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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | FICTION DEV | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Oakdale Library | FICTION DEV | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | FICTION DEV | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi) | FICTION DEV | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year ● NPR Best Books of the Year ● Amazon Fall Reading Selection ● Goodreads Best Romances of the Month ● International Dublin Literary Award Longlist
"A fresh new voice."
-Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times bestselling author
Ria Parkar is Bollywood's favorite Ice Princess-beautiful, poised, and scandal-proof-until one impulsive act threatens to expose her destructive past. Traveling home to Chicago for her cousin's wedding offers a chance to diffuse the coming media storm and find solace in family, food, and outsized celebrations that are like one of her vibrant movies come to life. But it also means confronting Vikram Jathar.
Ria and Vikram spent childhood summers together, a world away from Ria's exclusive boarding school in Mumbai. Their friendship grew seamlessly into love-until Ria made a shattering decision. As far as Vikram is concerned, Ria sold her soul for stardom and it's taken him years to rebuild his life. But beneath his pent-up anger, their bond remains unchanged. And now, among those who know her best, Ria may find the courage to face the secrets she's been guarding for everyone else's benefit-and a chance to stop acting and start living.
Rich with details of modern Indian-American life, here is a warm, sexy, and witty story of love, family, and the difficult choices that arise in the name of both.
Author Notes
Sonali Dev's first literary work was a play about mistaken identities performed at her neighborhood Diwali extravaganza in Mumbai. She was eight years old. Despite this early success, Sonali spent the next few decades getting degrees in architecture and written communication, migrating across the globe, and starting a family while writing for magazines and websites. With the advent of her first gray hair her love for telling stories returned full force, and she now combines it with her insights into Indian culture to conjure up stories that make a mad tangle with her life as supermom, domestic goddess, and world traveler. Sonali is an active member of RWA and WFWA. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her very patient and often amused husband and two teens who demand both patience and humor, and the world's most perfect dog. Visit her on the web at sonalidev.com.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Dev (A Bollywood Affair) replaces true connection with overdone drama in this middling contemporary romance. Bollywood star Ria, who lives and works in Mumbai, returns to Chicago for the first time in 10 years for her cousin's wedding. There she meets Vikram, with whom she was in a serious relationship as an adolescent, and the two of them have to deal with the brutal way Ria broke up with him at the start of her film career. Ria had reasons beyond the attractions of stardom to consider herself ineligible for a relationship, and those reasons intrude between the two as they rekindle their romance. The cultural details of Mumbai and of Chicago's Indian immigrant community are well-handled, and the book's attitude toward mental illness is an interesting cross between Indian and American social norms. But a lack of real communication between the lovers renders the plot unbelievable, and it never acquires any emotional weight. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
When Bollywood star Ria Parkar returns to Chicago for her cousin's wedding after having been away for 10 years, she must face Vikram, the boy she abandoned, who believes she chose a life of wealth and fame over him. As a child, Ria savored summers at her beloved Aunt Uma's home in Chicago, spent with her cousin Nikhil and his cousin Vikram. She and Vikram both considered Uma's home a refuge, but when they fell in love as teens, Vikram's successful mother made it clear her plans for her son definitely didn't include Ria, the tainted daughter of a family with a history of mental illness. Self-possessed even at 18, Vikram was ready to claim her, but that was before the shameful family tragedy that compelled Ria to turn her back on their love to protect him, allowing him to believe her capable of betrayal in order to follow fame and fortune with a Bollywood career. Now, a decade later, traveling back to Chicago for Nikhil's wedding is a minefield of memories, both good and bad, and a reminder of what normal looks like after superstardom in India. Navigating her wounded heart, her Ice Princess facade, a nearly forgotten sea of family love from her childhood, and an angry, beloved boy-turned-man who both wants her and hates her make for a complicated trip, especially once the secrets bubble to the surface, threatening her career and her happiness. Vikram has always been the boy who rescued her, but maybe the time has come for her to confront the past and save them both. Dev's exquisitely written second novel seamlessly integrates the explosive tension of Ria and Vikram's love story with the universal complications of family, identity, and feeling like an outsider, even in your own skin. The modern Indian-American setting offers a glimpse of a rich culture and enhances the book's overt and subtle messages of love, compassion, hope, and common ground. A bright, beautiful gem. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Dev's second novel, following A Bollywood Affair (2014), proves that she is a rising talent. Dev's prose captures the rich and unique beauty of Indian culture while telling a story that is complex, culturally accurate, and full of emotion. Ria Parkar is a famous Bollywood actress who is known for being an ice princess, never showing her true emotions. But when she returns home to Chicago for her cousin's traditional Indian wedding, she must face the past she left behind, especially Vikram Jathar, her childhood best friend who grew into so much more. A decade earlier, in an attempt to protect him from an uncertain future, Ria broke her promises to Vikram and fled to India to become an actress. Now, she must attempt to maintain her composure, face her long-lost love, and endure his bitter treatment. Slowly, as they spend more time together, Ria and Vikram learn the true meaning of love. It is sometimes messy and imperfect, but it is something you must be willing to fight for.--Smith, Patricia Copyright 2015 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Ria Parker has avoided going home to Chicago for far too long, offering up convenient excuses about her demanding Bollywood career. With her beloved more-brother-than-cousin's impending wedding, Ria finally heads stateside from Mumbai to face the family. For ten years, she's managed to avoid first-and-only-love Vikram, thinking that she's saved him from a miserable future looming with insanity. But when she meets him and his new girlfriend-virtually in flagrante in the family basement-running away this time proves impossible. Dev (Bollywood Affair) continues her bicultural Bollywood streak, albeit this time adding more steam than substance. Attempts at inclusion of weightier fare-a Chinese American adoptee who grew up in foster care, mental illness, cultural appropriation, social justice-feel clumsy and misplaced. Thankfully, versatile Priya Ayyar with her mellifluously fluent accents switches seamlessly from sibling banter and adoring older servants to overwrought sex scenes and dancing aunties without missing a beat. Where better editing might have erased dozens of unnecessary pages as the gorgeous-but-flat characters play out their inevitably predictable plot, Ayyar manages to entertain listeners. VERDICT Recommended for fans of the author. ["Both a sexy love story and an exploration of how a tormented young woman learns to overcome family turmoil and look forward to a future with the man she loves": LJ 10/1/15 review of the Kensington pb.]-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.