I Will Blossom Anyway is a great coming-of-age story following Durga, a young Indian woman living in Ireland, finding herself and creating a life she can be proud of, all while trying to dodge an arranged marriage her parents insist on. Durga is definitely a relatable character, navigating her friendships and relationships while dealing with anxiety and the ever-present pressure of doing well and making her family proud.

The romance aspect of the book was not the primary focus, so if you are expecting a romance-subplot-heavy story, this is not it. If you are on a journey of self-discovery after trying to move on from a breakup, you may find yourself in Durga and her experiences.

The pacing was a bit slow, but otherwise well written.

I really enjoyed this story! I resonated with Durga's character. The family drama was really relatable. I found her struggle between her home in India and her new home in Ireland very inspiring, it has to be really difficult to move away from the life you were raised in. But Durga definitely blossomed at the end.

really enjoyed this book and the journey of the main character and all that they went through. It kept me on my toes and what would happen in the story.

Durga moves away from her family, friends, and life she grew up with to move to Ireland for a job. She finally feels like she can be herself, finds a friend in her roommate Joy, and discovers love with Jacob.

However, she finds herself torn between her two worlds and isn’t sure how she will make her way through.

A unique and modern coming of age story of someone caught between family tradition and individuality.

Thank you to @netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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A story about finding your own way in life when you are torn between adventure and independence and family culture. Durga is a young woman living in Ireland working for a tech company. She is from a large, loving family in Calcutta and feels torn by her responsibilities to her parents and her desire for a life of her own. She had a romance with a coworker named Jacob and was very much in love, but she was scared to have him meet her traditional family, especially since he was a Black man. Her roommate Joy is Jacob's sister and doesn't understand when Durga and Jacob break-up. Durga has a big event coming up: her sister's wedding and even though she is excited about the wedding, circumstances in Ireland have caused her to reevaluate her life choices.

I felt that Durga was a person I would like to be friends with but as a fictional character she was very passive and not exciting. I did like the parts about her family and the wedding especially the traditional foods and clothing that her family prepared. I also felt sad that Durga who was the third of four children was always considered of lesser talent and promise then her siblings. The story kind of lost me when it would go off on random tangents such as Durga's brother having a crush on the wife of a cousin or the on and off relationship Joy had with her girlfriend. In general I liked Durga and her family but thought the story kind of meandered at times and I wasn't sure what the author was trying to say. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC for review.

This was a fun story of choosing what you want in life or choosing what is expected of you and your families traditions.
Durga is a young Indian woman, who moved to Ireland for a job leaving her big family in India and all of their expectations for her.
Durga struggles with, which life she would want to pursue, but soon her sister Tia is getting married and she is going home for the wedding.
In Ireland she doesn't have that many good friends, but she has a best girlfriend who is her roommate, and had a boyfriend that she was was in love with. During this journey she needs to see where her future lies
A lot of good story lines and Characters in this book. A great read
I am definitely checking out her other books,
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for a copy of this book

My attention was caught and kept by this authentic look at one person's search to find her true self. I found the main character, Durga, to be interesting and realistic and appreciate that the author gives us more than just a slight glimpse into the other characters in her story. I always like books that include diversity and provide the opportunity to learn about different cultural norms. Thanks #NetGalley #BallantineBooks

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I loved following the journey of a woman trying to find her true home, at the same time missing the safety and familiarity of her home in India and thrilling at her independence and personal growth in Ireland. I loved the section where Durga goes back to India and we get to meet her imperfect but loving family. On the other hand, unfortunately, the plot is meandering and Durga’s relationships feel underdeveloped. It’s equally unclear what Durga’s character journey is all about. If the story is about Durga standing up for herself, that development happens fairly early in the story and after that Durga kind of coasts, slowly getting used to the idea that her best friend will be moving out and she’ll need to live on her own. She doesn’t seem to have any big feelings about any of it. Overall, this story reads like an anecdote about a woman learning self-reliance but without out much of a thematic message or depth.

I Will Blossom Anyway
By Disha Bose

Durga is part of a traditional Indian family – her Baba and Ma, Her older sister, Tia, her brother Arjun, and her youngest sister Parul. Also living with them is her grandmother.

Durga has broken from the family constraints and moved to Ireland to live her own life. Here she meets Jacob and Joy, brother and sister who are half Irish and half African. Joy becomes her best friend and roommate. Jacob becomes her lover and the love of her life.

But the pull of family is strong and the cultural differences leave Durga alone, confused and unhappy. As tragedy strikes, Durga is forced to return to India for her sister's wedding. Durga struggles with the comfort of family which comes with the straightjacket of arranged marriages to men not of her choosing. She meets with several different men. Some are from her cultural background; others are free spirits in the UK.

Durga's ultimate decisions are made based on love, loyalty, respect – and not settling for anything less than what she wants from her life. The conflicts along the way make for a good read.

I have only one problem with this book: a chance meeting near the beginning was intriguing. I was disappointed that it never progressed to something more.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

For some inexplicable reason I love books set in India which is why I was so excited to read this book. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold my attention at all and I ended up switching to the audiobook after it was published in hope that I’d be able to get further in it. I finished the audiobook in one day but not because listening to it was more interesting, rather because I had to up the speed on the narration due to the slowness of the book and narrator.
Durga (named after the Indian Goddess Durga who has an alter ego named Kali) is an Indian who moves to Ireland to figure out how to live her own life without her entire family butting in. Within the first month of living there she realizes she needs someone telling her how she should live her life and she ends up with a roommate and a boyfriend (who happens to be her roommate’s brother). When her boyfriend breaks up with her she begins spinning again, not sure which direction her life should take.
Overall I found Durga to be one of the most annoying, meek, and weak characters ever. I lost track of the amount of times Durga mentioned she wished she had an alter ego like Kali and many times throughout this I wanted to yell at her to grow up. For as weak and meek Durga is, her roommate is the exact opposite and just as annoying.
I really loved how detailed an Indian wedding was and the description of driving on the streets of Calcutta were very vivid. While I really like the character growth by the end of the book it wasn’t enough to eke out any more stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for an advanced copy of this. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to. I Will Blossom Anyway hit the shelves on May 6th.

I can go either way with this book. Most of it felt like journal entries. It felt all over the place where you follow the main character but then lock in to side character stories for a bit. The culture of India was fun to read about.

The writing style was unique for my typical reading material, but I can appreciate the emotion in the writing. Durga is a likeable character, I just didn't know how I wanted her story to go.

Note: There is a lesbian relationship in this book through out.

I’m usually a fan of coming-of-age stories but that’s because there is growth involved. It’s difficult for characters to grow when they’re not really fleshed out to begin with. Durga was an interesting character and there was so much potential with the Indian woman embracing her new life in Ireland but there wasn’t much there. Additionally, the start was a little disorganized with the introduction to the two men muddled and confusing, all thrown at you in the first few pages; it was tough to know who to root for. I gave up after about 20% as I couldn’t connect to any of the characters or the story on the whole.

I really enjoyed this book about a young Indian woman who is trying to shake off family expectations as she lives abroad in Ireland. But when her relationships in Cork begin to change, and she visits home in Calcutta for her sister’s wedding, she contemplates the different paths laid out before her.

Durga leaves Calcutta and her family to discover herself in Ireland. After getting settled in her new job with a tech company, she realizes how out of her comfort zone she really is. She soon meets Jacob and his sister, Joy. She falls in love with both, one her boyfriend and one her best friend and roommate. However, cultural differences proof a challenge and the pull of her family is strong. Disha Bose develops strong characters who face life's ups and downs in realistic ways. I will miss them now that the book is over, which is the sign of a good tale.

3.5 Stars. I really enjoyed I Will Blossom Anyway and found it both engaging and thought-provoking. Disha Bose does a beautiful job weaving Indian culture into the narrative, which I always love reading about—it added such richness and depth to the story. Durga’s journey of identity, displacement, and growth was compelling, and at times I was heartbroken for her.

That said, the ending felt a bit abrupt to me. I would have liked to walk more closely alongside Durga through her internal process as she chose to finally invest in her life in Ireland. A deeper look into her thoughts and emotional shift would have made her transformation feel even more powerful.

Overall, it’s a moving read with vivid cultural detail, and I’m glad I had a chance to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for my advance copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

This was really well done. I teach a cultural literature class and am going to add this to suggested reading for those who want to continue to explore social identity and culture. Beautiful book!

★★★☆☆
I Will Blossom Anyway (Disha Bose - released 05.06.2025)
e-ARC Review

✧ Read with me ✧ Instagram ✧| @haileydianereads

A massive thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, Random House Publishing & author Disha Bose for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest book review! 🥰🙌

“Every year, despite what the winter brought - overcast weeks, the frost, the decay, the misfortune - in spring, the wildflowers blossom anyway.” ☂️💐

”I liked liking him, living in this feeling of not knowing him well enough to be disappointed by the details of him. Basking in the warmth of his liking me too. 🌤️👍

This book is perfect for readers who enjoy…
Characters experiencing self-discovery
Life after loss stories
Modern immigration stories
Found families
Culture creating meaningful conversations

Disha Bose is a “new-to-me” author. Overall, I think this is a really well written story. I believe that this is a great coming of age and self-discovery novel for young adults who are experiencing complex relationships with their parents while also trying to figure out who they are themselves. In this story, it feels as if Bose has woven in pieces of her life experiences and relationships with family and those touches shine through marvelously. Ultimately, I rated down rather than up on this book because I never had a big “ah-ha” moment. However, I believe I’m a bit older than the target reader and I believe readers in their 20s might feel much more close to Durga’s thinking and decision making.

RATING SYSTEM: I rate my books by 5 literary element groupings: plot and pacing, characters and development, setting and world building, dialogue and writing style. See below for a full review:

📖Plot and Pacing
Bose writes a compelling story of a young woman who has emigrated to Ireland after growing up in Calcutta. Durga, our main character, is quiet and is excited to have quiet in her own life after living with her three siblings her whole life - Tia, Arjun and Parul. Durga enjoys her life and job. She falls in love and finds a best friend/roommate. However, Durga might have the freedom she has always longed for, but she struggles to come to terms with just how to do this all on her own when life changes for her throughout the book. Caught in between her life in Calcutta and the expectations her family may have for her and her new life in Ireland, Durga must decide who she wants to be and claim that life for herself. Overall, I feel like the pacing in this book is good. However, there are times when the plot seems to lull and I had to keep refocusing to finish this story.


🧞‍♀️Characters and Development
The main character in the story is Durga. Joy, her best friend and roommate, is one of the secondary characters that Durga’s story focuses on as well as her sister Tia. While there is certainly a longer cast of characters, I felt that Durga’s relationship as Tia’s younger sister and Joy’s best friend are well written and explored. This is most certainly a character driven story that focuses on identity, being a stranger in a new place, found family, young relationships, the power of friendship, and renegotiating family roles as the parent to child relationship is ever evolving. With so much focus on her character and her decisions, readers would expect to get to know Durga a bit more than I felt like I did by the end of the story. It really feels that her story is just beginning and I wished I knew more about her and her interests throughout the book. It almost feels that Bose's focus was so much on the overarching goal that many details that could have added to the vibrance of Durga’s character were missing.

🌇Setting and World Building
I enjoy that this story takes the reader to multiple countries. While detailed descriptions of these places are provided to the reader, I feel like the bigger impact Bose makes is the way each setting makes the reader feel. For me, I could feel the frustration in Ireland and the isolation Durga feels upon returning after her trip home. However when in Calcutta, I could feel Durga’s nostalgia and yearning for the known and safe places of her childhood. In each location, Bose does a wonderful job really working the physical emotions that Durga is working through into those settings. This is the same for actions that take place in Durga’s apartment versus Jacob's apartment. Personally, I'd much rather have these emotional appeals and ties to physical spaces rather than simple descriptions. Well done, Bose!

🗣️Dialogue
The dialogue used in this book feels very realistic and how a young person might be interacting with friends and relationships during their formative adult years. As someone who has had to come to terms with their own political differences with family, I think that the dialogue in this book and the hesitation to have some of those tough conversations does feel incredibly relatable. While some of the conversations in the book were frustrating to me and felt very much like a crash course in communication methods could have really fixed some of the issues, I remind myself that Durga is younger than me and may be experiencing different pressures in regards to trying to people please and stay true to her own personal opinions with an upbringing much different than my own.

📝Writing Style
I enjoyed Bose’s writing style. Having lived in the same country my whole life, it’s not always easy to comprehend just how much your life changes when you move to another country, especially if it has a different cultural makeup. Bose tackles these intricacies with so much care and honesty. Since I’ve travelled abroad, I can try to imagine what moving to a different country would be like, but Bose’s writing really puts it into perspective.

❉BONUS❉: Emotional Connection
For me, the emotional connection that I found in this book was that of self-discovery and Durga’s learning independence and the freedom that comes with moving out and being on your own for the first time. Durga has always wanted to leave home and experience the thrill of personal freedom from her family. However, when the Durga is honest with herself, it becomes apparent that she is dealing with the complexities of having to make their own decisions while also feeling quite lost when her place in this world and the people she loves seem to go on without her. Through a variety of heartbreaking situations, Durga is forced to reflect on whether or not the autonomy she so longed for is actually what she wants. These are all lessons that we have had to learn as we age and life seems to get far more complicated than we imagined.

😤The Flaws
For me, the primary flaw that I experienced with this book is that Durga seems to be the least complex character in the cast lineup. I feel like Joy was very well layered but yet Durga seemed rather indecisive in a way that led to her character not feeling fully developed. However, I do feel like the balance between indecisive and immature could be incredibly hard to manage as an author.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read even if it was a bit young for me. I could see my younger self having very much identified with Durga. In some ways, I still do identify with Durga and the complications that can arise from trying to remain similar to the obedient child that was always expected of me.

Gratitude, always.
- H.

This didn’t work for me. So many uncomfortable things. Durga is an adult who cannot fend for herself in even the most basic of ways. Cannot be honest with her family or friends or even her boyfriend. All she seemed to do was whine and look to others for help. Even considering moving back home seemed like she was driven with the need to be taken care of. She admits not knowing how to cook, clean, or even do basic life tasks. Very uncomfortable.

I really enjoyed this book! It took me a little while to get into, but once the story really started moving, it grabbed me. The characters are great - very real and relatable. I thought the traditional Indian culture Durga was raised in and the Ireland life she wanted to live were such an interesting juxtaposition. The love stories were so different from what you normally read. The book was full of emotion, self discovery, and relationships. Definitely worth the read and I will certainly consider this author in the future.

“Every year, despite what the winter brought—overcast weeks, the frost, the decay, the misfortune—in spring the wildflowers bloom anyway.”

When Durga Das landed in Cork, Ireland, to take a job in tech, she was a shy, people-pleaser with no experience living alone. The twenty-six-year-old had grown up in a large, traditional family in Calcutta. Cork would give her the personal space she craved and the chance to make her own choices, live life on her own terms. That didn’t mean she wanted to be lonely, and Jason, the office heartthrob makes sure that doesn’t happen. They are a perfect match as are Durga and Joy, Jacob’s sister and Durga’s roommate.

Durga has realized her dream—life in a self-sufficient ecosystem with its own password and inside jokes. It’s perfect for two years, then things fall apart when Jacob finds out Durga’s parents are arranging a date for her, a marriage prospect. She had invited Joy to her sister’s wedding, and Jacob now realizes why—she has not told her parents about him. Jacob understands that Durga’s family is traditional, but that doesn’t explain why so much time has passed with their relationship in hiding. He is in love, but this is too much of a betrayal to overcome.

Losing Jacob as a boyfriend is difficult for Durga, but things get much worse. Tragedy unfolds that impacts Durga’s relationship with Joy, her best friend and lifeline. Joy doesn’t join her when Durga travels to India for her sister’s wedding. Her family’s love and comfort make her wonder why she doesn’t stay. Give up on Cork altogether. But Durga is not one to take things lying down. She has a hard road ahead of her, but she realizes that, while things might be bleak today, tomorrow holds promise.

The most appealing part of this book is when Durga is with her family in Calcutta. Bose does a wonderful job creating the family characters, and I fell in love with them. I got a clear sense of the parents’ genuine love for their children and desire for them to be happy. They are not inflexible but show strength of character when faced with challenges from their children who, to a person, flexes their independence muscles. Durga, alone, comes across at times as whiny, weak of character, or impulsive. Joy’s presence saves her, and Jason is a standout. Though Durga is the protagonist, there are enough standup characters to offset her drag. As to the plot, it felt at times life a swirling drain, but I don’t normally read this genre, which I think accounts for that impression. Either way, the story clipped along, making for a quick read. Those who like coming-of-age stories and, particularly, HEA endings will like this book.

Thank you to Random House Publishing—Ballantine and NetGalley for providing this eARC., #IWillBlossomAnyway #NetGalley.