The Marriage Game is an exciting new romance novel that involves the prospect of an arranged marriage, tantalizing descriptions of the food at the restaurant owned by the parents of the heroine, and a hero you will want to root for. Layla's father has arranged for her to meet ten eligible bachelors after a breakup. He has also wants her to use an office upstairs to start her own business. However, he left out an important detail- he leased the space and the new tenant, Sam, has no intention of leaving. Now, Layla and Sam negotiate a deal. He will let her stay and accompany her on her blind dates. If she chooses a husband, he gets the office. If she doesn't, he has to leave. However, the more dates he chaperones, the more they both wonder if the list of ten bachelors is missing the right person.
Desai writes a romance novel that truly involves the culture of her couple in ways that are integral to the plot. Instead of feeling like any diversity was added on at the end to check off a box, the fact that these characters are Indian is what drives so much of the story. The first three quarters of this book are quick, relatively light reading as the hero and heroine get to know each other, but the last quarter of the book threatens the happily ever after that you wish for. Rounded out with a fun cast of supporting characters, this book will make you laugh, blush, and cry as you search for their happy ending.

*This book may be triggering for some readers. It contains references to domestic abuse. They are not graphically described, but could be triggering for some.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been light-weight obsessed with the Indian (Hindu?) culture ever since watching Bride and Prejudice, the Bollywood style adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. All the Bollywood dances, the multitude of vibrant colors and the food just had me in awe of this culture.

The moment I read the first paragraph of The Marriage Game I couldn’t help but think about Bride and Prejudice and just how much this novel reminded me of that movie. The “search” for a husband, finding yourself through a new career and finally falling in love with the person you least expected.

This story had SO many laugh out loud moments that I found myself dying late into the night as I had to force myself to pause my reading so I could go to sleep.

Sam and Layla are the perfect main characters and I so hope that some time in the near future, we’ll be able to dive back into this world and experience it all once again.

Happy Pub Day, Sara Desai!! 🥳⠀
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I’m so glad THE MARRIAGE GAME is out in the world. This book was so much fun and full of so many feels that I just want to shout about it from the rooftops. ⠀
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Enemies-to-lovers? ✔️ ⠀
Witty and sassy characters? ✔️ ⠀
Emotions and feels out the wazoo? ✔️ ⠀
Crazy but lovable families? ✔️ ⠀
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Layla returns home to San Francisco for a fresh start after getting fired and breaking up with her cheating boyfriend, and starts working on her entrepreneurial adventures in the office above her family’s restaurant. There she meets Sam, the rightful tenant, and a man who has locked his emotions away in a quest to get revenge on the man who married, and ruined, his sister’s life. Add in some quirky family members, interviews with arranged marriage prospects, and a healthy dose of realism and competition, and you have the recipe for The Marriage Game. ⠀
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Not only did Desai craft two characters that had me borderline peeing my pants with their sharp tongues and humor, she also opened my eyes to a culture I know little about. Layla’s big, wonderful Indian family was a high point for this book and I couldn’t get enough. ⠀
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If you love enemies-to-lovers, ridiculous competition, and laughing your a** off, this book is for you. ⠀

A witty, romantic comedy, with heart!

An enjoyable read, with food once more framing the background.
After her relationship falls apart Layla Patel, a recruitment consultant, finds refuge above the family Indian restaurant, using the premises as an office for a new startup.
Unfortunately her father forgot to tell her that:
a) he'd rented the premises to Sam Mehta whose business is the complete opposite to Layla's. He assists companies to downsize. Code for firing employees.
b) he'd posted online, "the marriage résumé of [his] beloved daughter, Layla Patel, age twenty-six, who is in immediate need of a husband."
These two factors add an intriguing level of interplay, both dramatic and comic to Layla and Sam's interactions.
Of course there's a bunch of aunts and other relations that add energy to the story.
That online resume enables some spectacular points of interest to the storyline.
Beyond Sam's reasons for setting up business above the restaurant is a more compelling argument to do with his sister. The location, the business he's in, all are factors driving him towards that ultimate goal.
There are some really hilarious moments that had me chuckling. Others are more heartfelt.
A great addition to the multicultural "enemies become lovers" romantic comedy trope.

A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Linda's Book Obsession Reviews "The Marriage Game " by Sara Desai, Berkley, June 9, 2020

Sara Desai, author of "The Marriage Game" has written an entertaining, witty, and delightful novel. The genres for this book are Contemporary Fiction, Romantic Comedy, and Women's Fiction.  The timeline for this story is set in the present and goes to the past when it pertains to the characters or events. The author describes her colorful set of characters as deliciously flawed, complex, and conflicted. 

Layla Patel returns home to her family in San Franciso, after not succeeding in love or business in New York. Her parents do Indian cooking in a restaurant located in a building. There are other offices in this building, and Layla's father tells her not to worry, and she can take the office upstairs which is rented. He will take care of that small fact. Unfortunately, her father winds up in the hospital after having a heart attack.

Sam Mehta, is a partner in a company that downsizes companies and is headed for his new office when he meets Layla. Both Sam and Layla argue who should have the office. Layla has a friend/cousin, Daisy, who helps her but comes to work with a dog. This irritates Sam even more. Both come up with a unique solution and have a contest that is like a game. Meanwhile, they are sharing the office.

Unknown to Layla, is that her father has signed her up on an online marriage site. Now potential suitors are contacting the office. It is really difficult to see whether Layla or Sam gets the last word in. Somehow, both argue, but there seems to be a very strong attachment. How is this situation going to work out? Will Layla find her husband?

I appreciate that the author discusses the importance of family, friends, loyalty, communication, honesty, love, and hope. I enjoyed reading this story and recommend it.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of The Marriage Game from @netgalley and @berkleyromance! The book is out Tuesday, June 9th. (Swipe for the adorable cover!) I finished this book about Layla (a 26-year-old who has come home after losing her boyfriend and her job, spending several hours in handcuffs at the jail, and going viral) and Sam (a 32-year-old who quit his surgical residency after his sister had an accident in the hospital and now fires people for a living). Layla’s dad offers her the office space above his restaurant, but he has a heart attack before he can break the lease with Sam. Discovering that her dad has set up several blind dates (arranged marriage interviews?), Sam and Layla make a “marriage game” to see who keeps the office. Of course, sparks fly between Layla and Sam!
I really liked this! I liked Layla, and I feel like Sam was more fleshed out that some romance “heroes” - you got to hear/see his perspective. It does have some steamy parts, but the book didn’t rely on that. Their jobs, the secondary the restaurant, and Layla’s crazy Patel family are all bonuses. I finished it in an afternoon! And, I found it hilarious that Layla was completely against cursing - unless it was done in Urdu!

📚 Book Review📚

The Marriage Game by Sara Desai

I really enjoyed this book!
Rom-coms are my jam right now.
If I need a good laugh with some steam I know what kind of book to read.


The Marriage Game was full of Indian culture and I absolutely loved it.
I love reading books with cultures that are not my own, it’s so interesting to me!


The story follows Layla Patel who has given up on love. Her dad sets her up on 10 dates to find someone to marry. And it’s all fun from there. I have to say that Layla is one of the best female characters I’ve read in a while. Her personality was the best I absolutely loved her.


This is an enemies to lovers romance ish.
It was a sweet, sexy and diverse read.
I highly recommend it to those who enjoy rom-coms.
This is out June 9th!

Thank you inkslinger pr and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

Fun, sassy, sexy. Desi love! Entertaining arranged marriage premise with the humorous Indian cultural backdrop in San Francisco. Wayward daughter, Layla comes homes to her family’s restaurant after a bad breakup and lands in the middle of her father’s scheme to arrange a husband for his beloved daughter. Layla is a fabulous heroine. Fierce, sassy, beautiful and has a healthy relationship with food. As she gets her life on track she has a run in with her father’s new tenant, the handsome and sexy, Sam. Sparks immediately fly between the two as they fight over office space and Sam insinuates himself into her husband interview process. It’s a laugh a minute with these two and Layla’s big family. But it’s not all fun as Sam grapples with a family tragedy and seeks justice. The story bogs down a little for me towards the end but for the most part this is as thoroughly enjoyable read with a sexy couple in Sam and Layla and a fantastic family and friends atmosphere. A page turner that I read straight through. Loved it!

Sweet and sassy! Sara Desai made me laugh, smile, swoon, blush, and giggle with this delightful story. What a fun twist on the enemies to lovers trope. Layla has returned home to San Francisco after a bit of a scandal at her previous job in NYC. Her dad is thrilled and promises her the office above the family restaurant. He also decides to set up a dating profile for Layla and begins to vet potential husband’s for his daughter. Next thing Layla knows she is sharing an office with a stubborn but handsome Sam who her father failed to tell her had signed a lease for the office space. Then a man shows up telling her he is responding to her desperate need of a husband, another thing her father failed to tell her. All the chaos and miscommunication leads to a bet between Layla and Sam. If Layla find a suitable husband Sam gets the office and if not then Layla does. The kicker is Sam is going to accompany Layla on all her potential husband dates. Throw in a large dose of family and culture and what could possibly go wrong?

This was just so much FUN! I love books where I get to learn a little more about a different culture and this book had a lot of the eastern Indian culture thrown into it. There were also a lot of amazing characters! Layla was so smart, strong, and sassy, I just love the girl! Her cousin Daisy stole the show whenever she was in the story (and I’m hoping there’s a future book involving her). Sam, He really was a good guy deep down, it just took a while for him to grow on me. There were lots of laugh out loud moments as Layla was navigating the dates with her potential husbands. There also was a lot of steam, so if that’s not your jam you can maybe skim those parts. An entertaining can’t miss romcom guaranteed to make you laugh, smile, and swoon.

This book in emojis ✏️ 📝 🩺 🐶 🍲 🔥

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

Layla Patel's life is a garbage fire of a wreck right now. She is coming home to San Fransisco in total disgrace: dumped cheating boyfriend, fired from her job, evicted from her apartment, and a viral video she does not want to talk about. At least she's used to the chaos, between her own personality, sense of style, and huge Desi family. Her father offers her the use of the office space above the family's restaurant, and she intends to use it to start her own job recruitment agency. There's only one problem...

Sam Mehta. Organized, analytical, and focused on the goal of fixing a past mistake that hurt his family deeply, Sam is the CEO of a company that evaluates other companies for redundancies. In other words, he's the guy who says "You're fired". He's taken a lease out on the apartment above an Indian restaurant--not that he plans to eat there; he's cut all ties with his culture as part of his self-imposed pittance--and is stunned to find a woman occupying the space, claiming the office as hers.

But both of them are in for a huge surprise when men start showing up at the office... applying to become Layla's husband! Layla decides to take the opportunity for the chance to find Mr. Right; Sam thinks she's crazy, as he distrusts arranged marriages. However, the two decide to turn meeting Layla's suitors into a game; together, they'll pass judgement on these 10 poor souls. If Layla finds a husband out of all of them, Sam gets the office; if Layla doesn't, she gets the office. Who will win the Marriage Game?

This is easily the most hilarious rom-com I have ever read. I died laughing so many times. Seriously, I had to stop highlighting passages at one point because so much of the eARC would just be yellow. Layla and Sam both live and breath snark, and the added wackiness of the Patel family (So. Many. Aunties.), the ridiculousness of each and every suitor (oh, man, the suitors!), and the crazy situations these two find themselves in!

But, as funny as this book is, it's also a hard-hitting book. Layla is chaos incarnate, but she's hard-working, devoted to her family, and in many ways still figuring out what she wants in life. She's trying to heal, trying to become her own person, but has some serious self-doubts--especially in regards to her previous history with men. And then there's Sam. Sam, who blames himself for a family tragedy, who is striving so hard to make things right, who is still so hurt that he has cut away so many parts of himself just to fulfill his goal. He hasn't known how to be happy in a long time, and has denied himself that happiness for so long that he doesn't quite know what to do when he finds himself happy. They're so well written, I just love them both so much...

In short, I loved this book to death, prepare to laugh and laugh hard, and I can't wait to see what Desai will follow it up with!

I absolutely adored this book! I wanted to hate Sam in the beginning, but by the middle of the book I was really wanting the relationship to work! The author does a wonderful job of introducing the reader to the Desi culture. The descriptions of the clothing and food are fantastic, and I loved the family dynamic.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

Sam Mehta is a calm and control-oriented person. He doesn't do noise, family, fun, or distractions. Blaming himself for his sister's bad marriage and current pain, he has one focus: make the man who hurt her face justice. But his plans- and his new office- get derailed when his landlord gives his office to someone else and has a heart attack before telling Sam about the change. Layla is all energy, colors, and chaos as she tries to pull her life together and start her own business, but now she finds herself sharing an office with an uptight jerk who won't leave. When Layla finds out her father set up blind dates for her, Sam and Layla make a deal: she'll go on the dates and if she gets married to one of the men, Sam can have the office. No marriage means Sam's out. Sam might start out as trying to save Layla the way he couldn't save his sister, but somewhere along the way his feelings to Layla become anything but brotherly.

The Marriage Game is a definite opposites attract book. Layla is all about emotions and empathy, helping her family and trying to move forward after bad things happen. She claims to not know who she really is and what she really wants, but instinctively she goes for exactly what is right for her- and only starts messing up when she thinks about it. Sam is all about control, safety, and security. He thinks he knows what he should do and believes that he doesn't deserve happiness. Both have suffered and I love how Sara Desai shows us the different ways people react to the troubles life brings us. People can (and as this book shows us, do) become confusing contradictions of thoughts, feelings, and actions when it comes to trying to fix things that are broken and to prevent future pain.

Desai celebrates Indian culture through food and family, and immerses the reader in a beautiful world of scents, sounds, and colors that explode from the page. Sam and Layla may be in an office upstairs, but the reader can smell the scents of traditional Indian food cooking in Layla's family restaurant downstairs. Busybody aunties drive everyone crazy with their matchmaking ways and odd attempts at American-Indian fusion food. Bad dates mean a variety of humorous situations that inadvertently bring Layla and Sam closer together. I wish we'd gotten the chance to get to know more of the people in Sam's life, like his sister Nisha, but I recognize that this was part of the point: Sam had closed himself off from his family and we only got to see them through Sam's pinhole vision. It works very well and makes you feel even sorrier for Sam- if we want to get to know Nisha better, think what her own brother is missing out on!

The Marriage Game is about discovering what really matters to you. Who are you when everything falls apart? What do you want moving forward? What are you willing to fight for? Sam is about to discover that sometimes the worst thing that can happen to you is also the best thing that can happen to you.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

It was a fun romance. I loved the dates and how they showed each of their characters. It had a very satisfying ending.

Delightful read! I love Desai's writing style...all the sarcasm, snark and wit had me giggling. LOVED IT. Her characters were vivid and engaging. The story was unputdownable! Am looking forward to reading more from her.

I will not be posting a public review of this book as I chose to DNF it. The male lead was too upsetting and offensive for me to read beyond twenty percent of the book. Maybe he gets better, but I was too angry to read further.

Ahhh love this book so much!! I love learning more about the Indian culture and the inquisitive aunties in this story was so relatable when it comes to my relatives. They just want all the tea, lol. Absolutely love the characters and I love Layla's parents. I ship Layla and Sam so hard though there were times when I wanted to strangle him because he was being dumb. But it's fine since the humor made up for it. I laughed/smiled so much while reading this book.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly June New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached).

I love the enemies to lovers trope so I was instantly excited to read this as soon as I got my hands on it.

Sam is the typical broody male interest with an intense past filled with guilt. He’s overprotective and controlling (not of other people exactly but of how everything in his life has to pan out) yet kind and caring to those he loves. I did take issue with the way he handled certain problems in the story and how he always wanted to punch Layla’s suitors.

Layla was my favourite part of the book. She starts out very lost and with a broken heart. She had just lost her job, her boyfriend and her life in the Big Apple. Forced to move in with her parents, she was determined to succeed at setting up her own company and settle down in an arranged marriage. She wasn’t looking for love, only companionship. She was very open minded and super loyal to her very overwhelming but loving family. I loved how much Layla’s culture was important to her.

Layla’s suitors were such peculiar characters and the all the bickering between her and Sam during the meetings made me cackle I loved their banter and sarcasm. I could definitely feel the chemistry between them and was rooting for the couple from the start.

Sam’s character development was slower than Layla’s which made sense in a way. She started rebuilding herself and her life right at the start of the book whereas Sam only had a change of heart once he started to get to know Layla better. I thought the demons each of them fought were relatable and realistic.

I’m happy Sam got over feeling a guilt he should never have carried and that his sister found her happy ending with someone more deserving of her love.

I highly recommend this book to all the romcom lovers out there! It’s super fun and very quick to read.

This was an enjoyable read and will appeal to romcom fans or anyone looking for a light story. The story felt modern and fresh. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

I smiled a lot while I read this book.

This novel is full of heartwarming family dynamics between quirky characters. I loved Layla’s relationship with her huge family, particularly all her aunties, her mother, and especially her father.

I did wonder, though, why she didn’t have a stronger reaction to what happened in the beginning of the book with her father. As someone who is very close to my parents (and someone who has dropped everything to sit with my parents in the hospital for days on several occasions), it almost seemed like it was an afterthought to her, which rubbed me the wrong way a bit. Especially considering how close she is with her family. I would have loved to see that big family rally around him and one another in support as my big family tends to do in similar situations.

Aside from that, I think this is such a fun/funny hate-to-love romance particularly for people who like to see the strong attraction between the love interests despite their frustrations with each other.

For me, I tend to prefer this trope when the couple is so busy loathing the other person, they barely notice their attraction and hardly realize how much passionate frustration and passionate lust have in common. This is why I can’t say that this book is my favorite of the trope, but I can say I expect it will be for many who like to see the chemistry between enemies much more blatantly on page.

If you’re looking for an OWN voices, match-making, enemies-to-lovers romance filled with banter and big families, with just enough drama and angst, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this book.