Sweet second-chance romance between estranged spouses, stuck together in their marital home during a hurricane.

Meena (the first person protagonist) is a great character, both ambitious and vulnerable. Her husband, Nikhil, is appealing in a realistic way, and I could imagine these two as a successful couple. Plus, Meena has an interesting, relatable backstory that makes her more sympathetic without her history becoming the focus of the plot.

While trapping Meena and Nikhil together in a hurricane was a great way to push them together, it meant we didn't see much of their lives - especially Meena's - under normal conditions. This made it easy for me to root for Meena and Nikhil, even though it meant she had to give up her new city (and apartment and job and sort-of-boyfriend). But it felt empty, and a little bit unfair to Meena's (fictional) regular life and the people in it, to simply keep them offstage so they'd be easier to give up.

I really enjoyed the experience of reading this book. It was well-paced and drew me in quickly, and the storm was intense enough to keep things exciting without ever feeling overly tense or thriller-ish. I was rooting for Meena and Nikhil to get their happy ending, and I'm hoping Meena's grumpy, straight-shooting big sister might get a book of her own.

Meena's life is going exactly as she's always planned. She's a high power lawyer, living and working in DC. She has a partner who understands her goals and supports her, plus they plan to run for office together. All her life plans are falling into place. There's just one hurdle, her husband Nikhil. She hasn't seen him in years, but until he signs the divorce papers, she can't move forward with her life. She decides to confront him face to face and get the papers signed no matter what. Mother Nature has other plans. Now she is stuck with her "ex" during a severe hurricane, in the home they lived in together. Old memories, hurts, and feelings are all brought back and causing conflict between logic and emotions.
This book was so different from the usual second chance rom-coms. There was so much emotion and internal turmoil involved. Meena and Nikheel's relationship was complex. I understood Meena's struggle to follow her heart and yet want to make a logical decision. The relationship with her sister and parents, while not touched on too much, was so understandable as a South Asian. The pressure to not repeat mistakes and gain approval sometimes becomes one's identity, and it's hard to differentiate between the real you and the person who wants to please everyone. I think this book will really resonate with a lot of immigrant children. It was not mentioned a lot in the story, but the weight of it was felt throughout. I really appreciated the author's take on this struggle.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing-Ballentine for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to root for the romance in this so bad, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t find a reason for Nikhil and Meena to be together. After all the time apart and each of them growing independently, they still couldn’t communicated with each other open up willingly. I think the hurricane vibes were depicted perfectly, loved the neighbors, and Meena’s interactions with her sister. If this story was just Meena’s journey to figure out her life next steps it would’ve been a five star.

Meena returns to Houston to confront her estranged husband and demand a divorce after Nikhil ignored all other requests from her lawyer. When a hurricane grounds all flights, Meena is forced to take shelter from the storm with Nikhil in the home they used to share. Memories resurface and chemistry sizzles in this tender and sweet second chance romance.

A Sweet Home Alabama reimagining?? Say less.

This book tugged at my heartstrings. There are glimpses into their shared past, illuminating their previous missteps and how those shape the present. These moments added vulnerability throughout this novel, building both tension and anticipation. What stood out most were the quiet, intimate ways they cared for each other, the small acts of kindness speaking volumes. Their relationship grew through these heartfelt gestures, making their journey all the more impactful. While there are moments of Hallmark-sweetness, this book shines in the raw moments between partners.

I recommend this book to romance readers who are drawn to stories with tender, intimate moments and characters who grow through vulnerability.

Thank you Ballantine Books and Dell for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

4.5 ⭐️

As a lifelong Sweet Home Alabama fan, I could not wait to get my hands on Naina’s sophomore novel.

This story had such a hold on me and when I picked it up to read a few chapters, the next thing I knew I was already over halfway. I love the YEARNING that comes with a second chance romance and when you throw a hurricane into the mix, well, that makes for a story that is impossible to put down.

Naina did such a beautiful job of creating a story and characters that were both realistic and deeply relatable as they navigated generational expectations, professional aspirations, challenging family dynamics, and personal insecurities. These characters were beautiful messes and I loved watching them work through the past, grow, and ask for forgiveness. I love how they both accepted and voiced the part they played in the past and worked together to regain trust, more effectively communicate, and provide the other with the kind of support and encouragement they needed.

I really enjoyed this! After loving this and Say You’ll Be Mine, I definitely consider Naina Kumar to be an auto-buy author for me! <3

Flirting with Disaster follows Meena, who returns to Houston to finalize her divorce from her estranged husband Nikhil, but a hurricane traps them together in their old house.

I did get frustrated by the amount of miscommunication between the two of them but by the end I grew to understand why the two of them acted the way they did. Meena was driven by her own ambition and her parents expectations and Nikhil had his own insecurities and always wanted to put Meena first even if it meant not going after what he wanted. They definitely needed the time apart to grow in order to be better together. I’m not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope but I think it was done very well in this book.

I loved the two of them together. Their relationship was so sweet and heart-warming. I loved how much Nikhil cared for her by putting her ambitions and career first.

I did love how Meena’s memories were used to tell the story of their first relationship and you could tell how fondly she looked back on them. This was such a beautifully written story.

This book definitely had Sweet Home Alabama vibes, which I loved! This heartfelt story is all about rekindling an old flame and two characters discovering what they want from their own lives and from each other.

In this second chance romance, Meena returns to her hometown of Houston to persuade her estranged husband, Nikhil, to finally sign off on their divorce. An unexpected hurricane forces them to shelter together and face their past.

This story was nicely written and I enjoyed the growing tension and renewed attraction between Meena and and Nikhil as they faced the challenges of the hurricane and confronted their past. While the character of Meena frustrated me at times, I appreciated her journey of self discovery and enjoyed watching her rediscover her passion in both her professional and personal lives. I had a soft spot for Nikhil and was rooting for him from the beginning. The one thing that I felt a bit frustrated by in this story was all of the miscommunication and situations that could have been avoided had these characters just told each other how they felt! Ultimately, it was pleasure to watch them find their way back to each other.

Thank you so much to Dell and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book! I’m excited to go back and read Kumar’s debut novel and look forward to future releases!

an absolute masterclass in the art of the second chance romance. Angsty, tender, emotional, and beautifully written.

✅ Meena, lawyer & Abhishek (Shake), also a lawyer & Nikhil, Meena’s husband, contractor
✅ Sweet Home Alabama vibes
✅ Meena & Nikhil separated 6 years ago, and never finalized their divorce. Meena heads back to Houston to finalize it, and get caught in a massive hurricane
✅ second chance romance
🌶️: a little

I really enjoyed this!

I have heard about this story but hadn’t read many reviews of it before so I went in blindly. The writing is addicting to where you want to know what’s going to happen next. Will they fall apart again or will their love for each other win in the end? It is not your typical forced proximity romance as there is so much more depth in what the characters are fighting for. The truths they tell each other and the lies they are telling themselves and each other that probably so many readers will be able to relate to at some point in their life. Definitely a book everyone should be checking out when it releases!

Was really happy I got to get this book early. It was truly a great read and I was beyond happy that the setting took place in Houston. I was also beyond excited to see different cultural representation. I only had wished this book would have been in Dual POV to at least see he's side of the story and history/flashbacks. Overall, fantastic feel good, second chance romance!

Thanks to Dell for an advanced copy of Flirting With Disaster by Naina Kumar, which comes out on 1/14.

I really wanted to like this book more, but this book was a second-chance romance that originally fell apart due to not communicating and honestly they didn't communicate with each other 7 years later during the book.

The plot idea was fun -- a take on Sweet Home Alabama with her in DC growing her political career and him in Houston and they are stuck together during a hurricane when she comes to get the divorce papers signed.

This was a quick read and I did like the writing style and I'll read more of Naina Kumar's books!

This was a lovely read to start 2025 with! It is a beautiful, enthralling second-chance romance. I was hooked right away and thought the author handled the miscommunication trope well - which is not something I typically find.

☝️Single POV
👩‍❤️‍👨 2nd Chance Romance
🗣️Miscommunication
📍Houston, TX
🌀 Forced Proximity via Hurricane
🇮🇳 Indian-American representation

Thanks to Netgalley and Dell Romance (Random House) for the eARC! Publishing January 13th!

Flirting With Disaster is a heartwarming, second-chance romance with a touch of stormy suspense. Meena, an ambitious lawyer, is determined to finalize her divorce from Nikhil, her ex-husband. After sending him divorce papers and receiving no response, she impulsively flies to Texas to confront him. However, a hurricane traps them together in the house they once shared, forcing the couple to face their unresolved feelings.

Meena can be frustrating at times, driven by insecurity and ambition, often making selfish decisions. Her ongoing connection with Shake, a potential new love interest, also felt unnecessary. Nikhil, however, is much more relatable, with his honesty and vulnerability making him an easy character to root for.

Despite these flaws, the book is beautifully written, exploring love, forgiveness, and self-discovery. Flirting With Disaster is a compelling, angsty, and heartfelt story about growth and second chances. A satisfying read with 4 rekindling stars!

After spending the last six years building her career as a D.C. attorney, Meena is finally returning to Houston for the sole purpose of having her estranged husband finally sign off on their divorce. But in her haste, she failed to follow the weather forecast and it isn't until she's about to confront Nikhil that she realizes she's flown right into the path of an oncoming hurricane. So now she's trapped with a man she hasn't seen or spoken to in years. Will Nikhil finally sign off on the divorce, or will Meena have a change of heart?

I loved this book. It was a bit heavy at times, weaving in Indian American cultural ideals with the general heaviness that accompanies the heartbreak associated with a first love. But Naina Kumar did a fantastic job telling Meena and Nikhil's love story with the kind of detail that makes you feel truly invested in their relationship. I fell in love with both Meena and Nikhil, and with Naina Kumar.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Dell for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gorgeous and interesting romance with a very fun protagonist pairing and interesting vibes with the whole political backdrop. 5 stars. tysm for the arc

3.75 stars rounded up

My Sweet Home Alabama, second chance romance loving self ATE THIS BOOK UP. If you’re a fan of romcoms but add an element of depth to it, you need to check this one out.

ALSO can we talk about the writing style for a hot second cause oh my lanta it was stunning. Dare I say almost lyrical?!? So don’t mind me checking out this author’s backlist next year cause it’s now a must for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Flirting with Disaster.

I was really excited to get an early copy of this book because I enjoyed Nina Kumar's debut, Say You'll Be Mine, a lot and it is a Sweet Home Alabama retelling. And this novel is one of my favorite tropes: second chance romance. But it bumped up against three of my romance craft icks which diminished my enjoyment quite a bit.

Meena is the daughter of Indian immigrants who had immense pressure placed on her by her parents to succeed in all things, especially after her sister had a baby out of wedlock in college. She is now a successful lawyer in DC who is contemplating a run for office with her boyfriend but there is one problem: she is married to a man she hasn't seen in six years. Meena and Nikhil got married on a drunken night in Las Vegas after several few months of dating and were married for a year before things fell apart. Now Meena needs a divorce to move on with her life and goals so she heads to Houston to get Nikhil to sign the papers. But as she arrives at the house they used to share, a hurricane rolls in, forcing her to shelter in place with the man she never wanted to be with again.

I want to start with the things I liked about this book before we dig into my icks. I enjoy Naina Kumar's writing style. I think she does a good job of capturing a character's voice and paces conflict well. I also appreciate the work she put into creating the secondary characters in this book– they felt fully formed and integral to the story.

Ok, on to the icks! I'm going to bullet them for ease of communication:
- Tense: The bulk of this book is told in 1st person, present tense (not my favorite but I can deal with it). But when Kumar covers things that happened in the past, she slips into 1st person, past tense but there are no breaks or any kind of indication we are in dual timeline. The past timeline is slotted into the present in a way that didn't work for me.
- POV: Second chance romances almost never work for me in single POV, especially the marriage in trouble trope. If you're going to have two people who broke up because they couldn't communicate, I need to be in both of their heads. And in this case, Meena was so obsessed with how right she was and how wrong Nikhil was until 76% of the way through the book, it was almost infuriating. Anyone with eyes could see that they way she hid him from her family made him feel inferior to her but her internal monologue was so self-absorbed. If this book had been dual POV, it would have been a min 4 star read.
- The OG Breakup: My #1 rule for second chance romances is I need to fully understand and buy the reason for the original break up. That was not the case here and I think it was tied directly to the POV issue above. I just didn't think there was enough there to end a marriage and that's probably because I couldn't see into Nikhil's thoughts.

I'm giving this book 3 stars because it was fine and I like Kumar's sentence-level craft, but I really think this could have been an outstanding book had it been constructed like a more traditional second chance romance.

This was such a sweet and emotional romance about second chances and finding where your heart truly belongs. Meena's return to Texas to finalize her divorce from Nikhil takes an unexpected turn when the hurricane forces them to confront their past. The chemistry between them felt real, and the storm serves as a perfect backdrop for their journey back to each other.

The story also does a great job of weaving in Meena's Indian American identity and the balance between family expectations and her personal ambition. It added some depth to the romance. While some of the plot was predictable, there were so many heartfelt moments that I really really loved.

A great read for anyone who loves second chance romances with a little bit of drama.

Meena has achieved the life she always dreamed about - working in Washington, D.C. as a lawyer on the hill and about to launch a political career alongside her boyfriend, Shake. Only one thing stands in her way - she's technically still married. When she returns to Houston to get her ex-husband, Nikhil, to sign divorce papers, she's so focused on moving on that she doesn't realize she's traveling into Houston just prior to a major hurricane. Meena finds herself stuck in Houston and in the house she and Nikhil moved into after their elopement in Las Vegas. As they face the storm together, Meena is reminded of all the things that made her fall for Nikhil, but she also knows that she left to pursue her own dreams. Once the storm has passed, she'll have to choose whether to return to D.C. and chase her political dreams with the man who fits easily into those dreams or whether to chart a new path for herself alongside the man who her heart can't deny.

This is a sweet second-chance romance reminiscent of the movie "Sweet Home Alabama." Meena and Nikhil were madly in love until their dreams for the future and miscommunication tore them apart. Not quite enemies-to-lovers, this is still a story about two people who clearly love each other but have hurt each other in the past enough that they have to rebuild and earn each other's trust again. Can each of them do that without sacrificing their own aspirations for the careers they've worked so hard for?

Overall: 4.5/5 rounded up
Spice: 2/3