I loved this story! I had thought it was more of a romance going into it, but I was super pleasantly surprised by the fact that this was more of a coming-of-age later in life story. Serena was such a lovable character to me - not perfect, but incredibly real to me. I just LOVED the dynamic between Ainsley and Serena - the end?? SO CUTE. The emphasis on friendship, the fact that Lalli gave equal (if not more) weight to the value of friendship as opposed to romantic relationships was something I really appreciated and connected with.
I just in general really appreciated the nuance to the relationships in the story. Serena's relationships with her parents and sister were complicated - even when she loved them, she didn't always like them. It was such a real depiction of familiar relationships. The romance was definitely super sweet and contributed to Serena's character growth, but definitely isn't the thing I will remember most about the story. I can't wait to pick up more from Sonya Lalli!

Sonya Lalli does it again.

I'm becoming a huge fan of Lalli's work. This book is women's fiction. There is a sprinkling of romance, but this book explores maneuvering Punjabi culture as an American, family relationships, being a boss, and finding fulfilling friendships as an adult.

This heart-warming rollercoaster will warm your heart. This was a fun pick-me-up that I needed.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Books for sending me and eGalley for an honest review!

I enjoyed this book even more than I thought I would. For all my love of romance, there is a real dearth of books that explore the hardship of making friends as an adult, and puts that search on the same level as finding a romantic relationship. Giving that friendship search the same treatment that most books give that search for romantic love was very interesting, and I enjoyed it so much.

The family relationship, especially the one between Serena and her mother, was also done in a thoughtful way that I liked. It would be so easy to make the family the villain, but Sonya Lalli managed to give them dimensions that make the reader sympathetic to their own plights.

I liked that the romance was considered secondary for this reason, but I do wish the book would have given it a little space when it happened instead of summing it up in a few lines after building it throughout. But it was a small thing when I enjoyed so much of the rest of it.

Serena is the coolest! She is a strong independent woman who doesn't take anything from anyone....except her super traditional Indian parents and bossy younger sister, of course. I loved that she was more focused on finding and building strong friendships than a husband, especially because that is something I struggle with. Making friends as an adult is hard! There were some times I wanted to shake her (ahem, cooking class) but for the most part, I would love to grow up and be like her!

4 Stars

In the usual Sonya Lalli fashion, this book follows a native Indian girl who’s born and raised in North America. She faces family pressure to pursue marriage, which is the least of her concerns. Instead, she sports a rugged, rebellious style, a neck tattoo, and refuses to succumb to the cultural norm of coupling up and abandoning your social life. She’s spent far too much time on the receiving end of the abandonment to understand that is not who she wants to be.

If marriage and babies mean sacrificing your social life, career advancement, and just generally having all the fun sucked out of you, why would anyone choose that for themselves?

It’s refreshing to see a rebellious Indian girl, defying all the expectations set for her. After all, isn’t going along with it the more common “script”? I’m passionate about badass Indian girls doing what they want. Serena Singh was her. Aside from the neck tattoo, she reminded me so much of myself in my unmarried years and I realized this adamant desire to focus on career and socializing is how most young people cope with cultural pressure to marry and get the proverbial parents “off their backs”. I thought it was just me!

Another key theme of this novel is the difficulty sustaining meaningful friendships in your thirties. Serena is single and everyone around her is in different stages of life – some are married, others have kids. Despite how hard she tries to maintain a social life, she struggles, even with no marital obligations. It spoke to a real struggle of the thirties age group that isn’t mentioned enough. No matter what life path you’re consumed with in that decade, it’s such a different experience trying to sustain meaningful friendships than in earlier years when everyone was single and in school. It’s a lonely experience when there isn’t much in common anymore.

I highly recommend this book for being so rich with perspective. It shows the varying viewpoints of Serena’s traditional mother, her married sister, all the friends she grew up, coworkers and her boyfriends. I found it enlightening.

This was my first read by Sonya Lalli and I genuinely loved the simplicity and truth in her writing style, that I devoured the book in a day! Being a South Asian raised in India before moving to U.S., the story of Serena feels very close to heart!

Serena is in her mid 30’s independent, ambitious elder daughter of Veer and Sandeep. Unlike her younger sister Natasha, who got married and is pregnant in her late 20’s, Serena does not want to be married or have children. She has a high profile job in one of the biggest firm in Washington, DC and in the process of achieving her goals has lost touch with her family and close friends.

I enjoyed how Serena comes to realization the importance of love, family and friends in life through her newly formed friendship with colleague, Ainsley, her loving and homely mother, Sandeep and her college sweetheart, now an ex, Jesse!

I really was touched by Serena’s realization of her mother’s silent sacrifices for the family and Serena making genuine effort to make up to rekindle and value it. I could not help but think of my mother and her love and sacrifice for our family!

This was 5 star read for me and highly recommend to anyone who loves to read diverse, own voices books which explores your reading horizon! Sonya you have found a lifetime fan in me and I am eagerly looking forward to read your previous releases, Grown-Up Pose and The Matchmaker’s List!

Thank you Berkeley PublishingGroup and NetGalley for the gifted galley in exchange of my honest review!

I was initially expecting a cute romcom but it turned out to be a plot that has a lot more depth and handled Serena's relationships beautifully. It also showcases how both societal and cultural expectations dictate life for majority of Asians. It is slightly slow-paced for me so I feel it is more suited for readers who are ready to delve into Serena's life in detailed approach. It is definitely inspiring and motivating for career drive women and the way Serena shows her grit is commendable. Being type-A personality myself, I could totally understand the way she approaches everything in life especially her struggles to maintain relationships in her 30’s.

wow! before going into this novel i was told that Sonya Lalli's Serena Singh Flips the Script was a sapphic romance. Needless to say it is most definitely not a sapphic romance nor would I say it is a romance, there are some elements of romance but its to help the character arcs.

Serena like many people just wants to be remembered and loved by others that want to be in her presence. Sonya makes a point to display Serena's trauma in how she responds to relationships platonic and romantic; Serena was closed off and chose to keep herself at a distance so that when the relationship met its end she would not be hurt and left to pick up the pieces. After she loses touch with her sister and her work friends Serena is left with finding friends around the city but ends up finding her best friend not only 15 feet from her. Serena has to accept her unhealed trauma to be able to live her life and surround herself with people that want to be there
My only compliant is with the pacing I feel like once we got to autumn the pacing sped up to try and explain our MC trauma response but the other seasons were helping us understand our character a bit more as she understands herself as well.

Things I liked:
-writing style (first person with Serena and her mom)
-the independence Serena is able to keep
-recognizing her sister's bullshit



TW & CW
domestic violence , alcohol abuse , emotional abuse , trauma of domestic violence

I LOVED this book. Serena Singh is my new girl crush and I wish I could read this book for the first time again and again. I highly recommend this!

Serena Singh is a very successful thirty-something Indian woman who seems to have everything she wants in life...well except for friends. It seems she's the only one in her friend group who does not have a significant other and/or kids and that makes things hard for making time for each other. Is Serena really happy with just herself and her career or does she need more form life?

Okay so Serena and I did not get along at first. Her attitude towards her friend group was really off-putting. As someone who is 33, not married, and does not have kids, I wanted to see myself in Serena. But she was honestly quite abrasive when it came to her friends. She didn't seem to genuinely care about them or what was going on in their lives because they all had families and she didn't. This just rubbed me the wrong way.

Luckily there are things that happen in the book that somewhat redeemed Serena for me. I was still disappointed that I wasn't able to connect with her like I wanted to because there was so much we had in common.

Overall this was an enjoyable read and gets 3.5 stars.

Serena Singh Flips the Script was not what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised. Expecting another romcom or meet-cute type book, Serena is more on a quest to find true friendship and she happens to find some truths about herself along the way.

Serena Singh Flips the Script draws you in with its heartwarming, relationship fiction charm and plenty of wit.

This own voices story is told from two points of view. Serena is successful and feels fulfilled except that her friends are all at different stages of their lives - focusing on relationships and children. Serena doesn't want those. She wants female friendships. So she decides to go on some friendship dates with hilarious and usually disastrous results - the sex club bit had me laughing out loud.

Her mother Sandeep's story is told in flashbacks. We see how Serena's parents worked hard as Indian immigrants, to provide for Serena and her sister. We also start to understand why Serena's relationship with her father is so strained.

I adored this story that focuses on women, their relationships and what fulfills them. Serena is strong, driven, likable and even relatable. As an aunt, I loved that Serena could be excited about her younger sister's wedding and her friends' children - sharing in their joys without wanting that exact thing herself.

Serena starts a new job - her dream job actually and loves it. She's crushed when her staff members aren't interested in being friends but finds a new friend in Ainsley, another manager at the firm.

She starts dating - the photographer she met at her sister's wedding. She also runs into her ex and they agree to try being friends. Serena negotiating what sort of behavior is acceptable for friends was hilarious.

Serena Singh Flips the Script is a warm, leisurely-paced book about female strength and determination, and how the threads of our lives are woven or sometimes tangled together. Serena juggles her own expectations, those of her family, cultural expectations and society's to find fulfillment from herself and her own successes. She discovers that she can't stay inside herself and still make the connections she craves.

With Sandeep, we get a different perspective from a South Asian woman with strong ties to her culture even after moving to the USA. Although Serena feels cringey at times about Sandeep - the clothes she wears, her food choices or her behavior - we see that Sandeep too is strong in a different way.

CW: There's some past domestic violence and frank talk about it.

I really loved this book!

I loved this one!

A huge thank you to Berkley Pub and NetGalley for my advanced copy!

What I Loved-

*The Setting- I loved that this book takes place in Washington DC. Yay for books set close to home!

* The Main Character- Serena was a breath of fresh air. She was so relatable. Serena and I have the same goals, priorities and mind set. We both love our careers and family.

* The Romance- This book is very light on the romance. Serena has a love life but it takes a back seat. I appreciated that. I loved that Serena found fulfillment in her life through other avenues. This book focuses on friendships. Serena's sister was her best friend at one point. At another point she finds a new best friend outside her family. We also see a friendship between Serena and her mother Sandeep.
This book shows that love comes in many forms. It shows healthy male/female relationships that are not physical or romantic.

*Sandeep- I love that there are chapters sprinkled throughout this book from Sandeep's POV. It was a very unique and welcome perspective. I enjoyed Serena and Sandeep's relationship and loved seeing them bond over food.

Overall- Highly Recommend! I have couple back list books by this author and I cannot wait to get to them.

This book was everything I needed it to be at just the right time. I really enjoyed it and definitely will be recommending it to friends to read. I loved the story behind it and will be reading the other books by this author. Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the book.

3.75 stars

Serena Singh knows what she wants.

And it’s not getting married and settling down, no matter what other people’s opinions are. She values her independence and her work. All that’s missing is a true friend.

There are not enough stories out there that explore some of the issues at the heart of this story, specifically: finding new and fulfilling friendship in adulthood, and women who choose to prioritize their independence over a long term relationship.

I think Lalli succeeds on several fronts. I really enjoyed the central friendship between Serena and Ainsley. We don’t see many portrayals of how friendships can begin and develop in adulthood. I loved how we were invited to appreciate how their friendship was “meant to be”, in the kind of way usually reserved for romantic relationships. It was refreshing to see that level of attention paid to the complexities of a friendship relationship.

I also enjoyed the perspective of Serena’s mother, Sandeep, taking centre stage in some of the chapters. It allowed us to appreciate more of where Serena came from, and added layers around her cultural background and her parents’ own stories as immigrants. I think we could have benefited from even more understanding of Sandeep’s past.

You’ll need to be in the mood for a story that is more slow paced. At times I wasn’t sure if the novel was lacking tension or jeopardy. What was at stake was more subtle. This really is a more of a character study. Even so, it moved rather slowly and I did find some of the action at Serena’s work to be a little repetitive and not as compelling.

I’d have been happier to see Serena end up without a man beside her, and having that rare kind of ending validated. It wasn’t that I didn’t buy the ending, I just wished for something more out of the norm, given the premise and the character.

This book made me curious to read the author’s previous books, and it left me thinking, which I always appreciate.

CW: domestic abuse, alcoholism

Serena’s story is one that makes me incredibly happy! Not only do we get a strong working woman, unwilling to waiver from her refusal to get married and have children, but we also get a protagonist who isn't entirely punished for being a closed-off person. It's a combination that I don't have the pleasure of seeing often enough in adult contemporary romances.

Serena’s struggle to open up to those around her is all too real, and her journey to find a best friend in adulthood becomes more compelling than any of the romantic pairings introduced. Ainsley and Serena’s “love at first sight” friendship is the main draw of this plot and I'm glad their happy ending closed out this book.

The back half of the book isn't as easy to love. It felt like a lot of the conflict was forced quickly to punish Serena for keeping everyone in her life at arm’s length and is resolved all too quickly. I would have liked to see the more difficult conversations between her and her loved ones spread throughout. Unfortunately, it feels like I was just getting to know Serena in the final chapters, and even then her closed-off nature kept too much out of reach for the reader.

Regardless, Lalli does an incredible job of delivering a protagonist that is problematic but not unlikable, who is headstrong but not cold. Serena’s journey is an important one and I enjoyed following her through farmer markets and awkward group friend dates. Her exploration of her culture and her desire to build a loving support system is something deeply comforting for women still unsure of what they want from life.

The world needs more stories like Serena Singh’s.

it took me about a third of the way through to start enjoying this book (and enjoying is a very relative term). I really wanted to root for Serena but I found her annoying and a little selfish. I appreciated the character growth throughout the story but it didn't really make me like her.

the thing that really threw me off was the pacing. I had truly no idea how much time was passing if it wasn't explicitly stated and some of the events, especially towards the end, are just glossed over. If some of those plot points were better developed, I would've given this a higher rating.

Such a fun contemporary romance with South Asian representation. While this is categorized as romance, it was much more about the beautiful power of strong female friendships, self-love, and bad-ass independent thinking.

I’m not an own-voices reviewer so can’t speak to authenticity but will say I did really love the cultural references to food, clothing, family, etc. and learning more about the Indian immigrant experience.

Low steam level.

CW: domestic abuse, alcoholism

Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for the egalley.

Absolutely loved it!

The story revolves around Serena Singh, a woman that has been inspired by her career and is driven by it. At the same time, she can't ignore that most of her friends and her younger sister have moved on to personal goals in their lives. This story shows the growth of Serena from a personal level to how it affects her career growth. A balance. The story of findings friendship and understanding the relationships in her life.

This was a great book for a career driven women who is trying hard to have her friends understand her.

This is an enjoyable novel that fits well within the romance and the contemporary fiction genres. Serena Singh is determined to live her life outside Indian American stereotypes; however, her passion is also limiting to ability to connect in familial, friendship or romantic relationships. Throughout the novel, Serena experiences growth as a character. Excellent pacing and a non typical conclusion make this a delightful read.