In this book, we get a dual perspective story following Radha and Jai. Radha is a classically trained kathak dancer who starts a new journey in New Jersey after leaving her dance career in Chicago behind. Jai is the captain of the Bollywood Beats dance group at Radha's new school in New Jersey. He is passionate about biology and would love to apply to Columbia University if he didn't feel obligated to sacrifice college to help his family's business. As the two meet and slowly fall in love, we see a very healthy progression of both characters learning to overcome their fears and accept their mistakes. The characters sometimes had some miscommunication, but overall they were both very open about their feelings and took responsibilities for their actions.

This book is more than just a fluffy romance, although I did get a lot of warm fuzzy feelings while reading this. As Nishi states at the beginning of the book in her author's note, she experienced a lot of insecurity about her own kathak and was manipulated to the point of rejecting kathak as an art form for many years. Radha has a very similar experience that leads her to have many panic attacks and performance anxiety. I appreciated the inclusion of mental health representation and South Asian characters seeking therapy in the book.

As I've mentioned in my review of Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian, the South Asian community has a bad history of disregarding mental health illnesses. In my own life, I've seen how therapy can not only help people with their mental illness, but also help us all have more open and honest conversation. I loved that the characters within this story are willing and able to change. Even Radha's parents, an absentee father and a pushy stage mom, are able to apologize to Radha and make an effort to change. Thank you to Nisha Sharma for giving us this beautiful and vulnerable story that will hopefully encourage more Desi kids and parents to go to therapy and talk about their feelings.

4 stars

“Ah. Nice to finally meet you, too. Maybe now you can drop my daughter off by pulling into the driveway instead of leaving her at the curb.”

tw// anxiety, panic attack, child abuse

rep // Brown MC, wlw (off screen)

this book was absolutely EVERYTHING for me. While dancing was more of a hobby than a life commitment for me, I connected so well with the concept of "dance joy". Radha loves dance so much but the anxiety from her guilt over abandoning her last classical performance. Her journey to New Jersey is a chance for her to start over, but she's not sure she ever wants to dance again. Enter stage left, Jai, the caption of the school's bollywood fusion team. CUE the background romance music.

Jai on the other hand is also struggling with his own internal demons. As the youngest son of a poorer convenience shop owning family, he knows that following his dreams of going to college means his family losing one of their best workers. Along with his father's ageing health conditions, he doesn't want to leave to chase his dream of being a Dr at Columbia.

With other various background characters, we get to see a slice of life into their last 4 months of highschool. Moments of emotional connections are interspersed with funny moments and addictive cooking recipes from her grandfather's cookbook. It was beautiful to watch Radha reconnect with her father and her cousin though the recipes. It gives hope to all those of us that have drifted from our family - through no true fault of either side. This portrayal of family was so real for both Radha and Jai's even though they were from such different backgrounds.

I could go on about the romance in this book as well, but it was honestly it just felt so natural and supportive. Jai is the dream boyfriend for so many reasons. Often the male lead is either not fleshed out or someone that would be terrible as a partner IRL. Jai is none of those things. He has his own hopes and dreams. He is supportive, kind and selfless to a fault.

Read this book to cry, get SUPER hungry and be sad that Jai isn't an IRL boyfriend. I need Radha's cookbook ASAP.

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The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After a family betrayal costs Radha the biggest Kathak competition of her life, she leaves Chicago to live with her mom in New Jersey. There she decides to leave dancing in her past, reinvent her life from scratch, and discover more about her culture (and in turn become closer to her dad) through food. She also meets Jai, captain of the Bollywood Beats dance team, and someone who has decided to make the most of high school and all it has to offer considering his dreams of medical school are unattainable. Jai is in desperate need of a choreographer his team to compete in the Winter Showcase, and when Radha learns she'll need to perform in order to pass her class, she'll find a way to help out Jai while maybe, just maybe, rediscovering her passion for dance she's lost over the years.

I had no idea what to expect going into this contemporary, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed the family dynamics and romance it explored. Radha is known to be one of the best Kathak dancers, but when she overhears her competitors talking, details come to life that make her world come crashing down and cast doubt on all her prior victories. Her parents seperate and she moves to New Jersey, refusing to perform in front of an audience again, much to the disdain of her mother (also a former dancer). The book explores her anxiety she has developed as a result, and explores therapy and medication she uses to help her live with it. Radha's father also sends her cooking supplies and a recipe book her dadaji (paternal grandfather) used when opening his dhaba (roadside restaurant in India) and has since been passed on after his death. Her chapters start off with a translated Punjabi recipe and Radha's notes / conversations with her father and/or cousin about how to improve her skills. What Radha has to eventually discover is if her cooking has truly been a way to reconnect with her culture, or if she has been using it as a distraction and a way to avoid confronting her complicated feelings about performing. On the other hand, Jai is slated to graduate as valedictorian of his high school class. He's captain of the Bollywood Beats dance team and has dreamed to attend Columbia to study medicine and become a doctor. But ever since his father father was injured in an accident, he knows that after high school he will be working full time in his family's convenience store to help out, and not burden anyone with the cost of schooling. While others think he may be foolish, Jai knows that his brothers' dreams of expanding the store will be delayed if they have to hire more help to take his place, and he refuses to see his family struggle with any financial responsibilties. When his team's choreographer moves back to India, and Jai recruits Radha in a deal to have her fulfill a class requirement without fuller participating, he knows he finally has a chance to win at the senior showcase and potentially win a regionals, which comes with a substantial cash prize. But the one thing that can ensure everyone's victory is Radha getting back on stage to perform, which she has established will not happen. Radha and Jai truly grapple with determining if their actions will be for their own benefit, or for the benefit of others, and whether they are willing to listen to their hearts and take a chance.

Overall, I found this to be such a delightful read, and am interested to check out Nisha Sharma's previous work. *Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Crown Books for Young Readers, for the e-copy, all thoughts and opinions are my own.*

No matter how much we make fun of the industry, South Asian girls still dream of being swept up in Bollywood romances.

This book is filled with everything I love - dance and the joy it brings, food and its power to connect across continents. What a treat to see a different family recipe at the beginning of every other chapter. As someone who grew up dancing Odissi, I got to relive the thrill of performing through this book. There were so many relatable aspects, like being told by some to look down on Bollywood dancing as a classical dancer.

I started tearing up when Radha and Jai’s dance team starting breaking out in dance and song in public. This story really does feel like a sort of ensemble production, like watching a musical.

Pick up Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance, coming out on July 13th! Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

RADHA AND JAI'S RECIPE FOR ROMANCE is super sweet and offers a nice taste of Indian food and dance. Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Teen for the eARC!

After walking out on an important dance competition, Radha gets a fresh start at a new school and starts digging into a new passion: cooking. But when she meets Jai, captain of the Bollywood Beats dance team, she’s smitten and finds herself back in the world of dance. Though she does everything in her power to stay OFF the stage, dancing with a new recipe of people and styles…for the right reasons…might be exactly what she needs to find the joy in it once again.

RADHA AND JAI’S RECIPE FOR ROMANCE is a charming romance story with a side of family drama and coming-of-age. The story honestly could’ve done without one or two subplots, but it’s a treat nonetheless with likable main characters and cute adventures!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Books for Young Readers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. <i>Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance</i> is scheduled for release on July 13th, 2021.

I <i>love</i> me a non-cookbook book that has recipes throughout, so already amazing.

<i>Radha & Jai’s Recipe for Romance</i> is about Radha and Jai, two incredibly talented teenagers who fall in love through dance as Radha choreographs the piece that will take their school’s and Jai’s dance team, the Bollywood Beats, to regionals for the first time in years. But more than that, it’s about each of these characters figuring out what they want and finding their way out of the pitfalls they’ve found themselves in.

Radha is one of the best competitive kathak dancers in the world, but she overhears some truly devastating gossip (that holds at least some truth) that makes her question her entire dance career — in the middle of a major competition, no less.

Jai wants to be a doctor, but his family’s financial situation has convinced him (and only him *eyeroll*) that it’s impossible for him to study medicine without completely abandoning his family. (imma be real, at first i felt for him i really did, but the more he had this conversation with different people the more i got tired of his shit, which leads me into my next point)

Radha and Jai are such well written characters, both individually and as a couple, in my opinion. They both have full, complex personalities and a variety of relationships with other characters and they have amazing chemistry with each other. However, my favorite thing about them is that I was able to empathize with them and want to call them on their shit, which I think is a very important part of the reader/character dynamic.

The book featured a fun cast of characters and I wish we’d gotten to see more of them in the book, but not having that didn’t take away from the story at hand for me. Nisha Sharma’s writing is fun and swoony and makes for a very fast read so I would definitely love to read stories about other characters in this universe in the future, especially Shakti (you know you love her).

In conclusion, 10/10 Jesse’s would say that you should read this book and also, if you make Radha’s thanksgiving samosas I would love to hear about your experiences (i would make them myself but i hate sweet potatoes)

Radha is an amazing Kathak dancer but soon doubts everything after some salacious gossip is revealed to her and she leaves in the middle of the most important competition of her career.
Trying to start over in a new town at a new performing arts school. She meets Jai (who looks like Ranveer Singh) who has so many things that he needs to do in order to even think about college and doesn't have time to fall in love but Radha comes along.
There is so much cooking in this book and familial relationships created through cooking which I love. And omg recipes, thank you!
I enjoyed this romance in this performing arts high school for Kathak, Bollywood, traditional dancing, the different backgrounds the MCs came from and experience they brought to the story.
Thank you Crown Books and Net galley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

I don’t know how much more intensely relatable a book can be. Intense preparation in a classical Indian dance and a certain New York-based Ivy League dream college are certainly not unfamiliar to me, which made it all the easier for me to devour this book in just a day. The familiar, easy writing style made the book easier to swallow than badam milk (at least one Desi food pun seems appropriate), however, certain aspects of the plot had a rollercoaster feeling to them. The smaller conflicts in the book were created and resolved rather quickly, while the larger ones didn’t quite receive the screen time I thought they deserved. I did love the characters and the variety they provided in terms of South Asian representation, so much so that almost anyone will be able to relate to Radha and Jai’s struggle. All in all an enjoyable, happy read.

Radha and Jai's Recipe for Romance is a delightful book full of longing, mistakes, anxiety, and passion. Radha is recovering from one traumatic day where she discovered her mother was cheating on her dad with a dance judge, leaving her wondering where her dance career hung in the balance. She moved away, started at a new school, and tried to do what she could to feel normal again. Her main problem is that her new normal includes panic attacks, which are very much not conducive to getting things done. Jai is struggling with his future. He finds himself torn between wanting to go away to college and wanting to stay home and support his family now that he's old enough to do so. His dilemma is that he can't bring himself to move away from his Dada, who has already suffered one stroke and lives with quadriplegia.

I think I may be beginning to sour on young adult novels, at least contemporaries. Radha and Jai is both quirky and fun, but I'm starting to lose interest in the formulaic experience. Perhaps it was just the wrong book at the wrong time. Don't get me wrong; I really enjoyed this book and am grateful for the freshness of the Bollywood Dance and cooking themes. I had to give it four stars because it felt like something I would have fully enjoyed were I in the mood for it.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Radha was a Kathak sensation, but left it all behind. She was determined to never preform again, however, she may have accidently awakened her dance-joy while exploring new passions.

• Pro: Nisha Sharma may have warned me in the author’s note that this book wasn’t going to be as fluffy as My So-Called Bollywood Life, but it was still filled with lots of humor and joy. It never felt too heavy, although Sharma did incorporate weightier topics. Perfectly balanced with a positive net effect.

• Pro: I say this every time I read a Nisha Sharma book, but if you’re not from Central NJ, you don’t understand how wonderful it is to see someone acknowledge that it actually exists. It’s always fun to take a tour of my stomping grounds in a book too.

• Pro: All the food descriptions had my mouth watering, but it was even more meaningful that Radha was able to connect to her family and reawaken her passion as she learned to prepare her grandfather’s recipes.

• Pro: After being a dedicated dance mom for 12+ years, one of the most gratifying things for me is seeing my daughter still dancing at 26 years old. I thought it would all be over when she went to college, but it was there that she rediscovered her joy for dance. I was practically walking on sunshine every time Radha danced. I wanted her to reignite her love for it, and I thought Sharma did a beautiful job capturing her journey.

• Pro: Jai was such a sweetheart. He was a dedicated friend, son, and brother. Though I admired his dedication to his family and understood his quandary, I was also rooting for him to follow his own path.

• Pro: Dancing, family, friendship, and food – there’s so much joy in this book!

Though there’s “romance” both in the title and in the book, Jai and Radha’s personal journeys felt like a bigger part of the story for me. The beauty was that they had each other for support along the way. Feel-good and fun, I had a wonderful time with Radha and Jai!

This book was absolutely perfect. It made me laugh so hard, smile like a dork and occasionally cry, which it had no right to do, in all honesty. I think the best way I can describe it is the epitome of a comfort bollywood movie - light, fluffy, fun and yet emotional. And that is everything I'm looking for in the book.

Both Radha and Jai were compelling characters with very realistic lives and problems, that felt completely relatable. They both struggled with things that a lot of others may struggle with and I feel like many could see themselves in these characters, the way I reflect with Radha.

And when I say I literally sobbed because of the representation, I'm not kidding. There were some lines that hit too close to home. That one part about not having measurements of the masalas... me too bestie. Seeing my culture represented like this was beautiful and I need to pick up Nisha Sharma's other books.

My one problem with this book was the fact that it felt too insta lovey, probably due to the time jumps and such. While I enjoyed their relationship, I would've loved to see it develop a little bit more before they got together. But despite that, I still loved it and highly recommend.

Radha & Jai's Recipe for Romance was swoony and a quick, entertaining read. I didn't actually even intend to read it so fast, I just found myself saying I'd read a bit before bed and then it's like 50 pages later. Part of that stems from the fact that the storyline has steady pacing with fantastic action, but also from how much I loved Radha. That feeling of having lost that spark, the love we have for something, is there anything more relatable to me?

Radha's story of trying to figure out what she really wants, to figure out the lines between her love of dance and her mother's dreams, is engaging to read. I'm a sucker for mother/daughter tension, and Radha & Jai's Recipe for Romance has it! In many ways, both Radha and Jai's stories have similar themes, with often different reactions and directions. Whether it be family pressure, the decision about where our future will take us, or the line between protection and love.

3.5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed Nisha Sharma’s previous, RITA-winning YA contemporary, so I was excited for her next one, Radha & Jai’s Recipe for Romance. I had already heard it was somewhat more emotionally heavy than her debut, so while I was a bit cautious, I believed she had the range for it, having also read some of her adult work. And generally, while I didn’t love it as much as My So-Called Bollywood Life, it is still pretty enjoyable.

I love the food component of the book, with the plethora of Indian recipes, with commentary from Radha. I also liked the overlap with the shared passion of dance between the characters. With these two passions being so well-realized, even if there is some emotional baggage, it conveys a loving tribute to Sharma’s South Asian background with a fun Bollywood-style flair.

Radha and Jai are fairly easy to root for. Each has their own past that impact them as they are trying to pursue their dreams. There is positive anxiety rep in Radha’s character, and I was intrigued by the study of contrasts in Radha and Jai’s respective family situations.

Thematically, it’s a little disjointed, trying to juggle the lighthearted moments with the more emotional. The dark elements don’t come completely out-of-the-blue, as Sharma does provide a disclaimer about the content in the beginning. However, the cute little romantic kisses in the rain, while welcome, did feel like a stark contrast to the exploration of stuff like Radha’s toxic relationship with her mother.

I liked this overall, but can’t help but wish it had been a bit more cohesive. It is still enjoyable, and whether it will feel balanced could very well be a matter of personal taste. If you like a YA romance that is equal parts lighthearted and emotionally complex, you should pick this up.

Do you need to know about Indian dance traditions and Bollywood to understand what is going on in this book? No.

Do you need to know how competitions are? No, not really.

Do you need to know what Indian food tastes like? Maybe, because Radha is trying to cook her way through her grandfather's cookbook to ease her anxiety, as well as connect with her father.

Cute romance about trying to not dance for a dance competition, and failing at it.

Radha is tried to competing for everything, and her stage mother wants to push, push push, until there is no joy left in dancing.

Sometimes it gets frustrating, because you want to point the characters in the right direction, but the minor players in this story want to do the same, so you are not alone.



<em> Thanks to Negaley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance is a cute story about two teens who love to dance. Radha has just moved from Chicago to New Jersey to escape controversy and embarrassment after she walked out of a dance competition. At her new school, she meets Jai, who wants to study medicine but feels he can’t leave for school without negatively financially impacting his family.

I really liked both Radha and Jai. Both of their stories were enjoyable, and I cared about what would happen to each of them. My biggest issue with the book was that I didn’t care about them as a couple. They had little to no chemistry and the romance really fell flat. I never really understood why they were romantically interested in each other. Radha’s relationship with her parents was much more interesting, and some of the other secondary characters were great, too. Radha and Jai’s internal struggles were also compelling, though generally I felt Radha’s story was more full-fleshed and engaging.

There was a lot of awkward exposition in this book. Characters would often say something that everyone around them already knew, such as when Radha and Jai were discussing the parts of an Indian wedding. The way it was done felt very “explainy.” It makes sense why this information was included - a lot of readers may not have known about this otherwise - but it wasn’t believably done. It would have made more sense as narration rather than dialogue, or if there were someone in the room who wouldn’t have known this. This is just one example - there were other times throughout the book when I felt the same way. It was just somewhat jarring and off putting when this happened, and it really took me out of the flow of the story.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read which was quick to get through. There were some aspects that were excellent, but others really fell flat.

Before I finished reading the author’s note at the beginning of my ARC, I knew I was going to love this book. Dance? Asian food? An author who bares her soul before the story even begins?

Radha Chopra is a competitive Kathak dancer with a stage mother who expects her daughter to fulfill her own dreams. An incident at an elite level competition causes Radha to second guess her own abilities and drop out before the finals.

Hoping to make a new start, Radha and her mother move to New Jersey, where she enrolls in a school for the arts. She continues dancing, but has no interest in performing or competing anymore, much to her mother’s chagrin. There she meets Jai, the captain of the school’s Bollywood dance team, who is in dire need of a choreographer for an upcoming competition. Jai is also a brilliant student, but not pursuing college because he feels he is needed at home.

While Radha and her mother continue to disagree about dance and her future, she begins to build a relationship with her father, a chef back in Chicago who has always been too busy for her. When he shares her grandfather’s recipe notebook with her, they finally have something to talk about as they cook together over video chats (much to her smoothie-loving mother’s horror!)

Can a non-competitive dancer find her “dance joy” as a choreographer? Can she convince Jai to follow his college dreams? Will she ever learn how to make ghee?

So much to love in this book—it made me want to dance, watch Bollywood movies, and learn to cook samosas and dal. The characters were so real, I felt as though I knew what it was like to be a part of the Indian community. I can’t wait to read more by this author!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books for the electronic Advance Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Radha and Jai's Recipe for Romance introduces Radha, an Indian American teen who has spent years competing in Indian Classical Dance competitions. She abruptly drops out, when she finds out her mother Sujata has been having an affair with one of the judges. Doubting herself and all her championships, Radha refuses to dance, much to her mother's dismay. After her parents split up, she and Sujata move to New Jersey where Radha enrolls at the Princeton Academy of Arts and Science, striking a deal with her mother to dance for a year in exchange for college tuition. Then Radha meets and falls for Punjabi Gujarati American Jai, captain of the Bollywood Dance Team, and agrees to choreograph the team's dances. Jai, who wants to be a doctor, can only finance college if the team wins the regional competition scholarship. Radha finds this dance freeing, but still experiences performance anxiety when dancing for others. To deal with her anxiety, Radha reconnects with her dad, a restaurant owner, through learning to make many of his favorite traditional Indian recipes. The novel alternates between Jai and Radha's third-person perspectives, chronicling the ins and outs of their romance and the challenges of their senior year.

this was cute and a quick read. i wish we had gotten to see more of radha and jai getting to know each other before getting together, but their relationship was sweet and i enjoyed it


thank you to netgalley for providing me with an ARC

Huge thank to the wonderful Nisha Sharma herself for sending me a physical copy of this book and emailing the publishers to get me this NetGalley e-ARC (and the Parle G biscuits!).

As someone who's been dancing their whole life, I cannot begin to describe the sheer amount of joy this book brought me. While I was never classically trained, a lot of Radha's experiences about competing, balancing school, and anxiety was so familiar to me.

Radha's arc was so refreshing to read. How many South Asian parents are supportive of therapy or have gone through divorce or even admitted their wrongdoings?

I genuinely cannot even begin to describe how happy this book made me. Despite being swamped with working full time and volunteering for a non profit I managed to finish it a day.

It was exactly the cute feel good YA Romance I needed to pull me out of my reading slump. I cannot recommend that you read this enough. (less)

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Sharma's second YA novel is as phenomenal, profound, and fun as her debut. Radha and Jai are absolute delights, with complicated backstories and a wonderful development from strangers, to friends, to partners, to lovers. I especially loved this development because it was a process; Radha and Jai both have a lot of emotional baggage, and it does have an impact on how they relate to each other. But, after some missteps, they work together to solve their problems, get new perspective, and become better people. Radha's anxiety is particularly well portrayed, and I love how she seeks several different avenues for treating it--therapy, finding a new way to connect to dance, and a new way to connect with her culture and family through food. (Seriously, do not read this book while hungry... Thank goodness for Radha's recipes!)