The Marriage Game by Sara Desai

Welcome Back, Booklovers

I got the opportunity to read an arc of this book via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.  I was in the mood to read a contemporary romance featuring Indian Americans. It at times reminded me of watching a Bollywood movie. Except more forward moving with cursing, kissing, and lots of sizzling sex. Plenty of dancing and singing still though. 

There were so many references to different Bollywood movies and because Layla's family owns a restaurant there was constant talk of mouth watering food. 

Layla is a 26 yr old woman who has returned to her hometown after a very bad breakup with her social media influencer boyfriend which ends up exploding in a viral video. She ended up losing her apartment and her job and is unsure what her next move will be. Her hope is to open up her own business. This is something that excites her father who happily gives her the office space above the family restaurant. The only problem is that he already leased it to someone else who refuses to leave.

Sam wants the office space so he can act out his plan of revenge against the man who wronged his family. He's not exactly thrilled about having to share what is supposed to be his quiet space.

Layla's father is recovering from a heart attack and she finds out that he had created a profile for her on an Indian arranged marriage connection site. He even narrowed down hundreds of men to make a list of men he thought would be a good fit for her. Out of guilt and being fed up with always selecting the wrong men she decides to give it a chance. Sam  turns it into a game and decides to chaperone her under the condition that if she finds a husband she leave the office to him. And so begins the Marriage Game.

Finally a book described as a rom com that is actually funny! The dates were hilarious. That scene with the shape-wear was funny and realistic too.

Sam kind of turned his back on the culture after a bad experience and he has the worst taste in friends/associates so it was interesting to see his transition throughout the story. Layla was balancing being a modern woman while also dealing with tradition and her family's ideals.

Honestly I took way longer than I should've to finish reading it cuz this heat has me tired and lazy lately but it's a fun fast read. And it has me craving Indian food which I haven't eaten in over a month. Must order some soon.

Things I've Learned While Running a Book Blog

Hey Booklovers, 

So I've been officially running this blog consistently for 6 months and a lot has changed since the beginning.  This is my first time running a blog so everything has been a learning experience. Here's some great tips I learned along the way.

1. Promote, promote, promote! Once you start to have a blog you need to post about it everywhere.  A social media presence will really help with you getting consistent views on blog posts.

2. You'll compare yourself to other book bloggers with a steady following. Even if they've got a smaller following you'll wonder why their  Bookstagram page looks so effortless while you have to do so much staging of yours. How their picture of a coffee cup, their Kindle, and and a candle looks so perfect. What hashtags are they using to get more views and why aren't they getting you nearly enough? 

3.  You'll get more arcs(advanced reader copies) but still have to push for the publishers to give you the chance to review the more popular titles. Especially as a Black blogger I sometimes find it harder to get arcs of the Black books.

4. Consistency is key! The more often you post the more you'll keep a steady audience.  Try and  post content as often as possible.

5. Reach out to authors! They have books they want to promote and most likely they're books  you're already reading. If you can reach out to authors and help amplify each other.

Just a few books on my shelf

Interview with Author Sareeta Domingo

Welcome Back, Booklovers. I'm back with an interview by another author that you may not have heard of but need to get familiar with. She is a Black author from the UK with not one but two books releasing this summer.  Get to know Sareeta Domingo also know as SA Domingo. @sareetadomingo on Twitter.

How was working on your second YA novel different from your debut? What inspired you and why did you decide to write another clean teen romance? 

Having a positive reception to my (YA) debut Love, Secret Santa, featuring what should really be a commonplace thing in publishing – a YA story featuring Black protagonists that isn’t ‘issue’-led – definitely was encouraging when it came to writing Love on the Main Stage. I’ve been a massive music fan all my life, so getting the chance to work on this story and having Hachette’s support was great. In terms of the story being ‘clean’, this is something I’d talked about with my editor, but was less of a critique of stories that aren’t ‘clean’, and more an effort to write something that didn’t have any difficult edge or trauma.

 

You also have another upcoming story titled If I Don't Have You. What is that story about and is there an expected release date at this time?

Yes, it’s a bumper summer for me in terms of publications! I have a novel for adults coming out with Jacaranda Books on 29th July 2020, a romance entitled If I Don’t Have You. It’s about a Black British Londoner, Kayla, a journalist and artist, who is planning a Green Card wedding to a friend in order to pursue her creative dreams in New York. But she’s sent to interview charismatic Brazilian/African-American film director Ren. They end up spending one magical night together followed by a long-distance romance, but secrets eventually tear them apart – until they meet again years later…

And in February next year, I’m so thrilled that an anthology I’m compiling, editing and contributing to is being published with Trapeze Books. It’s a collection of romantic stories written by British women of colour called Who’s Loving You.

What are your favorite genres to read and write?

I have a very broad range of interests that I suppose fall under ‘literary fiction’, but I also love reading romance – and writing it, too, as you can probably tell!

How has the pandemic affected your promotion and the release? 

My plans for a book launch for either of my books out this summer have of course gone out of the window, which is a real shame. It’s also meant fewer opportunities to do things like in-person appearances or promotion in stores. Everything is moving online, and I do fear that can mean too many people clamouring for the same promo opportunities. In terms of my adult book with Jacaranda, we also moved the publication date from May to July to help accommodate some of the challenges.

There's few Black British authors in publishing and it seems like some are finally getting their dues. Do you feel like as a Black author you're expected to write a certain type of story? 

I do think there is a certain expectation of what you ‘should’ write as a Black British author (and a Black author in the Western publishing world in general), and it can seem that authors garner more interest and attention if they are writing specifically about race. I think it should go without saying that Black authors should be afforded the same range of topics of interest as their non-Black counterparts.

What is it like working with an indie publisher on a book vs a larger publisher?

In many ways the process isn’t that dissimilar in terms of working on editorial processes and so forth. Of course, there is greater pressure on indies, particularly in the current climate of the pandemic, so they are perhaps stretched a little thinner than their larger counterparts. But I’ve loved working with both Hachette and Jacaranda Books. I’m certainly proud to have a book published by Jacaranda as a Black British, woman-led company. They’re doing great work!

Are there any 2020 releases from Black British authors you are looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to tucking into Dorothy Koomson’s latest All My Lies Are True, a sequel to her bestseller The Ice Cream Girls. She’s so consistent and is a queen of the British book scene! I’m also definitely keen to check out Bolu Babalola’s Love in Colour collection of stories too, I’m sure it’ll be fantastic.

Are you able to talk about your current work in progress?

I’m in the process of finishing up the anthology I mentioned I’m working on, Who’s Loving You, which I’m so excited about. And I’m just getting started on a new idea for my next novel – I’m keeping it under my hat for now, but it’s going to be a bit different to what I’ve published before…

All The Things We Never Knew by Liara Tamani

Welcome Back, Booklovers!

Another crazy week down and another book read. So last year I noticed that even though we are getting more Black books that there is still a lack of contemporary romance books for Black teens. And I see so much Black women vs Black men wars on social media. I see young Black girls propping up the white boy of the month or the K Pop artist currently thriving off of Black culture while putting down their own men. I see Black men putting down Black girls while professing their love for biracials, white girls, and non Black Latinx girls. It's disheartening to see.

 Last year I tried to list the books featuring Black girls and boys where the story was about them falling in love. Traditional romance not fantasy that has a love story in it. Not a contemporary that deals with other issues but happens to have some romance in it. I even reached out to some Black authors and we really were having a tough time naming any. We could only name two. This year I found 7 that I am determined to read and review for this blog. The first one that released earlier this year that I read was so choppy, dated, and filled with unoriginal stereotypes I wrote a rant review and pushed it to the back of my mind. 

So needless to say I came into this book expecting something warm and fuzzy that would make me care about the characters. And though I was a little unsure at first because I thought their love moved very fast even for teen love I soon settled in for the ride.  I really liked Liara Tamani's writing style. I've been paying for attention lately to how distinct a writer's voice is. Those opening chapters were so beautifully written that they sucked me in.

Rex and Carli meet and Carli literally falls into his arms. And from then on they are drawn to each other. So I'll admit I was like "Huh!" when he Rex tracked her down via her brother Cole's Instagram page and showed up at the hospital to see her. I was like, "Are the teens really doing that nowadays cuz that is not the wave!" At least the text acknowledged that that part was a little stalkerish. 

I liked how Rex was a different portrayal of the Black teen males we usually see in the media. Sure on the outside he seems like the big basketball star  destined for NBA stardom that all the girls are after. He craves love and affection and sometimes he cries. And it's not a bad thing. Rex feels unloved by his father who never seems to pay him any attention. He also has guilt because his mother died during childbirth. 

Carli on the other other hand is also a basketball star but hates the sport. She plays to make her father happy and though she dreams of quitting is holding off on that dream while her parents are in the process of a nasty separation.  I loved that she would cut things out of magazines and post up pictures to decorate her walls. It reminded me of me as a teen where I would cut out magazine pictures and print pictures of all the things I enjoyed.

This is a light read perfect to gift to a teen girl who could use a YA romance she can actually see herself in and see a healthy depiction of Black love in.

Caribbean Booktubers to Follow

Welcome Back, Booklovers!

In honor of Caribbean Heritage Month I wanted to highlight some Caribbean booktubers/Caribbean diaspora booktubers. I sent the word out to Twitter and people delivered with many recommendations. So if you're looking for some new booktubers to watch check them out.

Giselle Mills

ONYX Pages

Minimal Bookie

mynameismarines

KJ Reads Pages

Strangeshereads

Liselle Sambury

Books are my Social Life

Jessica Nicole Dickerson

bookrokosmos

 Luxurious Blu

throneofpages

Comfycozyup

LucieReads