Soft porn, anyone?

Oh my god, don't listen to this in a public place/in the car with your kids/while making dinner for your family because wow--those are some pretty graphic sex scenes. And there are several of them. If a little soft porn disguised as chick lit is what you're into, this book is basically a B movie you might watch when everyone else has fallen asleep and there is nothing else on. It's cute, it's entertaining (if not totally predictable from page 1), the characters are fun and narration good but it's nothing ground breaking and while a good sex scene can spice things up, this was seriously overkill. Just make sure to listen with your ear buds!

14 people found this helpful

Absolute Garbage

I agree with another reviewer, this is soft porn disguised as a Bollywood romance.

Soneela Nankani is a global treasure. Her performance is excellent as usual but there is only so much she can do with a book this bad.

Stay away for your sanity!

3 people found this helpful

Light hearted and fun loving.

Such a delightful summer read. Refreshing love story for all ages to enjoy. Go sharks!

3 people found this helpful

Couldn't finish...

The narration is amazing, that got me to chapter 9. This woman deserves a trophy and a private island for having to read this outloud. What couldn't get me further?
1. This book feels like human fanfiction written by an alien from another planet who sort of knows how humans interact and kind of understands how we speak and emote. This alien has no understanding of inheritance laws or how humans communicate their feelings to one another. And it shows over and over again. People don't act, feel, react correctly and they speak like they're in an art house film. It's, on many occasions, incredibly unnerving and frustrating.
2. The whole plot was useless, as the entire plot would implode if any of these adult characters had a single genuine conversation with a single one of the other adult characters. What's the point of all the scheming anyway, since it seems everything up until the first sex scene was filler for the super sexy part of the book. Erotic fanfiction authored by an alien, written about humans who speak weird, emote weird, are overwhelmingly dramatic and don't react to situations like real humans do. Pass. There's better alien porn out there, I promise. The sex was spooky and a surprise, as I skipped ahead to see what I had to look forward too. I did this three times and each time landed on a sex scene, meaning there's at least three. Pretty yikes, considering the plot had just started by chapter 9 and all we know about these people are they're bad at talking to each other about reality and would rather manipulate for their own gain instead. Sounds... consensual.
3. The characters are problematic, to say the least. Why is the main character dwelling over her senior prom at 27 years old? And why does she care about saving face with an ex boyfriend she never liked? Why does she talk about people like they're disposable and for her use only? Why doesn't she set boundaries with her family to keep from hurting them and herself? Why is she so hostile to someone she hasn't seen in ten years? Why did the author decide to have this man cope with heartbreak by being a serial womanizer and why was that sprinkled in so casually? Like not remembering your last sexual partner's entire name is okay because you're a sad boy? Also, he has no boundaries with his family and let's his brother treat him like trash. He's also still dwelling over a crush he had on a girl 10 years ago but won't talk to her about it, like he isn't a 30-something year old, fully grown man. Hard pass. This plot wouldn't exist if these characters (better yet, the author) chose therapy and self respect.
4. Why are we still writing toxic romances in the future? I'm so tired of reading about narcissists having sex with neurotic women in STEM who talk more about their ample breasts and jiggly asses than science. I could be reading about a badass woman in STEM changing the world and a humble man with a personality and a life passion (like a baker or a veterinarian) helping her do it. It's so exhausting seeing characters abuse one another, manipulate one another, lie and deceive and exhaust every avenue available to them besides basic respect and calling it romance because there's a dash of "his glistening eyes made my heart stutter, him hurting broke me little by little" in there. It's not romantic. It makes me want to file a restraining order against a book.
5. It's not a modern romance just because the main character is smart and in a male dominated field of work. Especially if the entire plot thwarts her lived autonomy to such an extreme she has to marry a man she hates to get her father to stop imposing his will on her dating life. Which is the most over-the-top and ridiculous idea imaginable, considering she could have spoken to him instead.

2 people found this helpful

Bollywood movie turned into a book

The book is full of cliches and dramatics like a Bollywood movie. it was okay. Not a great read but not bad if you're looking for over the top romance.

2 people found this helpful

This series is so good and narrator is amazing!

Love it - just as good as the first book in the series, and love that the original characters still make appearances! Sara Desai has a fantastic writing style and is such an awesome storyteller. Absolutely love her! I really can't wait for book 3 later this year!

The fake relationship trope is my favourite, and she did it so well here - he needed a wife to save the family business (due to his grandfather's will requirements), and she was willing to take on the role in order to get her match-making Auntie's off her back, because she didn't want to get married anytime soon. Liam was Daisy's childhood crush back in school - her brother's best friend, so what could it hurt? He'd only broken her heart by disappearing and standing her up on her Prom night, and had just now come back, 10 years later. The trials they have to go through to get to the HEA are a great rollercoaster ride!

Soneela Nankani has narrated quite a few books I've listened to recently, and I'm really loving her!

1 person found this helpful

Ok I Guess

This book was not what I expected. Although I’m not sure why. Daisy, who was stood up at her prom by the guy she had forever been crazy about and Liam, the bad boy who secretly always had a crush on his best friends little sister, Daisy. And now it’s 10 years later, they run into each other and they realize they can help each other out even though Daisy still hates him while Liam still loves her. It had potential but it was, unfortunately, lacking, something for me. For whatever reason I wasn’t crazy about any of the characters which always hurts the story I’m reading. It wasn’t terrible, it was just…Ok.

Wowza, what a story

Very good story, the main characters were a little stupid and too much in their heads but overall very happy with it.

All the Stars

Daisy & Liam’s story was a perfect depiction of girl-hates-boy to girl-loves-boy, with a clueless boy (cuz men usually are pretty clueless), with appropriate cultural references, fun, quirk & plenty of spice to keep you wanting more. I am so happy to see an Indian family accurately portrayed, as well as a bit of an Irish family. I would love to see how the families interact (if ever) because that would make for some pretty great situations, I’m sure! (Another book?)

Aside from calling the intermission between periods during a hockey game “halftime,” the story was perfection. Anyone who doesn’t know hockey wouldn’t know the difference.

As for the narrator - she was great. The reading was a bit slow & lazy in some parts, but the voices, inflections & accents were pretty accurate. And with so many characters in the story, I’m impressed with how she was able to pull them all off.

Overall… this is definitely worth the purchase/credit!

Cute but a little predictable

I enjoyed the story to an extent but as I said above it is a little predictable. It is a cute rom/com.
As I’ve aged I find I’m not very appreciative of explicit sex scenes that go on and on AND ON. I find no need for prolonged
and graphic sex scenes. Let’s go with “they kissed, they did it” done. They both really enjoyed it!