Romance: The Bollywood Bride, Sonali Dev

The Bollywood Bride
Sonali Dev
ISBN: 9781617730153
"Ice Princess" Bollywood actress returns home to the USA for her cousin's wedding, reconnecting with her childhood, and with her oldest friend and former lover, who she spurned dramatically at the start of her acting career.

Really enjoyed this.  It was an interesting look at the usual tropes of romances from the perspective of an unfamiliar culture, and I really enjoyed the juxtaposition.

Ria is the straightest-laced of Bollywood actresses, consistently working hard and staying poised and cool on-camera and off.  But she hides deep guilt and an even darker secret with all of her work and her cool unruffled facade.  Once she goes back to her childhood home in Chicago, all of her efforts to be untouchable and untouched will be undone, as she finally is forced to confront the trauma from her childhood.

Dev writes clearly and passionately, and the story is logical and enjoyable, with not too much time spent on emotional or mental distress before a break to recount happy and lighthearted family and friendly interactions.  There are plenty of descriptions of clothing and outfits (male and female) and the descriptions are clear and gushing.  Characters have actual character, and the vast majority of the cast are kind and beautiful people.  There are only two people who are "villainous" in the story, and one of them even shows a surprising spark of humanity at an unexpected moment!

I hope she writes more - it's lovely to see more cultures and more diversity represented in the romance books that are available to people, especially when they are written as well and as movingly as this one.

Monsoon Afternoon & My Dadima Wears a Sari, Kashmira Sheth, illustrated by Yokisho Jaeggi

These two are simply beautiful picture books, and the stories in each are sweet interactions between children and their grandparents.

Monsoon Afternoon is set in India, and My Dadima Wears a Sari is set in America. 

In the first, a boy and his grandfather (his dadaji) go out and play in the first rains of the monsoon season, and the boy hears all about how his dadaji also played with his own dadaji, and the monsoon came every year, and so back through time.  The love and gentleness is sweet and uplifting, and there's nothing religious or political to take away from the simple message of a child enjoying time with a loving older relative.

My Dadima Wears a Sari has a grandmother who always wears a sari talking about all of her beautiful saris and the memories she has of them with her two granddaughters, and ends with them all dressing up in her favorites.  Again, the message is simple and the story is sweet - the dadima and granddaughter talk about all the useful things that can be done with saris, but the point is also made that they are beautiful and remind her of her past, and that she enjoys wearing them for those reasons also. 

Both simply gorgeous works, and I'm very glad to have run across them.