This book truly shook me to my core. I wasn't really expecting much going into it, but by the end I just felt so seen and understood as an Indian women. I genuinely think this book was something high school me needed and I think that's why it holds so much value for me now when I read it because it has all the messages and themes middle school and high school me needed to hear to value and appreciate herself and her culture. I loved the juxtaposition of being between worlds. Being too American, not being American enough. Being too Indian, not being Indian enough. The way this book was written the author did a phenomenal job being very raw and real with her characters and situations. This book was messy, the characters made lots of mistakes, but what teenager doesn't. I think the mistakes and messiness made it even more believable and relatable to the audience. I cannot sing enough praise about this book. I just really loved it!

Thank you netgalley for this ARC!

This book was a really good read at first i was going to give it a 3 star rating because of the way that the relationship/connection happened so fast between Rani and Oliver but as i started to read more it wasnt as “ clingy “ and forced.

One of my favorite parts of this book was learning more about indian culture and reading about alot of yummy food.

It also touched down on alot of topics on society but i dont want to mention which one im talking about because i dont want to spoil..

The thing i also liked about this book was it wasnt just a romance novel it talked about Rani and Also olivers paths in Art and Photography and also touched down on each families and stuff they went through as well.

I also LOVE this cover.

Overall great book!

A girl stuck between first love and her traditions, trying to find who she is and who she will be in the future. A gripping story about the boundaries of love, from our friends, from first love, from family, and the complications of a cross-cultural relationship. The story follows Rani Kelkar, an artist who has always been on course to follow her parents path, until she meets another fellow artist. Oliver is an artist, with tattoos and piercings, and a difficult life. Oliver and Rani fall for each other instantly, and fast. Their relationship starts off great, but all the red flags start showing up, from micro-aggressions, gas-lighting, clinginess, blame, and even making Rani question where she stands. Their relationship spirals and watching it go further and further down was a difficult read but you feel so much for Rani and you understand her difficult decisions. I absolutely loved reading this book and was rooting for Rani through her entire journey. As someone who has experienced many of the things Rani did in this book, I really appreciated the realistic depiction of how toxic relationships can be, and how there can be relationships in which your own culture is appropriated. This is an excellent read that I would highly HIGHLY recommend this book. It deals with finding your identity in your culture, setting boundaries, looking for the right signs in relationships, family and culture, and finding what makes you happy in the end and embracing it and letting go of the things that hurt you,

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Children's for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I loved American Betiya and found it super relatable though I'm Mexican-American and not Desi-America like our main character Rani is. I'm sure that there is a lot of other people who are children of immigrants have faced the same struggles as Rani does in this novel - caught between your culture and who you want to be.

Rani is a teenage girl is an artist and at the beginning of the novel, she meets fellow artist, Oliver. Unlike Rani, Oliver is white. He also has tattoos which is a big no-no in the eyes of Rani's mother. Through out the book, Rani is conflicted between following the rules and doing what's expected of her versus secretly dating Oliver.

While Rani and Oliver's relationship is an important part of the book, the real love story in this book is between Rani and figuring out who she is.

**Review to be posted on Goodreads/blog two weeks before publication date

Let me start by mentioning the breathtaking cover. I would have bought it for that alone. After reading the excerpt I knew I had to read this book. I assumed it would be good, but I didn’t expect it to really touch upon emotional subjects that are usually scrubbed clean in most love stories. It showed the tough parts of relationships and tackled the issues head on. This is the book I wish I had in high school. It’s an important book for everyone trying to find themselves and their voice. The imagery was beautiful and the thoughts so heartfelt it doesn’t feel like I can do this book justice in a review. This story is a must read. I urge everyone to check it out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

I'll cut straight to the chase—Anuradha Rajurkar's AMERICAN BETITYA is the young adult contemporary novel I needed growing up as an Indian-American teenager.

It was effortless to relate to Rani Kelkar's journey amidst love and heartbreak to Indian culture and the racism that often follows, sometimes from the most unexpected places. Her coming-of-age is characterized by the staples of the genre (career aspirations, first and young love, parental conflict), but also transcends the tropes it is founded upon. AMERICAN BETIYA focuses not on what defines Rani's journey, but Rani herself, which makes for an incredibly compelling read that connects you to the characters instantaneously. And honestly, it was so refreshing to see an Indian American teenager face such unique challenges without losing herself or her identity, which isn't often portrayed in mainstream media.

Simply put, AMERICAN BETIYA is a must-read for anyone, regardless of if you're Indian, American, or somewhere in between. I highly recommend this wonderful story and will likely be screaming about it for the rest of my life :)

I would like to thank Anuradha D. Rajurkar and NetGalley for an advanced copy of American Betiya in exchange for an honest review. Once in a great while, a book comes along that you know will leave an ever-lasting impact on your heart. This is without a doubt one of those books. One aspect that I truly loved with this book was the struggle between culture and love and how much one is really able to give up to please their partner. Rani’s struggle to please everyone around her including her family, friends, and boyfriend is heavy but extremely important for young adults to read while experiencing their first love.

Rajurkar is an immensely talented author in that Rani’s building anxiety surrounding her relationship really shines through, even during those mundane scenes that are included. Overall, her character building is extremely strong. Even small characters such as Rani’s best friend Kate is such a large presence throughout. I could never thank Rajurkar enough for writing this book. I will absolutely be buying copies for my family and friends.

This book is EXQUISITE. Seriously one of the most gorgeously written, deeply emotional and nuanced books I've ever read.

The main character, Rani, felt so real to me. She jumps off the page, and I wanted to be friends with her! Her romance with Oliver starts out with such fireworks and fizz - Rajurkar perfectly captured the chemistry and heat of falling in love for the first time, which is one of my favorite things to read in books. I was completely drawn into Rani’s life and her struggle to hide her secret relationship with Oliver, and balance who she's becoming with the family-oriented girl she was before he blazed into her life. There were so many moments where I had to just stop and press my hand to my heart.

There's also a section of the novel set in India and I LOVED everything about it. The sensory descriptions and the movement around the bustling, vivid city were so lovingly rendered, and it was the perfect backdrop for the strong forward pull of emotions and motivations throughout that section. The ending of the novel was pitch-perfect, and subtly and effectively drove home the themes of the novel.

The writing is simply phenomenal. This book has that lovely magic that makes me just unmoor and trust that the author is going to take me on a gorgeous emotional journey. I was expecting romance and got SO much more. Rani’s story is real and powerful and tackles topics of culture collide and toxic relationships that few have done with this amount of grace and nuance.

A stunning debut. I'll be reading everything Rajurkar writes!

DNF at 52%

American Betiya follows Rani, an Indian-American teen who meets a white boy named Oliver and begins dating him in secret. However, as the two continue to spend more and more time together, Oliver starts fetishizing Rani and her culture, and it’s clear that he is abusing and taking advantage of her. It was so enraging to read about this, and I found myself very angry during many points of the story. (Thankfully, other reviewers have mentioned that the book does not end with Rani staying with Oliver and continuing to deal with his manipulation, which I am so happy about.)

I really loved the Indian culture so beautifully represented in this book! Even the little things, such as Rani comparing her aunties and uncles to a wedding baraat, or Rani’s mother cooking roti and daal, truly warmed my heart. Rani’s best friend Kate was also amazing, and I adored their friendship and how wonderfully it was written!

I think my biggest problem with this book was Rani herself, though, as I simply could not connect with her. Many of the decisions she made contradicted one another, and it seemed as if she was just serving as a punching bag for the plot rather than acting like a three-dimensional character. I also found myself confused during many parts of the novel, as there were strange time jumps between chapters that threw me off. Also, the writing style was bland and boring to read, and just led to me feeling even more disconnected from Rani as a character. I think that I was also a bit unprepared for the content in this book, as the fetishization and racism was very hard to read, so that was another factor that played into my DNF.

Please don’t let my opinion discourage you from picking this up, though, as my DNF was mostly a case of “right book, wrong time"! I'm sure many other people will love this book, so take my review with a grain of salt.

Thank you Anuradha for FINALLY giving me a YA book I can relate to and that I definitely needed when I was a teenager. I knew I would be able to relate to a lot of the issues the main character, Rani Kelkar, faces because we both have experienced growing up as a Desi-American teenager. I mean the struggle of strict parents but wanting to follow your heart is a tale as old as time. Also, the crushing pressure to be the model of success and do better than your parents is certainly a theme a lot of immigrant children can relate to. Moreover, the struggle to explain that to your friends and make them understand is a whole other obstacle on its own.

I loved that Rajurkar was able to show all those issues and themes while still giving me the sweet first-love teen romance I want in my YA books. Yes, it's about her culture and religion but at the same time, she is just a teenager trying to figure out how she fits into the world and her identity. She’s still a teenager trying to understand what love really is and what she wants in a relationship. She’s a teenager trying to figure out what her career will be. Those are topics every teen has probably grappled with. I know I certainly did!

This is a realistic YA book I definitely recommend to teens (and adults), and especially those struggling with cross-cultural life. I will likely be shoving this onto my Desi-American friends as well too haha. Overall, I was beyond honored to have read this ARC and I’m excited for the world to be able to read it.

I absolutely loved this book, especially the characters and I think the plot is very rich, this book is about an Indian American girl trying to deal with family, tradition, and love while trying to find herself, it was beautifully written, and also the cover is gorgeous.

I loved how Rani's story played out. I could understand certain aspects of the story since I'm also an Indian is America. There were a couple of ideas that weren't exactly right but the message was good and strong.

A beautiful and moving story, reminiscent of I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. YA readers will connect with Rani’s struggles to define herself, her journey of first love, and the expectations of her family. This title will serve as a starting point for meaningful discussions regarding boundaries, cultural appropriation, and interracial relationships. Highly recommended.

Breathtaking , unique, such a thrilling pleasure to read this beauty! I love to get lost in those books centered around multicultural interests and thankfully ownvoices give us a great chance to meet with powerful, creative indie authors who introduce us different approaches opening into vivid, original lives, traditions, cultures.

Please don’t hesitate to add this book on your very special tbr but not just add, please schedule a special reading time and dive into it blind!

I truly enjoy Rani Kellar’s story who is Indian American high school girl, struggling between satisfying her family’s expectations by studying science, being an A grader, staying away from troubled boys and pursuing her own artistic dreams, dating with a white boy her family never and ever approves, crossing dangerous lines with her secret rebellious feelings which are about to blast and ruin everything she’s worked for.

Some parts of the book was truly bold, disturbing, realistic and extra harsh, shaking you to the core, giving you emotional turmoil!

Especially Rani’s abusive, somewhat obsessive relationship patterns with Oliver ached my heart deeply. Oliver’s fetishism and his need to define his girlfriend like an exotic creature instead of living, breathing human being, minor aggression facade of their bonding made me clench my fists, grit my teeth! I barely soothed myself and restrained my anger!

I loved Reni’s inner journey: the way of handling the intense pain of true and forbidden love, her discovery of her own sexuality against the cultural taboos, the way she learns to stand for herself, sharpening her artistic skills even though she acts against her family’s wishes, her unique, genuine relationship with her friend Kate!
Yes, I loved this book so much! I truly devoured the pages at one sit! I couldn’t leave it! It was riveting, intriguing and addictive!

It took its place at my all time favorite YA reads! And I’m looking forward to read more works of the author sooner! I’m giving my five Indian, emotional, motivational, inspirational, unputdownable, heartfelt stars! It was one of my best reading experiences I’ve lately had!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/ Knopf Books for young readers for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

This was an engaging own voices contemporary that kept me interested from the beginning. The characters were enjoyable to get to know and the plot moved along at a solid pace. I really enjoyed the relationships that were explored throughout the story, particularly with some of the main character's family. Overall, I highly recommend picking this one up.

5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for sending me this arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

American Betiya is an own-voices realistic novel about Rani Kelkar, An Indian-American high school girl who finds herself in a cross cultural relationship.

Rani begins a relationship with Oliver, a white boy that screams absolute no to her mother. The forbidden romance definitely is thrilling and pushes you to read more.

The author did an amazing job with portraying this story so realistically and seeing the difference with an innocent and abusive relationship. This book was real, realistic and raw and I am so glad to be able to have read this. So beautifully written.

AMERICAN BETIYA pulled me in from the very first pages. The writing so beautiful and assured, the prose pitch-perfect, and the world so crisply and intimately built.

Rajukar deftly explores the immediacy, the pain, and joy of first love so beautifully, while balancing it against the demands of family, tradition, and the need of a teen to rebel, When HS senior, Rani falls in love with Oliver, a talented, if a bit dangerous artist, she begins to cross boundaries she never thought she would. The only daughter of Indian immigrants she has been raised with the expectation that she keep her eye on her studies, and off of boys, But with Oliver Rani begins to push herself artistically and emotionally. It's intoxicating to be the object of first love. But as Rani begins to blossom under the light of Oliver's adoration, she also begins to realize that being adored brings with it complications that border on the obsessive.
The novel explores issues of racism, micro-aggressions, fetishism and othering in a truly heart-wrenching manner.
Rani's eventual development into a strong, independent and wise young women was so deftly handled, and I loved how it was her family - the very people she tried to keep at bay so she could grow — that were the ones who ultimately were there to guide and support her.
This is a beautiful book and I am so happy for the young readers who will have this story to help them navigate their lives - to explore what is okay, and what crosses the line, both in love, friendship and across cultures.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the opportunity to read an advanced reader copy.

It's rinas galley art showing. I liked the characters,dialogue, descriptions. I loved how Indian culture was included. Great quick read. Fast paced. Cute.

Beneath this breathtaking cover, these pages contain a heartfelt, realistic book about Rani Kelkar, an Indian-American high schooler finding herself through a whirlwind cross-cultural relationship.

Rani begins a relationship with Oliver (a white boy) who is certainly what her mother’s nightmares are made of, and they date in secret. The forbidden romance feels thrilling, transporting you to a time of youth where you feel the need to sneak around and live life on a rush of adrenaline unlike any other. Oliver makes Rani and her creative aspirations feel important, worthy of attention. I felt so much like her.

At certain points while reading this story, I felt such anger towards the author. Oliver would fetishize Rani and her Indian culture, calling her “exotic,” “his Indian goddess,” “Princess Jasmine,” or “sexy Indian Princess.” These comments seared my skin, for I’m all too familiar with these microaggressions. And I related so much to Rani’s internal struggle in wanting to call Oliver out for his insidious comments versus being unsure of what to make of these comments and wanting to acquiesce to his softer, agreeable, sweeter side. Oliver’s demands of Rani and her culture felt so unfair, painfully close to home, and I was furious at Rajurkar for writing a love interest who was so callous, so toxic and abusive, because I feared the story would end with Rani losing herself in Oliver’s manipulations. I was dead wrong. Rajurkar wove an incredibly complex story of first love, betrayal, cultural taboos, racism, gaslighting, emotional abuse, and an awakening of self. I cannot begin to express my admiration for the author’s ability to tell this story so realistic, with an absolute sense of urgency and seamlessness in her portrayal of an innocent first relationship to an abusive one.

Something I’d never seen before, but reflected my personal fears and reservations, was Rani’s reluctance to share her culture with anyone who wasn’t close to her. It’s strange having to explain the elaborate details of an entire culture with someone who is so new to it all. How does one accurately explain a whole culture? Is it our job to make our customs seem palatable to others outside of it? What if I explain something incorrectly? Through all her questions and concerns about sharing her identity with Oliver, Rani manages to find the boundaries of cultural exchange and discovers where she stands and what she is willing to disclose, and it was incredible being witness to that journey.

Few books in the Young Adult space discuss sex and sexual pleasure so frankly, not to mention how taboo these subjects can be in the South Asian community, so it was extremely refreshing to see those conversations unfolding on the pages. I also appreciated reading the banter between Rani and her best friend, Kate, as well as Rani’s relationship with her cousin, Shalini. All of these relationships, no matter how many or how few pages they got, felt fully developed and wholesome. In this vein, the story of Nilesh really highlighted the kind of pressure that comes with being perceived as a model of excellence within a community, and Rani’s relationship with him as a reflection and an extension of his story was important to see.

I really enjoyed seeing Rani’s growth with and without Oliver, and the way her relationship with herself and her family and friends evolved through everything. I’m also so grateful for this character that pursues art and science, as I am/want to. There’s a lot of messaging around studying science that comes from the South Asian/immigrant daughter side of myself, but there’s also the idea that I need to reject that part of me and embrace my love for art and literature and writing because maybe I only want to study science because of social pressures (which I really saw through how Oliver insisted Rani pursue her art). It took me a long time to be okay with owning my interests, for wanting to be tied to all these wildly different subjects, and seeing that portrayed here so wholly was beyond moving. I really appreciated Rani’s growth with and without Oliver, and the way her relationship with herself and her family and friends evolved through everything. I’m also so grateful for this character that pursues art and science, as I am/want to. There’s a lot of messaging around studying science that comes from the South Asian/immigrant daughter side of myself, but there’s also the idea that I need to reject that part of me and embrace my love for art and literature and writing because maybe I only want to study science because of social pressures (which I really saw through how Oliver insisted Rani pursue her art). It took me a long time to be okay with owning my interests, for wanting to be tied to all these wildly different subjects, and seeing that portrayed here so wholly was beyond moving.

Ultimately, I’m beyond thrilled to have had the opportunity to read this book, especially as an OwnVoices reader. This was a life-affirming, exquisitely-crafted debut and I cannot wait to read everything Rajurkar comes up with hereafter.

Book Review for American Betiya by Anuradha D. Rajurkar
Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!