(3.5 stars, rounded up to 4)

This is a delightful romantic comedy that offers a refreshing take on modern love in the digital age. The plot follows beauty influencer Jia Ahmed as she navigates the complexities of online dating and unexpected fame. Rai's pacing keeps the story moving along, with plenty of humorous moments and swoon-worthy romance to keep readers engaged. While the plot may follow some predictable beats, Rai infuses the narrative with enough charm and wit to make it feel fresh and enjoyable.

The characters' chemistry is palpable, with Jia and her love interest, Dev Dixit, sharing a dynamic and electric connection that leaps off the page. Rai expertly crafts their banter and interactions, building tension and anticipation as their relationship evolves from online flirtation to real-life romance. However, while the characters are likable and well-developed, some of their actions and motivations feel slightly contrived, detracting from the authenticity of their romance. Despite this, Rai's engaging writing style and knack for crafting engaging romantic comedies make "First Comes Like" a charming and entertaining read, perfect for fans of the genre.

This was such a good book. I loved every minute of it. It made me smile. This was the book I needed right now.

First Comes Like
Modern Love, Book 3

I Picked Up This Book Because: Finish the series.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: Netgalley/BCPL
Dates Read: 3/19/24 - 3/21/24
Stars: 4
Narrator(s): Priya Ayyar, Neil Shah

The Characters:

Jia Ahmed Beauty influencer working to make her dreams come true after losing momentum due to illness.
Dev Dixit Actor from a famous family whose world has been flipped after the loss of his brother and Grandfather.
Dev’s Niece, Dev’s Uncle, Jia’s roommates (who I would love to see have their own stories)

The Story:

While I do not have a super dramatic reaction to this story I liked it a lot. I think Jia and Dev are low key characters that have some semi dramatic things happen to them. There is a lot of growth and change for these characters as they are both thrown into major upheavals. I wasn’t in love with the last bit of miscommunication. Jia really didn’t need to jump to conclusions about the housing situation.
I love Dev’s uncle and I would have liked to see more of his niece.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

Fun pull back into the Modern Love series. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books of the series. I do appreciate a good stand alone that is also built around the characters and world from the previous books which is exactly what happens in First Comes Like. While the character development was good I felt like the story line fell a bit flatter for me in this third book but not so much that it was not still a fun easy read.

This was a cute story that I could totally envision being made into a movie. The plot wasn’t super involved and I was expecting a little more romance, but it was a quick, easy and fun read! Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

This series is so weird because I don't think anyone would call it romance if it weren't by a romance author?? That's not a jab at romance OR a jab at Rai, it's just that these books are not what they're marketed as. But they're good and I recommend them a lot!

I think this one promised more than it delivered. Everything was fine, it’s a perfectly good book, but the plot felt shallow and the characters’ motivations too simple. Overall, a fine read.

In this conclusion to the Modern Love series, I found the main characters to be likeable and well developed. Family and cultural traditions are brought to the forefront as these two fall in love.

I listened to this one and the narration was well done with appropriate accents.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Can a relationship work when it begins with a catfish? Jia falls for Dev through their online interactions, except it isn’t him. And then, she meets him face to face. Such a fun rom-com! Romance without being too steamy. Each book in this series is just a little bit better than the previous. Looking forward to the next!

Cute romance between a beauty/makeup influencer and an actor from a famous Bollywood family. This would make a good Hallmark movie. Interesting and strong female characters are featured, and family/cultural differences addressed. I found there to be not much of a plot but still enjoyed the story. There were numerous typos and grammatical errors as well as confusion with punctuation at times making it difficult to tell if someone was speaking or just thinking. Sometimes things didn’t make sense like referring to one of Jia’s roommates panic disorder as if the reader knew about this but which I didn’t recall being mentioned early in the book ( I could have missed this). Or when Dev becomes stressed that Jia’s parents are coming as if it was unexpected, when they had been planning for this with their “fake” romance. I feel that a better editing job would have helped the story flow better.

I requested Alisha Ravi’s books Girl Gone Viral and First Comes Love in the Modern Love series. I own the paperback copy of The Right Swipe, book one in the series, and I always planned to come back to read and review the rest of the series after reading the first book. But then I couldn’t get into The Right Swipe. It’s still on my bookshelf, I may give it another try at some point. But I’ve had Girl Gone Viral and First Comes Love lingering on my NetGalley shelf for awhile and I wanted to update both books and notate their reviews,

I wanted to like this more than I did. It was cute and charming and I greatly appreciated the representation and the different approach to their love story. But it almost felt overly long.

Had not realized this was part of this particular series, and that I had read one of the other books in it, until I was a little ways in. But this might be my favorite of the bunch. Adorable.

Am I the only one who finds that finishing a series can feel bittersweet? I've been reading Alisha Rai's Modern Love series and recently finished the audiobook for the third and final book: First Comes Like, narrated by Saira Ayers and Neil Shah. It follows Jia Ahmed, who has been falling for Bollywood star Dev Dixit via private messages. But when they meet in person at a party, he has no idea who she is and Jia realizes she's been catfished. Now that the real Dev has met Jia, he's determined to not let her slip away.

Alisha Rai's Forbidden Hearts series is one of my favorites. It's where we're first introduced to Jia, and I've been waiting for her romance ever since. The Modern Love series is tonally very different, but still captures so much of what I love about Rai's writing from her humor to her close looks at complicated family relationships to her nuanced and realistic leads.

Their romance is a slow and sweet burn, with plenty of room for exploring their individual journeys. Jia is a beauty expert and influencer,and Rai so perfectly shows how the skill, creativity, and hard work her job requires are dismissed by others. One of my favorite things about Dev is that he not only watches her videos, he buys the products that she recommends and uses them. Jia starts the book feeling burnt out and his support helps her to feel confident again in what she's built.

Meanwhile, Dev is trying to make it in Hollywood while also raising his late brother's niece, Luna. Their bond was one of my favorite parts of the whole book. Luna grew up feeling ignored and unwanted, and Dev's tenderness with her and determination to ensure she feels safe, loved, and protected was beautiful.

Add in a fake relationship plot, the uncovering of the real catfish, and a relationship built on friendship and respect, and you've got one a heartwarming read from Rai. I'm officially caught up on her recent releases, which means it's time to dive into her steamy backlist while I wait for Partners in Crime.

I absolutely loved this story and it was a very satisfying conclusion to Rai's trilogy. Great Muslim representation, would reccomend for all readers.

Jia Ahmed meets Dev Dixit at a party after DMing with him for months. However, Dev has no idea who she is when they meet. Jia leaves the party abruptly and Dev cannot stop thinking about Jia. Can this soap opera heartthrob and this social media influencer find love with each other?

This third installment in the modern romance series explores the family dynamics of Indian culture and marriage expectations. I found the interactions between Jia and Dev sweet and the most romantic of the series. I read through this one in a day and really enjoyed it.

I loved the continuation of this series.
I read the first two when I got them as gifts and I love the way that the author tied everything up into this last book in the series.
Jia is catfished by someone she believes to be a Bollywood prince, and when she meets him in real life and he has NO IDEA who she is, she is mortified, understandably.
As with all romance novels, we know the HEA is coming, but Rai did a fabulous job with the development of the characters and she always does a masterful job of including the cultures of her characters.
I can't wait to read what comes next!

This series has been so much fun to read.
First Comes Like is the third book (#1-The Right Swipe, #2-Girls Gone Viral) has a fake dating situation, which I do absolutely love because the opportunity to grow so much out of this situation is part of the fun.
Once again, Alisha Rai delivers a fun, flirty and fiery romance that brings delicious tension with layered
characters as she coaxes them to their happily ever afters.
I hope she keeps writing because three books simply isn't enough!

*I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for this book! First Comes Like was a great addition to the series.

Beauty expert and influencer Jia Ahmed has her eye on the prize: conquering the internet today, the entire makeup industry tomorrow, and finally, finally proving herself to her big opinionated family. She has little time for love, and even less time for the men in her private messages—until the day a certain international superstar slides into her DMs, and she falls hard and fast.

There’s just one wrinkle: he has no idea who she is.

The son of a powerful Bollywood family, soap opera star Dev Dixit is used to drama, but a strange woman who accuses him of wooing her online, well, that’s a new one. As much as he’d like to focus on his Hollywood fresh start, he can’t get Jia out of his head. Especially once he starts to suspect who might have used his famous name to catfish her…

When paparazzi blast their private business into the public eye, Dev is happy to engage in some friendly fake dating to calm the gossips and to dazzle her family. But as the whole world swoons over their relationship, Jia can’t help but wonder: Can an online romance-turned-offline-fauxmance ever become love in real life?