Bollywood movie for every chapter and the first one was the opening poetry from Veer Zaara! I will not lie, I actually squealed. In this house we do not joke about Veer Zaara, the best romantic movie of all time.

Sorry, but setting the stage is very important. Y'all need to understand. I was EXCITED EXCITED. I really thought this was gonna be romance of the year. And then this was utter rubbish. I felt so betrayed, honestly. The author promised a Bollywood-esque romance but failed to deliver on every single account. This didn't make me feel 1% of what even the trashiest Bollywood movies can evoke in a viewer.

It felt like the characters all had the same personality. There was a huge ensemble in this one but every single character, and especially the women, were totally interchangeable. I cannot tell you how to distinguish one woman from another except they have different names. Their personalities are all the same which is basically just to talk about sex, actually. Literally 90% of the conversations in this book are about that. Which, I love sex positive books, but a character needs to have a personality beyond that as well! It was severely lacking here.

We see that Evan, the MMC, first sees Katrina, the FMC, at an event she's hosting. She's thanking the crowd for turning up and his first thought is that he's surprised she doesn't have an accent. Then he comments on how her English is even better than his. Basically implying that because she's brown, he didn't think she could speak English. Also bish you also have an accent. It's called American! Wtf? After that, he immediately starts lusting after her and then spends the entire book talking about the "crazy chemistry" they seem to have but it was just so bland? Not one single scene between the two of them had even a drop of sexual tension. At first they try to fight this seemingly overpowering sexual tension but then give in so quickly? Also, the sex scenes? Extremely cringey.

It's so silly though because once they start sleeping together it feels like they interact even less? It's just mentioned how they somehow fall into a pattern of spending all their time together but even then they have more page time with Katrina's family than each other. Which is so annoying. Don't get me wrong. I love a good ensemble. They always make things so interesting. But here, having all these characters only took away from the romance. They all got too much screen time for doing absolutely nothing actually. Just having the same conversations again and again. It was fucking boring after a point like yes we get it y'all can only talk about each other's romantic relationships and nothing else.

There was so much telling and zero showing. I absolutely did not connect with the characters' mental health issues at all because wdym I've been having panic attacks for 5 years but then it's not something that is explored properly. Same goes for the hero's anxiety issues. I know that he has them because he constantly keeps saying he has anxiety, but we don't see much about it.

These two just fall into bed together then 10 days later I love yous are being exchanged and I'm like wtf how? They have had maybe two meaningful conversations in this time. It's absolutely ridiculous. Why can Evan write 5 pages on how hot and sexy Katrina is but when it comes to her personality it's only that she's kind and hard-working? What even?

It also annoyed me that the author would keep saying so and so character said this in Hindi but then the dialogue would actually be in English. It was like, Mom said in Hindi, "How are you?" EITHER COMMIT TO THE BIT AND PUT ACTUAL HINDI WORDS OR DONT MENTION THE LANGUAGE. What is the need to half-ass it like this? It is understandable that since they're living in America and the book is also an English language book, the characters are communicating in English. You don't have to pull shit like this it only makes the story more annoying.

Also, this might seem petty to you but how dare someone call themselves a bollywood fan and then say yaad piya ki aane lagi is neha kakkar's song???? DUNKING ON FALGUNI PATHAK'S LEGACY LIKE THIS? HAVE SOME SHAME FFS HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF A BOLLYWOOD FAN? GO DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

Another thing that really bothered me was the constant Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai talk as if it's not common knowledge that he was an abusive boyfriend to her and made her life miserable when they were together. There are so many sizzling pairs in Bollywood that don't actually have such shoddy back stories but then the author had to go and choose this one couple to make the heroine swoon over? WHY?

Anyway yeah save yourself the trouble of reading this and instead watch a Bollywood movie to make better use of your time. I would suggest Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Veer Zaara, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai for starters.

2.5 stars
-
First of all I would like to thank Netgalley as well as Miya Malai for allowing me to read the arc in exchange for an honest review.
-
Honestly the book was okay, it was easy to read and flowed pretty nicely.
I loved seeing the rep of mental health and the indian culture in a mainstream book.
I liked Katrina and Evan as characters but i think a lot of the other side characters (and there are a bunch) kind of just fell flat because they just seemed like the same person with the same personality.
-
I really appreciated the mental health rep in the book however i did find it a bit repetitive at times because we would read about an anxiety attack from the past that one of the character's experienced, then in the next chapter the other character would ask them about their anxiety and then we'd have to read yet another story about their anxiety.
-
One of my biggest complaints about this book is just the fact that a lot of the book seemed to take place from recollections of the past, i don't want to spoil anything for anyone looking to read the book, but i felt more like the character was talking to me about an experience rather than us seeing them experience these things themself. (iykyk)
-
The dialogue was okay, i did find some characters would say things that no real person would actual say and it just made the scene seem kind of cringey. There were also a bunch of repeat words which got a bit annoying to read over and over, in the chapters about the wedding the words "hot" and "sexy" were use constantly.
-
Now, I'm all for books having smut in them however, in this book specifically I didn't like how the first time we met Evan (chapter 2), he was instantly lusting over Katrina and even through out the book he is able to go into detail about how her body looks but when it comes to her personality he can only say that she's generous, giving, kind and a hard worker... He also starts to talk about how he feels such a connection with her in one sentence and then follows it up with only talking about her body. It was hard for me to really believe they were in love if I'm being honest.
-
The overall idea of this book is amazing, unfortunately I feel like the book still needed some editing to really make it stand out

This was a cute book. The setting was well done and I enjoyed this book a lot. The banter was cute. I would recommend this book.

This book fell a little flat for me. The conversations felt forced and flat, and there was a lot of filler included that didn't seem to contribute to the main plot. I was hoping this would align to books by Nalini Singh - who knocks Desi Romance out of the ballpark - but this wasn't close.

Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest reviews.

Absolutely enamored by 'A Not So Bollywood Meet Cute,' this novel takes readers on a glamorous journey into the lives of its protagonists, a captivating Indian woman and her white counterpart, both thrust into the limelight of the celebrity world. The narrative beautifully explores their experiences managing anxiety amid their high-profile lives, offering a unique peek into the mental states of characters grappling with the pressures of fame. Interestingly, the story draws subtle parallels to actors from Marvel movies, adding an extra layer of intrigue.

A notable aspect of the book is its exploration of an Indian wedding, delving into cultural traditions and providing readers with a rich understanding of diverse practices. The spicy dynamics between the protagonists add an extra zing to the narrative, making it a flavorful read.

'A Not So Bollywood Meet Cute' by Miya Malai unfolds as a delightful and flirtatious romance, starring Bollywood star Katrina Shah and Hollywood actor Evan Kristof. Their meeting at a friend's wedding sparks an intense connection, but they must navigate challenges ranging from eccentric relatives to media scrutiny and cultural disparities. The book, while entertaining, is not without its clichés, stereotypes, and a bit of lacking depth in characters and plot. Nonetheless, it offers a light-hearted and enjoyable reading experience, complete with witty dialogue, steamy scenes, and a sweet conclusion.

As a brown reader, I found a relatable connection to Katrina's character and her struggles with familial and societal expectations. Her portrayal as a strong, independent, and ambitious woman, simultaneously vulnerable and caring, resonated with authenticity. The attempt to empower the voices of brown girls and celebrate cultural nuances is commendable, even though there's room for improvement in avoiding common tropes and stereotypes.

The multicultural aspect of the couple, the inclusion of Indian culture and family life, the spiciness, and the portrayal of a strong, independent female lead in a male-dominated industry are all commendable elements of the book. However, some drawbacks include a rushed feel, a perceived lack of connection between the main characters, and a preference for side characters over the protagonists. Additionally, a need for more thorough editing and a reevaluation of the story's pacing were noted.

In summary, 'A Not So Bollywood Meet Cute' brings fresh elements to the romance genre, celebrating cultural diversity and shedding light on contemporary issues. While not without its flaws, the novel promises an entertaining experience, especially for those who appreciate Bollywood-inspired stories.

A heartfelt thank you to the author for providing an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review, and for reaching out on Instagram. The Bollywood references and the exploration of mental health stigmas in the Desi community were particularly appreciated. However, improvements in editing and character chemistry are suggested for future works.

A Not So Bollywood Meet Cute is about Katrina Shah, the daughter of wealthy Indian immigrants living in Chicago, and Evan Kristoff, an actor in the Wondery Cinematic Galaxy playing Legend USA (it’s giving Riverdale cheese vibes). Both MCs suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and are able to bond over both their attraction to each other and their mental health journeys. They’ve been orbiting each other for a while, with his sister volunteering at her organization, and when they finally meet at a charity event it’s lust at first sight.

The good: Both MCs are on equal footing. Both are successful in their careers and there is no power dynamic between the two. Both MCs have already been through the bad and just need to come to terms with a new relationship. They can understand each other because they’ve already put in the work individually (it’s refreshing to see!). I genuinely value that neither MC takes on a role of caregiver/therapist for the other. There are differences between supporting each other and managing each other's emotions and Katrina and Evan are truly supportive partners. Both MCs cultures/families play a big part in their lives. There are multiple references to parental/familial support, even as simple as preparing a cup of chai.

The bad: The name Evan Kristoff - this is a personal bit for me but it’s too close to the name of the very likely inspiration and I ended up calling him Chris in my head too often. The relationship evolves really fast considering the FMC starts out hesitant to start anything, and the big *moment* at the end seems to be the exact opposite of what she’s looking for. The MMC best friend - he comes across as really skeezy in my opinion, and there’s not much to redeem him.

Honest review: I’m glad I read it but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. 3/5

I did not like the author's writing style, it was more like a fanfiction/wattpad type of writer .Everything was too literal and spelled out. Unnecessary details and a direct dive into a complicated prologue really turned me off to the book. I'm sure younger readers, or people just getting into the genre might like this, but it just was not for me. A shame because the blurb really interested me! I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

the prologue was not very well-paced and quite confusing, to be honest, which put me off while reading the rest of the book. overall, an okay read with an interesting plot, but i couldn't gel with the writing style.