I loved that this book was set in San Francisco, where I am from, it made it seem more real to me. I am not Indian, I am Palestinian, but the familial and cultural expectations for marriage and family are still prevalent and made me sympathize with the characters. Overall a sweet read and will for sure recommend it to friends.

After her life falls apart, recruitment consultant Layla Patel returns home to her family in San Francisco. But in the eyes of her father, who runs a Michelin starred restaurant, she can do no wrong. He would do anything to see her smile again. With the best intentions in mind, he offers her the office upstairs to start her new business and creates a profile on an online dating site to find her a man. She doesn’t know he’s arranged a series of blind dates until the first one comes knocking on her door…

As CEO of a corporate downsizing company Sam Mehta is more used to conflict than calm. In search of a quiet new office, he finds the perfect space above a cozy Indian restaurant that smells like home. But when communication goes awry, he's forced to share his space with the owner's beautiful yet infuriating daughter Layla, her crazy family, and a parade of hopeful suitors, all of whom threaten to disrupt his carefully ordered life.

As they face off in close quarters, the sarcasm and sparks fly. But when the battle for the office becomes a battle of the heart, Sam and Layla have to decide if this is love or just a game.

A spicy cultural infusion filled with banter, discovery, and an awakening of purpose. Add a little shenanigans, humor, and heart if you're looking for a new bookcation with an enemies to lovers and arranged marriage trope.

What happens when Lalya Patel has no job, is not married, and has no place to live? Will she survive returning home to work things through? Will Layla be able to peel the layers with Sam to figure out if he's worthy. I wasn't a fan of Sam, will Layla find more to him than I did?

I know there will be readers that share this book was their must read of the year.

While the Marriage Game by Sara Desai was indeed laugh-out-loud funny, I am not sure if would have liked it so much if I just read it on its own. For me, it was a bit of a palette cleanser from all of the true crime and suspense/thriller books I've been reading lately. Maybe that is why I enjoyed this one as much as I did because this is not the kind of book I would normally reach for. There were some definite problematic moments, but overall the story was ok and a great diversion from my normal reading material.

With witty dialogue and an enemies to lovers romance, “The Marriage Game” almost met my expectations, and yet ended up falling a bit flat. Layla is a wild card who loves her family and friends, but Sam just wasn’t a good love interest. Meant to be the “bad boy” or something similar, I think that character trope was taken a bit too far and it didn’t end up meshing well with the actual romance plot.
Don’t get me wrong, the book had some great moments and Desai’s writing made up for me not actually liking the main love interest, but it still wasn’t an amazing read.

terribly sorry I didn't;'t get sound for reading this book. I liked the look of the book and the author and I am sure it was a good one but I was unable to read it and so I am just writing this to clear out mt shellf. best of luck to you.

ARC provided via NetGalley & the publisher for review purposes. All opinions are unbiased and my own
Rating: ✩✩✩
Audience: Adult
Length: 338 Pages
Author: Sara Desai
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: June 9, 2020

Synopsis: After her life falls apart, recruitment consultant Layla Patel returns home to her family in San Francisco. But in the eyes of her father, who runs a Michelin starred restaurant, she can do no wrong. He would do anything to see her smile again. With the best intentions in mind, he offers her the office upstairs to start her new business and creates a profile on an online dating site to find her a man. She doesn’t know he’s arranged a series of blind dates until the first one comes knocking on her door…
As CEO of a corporate downsizing company Sam Mehta is more used to conflict than calm. In search of a quiet new office, he finds the perfect space above a cozy Indian restaurant that smells like home. But when communication goes awry, he’s forced to share his space with the owner’s beautiful yet infuriating daughter Layla, her crazy family, and a parade of hopeful suitors, all of whom threaten to disrupt his carefully ordered life.
As they face off in close quarters, the sarcasm and sparks fly. But when the battle for the office becomes a battle of the heart, Sam and Layla have to decide if this is love or just a game.

Things I liked: Every time I have read a book with Desi representation, I find myself really enjoying it. I feel like the characters are always really fun and they usually have great family dynamics.

Things I disliked: This book had a very interesting approach to the enemies to lovers trope. I tend to be pretty picky with how it’s done as I prefer a slow burn angsty build up. I hate when the characters are immediately attracted to each other but are just obnoxious with their personality differences. The enemies to lovers trope in this book resembled The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, in that they share the office and are in a forced proximity workplace, however, I would say this book was better executed than Thorne’s, but still not exceptional by any means. My biggest grievance with this book was how Sam spoke about Layla from the start. He immediately objectifies her and her body. Layla is a curvy woman and Sam will make sure you know that. It got to the point where it felt gross. “watching her tits bounce” homie, she’s walking… chill.

My Review: This book was a book I felt like I was trying to get through just to finish. I am excited about the later books in this series, and honestly, the covers are entrancing.

Would I Recommend It?: I could take it or leave it

I love Desai's writing style , her words are addictive .
Finished the whole book in one sitting and was ready to read MORE .
Loved characters , world building and cultural element of the novel .
would recommend this book or all romance lovers , it is really entertaining .

Romance is my favorite genre and this one was definitely a great addition to my "read" shelf! I laughed really hard at a lot of things in this book and it was amazing.

What a fantastic rom-com with a culturally-conscious angle! Can we have more romances that explore diverse perspectives and couples? This was such a delight to read and entirely refreshing.

Layla just moved back home to San Francisco and decides to fix her work and personal life. She considers having a traditional arranged marriage, like her parents, and decided to start her own business. However neither are easy sailing. Her office is occupied by another tenant, Sam. Sam doesn’t support arranged marriages after his sister’s disastrous marriage, however he decides to help Layla meet the ten bachelors her father has selected. As Sam and Layla meet these bachelors, they find they have more in common than they originally thought. This book is full of heart, family, and new beginnings.

Recruitment consultant Layla plans to work out of the office above her parents’ restaurant but then discovers her father has leased it out to Sam, who works in corporate downsizing. It appears they have nothing in common - she tries to find people jobs, while he makes people lose them.
Meanwhile, before Layla’s dad was laid up with a heart attack, he advertised her on a dating site and has booked appointments with 10 suitors. An arranged marriage worked beautifully for him and Layla’s mother, why not for their daughter too.
With the war of words escalating in the office, Layla and Sam wager a bet – if she finds a suitable partner, she will leave the office to him. If not, he will leave.
Although the story begins with a great premise and has plenty of banter, I found myself skim-reading to finish.

The Marriage Game had everything I needed, and want, in a rom com. It was full of witty banter, lovable characters, a proper storyline, a little bit of depth and HIGH TENSION STEAAAAMMM. Sign me up, again and again.

All of the characters, the main characters and all of the supporting ones, had excellent qualities. Obviously some side characters were questionable, but they all provided a touch to the story that was excellent. I adored our main characters, both hard-headed, stubborn but determined. I loved that this book shed positive light on arranged marriages, as most of the books I read about them are strictly negative, and it was refreshing to read a different direction in regards to how arranged marriages can work. I loved all of the actual laugh out loud moments, all of the heart-wrenching moments and all of the tension building to finally give in moments. My heart is very happy after reading this book. I loved the Indian culture references and all of the delicious recipes being created - and to top it all off - a CANADIAN AUTHOR! A debut, nonetheless! If you haven't read this book, go get it and set aside time to binge it. Off to read the rest of the series now!

The Marriage Game is the cute debut from Sara Desai. Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite romance tropes, and Desai does a good job of building that tension between Layla and Sam. The story is a little clunky at times, but I have a feeling Desai will get better with each book. This was a fun, cute read! (3.5 stars, rounded up for Goodreads)

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I'm a sucker for romances of forced proximity. This book was not for me. The hero was aggressive to the point of frustration except when the chips are down and he blindly allows his terrible, amoral business partner to ruin her family and hurt her for...reasons? The heroine is strangely naive and entitled for someone who claims to have a business degree and have been out in the world. Personality of the secondary characters are constantly shifting to suit the plot. The only part I really connected with was when Layla called Sam out for making his sister's abuse all about himself, but only after an entire book of him justifying his asshole behavior with it.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

The Marriage Game was a fun quick read. I loved all the Indian food references. Definitely left the book feeling hungry!! One of my favorite elements of the book was Layla and her family. I particularly loved her relationship with her dad. I wasn't totally sold on Sam, he definitely had his flaws. But overall a fun book!

*Thanks to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the complimentary copy for my honest review*

I was pretty hooked on this book from the beginning, Layla's character especially made me want to continue reading and the amount of times she made me laugh out loud was comical. It was definitely cheesy but I've come to expect that with a lot of romance books I read. And then the character Sam was introduced and I got completely turned off by this book. That was one of the most annoying love interests I've ever read and I really didn't care for the ending.

After a disastrous breakup, chaotic and passionate Layla Patel has hit rock bottom. She moves back home and starts her own recruitment agency in the office above her parents’ bustling restaurant. Layla's father has a heart attack before he is able to terminate the existing lease on Layla's new office space. He also doesn't have a chance to tell her that he posted her bio data on a desi dating/marriage website and selected 10 candidates for her to meet.
Unbeknownst to Layla, Sam Mehta, a CEO of a corporate downsizing company is also sharing the same office space. Sam is the opposite of Layla, organized, reserved, and overly confident. As expected these two clash constantly. They come up with a solution and truce which involves Sam acting as Layla's chaperone on her dates and if she finds a husband, he gets the office to himself.
This romantic debut has great characters. Layla and Sam have great chemistry. Their witty banter and chemistry fly off the page and was a joy to read. There is plenty of humor from Layla's horrendous dates and her noisy 'aunties' and family. It is an easy and quick read. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the book.
The book, unfortunately, falls apart in the second half where it addresses the conflict. We are constantly told that Sam has one goal in mind: to avenge his sister who has suffered from domestic abuse which has left her in a wheelchair. The conflict is underdeveloped and what could have been an intriguing and much needed look at disability in the South Asian community, devolves to an ableist plot device. Though Sam's sister is present and has an off the page romance of her own, she is not given a voice and sufficient time to develop. I would have loved to learn more about her and Sam's family.
A pet peeve of mine is when ethnic names, particularly South Asian ones, are Anglicized. I would have much preferred if Sam was called Samir, his full name (really, is it that difficult to say Samir?). I also left to wonder many times as to Layla's ethnicity and how she identifies as religiously, which were vague. There are times when comments about these aspects of her identity are made during her dates, but it is never clearly addressed.
In spite of these issues, Sara Desai shows a lot of potential as a writer and I am curious to see what she has in stored for her second novel which features one of the secondary characters in The Marriage Game.

I will not lie: it was a bumpy start because of how they described HR Managers (those of you who read this will know what I mean and know I wouldn’t want to be lumped into that category! haha)

A few chapters in I set it aside for a day; then I put my big girl pants back on and went back in. I’m glad I did as <b>I enjoyed Sam and Layla’s witty banter</b> (my fav part of rom-coms). Although some plot points were a bit outlandish at times. It was a solid 3.5 stars, and I enjoyed the build up of the characters stories. I would certainly read this author again.

It would make a really interesting Netflix movie!