First Comes Like A Novel

The concept of the book was sweet. I love a fake dating trope, but this book lacked a good buildup into romance. The falling in love arc felt forced and pretty bland, and the conflict/resolution at the end was so rushed.

I love this book so much. It was surprising and sweet, and maybe my favorite in the series.

The beginning of the book was cute and was fun to read. As the book progresses, some of the decisions by the couple were rushed and Jia would get upset over the smallest things. Would read more from the author, but currently this book did not do it for me.

Audiobook: Female narrator's voice is sort of nasally and distant. It sounds like she was recorded in a space with more echo around, or further from the microphone or something. Her pronunciation of his name comes out sounding flatly like she's saying Dave, not Daev, the way the male narrator pronounces it. The male narrator is great. Brings a lot of warmth and richness to the character. The Story: The character of Jia is flat and boring. I usually like reading a romance from both characters' perspective, but the characters are so uncomfortably unbalanced in this that I would prefer if it had been told only from Dev's perspective. We deserved Mor etime with him and his neice, or Jia and his niece. I would have rather had a closed door story and devoted those extra pages to fleshing out the new family dynamic more.

this it probably more of a 4/4.5, but it was bright and fun and carried me through a second impeachment and an inauguration and my entire hometown being all but w tired locked down for said events so HERE WE ARE

fully wandered outside my comfort zone for this one

This was sadly just not a s good as the previous books in the series in my opinion

I went from thinking alisha redeemed the modern love series with a great last book to thinking “I hate this book” over and over?!?! it was going so well. I loved the banter these two had and I really shipped them but then everything moved so fast and wasn’t making any sense. certain issues were brought up to give more dimension to a character and then they weren’t even explored. I know with books there has to be a suspension of disbelief but my gosh this was so odd.

Alisha’s romance novels have a special place in my heart, so I was already excited for the release of this trilogy finale. And then when I got the opportunity to be a part of the blog tour, I was ecstatic. And this book lived up to all my expectations. Jia is such a wonderful character. As a South Asian woman, I personally know how hard it is to defy our parents’ expectations from us and carve our own path, so Jia choosing to be a beauty influencer with an ambition to do more is really very admirable in my eyes. Dev on the other hand is an Indian soap opera star trying his hand in American television, but I loved how down to earth he is and knows what his priorities are. Even though their relationship takes a very unique and slightly unconventional path, I loved the bond they formed with each other and they just felt perfect for each other. Her impulsive nature and his steady supportive calm are great complements and i thorough enjoyed reading about them. The friendships that have developed throughout this series and fully in display again and I can’t describe how much I love all these brilliant strong women Alisha has created. We get to see some fascinating older women too in the form of Jia’s mom and Dev’s grandma, and it was such an overall excellent ensemble. The plot is entertaining and sweet, the pacing is just fast enough for us to want to know what’s gonna happen next already, and the characters are so lovable. I also loved that Alisha decided not to go with unnecessary break up/make up subplot because I was really dreading that third act which has become so predictable. But Alisha never disappoints and I should have just trusted her writing. In conclusion, this is a very lovely romance with a sweet couple and full cast of supportive side characters. If you have enjoyed any of Alisha’s novels previously or just like romance novels with smart heroines and nice heroes, this one is perfect for you. I can’t believe this series is already over and I can’t wait to see if Alisha will write a spin-off with Lakshmi’s story next.

Cute and sweet but I didn't love it as much as the first two in the series. It just seemed very surface-level and we didn't get to see enough development from Jia and Dev, although I do love both of them.

We have beauty influencer Jia and Bollywood star Dev in sunny California. Jia has been corresponding with Dev via social media for years and cannot believe she will actually get the chance to meet him in person as he is coming to film a show in L.A. Dev is surprised when a beautiful hijabi woman comes up to him and confesses her feelings...Jia is even more shocked when he doesn’t reciprocate despite the feelings he has shared in her DMs...turns out she has been catfished. And that is where the story jumps off! I loved both the characters, their dialogue was cute and funny throughout the book. I did find the book to be 100 pages too long. I found myself wanting to ‘skip to the good parts’ as I just found some plot points to be so drawn out. I also felt like Dev’s secret wasn’t making that much of a difference in the story. Like he didn’t actually care about the issue so his actions weren’t propelled by it and therefore it felt a little irrelevant. I also realized that this book is actually number 3 in a series. I think they can all be read as standalones but this book did allude to a bigger backstory for some of Jia’s roommates.

I knew something was fishy when Jia never got a response back from her admirer/crush via the internet. And I was right because Jia comforted her so-called crush but he had no idea what was going on. She was indeed catfish. Totally sucks as hell but it definitely gave her the opportunity to know Dev more. I don't know how I feel about Dev. Like I want to like him but something is holding me back. I don't know if it's his personality or his interactions. Don't know what it was but I really could not connect to him as a character especially since Jia was growing attached to him.  Their relationship was cute. It needs more spark between them. Jia needs to let go especially if she wants a relationship. She is too struck in her family ways that it's holding her back. I understand family values but sometimes it's about you more in the long run.

Jia Ahmed, a Muslim hijabi makeup influencer, and Dev Dixit, a soap opera star from a famous Bollywood family, have been chatting online for months now. Jia has decided that it's time for her to meet Dev only to find out that he doesn't have any idea who she is. It turns out that she's catfished by someone who is pretending to be Dev. Jia's internal struggles as an influencer was relatable as well as her need to impress her parents. Dev is really humble and his relationship to his niece is so sweet. Jia and Dev are both "different" from their families which make them a perfect couple. But sadly, their chemistry wasn't enough for me. The fake-dating didn't last long as expected which was okay but that's also the time when I became less invested in their relationship. I wanted more from them. I think the story lacked tension especially towards the end when there were a lot of things happening. Overall, this is a light-hearted and a fast read with amazing cast of characters. I didn't know that this book is a part of a series so I'm off to reading the first two books.

The start was really good but in the middle it kinda of slowed down which made me a little bored with it. I liked the set-up with Jia being an influencer and and Dev being a Bollywood actor and how Jia thought they were already speaking online. As the story went on though they stopped communicating which is one of my pet peeves in romance books and in the end I didn't really feel the depth of the relationship. Also, the male narrator of the audiobook did such a whiny voice for female characters which was quite distracting so wouldn't recommend the audiobook.

2.5

It was cute and didn't go the way I expected either, which is good.

This is more of a 3.5. Not my favorite of the series but still good. I wish we got more at the end though!