Sonali Dev

Coming to America on a scholarship, Mili Rathod, who has been bound by marriage since she was four years old to a man she has never met, is drawn into the world of her husband's playboy filmmaker brother who has been sent across the world to keep an eye on her. Original.

A Bollywood Affair

“An impressive debut . . . Vibrant and exuberantly romantic, Affair is chock full of details that reflect India’s social and cultural flux.”—NPR.org Mili Rathod hasn’t seen her husband in twenty years—not since she was promised to him at the age of four. Yet marriage has allowed Mili a freedom rarely given to girls in her village. Her grandmother has even allowed her to leave India and study in America for eight months, all to make her the perfect modern wife. Which is exactly what Mili longs to be—if her husband would just come and claim her. Bollywood’s favorite director, Samir Rathod, has come to Michigan to secure a divorce for his older brother. Persuading a naïve village girl to sign the papers should be easy for someone with Samir’s tabloid-famous charm. But Mili is neither a fool nor a gold-digger. Open-hearted yet complex, she’s trying to reconcile her independence with cherished traditions. And before he can stop himself, Samir is immersed in Mili’s life—cooking her dal and rotis, escorting her to her roommate’s elaborate Indian wedding, and wondering where his loyalties and happiness lie. Heartfelt, witty, and thoroughly engaging, Sonali Dev’s debut is both a vivid exploration of modern India and a deeply honest story of love, in all its diversity. “Deeply-felt emotions that will keep readers turning the pages.”—Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times-bestselling author “Debut author Sonali Dev writes a beautiful love story in A Bollywood Affair . . . One of the best romances I’ve read this year.”—USA Today

Becky

I have a whole lot of love for this book. I had rather high expectations going in after all the rave reviews on this one. It seems every romance reader everywhere loves this book and I have had many a good recommendation from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and I am so glad this is one of them.

I should say right off the bat that this book confused me at first. You are thrown head first into a very different culture and it can be a bit jarring at first, but that feeling quickly evaporates as Sonali Dev doesn't explain everything to you like an idiot, but somehow subtly includes explanations for those foreign elements in Indian culture without you ever realising you are being given an explanation. Her writing is fantastic because it is filled with those subtle explanations and you find yourself learning the essentials of a culture as if you knew it already. She is an artist with her writing. 

I admit I was daunted by the book because I knew I would be immersed in Indian culture, and as it is a thing I know nothing about it was a little scary. I don't know why I bothered even thinking such nonsense. Who cares what you don't know, you find it out in the book!

The story in this book is dramatic. I need to say that now because a book can go either way with a dramatic story. It can either feel too much like and afternoon melodrama on TV which forces you to stop reading, or it can be so absorbing that you simply cannot stop reading. This is obviously the latter. I almost didn't stop to sleep. I woke up thinking about the book, that was the kind of book it was. It was utterly gripping. Filled with dramatic nonsense which I adored. And the romance was just... there aren't words. It was perfectly dramatic and absorbing and utterly perfect and I want to read more like it but don't think a romance will compare to this one for a little while.

This book has instantly been added to my favourites and I am extremely tempted to gift it to everyone I know to get reading.

A Bollywood Affair

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