Farah Heron

The Right Spice

A delightful romantic comedy featuring a Muslim woman who fakes an engagement to the boy next door in the hopes of winning a couples cooking contest. When it comes to bread, Reena Manji knows exactly what she's doing. She treats her sourdough starters like (somewhat unruly) children. But when it comes to Reena's actual family -- and their constant meddling in her life-well, that recipe always ends in disaster. Now Reena's parents have found her yet another potential Good Muslim Husband. This one has the body of Captain America, a delicious British accent, and lives right across the hall. He's the perfect, mouthwatering temptation . . . and completely ruined by the unwelcome side dish of parental interference. Reena refuses to marry anyone who works for her father. She won't be attracted to Nadim's sweet charm or gorgeous lopsided smile. That is, until the baking opportunity of a lifetime presents itself: a couples' cooking competition with the prize of her dreams. Reena will do anything to win -- even asking Nadim to pretend they're engaged. But when it comes to love, baking your bread doesn't always mean you get to eat it too.

Accidentally Engaged

FMC Reena is having a third life crisis, her parents want her to join the family business and marry her new neighbor Nadim. She wants to enter a cooking competition and possibly 

I just love the way Farah writes complex family dynamics and interesting side characters. But also the romance- the grand gesture slayed me. And with the forced proximity roommates, brought all the right amount of angst.

Abigail

FMC Reena is having a third life crisis, her parents want her to join the family business and marry her new neighbor Nadim. She wants to enter a cooking competition and possibly date Nadim.

I just love the way Farah writes complex family dynamics and interesting side characters. But also the romance- the grand gesture slayed me. And with the forced proximity roommates, brought all the right amount of angst.

Spice is fade to black in this one. 

Wholesome, sweet and funny, with an amazing cast of side characters to hang out with along the way.

Kate B-L

Is this fake engagement foolproof . . . or half-baked? When it comes to bread, Reena Manji knows exactly what she's doing. She treats her sourdough starters like (somewhat unruly) children. But when it comes to Reena's actual family - and their constant meddling in her life - well, that recipe always ends in disaster. Now Reena's parents have found her yet another potential Good Muslim Husband. This one has the body of Captain America, a delicious British accent and lives right across the hall. He's the perfect, mouth-watering temptation . . . and completely ruined by the unwelcome side dish of parental interference. Reena refuses to marry anyone who works for her father. She won't be attracted to Nadim's sweet charm or gorgeous lopsided smile. That is, until the baking opportunity of a lifetime presents itself: a couples' cooking competition with the prize of her dreams. Reena will do anything to win - even asking Nadim to pretend they're engaged. But when it comes to love, baking your bread doesn't always mean you get to eat it too.

ohhh there's nothing better than a desi romance book on a bad day. even better when it is a farah herron book. I LOVE IT BRO I SWEAR. 

Nadim is THE man, and Reena THE woman. THE BREAD THE BANETER THE CHEMISTRY THE CHARM PLS GIVE IT TO ME. I loved everything about it. 

Still prefer Kamila Knows Best but Rohan and Nadim are just chefs kiss. Want both of them equallly as bad. 

Sarah 

ohhh there's nothing better than a desi romance book on a bad day. even better when it is a farah herron book. I LOVE IT BRO I SWEAR. 

Nadim is THE man, and Reena THE woman. THE BREAD THE BANETER THE CHEMISTRY THE CHARM PLS GIVE IT TO ME. I loved everything about it. 

Still prefer Kamila Knows Best but Rohan and Nadim are just chefs kiss. Want both of them equallly as bad. 

Amanda

As advertised. Clever, cute, fun, and sexy. The story flowed well and the characters were generally likeable. I was at times annoyed by the choices the leads made, but they seemed in character. The setting felt authentic as did the general "Canadianess" of it all.

Cassidy

This book was like 75% foot fetish and I legitimately could not get through the plot because I was afraid for the next foot mention

Jenni Clements

I love the progression and maturity that Reena gets in this book. She’s the independent girl we all strive to be, with the baggage we all know too well. I loved this book from the first sentence I read! I only wish there was more to read about her and Nadim!

Lauren Sullivan

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[Depression, anxiety, eating disorder (mentioned, but off-page), alcoholism, parental death (off-page, before book starts), distant parent, overbearing family (hide spoiler)]

Ok, this book is absolutely adorable. Delicious food, family shenanigans, drunk cooking show audition videos, fake engagement, sourdough-relate antic – it’s got it all. One of my favorite things about the fake-relationship trope is when authors use it to explore how and why the characters keep secrets, and it was done masterfully. When I started this book, I hadn’t realized that Reena’s best friend is the main character from The Chai Factor, which I haven’t read, but this worked fine for me as a standalone.

Reena hates her career in finance but at least it’s better than working for the family real estate company. Her true passion is baking, and she’s got her eye on a pricey new baking class. Nadim doesn’t know that much about cooking, but he loves eating food, and the tempting smells coming from his neighbor’s apartment certainly make him interested in meeting her – until he runs into her in the hallway and realizes her dad is his boss and their families are trying to set them up. Reena swears that isn’t going to happen, but after a rough day and a long night at the neighborhood bar – and a drunk cooking video – they’re suddenly part of a cooking competition and pretending to be engaged. They’re both keeping more secrets than just that, though, and their families’ meddling may have ended any chance of a friendship – or a relationship – before it’s started.

“The Reena she let people see enjoyed drinks at the bar, fresh bread at home, and no drama. Who’d want the real Reena—the neurotic mess with maladaptive coping skills? Who couldn’t manage to keep a job she hated? With a family who never, ever let her be free. None of the other twelve guys had been interested in sticking around once her true self began to emerge.”

Reena felt so real. I could easily imagine grabbing a drink with her at the Sparrow and kvetching about our families and jobs. She’s not great at handling uncomfortable situations head on. Her default is to “deflect and distract” and hope the other person forgets what they were talking about. Nowhere is that more obvious than her complicated relationship with her family, especially with her sister Saira. While she works hard at presenting the facade of being a functioning adult, she actually struggles a lot with her job and lives for the moments she can spent baking. Learning to bake bread was one of her coping mechanisms for getting through her depressive episodes, and it’s something she both loves and excels at. Since the book is solely from Reena’s POV, Nadim is a bit more of a cipher. He admits readily to Reena that he’s very malleable and changes to fit in with the people he’s around. What exactly that means in his past, though, is something he’s closemouthed about, but Reena can’t complain as she’s certainly not wiling to share all her warts, either. While Reena doesn’t initially think too highly of him, through their cooking videos and other interactions (the sourdough babysitting!) he reveals that he’s secretly a complete cinnamon roll.

“Twelve boyfriends?” he asked, smiling. “Is it too unlucky to try for a thirteenth? Am I doomed to fail?”
She shook her head. “Thirteen is a baker’s dozen. The extra one always tastes the sweetest.”

I liked their journey from strangers to friends to lovers. Reena’s adamant from the beginning that she won’t marry Nadim, but, gradually, she’s willing to be friends and then maybe even date him. I loved how comfortable they were with each others – the cooking videos were so sweet and steamy at the same time – and I also loved how both of them were so afraid of being vulnerable with the other for fear of losing their relationship. They’re absolutely wonderful together, but their secrets keep them from committing fully. On top of that, Reena doesn’t think she can trust a relationship with someone who works for her dad, for good reason.

Reena’s dad – and the rest of her family – is overbearing but ultimately loving (if in a very certain way). I like that Reena’s dynamics with her family – which she somewhat jokingly describes as toxic at the start of the book – progress, but aren’t completely fixed by the end of the book. Her relationship with her family – and all the secrets they’re keeping from each other – mirror her relationship with Nadim. Sure, everything looks great from the outside, but Reena, at least, spends most of her time internally worrying about being found out or guilt-ridden about all the secrets. Part of that goes back to her “distract and deflect” habit, and the worst is with her sister Saira. Even when she works up the courage to confront her, it doesn’t go exactly the way she planned – or the way most authors would write it – and I love how ambivalent she felt about doing something so outside her comfort zone. Their progress towards a more healthy relationship is slow and involves, well, a lot of health food.

“I need someone to feed Brian while I’m away.”
“You have a pet? And his name is Brian?”
“No, Brian’s not a pet…He’s my…he’s a sourdough. Well, one of them.”
“He’s a what?”
She sighed. “He’s a sourdough starter.”

This book made me so hungry – the puri, the dal, the bhajias, not to mention all the delicious bread! One of the things I really loved was that Reena refused to do fusion food for the cooking show. She’s going to make dishes she grew up eating, not try to dumb things down and make something fake just for TV – which is hilarious when you consider they’re faking their relationship for TV. It’s clear how much Reena loves cooking and how it’s a reflection of her culture and family for her. She even jokes that one of the reasons she keeps attending family dinners is for her mom’s puri.

Overall, I loved the food, the complex family relationships, and most of all, Reena. I will definitely be picking up The Chai Factor and anything else this author writes!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Sarah Williams

Funny, witty, and with main characters that are so easy to love and root for, Accidentally Engaged was an absolute delight.

I was initially expecting the cooking competition to take up much more time and space in the story but that’s only just one part of the narrative. The cooking competition is the catalyst that pushes Reena and Nadim together, but the story itself has so much more to it. And even though there are quite a few narrative threads in the story, it never felt too busy or lacking direction. At the heart, there was always Reena and Nadim, and their incredible connection. 

I adored both of them so much. And there were so many fantastically funny and endearing moments—Nadim having 16 sourdough starters in his apartment, for one, her buying the anklet, for another—that by the end of the story, I really understood why the two of them were together and how strong their connection and chemistry was. 

I definitely recommend this story and am so looking forward to Heron’s next book, Kamila Knows Best! 

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my reviews or opinion in any way.

always, annej 〄

Hannah

Warning - do not read on an empty stomach! I don't think I've ever had the experience of a book making me so hungry! Reena Manji has had 12 ex-boyfriends, is stuck in a finance career she hates, and is constantly fighting off her meddling family members attempts at micromanaging her love life and career. That is until Nadim, her fathers latest arranged love interest, shows up next door. 

After Reena is unexpectedly let go from her job, her friends convince her to enter a cooking contest for FoodTV. The only catch is that the contest is only open to couples. Nadim happily agrees to be a fake couple with Reena and enter the contest. But what Reena didn't expect was to actually fall in love. 

Accidentally Engaged had me hooked from the very beginning. It was the perfect, light hearted romance to read after a month of reading relatively heavy content books. Reena is such a fun, lovable character who I am still thinking about even after finishing the book. 

The story is filled with a lot of secrets, gossip and of course, misunderstandings. I found myself getting frustrated with both Reena and Nadim about secrets that seemed silly to be keeping from one another. By the end of the book, as all of the secrets came to light, it seemed like a lot of information/conclusions were being thrown at us at once. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It had lovable characters, it was a quick read, made me laugh, and inspired me to start my own sourdough started. I will definitely read the next rom-com coming from Farah Heron!

Elena

4/5 stars

I finished this book during my 24 hr readathon and I am 24 hrs in so I am probably not in the best state to write this review but I liked the characters and the cultural representation of the Indian, East African, and Muslim. I feel like there are not enough books with those representations and I feel like it was represented well, I can't judge though because I am white. I loved how Reena had issues and you could see throughout the book that she was progressing and started asking for help and listening/talking her problems out with everyone, most books I feel like have a magical way to just sweep it all under the rug but Reena took care of her problems and we saw that it was hard for her and that not everyone is perfect with solving their problems. Nadim was nice but I feel like he could have talked to Reena about his problems because he had no problem not following his dad's instructions other times and Reena would have definitely kept it a secret and I feel like there was not as much character development with Nadim. I wish this book was a duo perspective because I would have loved to see Nadim's point of view on some parts in this book. Now I feel like I am rambling but I just wanted to finish up and say that this book was good but not good enough for five stars maybe if I read it again when I am not sleep-deprived I can give it five stars. This review is surprisingly longer than any of my other reviews and I am sleep-deprived.

Gabby Adani

I absolutely loved the storyline between Reena and Nadim! I was on edge with their relationship the whole book. I loved the concept of the book so much with the FoodTV competition but felt that part lacked towards the end. The ending was not what I expected either. Definitely recommend this book!

cossette

Kayla 

A cute romcom with delicious food and Indian-Muslim characters 💛

I really enjoyed @farahheronauthor’s debut novel, The Chai Factor, and so I was super excited for her second novel Accidentally Engaged.

Reema and Nadim are set up by their parents (only Reema isn’t told anything until he shows up at her apartment one day) but neither one seems that keen on marriage.

Reema’s dream is to bake and cook full time and when the chance to enter a cooking contest opens she thinks this will be her big chance...only the problem is it’s a couple’s contest and she’s not part of a couple...wait actually she is.

This has a dash of fake dating in it which is always fun and I love how relationships develop in this trope.

One thing I love about Farah Heron’s writing, is that she writes characters with so much dimension. I feel like her characters are so realistic and she subtly deals with lots of issues real people go through. I like the relationships she builds and the challenges the characters face. 

This book will leave you smiling and hungry lol it was a delightful read and I really want to try some recipes that are in the back. 

Thank you so much @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub @hachettebooks for sending this my way.
#gifted

Linda Quintanilla

I got to say, I freaking love Accidentally Engaged. It started off slow but the build up was off the charts. Like I did not know I was done until I reached the very last page. That's how addicting Accidentally Engaged is. Accidentally Engaged starts off with Reena feeding her adorable sourdough starters. Don't worry, you will understand what sourdough starters are and how adorable it is when Reena bonds over it with new potential love interest, Nadim. But before we get into their building romance, let's first discuss Reena and his crazy family. Reena has always had high expectations from her Muslim family. It may feel restricting at times but she found a way around it most of the times. Occasionally, it slips by especially when she notices her new neighbor, Nadim and he is supposed to be her fiance. Big shocker! It's definitely difficult for Reena when her parents meddle in her life constantly. I can definitely say that Nadim was meant for her because they keep running into each other. And once they start hanging out when Reena's career drives down, they become more closer each day.

Heather Harrington

There are a lot of aspects of Reena's life that she doesn't care for. Such as her job, her relationship status (single), and her parent's constantly sticking their noses into her business. She thought she was content just caring for her sourdough starters, but all that changes when she runs into her new neighbor, Nadim. He's tall, British, and gorgeous and the pair hit it off immediately. The only hiccup? Not only is Nadim her father's new employee, but he's also her latest marriage prospect. There's no way Reena would ever marry someone who works for her father, but that doesn't mean the two can't be friends. But when Reena loses her job and Nadim offers to pretend to be her fiancé so she can enter a cooking competition, things start heating up. The more time the pair spends together, the more they can't deny the feelings growing between them, and who knows, maybe marriage isn't such a bad thing?

This was a super quick rom-com perfect for food lovers. I loved all the cooking scenes and the talk of bread had my mouth watering the entire time. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Reena and Nadim's relationship. It was fine, but I felt a spark lacking between them. They had their cute moments, but nothing that made me swoon or that I hadn't seen done in other books. I also felt that the family drama (and there was so much of it!) often overshadowed their relationship. If the focus was solely on Reena and Nadim, I think I would've enjoyed it more. I also wish that we got more from the cooking competition. I was expecting it to be this big TV production, and that just wasn't the case. While it's not the most memorable, it was still cute for what it was.

Kelsey Holtaway

b.andherbooks

This was super cute and full of amazing food and bread descriptions. I appreciated that this "rom-com" was funny and mostly light-hearted, fitting what I would expect from a rom-com romance novel.

There was a lot of plot packed into this story, and since we only get Reena's POV I was hoping for more time with her and Nadim together, on-page. Reena's family is big, messy with secret keeping, and also very much involved in gossip and nemesis-having, which was fun but also at times overwhelmed Reena and Nadim's fake relationship reality Tv show plot. 

Despite all this, the family felt loving if overbearing, and this was fun to read. For a close-door romance, it was nice to still feel the heat and chemistry between Nadim and Reena, and I was not expecting the foot fetish!

Grace Christensen 

A book about a depressed middle child who feels like everyone's moving on while her life stays stagnant and copes by baking bread? Apparently I am a main character.

But really, I very much enjoyed this book. There were a few things that irked me, but we'll get to that later. Let's start with the positives, what I did like:

Firstly, I loved the premise of this book. I'm a big fan of the fake dating trope and add in a cooking show competition? Genius. I'm a sucker for any sort of reality show competition within a romance novel (I didn't realize how many of those I've read until I started typing that sentence) so it's basically the perfect storm for me.

I also love Reena's relationships with her friends. I say this all the time in my reviews, but I love it when the main character has a solid group of friends who are more than just plot devices. Marley and Shayne were entertaining and Amira is the kind of friend every person needs. It always makes a book more realistic and relatable to me when the main character has things going on in their life other than falling in love.

Another thing I liked about this book was how it made me feel. I never know how to articulate what emotions and feelings I feel in books. All I can tell you about this book is that it felt like reading on the beach even though I read most of this at my very exciting 9-5 job (don't tell my boss). It was warm and sweet and it shut my brain off in the best way possible. 

And now onto the things I didn't like...

I did not love how quickly Reena and Nadim fell into bed and a relationship (this is more of a personal opinion than a critique of the book). One of the reasons I love the fake dating trope is because we get to see the leads getting to know each other and becoming friends before they become anything else. We did see them getting along a little before they decided they had feelings for each other, but I wish we had seen more. They were obviously attracted to each other from the start, but as an asexual person, I don't understand how people can just start sleeping together before they have a genuine foundation. I didn't see that in this story.

Another thing I disliked was the self-sabotage in this book. Reena spent a large part of the book refusing to date a man who she was attracted to and genuinely liked as a person because of some pretty silly, minor reasons. I understand the purpose of having the main character work through various insecurities before they can be in a relationship, but I felt as if the author didn't show us her insecurities well enough. She definitely told us that Reena didn't want to date or marry Nadim because of her parents and her past relationships, but she didn't show us any of that. She didn't even really show us how Reena overcame those insecurities. It made the book to be half internal monologuing on how sorry Reena's life was. Which was kind of annoying.

The last thing that I wished this book had done better was the cooking competition plotline. As I said before, I love a good competition plotline where our main characters have to partner up. But I didn't feel like we saw enough of it in the book. I wish we could have seen more of Reena and Nadim brainstorming and planning their episodes. I wish we could have seen more of them interacting with the other contestants and stressing over the chances of them advancing to the next round. It would have been fascinating to see more about how they came up with the recipes and how much they enjoyed cooking together and why. The synopsis that drew me in was all about a fake dating scheme to win a cooking competition that the main character desperately wanted. The reality was less that and more hearing about the main characters personal problems and fears. There's nothing wrong with that especially in romance novels, but I felt disappointed that the synopsis wasn't a completely accurate representation of the story.

Overall, I did really like this book, there were a few things that frustrated me about it. I'll still probably reread it though.

Chelsea White

I loved Reena and Nadim’s dynamic right off the bat. They are clever, work well together and are very cute!
Up until the dramatic reveal of all the secrets, I totally thought Nadim had like... killed someone in Egypt based on how evasive he was being. Up until the reveal it also felt like there were just too many threads in the story; from the mom’s poker playing to everything Reena was keeping from her parents, it was a lot!!
Also, the foot fetish... okay.... definitely not my thing. But it is for some people!

Tianna Kelly

I think this is a book has some important themes for the young desi crowd especially with the discussion of familial ties and mental health. I do think the book struggled to land on one of the several topics of discussion the book brought up. 
If you are going into this book for romance and wholesome content you will get it. Nadim and Reena were two characters struggling with their identity and found themselves and their future together. The background plot and familial drama fits that of a bollywood movie but for me it did not translate well as I could not focus on 10 things at once especially when the character was going through it all with her life. Even though I could not focus on the 10 things I was gasping and laughing along with the characters. 

Things I liked: 
- funny family moments 
- Brown Captain America 
- the foooooodddddd 
- home prose 
- normalized foot fetish ( bc we do not kink shame here) 


Things I did not like: 
- Saira did not need to betray her sister like that 
- book did not have a strong subplot 
- I wanted to know more about her friends and was given crumbs

Lacey

3.5 stars. This was very close to a 4 but the second half wasn’t as fun as the first half was. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and would’ve loved if we got more of the baking competition.

Ashlee

This book was so charming and delightful, I really enjoyed it! I loved the situation these characters found themselves in and just everything about this book was something to love. Great chemistry, laugh out loud humor and banter, supportive friends, well meaning and lovable family members, and lots and lots of bread making. 

Truly, I loved all of the characters in this but Nadim stole my heart. I’m excited to read more from this author!

The Right Spice

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