Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Sister of the Bollywood Bride!
This was such an adorable contemporary read that’s perfect to enjoy over the summer. Today I’m here to share my review of it, as part of the blog tour hosted by Lonely Pages Book Tours!
Sister of the Bollywood Bride by Nandini Bajpai
✧ Publisher: Poppy (Hachette)
✧ Release Date: May 25, 2021
✧ Genre: YA Contemporary, Romance
For fans of Morgan Matson’s Save the Date comes a charming novel about one teen’s summer tackling disasters including, but not limited to, family, romance, and weather—as she plans her sister’s Bollywood-style Indian wedding.
Mini’s big sister, Vinnie, is getting married. Their mom passed away seven years ago and between Dad’s new start-up and Vinnie’s medical residency, there’s no one but Mini to plan the wedding. Dad raised her to know more about computers, calculus, and cars than desi weddings but from the moment Mini held the jewelry Mom left them, she wanted her sister to have the wedding Mom would’ve planned.
Now Mini has only two months to get it done and she’s not going to let anything distract her, not even the persistent, mysterious, and smoking-hot Vir Mirchandani. Flower garlands, decorations, music, even a white wedding horse—everything is in place.
That is, until a monster hurricane heads for Boston that could ruin everything. Will Mini come through as sister of the bride and save the day?
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound
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Representation: Indian-American mc, Indian scs
Click for Trigger Warnings.
past death of a parent (cancer)✧ ♡ ✧ ♡ ✧
Thank you to the publisher and Lonely Pages Book Tours for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a spot on this bog tour! This did not affect my opinions in any way.
About the Author
Nandini Bajpai grew up in New Delhi, India, one of four sisters and many cousins, in a family that liked to read.
She lived and worked in India, Australia, and the US, before settling in the Boston area with her husband, kids, and a fluctuating number and variety of pets. Although she dabbled in corporate finance, business analysis, and fostering shelter animals, her first love is writing.
Website | Twitter | Book Site
My Review
Sister of the Bollywood Bride follows Mini as she plans her sister’s wedding, and must work through many of the setbacks she faces along the way. When I first heard about this book, I was so excited—Indian weddings? Sister relationships? A fun summer contemporary romance? It seemed like it would be the perfect contemporary to delve into! And, as promised, it truly a cute read.
What I Liked:
- The family relationships and exploration of grief: I loved following Mini’s point of view, she was such a sweet main character! Her relationships with the rest of her family were also done very well, I could tell how much she loved her sister and father. This book also explored grief, as Mini’s mother passed away when she was seven years old, and it showed how Mini’s family was still grieving. I thought that this exploration of grief was done in a very nuanced and well-written way.
- The Indian representation: Of course a book is going to mean even more to me if I feel represented in it, and I loved reading about Mini plan her older sister’s wedding in Sister of the Bollywood Bride! I’ve been to a few Indian weddings myself, and it was so much fun to see Mini planning the wedding and creatively figuring out how to make sure everything worked out in the end.
- How fun and easy to read it was: When I picked up Sister of the Bollywood Bride, I was in the middle of a reading slump and desperately needed something light that wouldn’t require too much investment. Thankfully, I was so glad that this book perfectly matched that description! It read like a typical contemporary romance that was so easy to get into. I found myself flying through chapters because it was light and fun to read.
What I Disliked:
- The pacing: Although this was easy to read, I had a bit of a hard time with the beginning, as the pacing was quite slow. I found that a lot of this novel was just fluff, rather than actually getting anywhere in terms of plot. The same problem occurred near the middle of the novel, too: I felt that the plot lagged for a while until closer to the three-fourths mark.
- The romance: While I didn’t dislike the romance, per say, I didn’t enjoy it, either. I just couldn’t find myself relating to it or rooting for it. I wished that more of the book focused on the plot or strengthening the themes of grief and self-realization rather than the romance.
- The maturity: Again, this isn’t a point that I extremely disliked, but it did bother me a bit. Mini’s perspective felt like I was reading from a middle-schooler’s perspective rather than someone who had just graduated high school. I think this book would have done great as a middle grade novel rather than YA, because reading Mini’s point of view did not make it seem like she was as old as she was.
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Overall, this was an adorable read that, as I mentioned at the start of this post, would be perfect to enjoy during a summer day! Although it did have its faults, it delivered exactly what it promised: a fluffy contemporary that I think everyone needs right now.
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