Thank you to those that reminded me I had a digital ARC (thx @berkleypub) of GROWN UP POSE when I asked for books that had yoga in the story. I really enjoyed this one! I am always here for a woman taking a moment to figure out exactly what she really wants and going after it so I was cheering for Anu the entire way. I was a little disappointed that her time in London was cut short BUT I am really happy with how things went once she came back. Are we getting a sequel where Anu finally goes on that yoga retreat so she can TEACH?!

What does it take to become a grown-up? Are the trappings of adult life—marriage, career, baby, home ownership—enough, or does true adulthood mean more? In Toronto writer Sonya Lalli’s latest novel, Grown-Up Pose, the author explores what it means to be an adult through the eyes of her thirty-something heroine, a married mother of one who walks away from her family to try to find what really makes her happy.

For the complete review, click on the link below.

I really enjoyed Sonya Lalli's first book, The Matchmaker's List, and so I have been looking forward to reading Grown-up Pose. I really enjoyed the book despite not always agreeing with what Anu, the protagonist, does in the story. I also think the blurb is a little misleading; this is really a story of one woman's journey of self-recovery and the yoga studio itself plays very little into it until the latter part of the story.

So Anu is a woman who did not have much life experience under her belt when she married young. Her husband Neil is the only man she's ever dated, and they have a wonderful little girl she dotes on. Anu herself has a part-time job as a nurse (a career she felt pushed into by her parents), and her life mostly revolves around her husband and daughter. Her husband, I might add, is a bit of a man-child himself, relatively irresponsible (he leaves the front door open and unlocked while he's home with their daughter - what?) and pretty much helpless around the house.

Anu is the type of mom that many too many mothers can relate to - putting everyone else's lives first, not necessarily losing touch with old friends but just not making time for them (or yourself). Mix that with a life that feels utterly not of your own making, but one that was shaped by parental and cultural pressures, and you have one hot mess of a woman who isn't entirely emotionally mature herself.

She basically wakes up to the situation she is in - and wants more. In a series of somewhat impulsive decisions, she turns her life upside down, enters the dating scene, rediscovers a passion, buys a failing yoga studio, takes a much overdue (solo) trip abroad - it's all a bit of a mess.

I should be upset with Anu (and at times I am); she IS selfish, but I can also see where it's coming from. I wish that a few characters were more involved in the story (Imogen). and I wish that her parents actually felt more controlling so I really would FEEL like she was pushed into a life she didn't ask for. (Her parents are freaking adorable, although her mom feels a little intimidating.). The time jumps were confusing and distracting at times, too.

HOWEVER. Something about this story really captured me. It moved swiftly and I felt invested in her Anu, flaws and all. Her actions are not accepted by friends and family, and the train wreck that her life becomes (at times0. There's also a lot of character growth. We see it in Anu (slowly) and we see it, indirectly, in Neil. We even see it in Anu's parents, as her mother reaches out for a dream she has held, and her father steps into the role of caregiver. The writing caught me emotionally, and despite its flaws, I couldn't put the book down.

This is the story of a woman who finally finds her own way. I think that she allowed herself to be led as much as she was led and

Okay I dnf'd this at 15% the main character is the absolute worst. She's so childish and annoying, the fact that she bought a whole yoga studio on a whim is the stupidest thing I've ever read and I simply cannot continue.

Additionally the writing was so cringey and the pop cultural references were annoying and outdated. Truly nothing enjoyable about this book.

This is the kind of book that I couldn’t wait to finish but didn’t want to end! I LOVED it.
I feel like Anu’s struggle to feel like a “grown-up” is SO relatable, and I loved that the book focused on this journey even though Anu’s default seem to be focus on finding a relationship. I loved her two best friends, her Indian family and their tradition, and her yoga. This is just a really good book, and I HIGHLY recommend you read it. I’ve added The Matchmaker’s List to my TBR pile!
Thanks for a copy @netgalley!

A wonderful story of being a grown-up. Anu and Neil Desai were married young and now ten years later, Anu feels like she is suffocating. She and Neil separate, but continue to share the care of their 5 year old daughter, Kanika. As Anu juggles her new life with the help of her friends, Monica and Jenny, she learns the challenges of dating which she really hadn't done previously. Anu's cultural ties with her parents is part of her angst. She feels that she has to be the good daughter, and that she hasn't had a chance to make her own decisions. What choices does she take good and bad? Read to find out.

Anu questioning her life and what has become of it is nothing out of the ordinary. I think many of us do that at some point when we finally have a moment to look around and take stock of things. For Anu it was realizing that everything she had built thus far was because it was expected of her, simply doing things to make her parents happy. She felt stifled in her marriage and got to a point where she didn't know who she was. Separating from her husband and making space for herself was the first step in whatever journey she was about to embark on. Except now months later she's still drifting because she hasn't yet found the answers.


A chance meeting outside of a yoga studio initiates a change. Making a new friend and then stumbling upon the opportunity to run her own yoga studio might come from left field but it also makes some sense as she's always loved yoga and this could be a way for her to create something of her own. She makes an impulsive decision which immediately sets her anxiety loose. Being that she's still kind of a mess emotionally, it takes a few starts and stops before she finds her footing.


I think Sonya Lalli has a knack for writing characters who are at difficult crossroads in their lives. Grown-Up Pose has echoes of her first novel, The Matchmaker's List. In both cases, she’s not afraid for her protagonists to be flawed, flounder or fail because after much soul-searching they’ll eventually pick themselves up. Grown-Up Pose spoke to me on so many levels and I enjoyed going along on Anu’s journey. Anu got so lost in the routines and going through the motions that she lost sight of the good things she had. She needed to sort of lose all that before she could fully appreciate the choices she'd made.


Grown-Up Pose is a very grown up book about the difficulty of adulting and responsibility. It's not all dower, though because it's also about making space to create good things in your life. We're always growing and evolving, and as Anu discovers for herself, having the right people beside you make all the difference in the world.


~ Bel

Since I loved Sonya Lalli's first book The Matchmaker's List, I was looking forward to reading her next Grown-up Pose. Thank you Berkley Pub and Netgalley for providing me with the copy of Grown-up Pose in exchange for an honest review.

Anu, in her thirties, is trying to start over. She is separated from her husband. The marriage which was pressurized by her tight-knit family to her then serious boyfriend, Neil, falls apart after she feels that she has no time for herself. She has a daughter with Neil and after separation, Anu wants to do everything that she couldn't do before her marriage to Neil like opening a yoga studio. Is it that easy for a woman to redefine herself who is also a mother?

Being an Indian woman, I can completely relate to Anu's character as a wife and a daughter-in-law. Self-care is always talked about when you're taking care of others and it is not selfish at all. Anu's constant struggle to find a balance between her family life and other life choices is relatable. It has been a while since I read a book on the Indian diaspora and it feels great to read the vocabulary from my first language.

Lalli did a great job in highlighting other issues of drug abuse, finance, separation, divorce, child custody, one-night stands, break-ups, parental, controlling and judgmental. Lalli introduced all those issues in her plot without overwhelming the story and losing the focus. The book is less than 300 pages long and the writing is not complex at all. I loved reading about yoga and different asanas I've grown up doing since my childhood.

If you are looking for a quick women's fiction to read which is diverse, thought-provoking and demonstrates the constant struggle of a woman to be herself while being nagged by family responsibilities, grab this one!

Marrying someone outside your culture can be challenging, and then add to it the feeling that as a wife who gets to stay a home as a full time mother isn't enough. I'd call it a coming of age story, except we're talking about an adult woman....but it is about finding yourself.

I really enjoyed this book. There are some problematic storylines/character moments but overall I really enjoyed everything.

Anusha is Canadian-Indian, 30 years old, mother of a 5 year old, and semi-recently separated from her husband Neil. Anusha and Neil got married young and she has only known the life of being a good wife and mother. When she and Neil separate, she realizes it is time to figure out who she is and live her life to find out if she is a grown-up.

I’m going to start with a few of my issues with the book. My first issue is, well, when it’s boiled down to it, Anusha’s immaturity. It causes a lot of problems that I think could rub a lot of people the wrong way. The first is that she goes to take a yoga class at a random studio, and after she takes a one-on-one class, the owner comes in and offers for her to buy the studio and she considers it! Like, she just has the disposable savings that she can just buy a yoga studio with no thought about it whatsoever and doesn’t even consider the fact that she knows nothing about running a business.

A little later in the book, Anusha has a bit of a mental break and literally days after signing the lease on the studio, she buys a one way ticket to London, abandoning her daughter, husband, job, and home without a second thought. She just up and leaves with no idea where she’s going or when she’s coming back. The irresponsibility that stems from her immaturity is just, baffling. Like, I understand being in a position of trying to recapture a youth you’ve never had, but at the same time you need to accept where you are. You can’t just up and leave your child. After talking about this with a few of my friends, I think I was able to forgive and understand Anusha a little more than my friends were able to, so I think this could be a big sticking point for some people when they read this book.

One part that I related to was her separation with Neil. I have been in a very similar position, so I understood a lot of her thoughts and feelings regarding her marriage. I also saw a lot of the flaws in her thinking and her actions. I couldn’t figure out through the entire novel whether or not she and Neil were going to end up back together. Lalli had me guessing until the last pages.

While Anusha could be a very problematic character, Lalli does a great job of having her thought process explained. I felt like I understood where Anusha was coming from with all of her actions (except maybe abandoning her daughter) and that made it easy to relate to her. I also haven’t read a lot of novels about people who are separated from their husbands and what they do during that time, so that was fun to read. If you have gone through a separation or a mid-life crisis, I think you would really enjoy and relate to this book.

After reading The Matchmaker’s List last year, Sonya Lalli became a must-read author for me. She writes these incredible contemporary fiction novels that explore the push and pull between tradition and modern life on Indian women. Her latest novel Grown-Up Pose is fresh, heart-warming, thought-provoking, and compulsively readable to the very last page.

I almost want to call this a coming of age book, but that would imply a main character in adolescence approaching adulthood. I think there needs to be a better genre to describe that transition from college through your early 30s. For many people (and our main character Anu), this is a period of time when our lives develop quickly and we don’t always get a chance to finish growing up.

Anu is an Indian woman living in Canada, and as the book opens she is nearly a year into a separation with her husband Neil, struggling to manage the co-parenting. Anu’s marriage happened the way good Indian marriages do—they met young (mere teenagers), courted, married young, and had a child. Anu has done everything right to be a good Indian daughter and wife. She does the cooking and cleaning, she became a nurse, and she does the bulk of the childcare duties.

Years into their marriage, Anu suddenly realizes how unhappy she is. She is in a job she isn’t passionate about, barely has any friends, and basically acts as a parent to both her daughter and her husband. Now during the separation, she has started dating someone new, but she’s not really getting the experiences she missed getting married so young.

On her journey to find herself, Anu finds herself purchasing a failing yoga studio, having some reckless nights out, and amidst all of the trial and errors, Anu may just come out of the other side finally able to be her best grown-up self.

One of the main themes of this book is the pressure put on Indian women, and really women in general, to be a certain type of person and make the right steps in life. In The Matchmaker’s List, we saw a woman who defied those early, now uncertain if she will be able to find the things she rejected as a young woman. In Grown-Up Pose, we see a woman who did everything she was supposed to and then a decade later she realizes she is going through the motions of a life she isn’t sure she wanted.

If we haven’t lived a little and made some mistakes, how can we ever know if we got the life we wanted?
A story full of ups and downs, laughs and heartfelt moments, and telling the story of a woman who was forced to grow up before she really lived.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Stevie‘s review of Grown-Up Pose by Sonya Lalli
Women’s Fiction published by Berkley 24 Mar 20

I greatly enjoyed Sonya Lalli’s first book, although I felt that the resolution was a little too predictable as romance tropes go. This time around she gives us a heroine at a slightly different stage in her life, when it comes to relationships, although of a similar age to some of the main characters in the first book and from a similar South Asian-Canadian background. Anusha (Anu) Desai married her first serious boyfriend, Neil, when they were both not long out of their teens. Now, seven years later, they’ve been separated for almost a year: nearly long enough to divorce, while sharing custody of their five-year-old daughter. And Anu is dating a white guy she met through work – something she accidentally discloses to Neil after she sneaks into his mother’s house to retrieve their daughter from a family party.


Although she was the one to initiate the separation, Anu still cares a lot about Neil and misses being close to his mother, but is generally dissatisfied with how their relationship panned out, as well as by how little she felt he contributed to it after their marriage while she gave up many of her dreams to support his career instead. Anu experiences further upheaval when her mother announces that she is to return to academia and finally complete the postgraduate studies she put on hold following Anu’s birth – and she’ll be doing so in London. All this upheaval adds to Anu’s dissatisfaction with her current life choices, and she seeks out ways to make changes of her own, revisiting her old love of yoga by taking classes at a struggling studio, where she receives a warm welcome from the owner and from one instructor in particular.

Anu sets out on a series of adventures, not all of which work out as planned. Alternately cheering her on and commiserating with her over failures are her two best friends, Monica and Jenny, as well as her new friend, Imogen, from the yoga studio. With Imogen’s help, Anu takes on the ownership and management of the studio and cautiously sets about revitalising the business. Her caution may be a little misplaced however, when everyone around her is in need of a grand gesture from her to demonstrate that she really is certain about her future, no matter how unsure she feels inside.

I really enjoyed this book. All the characters had their own flaws and made mistakes, but most – with the exception of the obvious villains of the piece – were well-intentioned, even as they messed up. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted Anu to end up in a relationship with one of the characters she had obvious chemistry with or whether I wanted her to find herself fully within singledom-for-now. The outcome, when it came, was suitably satisfying in my opinion.

This was a very fun book, and I’m looking forward to the author’s next one with even more excitement than I felt when I spotted this book had come up for review.

Grade: A

I received this book for free from Berkley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Morning lovelies! Today, I'm reviewing Grown-Up Pose by Sonya Lalli. It follows Anusha as she separates from her husband and navigates their Indian community, dating, and finding herself again. It's a fun but emotional journey as we flip between past and present to figure out how it crumbled as Anusha rebuilds.

Anusha is a typical mom who's thrown everything into raising her daughter and realized she's not happy in supposedly perfect life. Now, she's trying to branch out on her own for the first time as she separates from her husband and disappointed parental figures on both sides of the aisle.



Enjoyable
Emotional
Anusha is flawed and I was rooting for her to grow up and get what she wanted
Jenny is the stand out BFF, smart, funny, and part of the plot unlike the bland married one
Imogen is like a manic pixie dream girl until things crash in the climax & she gets better
Neil irritated the crap out of me at first. Giant man baby. But like the rest of the adults, he grows too
Kanika is adorable, but not the main focus, thank gods.
Love Anusha's journey, grappling with losing herself in motherhood.
And grieving for the path not chosen, what might've been
Happy Ending


Grown-up Pose is for modern romance fans looking for a woman growing through crisis, proving it might be too late for some paths, but it's never too late to be happy. I don't read many adult romances so I'm actually looking to get some recommendations instead of giving them this time.

Adulting is definitely overrated! Sonya Lalli has written a clever story full of heart and humor about the complexities of being an adult. Anu is in her 30s a wife, a mother, and a good daughter. But Anu isn’t sure this is what she wants, or that this is who she is. Was she so busy making everybody else happy and living up to cultural expectations that she forgot about herself? Then after she is tempted by another man at a work party, she begins to really question everything. What follows is a fun sometimes serious story about a woman who thought she was all grown up, trying to figure out what she wants to be when she finally really grows up.

This story was so relatable, I think we’ve all questioned our choices at one time or another. However I do have to say Anu was much more impetuous when it came to some decisions than I would be, especially for someone who seem to be so rigid when it came to the rules. There are some major life decisions that she came to rather quickly including separating from her husband and purchasing a yoga studio. Not going to lie the way she came about purchasing this yoga studio was bazaar at best. I did like the inclusion of yoga in the story, but I think it might have been less cluttered if the yoga storyline had not been included. What I really loved about the story and found very realistic was how Anu felt and acted after separating from her husband. I also really love the family dynamics both between her and her parents and her mother-in-law, especially when it came to cultural expectations. I also really liked her friends, but I have to admit I wish they were a little kinder to one another at times. I have some friends I am very sarcastic with, but it is also balanced out with kind words. All in all this was a very good story about figuring out what you really want out of life. Sweet, funny, emotional, with the perfect ending.

This book in emojis 🧘🏻‍♀️ 🍷 👩‍👧 💪🏻

*** Big thank you to Berkley for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

Grown Up Pose is a book about a 30ish year old woman who feels that she has lost herself by devoting her life into being a good wife, a good mother and overall a “good Indian girl.”

Through many different series of events, she decides to take control of her life and sets out to figure out what it means to be a grownup.

I appreciate how the author stays true to incorporating the main character’s Indian culture While I would have appreciated it if the name such as mom and grandma were identified with their definitions as well as different names of food to ease the reading, I was able to pick up on it.

There were parts of the book that really dragged on for me which was unfortunate. I am glad I stuck with it as the story did have a few layers that ended up working out story wise. .

I feel that if I were married and/or had children I may have related to the story more. Overall it was a good read with a strong message that can apply to most people.

This book was a bit of a rollercoaster for me in terms of liking it, not liking it and changing feelings about the main character BUT by the end I really enjoyed it and really resonated with Anusha. At the start of the book Anusha and her husband are separated and she embarks are trying to live her life differently. I thought it was very realistic for a rule follower, people pleaser to long for a bit of freedom and want to be a selfish for a bit. I loved the ways Anusha eventually discovers that she can do things for herself and others without abandoning who she is.

This book serves as a great escape from the times we are living through and while I loved the idea of the book and the main character the story as a whole wasn't my favorite. I loved the diversity of the book and the main focus of finding yourself but overall the execution was a bit lacking for me. The book had too many side characters that didn't get developed enough, the time jumps from present to memories were jarring and didn't always seem necessary to the story and I was expecting a lot more about the yoga studio but in reality that seemed to be more of a side plot. Overall I would give the author another shot.

Grown-Up Pose 

By Sonya Lalli

Berkley Trade Paperback

March 24, 2020

Multi-cultural Women's Fiction

Set In: Vancouver

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read this multi-cultural novel. I knew it would be the perfect way to learn about Indian culture: food, language, traditions to beliefs.

"Grown-Up Pose" by Sonya Lalli focuses on Anu Desai, a young nurse who begins to wonder if there's more to life than being a wife to Neil and mother to Kanika. She loves her young daughter, but feels as if something is missing in her life. Having married when she was very young, she wanted to be a good daughter and do what was expected of her. She has a wonderful home, was nurtured by a caring Indian family, but a part of her still felt unfulfilled. Then there's her husband's inability to pick up after himself and to rekindle their romance. All there is left is constant arguments.

When she informed her parents that her husband was moving out, they were in denial. The dismantling of their lovely family seemed unacceptable. Finding happiness and contentment was unknown territory. Anu didn't know where to start her exploration. By chance, she meets Ryan which has her friends Monica and Jenny worried that she'll start another serious relationship and miss out yet again in the learning phase of life. She still didn't know who she was as an individual. She was financially responsible, living within her means and she was a good role model for her daughter. She was grateful for everything in her life and yet she felt as if she was missing out on something. Opportunity doesn't strike until she steps foot into a nearly empty yoga studio. Until she meets Mags, the owner, and Imogen the yoga trainer. From there, her life takes on a new direction. Her relationship with Ryan becomes a well-learned lesson. Her need to explore what it is to be young and free eventually brings her full circle. She realizes what's really important in life and how precious it is.

The title says it all. This book is about growing up and realizing what's truly important. I was interested in following Anu on her journey and in the wings was yelling for her to "not" do certain things. The mom in me, I guess. I was equally interested in her parents' relationship, their work and goals, and how they supported her. That tension was there when Anu really didn't want to listen to her parents. Then there was her long-term friendship with Jenny and Monica and a new friendship with Imogen. All in all, Anu learned what it means to truly be involved in a loved one or friend's life. Sometimes, you don't have to go too far to find out what's really important.

Four and a half yoga poses out of five

Denise Fleischer

gottawritenetwork.wordpress.com

April 1, 2020 (will be published April 2, 2020)

Argh. I should've DNFed. I wanted to read this for the desi rep, and that was pretty much all I liked. The writing was cringeworthy and referenced pop culture at random times (for example: the MC once says, "It's easier to just let it be." Then she smirks and says "Like the Beatles!" The book is full of odd tangents like that. It’s weird).

The pacing and plot were all over the place. Unlike the blurb’s emphasis, the yoga place isn’t that important. It was kinda just... there? I’m still not sure why it had to exist because the book didn’t need it. I’m not opposed to “heroine finds herself and what she really wants” stories because I do enjoy those books. But Anu’s epiphanies and desires jumped from plot thread to plot thread. By the end, I had no idea if she got what she was originally looking for. She was really unhappy for most of the book and decided to do new things: dating other guys, traveling, opening up a yoga studio (it was sooo financially irresponsible and she put zero thought into it. It just happened after she wandered into the place!).

There’s nothing wrong with these things but her revelations felt like, “These new things don’t make me happy, either. I’m a really crappy person for leaving my husband and abandoning my daughter to go to London. Let me return to my old life!” I’m simplifying things a lot, but it was so frustrating. Again, there’s nothing wrong with wanting her old life back but her husband didn’t do much to earn her love/trust! Her relationship with her parents was far more satisfying than her relationship with her husband, daughter, and mother-in-law. I was disappointed that Anu’s conflict with her mother-in-law wasn’t resolved. I couldn’t tell you what Anu really felt by the end because she was all over the place. The correct word is confused. Obviously things happened and plot points/relationships were resolved, but I couldn’t tell you why. I was just so freaking confused by the end.

The ending in particular infuriated and baffled me; I don't understand how the heroine reached the conclusion to choose X Love Interest when literally the entire novel was about her breaking away from aforementioned X Love Interest. Bewildering and thoroughly unsatisfying to a romance reader. It doesn’t help that I loathed X Love Interest and was actively rooting for Anu to NOT choose him. This pretty much ruined any enjoyment I had derived from the desi rep.

It’s possible that I'm not the best audience and YMMV. This just wasn't for me on several levels, and I'd recommend you read an excerpt to see where you stand.

When differing cultural practices collide

Traditional life expectations run into conflict for Anu Desai. A good girl who followed her family's strictures, and married the first serious boyfriend she had. The problem is that now she feels trapped. In effect she's painted herself into a corner and is kept there by her own and others expectations. Throughout this navel gazing Anu and her husband are growing away from each other. You could feel Anu's to some extent, self imposed cultural standards resulting from her traditional upbringing, causing her inner dissatisfaction.
So here she is with a husband, a young daughter and doting, traditional parents, reclaiming her friendships, and making a run for it.
Anu forges ahead, aided by her girlfriends, to claim her freedom and of course finding disappointment on the relationship level. There's a rather funny scene when she discovers her new interest wining and dining someone else. I applauded.
Her decision to follow her heart and buy a yoga studio comes with some interesting twists. Making it pay becomes even more complicated. Taking up the role of single parent comes with unforeseen complications and angst.
Coming full circle this is an interesting take on a coming of age novel when you're supposedly well beyond that time.
Not as satisfying a read as I'd hoped, but some interesting moments and cultural disconnects.

A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley