Flirting with Disaster definitely had the vibes of one of my favorite movies - Sweet Home Alabama!!!
This book was a second chance romance for the two charaters in this book, Meena and Nikhil. They had some unresolved issues with their marriage when Meena took off to Washington DC to pursue a political career while leaving Nikhil back in Houston. Neither one of them ever filed for divorce but when Meena's political career starts taking off, she is left with no choice but to come back home to Nikhil and end the marriage. But little did she know that she was going back to Houston in the middle of a hurricane!!!!

Thank you Net Galley and publisher for an advanced eARC of this book!

thank you for lonely pages book tours for providing me with the ARC!

i devoured almost the entirety of this book in a 24-hr train ride, so i think that should attest to my feelings for it. if not, let me make it clear: i am COMPLETELY enamored of it. naina kumar is an instant auto-buy author for me now.

and i know i am always a little hesitant to pick up indian authors' books bc i never know how they're gonna portray indian culture, but i shouldn't have worried at all.

second-chance romance? check.
tears of angst? check
desi parental trauma? checkkk
excellent reps of people of diverse indian classes? check
showing us how community care looks like? yeppp!

it has been dubbed as a reimagining of Sweet Home Alabama but since i hadn't watched it, that wasn't an incentive for me. what were tho: two Indian american MCs, and second chance romance. and in one word, i would call it a really *mature* romance, even amid the series of contentions and fights, but with all the crushing waves of fluff and FEELINGS of /the one that got away/.

the plot instantly captured my angst-loving core: after their accidental marriage didn't work out, meena comes back to her hometown six years later to get the divorce finalized so she can finally advance in her political career.

naina kumar has crafted these characters so artistically and maturely. i have to come back to this word again, bc everything made sense here. the prose was elegant and moving and the story so wonderfully written i literally could NOT pause my reading. and we got these interspersed flashes of their blissful past thrown in between, tho not in huge chunks at a time, so it doesn't take you out of the story at all. there was a very detailed glimpse of the size and shape of that relationship. and it all made me choke on something hard. i adored nikhil and meena with all my heart.

but before i speak on the superior romance, i want to stress how much i LOVE the way she portrayed the diasporic and diverse experience of south asians: with immigrant parents or from the lower rung of the society, who are NOT academically so gifted they are traumatized of bullying or the jokesters that Western media perpetually label us as. how she represented the underrepresented within us. i loved that she gives us an MC who's a construction worker (nikhil) and another a high-powered lawyer who has failed her bar exams and feels the acute pressure of proving herself to her parents (meena), and writes about all the stress, anxiety, mental health and marraiage crises such failures hurl at you.

and i loove she delienated the VERY indian cultural tradition of parents foisting their toxic judgment on their children's every life choice, be it career or marriage. the piles of expectations laden on the children to fulfil those expectations, parents' affinity for criticizing their child's life partner if they aren't financially or socially prestigious. how it's always such a struggle to separate your parents' expectations and vision of yourself from your.../you/. reconcile them. how conditional parents' love is, contingent on you being a succesful daughter, on making them proud, making you an extended version of themselves and disappointed when you turn out to be your own person. it's been drilled into us that parents are our lives' monarchs, and it's a complex struggle to stop wrestling with yourself and giving in to chasing after that unobtainable parental validation. but naina kumar stitched that web of disparate emotions in meena with quite transparently.

i also just LOVE how she wove together the threads of social justice and climate change and global capitalism cohesively here through the MCs. meena's political career dream was to fight for policies that make the lives of underrepresented, less privileged class of people better, and we see she knew that the whole system was designed against them, and never flinched from trying to help.

and as for the romance: i think naina kumar is giving emily henry a run for her money on second chance stories. bc the tension?? the angst?? the suppressed feelings?? the painful ANGSTT (yes i have to say it twice bc it made me cry)??...all of it were exceedingly, torturously delightful.

it's being stuck together with your estranged husband in a hurricane in the house you both made, it's sleeping in sleeping bags in close quarters and him tending to your (literal) wounds and cuts and fever all night long and unheard confessions on the sickbed (um hi i am UNWELL NIKHIL). it's power outages and walkie talkie communications with your neighbors and rowing in a canoe in the storm to help them, the acute portrayal of community care. it's all the fights and grievances that carve up due to lack of communications, learning to ask for help when you need it and having it delivered unhesitatingly. it's years of devotion without the unwanted imposition of feelings on the other, and intent support of her dreams with or without you.

on top of that, the miscommunication was cleared by the halfway mark, so i am GRATEFUL for that.

and here's the thing: my enjoyment of a second-chance romance hinges on the rationality of the couple's past break-up. so i was OVERJOYED to find that meena and nikhil's was not something blown out of proportion, its painfulness NOT overexaggerated and overinflated that make you go "that's IT? that's why all this drama??" in disappointment. here reason for the breakup was something complicated and harsh and depicts the often painful, gritty struggles in relationships that require work and hard conversations, which don't make it past the fluffy HEAs of our usual ration of romance books.

so in the end, it just leaves me lighter and heavier for finishing it. i highly recommend it if you are a fan of these themes in a book.

It was a quick read and I loved the premise, but the ‘love’ story was a bit dull and confusing. I wanted more love and connection!!

The premise of a Sweet Home Alabama retelling totally sucked me into picking up this book. I enjoyed this small-town, second chance romance but felt that the main characters could have had a little more chemistry. Their chemistry fell a little flat and felt a bit bland. Overall, I loved the Sweet Home Alabama vibes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the e-book copy!

Flirting With Disaster follows Meena and Nikhil, a married couple that's been separated for a few years and find themselves stuck together when a hurricane hits Texas. When I saw the tagline for this book is a slight retelling of "Sweet Home Alabama" I was immediately intrigued as that is one of my favorite rom-coms. This book does take some bits and pieces from the former but the author did a good job making it its own story. I connected with the characters and their relationship and was rooting for them to make it work. At times, I found that the conversations were a bit repetitive and would bog down the story. Outside of that, I enjoyed this book a lot and am looking forward to reading more from this author.

I really wanted to like this one, but I really struggled to finish this one. The way it was described really was giving Sweet Home Alabama (the 2002 movie not the song) which I adore and have been chasing a similar high from since seeing it as a teenager. However, Meena and Nikhil had ZERO chemistry at all. Their entire relationship is one giant miscommunication and is based solely on what each person assumes about the other person. I was also expecting more drama and flair from the hurricane but it was a bit boring and really only lasted a couple chapters.

Meena returns to Texas to have her ex-husband Nikhil finally sign divorce papers so that she can move on and get re-married. What she planned to be a quick trip to close the door on this chapter of her life turns into an extended stay as Meena and Nikhil end up stuck riding out a hurricane together.

This is a very sweet second-chance-love story. Meena and Nikhil have great chemistry and even though they're a couple that probably doesn't make sense "on paper" it's clear why they were in love once upon a time and you find yourself drawn in to Meena's dilemma about what she truly wants out of her life.

I enjoyed this novel a lot and am also a fan of Naina Kumar's first novel - Say You'll Be Mine. Her characters are always well-developed and so realistic, the banter is fun, and the romantic tension is always A+. I'm already looking forward to her next novel!

Sweet Home Alabama is my all time favorite movie. You hand me a book and tell me with Sweet Home Alabama without the cheating? I'm in. This was adorable. While.I understand the parallel to Sweet Home Alabama, this book stands on its own. I loved how the author described their past but focused on the present and the connection they were making. I loved the author's first book and this was a wonderful second book. I look forward to more from this author in the future!

Naina does it again!

A modern twist, similar to the likes of Sweet Home Alabama. Such a cute book. I loved it!

thanks to netgalley for providing me an e-arc of this in exchange for a review!

this was quite sweet, a second chance romance of two people whose lives came together for a time, they perhaps got married before they were ready, and then have to figure out their lives and careers before getting back together as a hurricane bears down on houston. i found meena a little anger inducing at times, but i also completely get that she chose to put her career first and wanted to achieve all she could rather than be tied down in a relationship. i get it, but nikhil is so down to earth that it was only right she could come back eventually. a fun well written romance with a unique setup i'd never read before.

This book is a charming romance loosely based on the movie Sweet Home Alabama. Would recommend for those who enjoy the tropes of second chance romance and forced proximity. Very cute and hard to put down!

I really loved her debut book and this one left me lacking a bit. Very tropy and longer than it needed to be.

as someone who grew up experiencing hurricanes and very recently experienced flood disaster, this hit home for me. i loveee second chance romance so i was hoping to love this a little more than i did - i think this was written really well and was a quick read but i don't think the characters had enough reconciliation to deserve that happy ending. i think this probably lands around 3.75 stars for me

I habitually lie to myself thinking that I don't like second chance romances, and then I read a really good one and remember that I DO actually love them when they're well done. Like this one.

Second chance romances tend to be more emotionally heavy, just because we have to unpack all the reasons why these people fell apart the first time, and this book handles that very well, while also balancing some lighter, more humorous moments. I loved this author's debut novel as well and can't wait to keep reading more from her.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm always a huge fan of South Asian representation in romance. I read Say You'll Be Mine last year and absolutely loved it, and when I learned that Naina Kumar was writing a forced proximity / second chance story, this book immediately became one of my most anticipated reads of 2025. I'm so happy to say it lived up to my (high) expectations and I'd give it a solid 4.5 stars! Meena and Nikhil developed so well as both individuals and as a couple throughout the story, and while there were occasional elements of the stuck-together-during-a-hurricane premise that felt a little dramatic, I thought it was a unique way to explore the relationship between the two. I'm not usually a big fan of miscommunication being used for angst, but I really liked the way it was handled here as well -- thought it was very mature and realistic. Overall, I'd highly recommend, and I'm already eagerly anticipating the author's next book!

This book captured relationships in such a beautiful way, highlighting how sometimes the end of a relationship can’t really be pinned on just one person. I usually find the miscommunication trope a bit frustrating, but I actually didn’t feel any irritation with it in this book because it felt so authentic!

In most second chance romances, the protagonist’s indecision about recommitting can be frustrating. I felt this in Flirting With Disaster, but it didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Characters

Naina Kumar definitely brought out compelling characters to drive this story forward, and I think this approach really works well for a second chance romance!

Meena is a determined woman on a mission, and her character is so inspiring! I loved reading about her meaningful work as a lawyer and her career ambitions. She comes from a South Asian family of immigrants, and faces barriers due to her upbringing which ultimately affects her life decisions such as her career and relationship. Whilst some readers might find her frustrating, I related to Meena a lot as a South Asian woman myself. There are often many factors affecting a relationship, making it difficult to reunite, even with deep care and affection.

Nikhil is the definition of a book husband who supports all women’s wrongs and rights. I loved how he never doubted his feelings for Meena, and his acts of service towards her was just so cute to read! It would have been great to have a dual perspective in this book, as it would have added an interesting layer for understanding the characters better. Even though Flirting With Disaster is primarily told from Meena’s viewpoint, we still get a glimpse into Nikhil’s feelings about their relationship and her through his dialogue.

Conclusion

Overall, Flirting With Disaster by Naina Kumar feels like a realistic, yet sweet portrayal of an adult relationship and two people trying their best to make a relationship work, despite seeming so different on paper! I’d rate the book 4 stars. It’s safe to say Naina Kumar is now an auto buy author for me, after enjoying this book and her previous one Say You’ll Be Mine so much!

I’m a sucker for second chance romance and loved Meena and Nikhil’s story. Flirting with Disaster took me on a emotional roller coaster as Meena and Nikhil worked through the miscommunications that had caused things to fester between them and the dammed up feelings that re-emerged when they were reunited after years apart. There was minimal spice, but boy was it 🔥🔥🔥. I loved the Gilmore Girls references, they were absolutely adoreable. And on a more serious note, I thought Naina Kumar did an amazing job of exploring the challenges of familial expectations, especially for children of immigrant parents, and getting married young. Would absolutely recommend

I loved this book! Maybe it's because I'm a Gulf Coast resident and could relate so much to the hurricane aspect but I was really drawn in. Miscommunication isn't usually my favorite but decided to forgo that and read based on the drama in a hurricane aspect. Also the ties to Sweet Home Alabama had me in a lock. I was invested and wanted to see this couple through it all.
Looking forward to reading more from Naina Kumar!

soooo lovely - the mmc builds furniture and wears their wedding rings on a chain around his neck and watches gilmore girls and cooks... what's not to love....

Thanks so much to Dell for the gifted copy of this book!

I am such a sucker for a marriage in crisis trope, and when I heard this was a reimaging of Sweet Home Alabama, I was totally sold! We read this for Beyond the Spines book club, and it was such a fun book to read and discuss. I loved that Meena was a woman with political ambitions and Nikhil brought us back to the small-town feel. There was a hurricane that caused forced proximity, there were cute Gilmore Girls references, and it was hard to put this one down!