A holiday story that romance readers will love, especially those looking for a drama and beautiful descriptions to bring such a festive feel!

I really loved learning more about Diwali and having a romance set in India, but something about the characters didn't do it for me.

This book has a lot that I've been looking for in books, including romance, diversity, and a woman trying to find herself after doing everything "right" gets here no where.

Also, as a side note, please publishers, give us more diverse holiday books. Librarians will thank you.

A Holly Jolly Diwali follows the story of Niki, a 29-year-old woman, who, despite making "all the right choices" to live up to her parent's expectations, finds herself a bit lost. She buys a last minute ticket to India to attend her BFFs wedding and visit family. At the wedding festivities, Niki meets her friend's childhood friend Sam, and starts feeling for him despite her head telling her it's not the the right life choice.

I highly recommend this one if you're in the market for a light holiday read! I found Niki to be very relatable. This wasn't steamy but was cute, funny, and heartwarming. I loved reading about Diwali and India!

Sonya Lalli's A Holly Jolly Diwali is a heartwarming rom-com that's a great addition to the holiday selection for romance readers. This whisks readers off to India to celebrate the festival of lights with protagonist Niki Randhawa as she navigates family, culture, and love.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

it was a nice fun read.. finished it in a day! Niki's character was relatable in all aspects, whether it's how she feels about not letting her parents down, or how she daydreams love stories about strangers. It was great summer read.

Cute, fun romcom with diversity. It was great to learn more about Diwali and while was romance was just ok the rest of the book made up for it!

I love the movement to see new holiday representation. Give us all the holidays! A Holly Jolly Diwali was a great celebration of Diwali and Indian culture. I loved the characters and the families in their book.

Twenty-nine-year-old Niki Randhawa has always made practical decisions. Despite her love for music and art, she became an analyst for the stability. She's always stuck close to home, in case her family needed her. And she's always dated guys that seem good on paper, rather than the ones who give her butterflies. When she's laid off, Niki realizes that practical hasn't exactly paid off for her. So for the first time ever, she throws caution to the wind and books a last-minute flight for her friend Diya’s wedding.

Niki arrives in India just in time to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, where she meets London musician Sameer Mukherji. Maybe it's the splendor of Mumbai or the magic of the holiday season, but Niki is immediately drawn to Sam. At the wedding, the champagne flows and their flirtatious banter makes it clear that the attraction is mutual.

When Niki and Sam join Diya, her husband and their friends on a group honeymoon, their connection grows deeper. Free-spirited Sam helps Niki get in touch with her passionate and creative side, and with her Indian roots. When she gets a new job offer back home, Niki must decide what she wants out of the next chapter of her life—to cling to the straight and narrow like always, or to take a leap of faith and live the kind of bold life the old Niki never would have dreamed of.

This was a quick, cute read. I love reading about Indian culture and this one taught me about Diwali! I appreciated the storyline, but did not connect with the characters as much as I would have liked. I felt like their love story was just a little too unrealistic. Overall still a cute read!!

This was really fun! I was a good mix of multicultural and modern romance, solid first purchase option

A Holly Jolly Diwali was heartwarming romance that revolved around Niki’s personal journey and holiday fling during her visit to India that turned out much more than just fling. The story was about connecting with roots, family drama, Indian culture and festival, friendship, and love.

Writing was entertaining, and fast paced. The story was written in first person narrative from Niki’s perspective. Her voice was interesting and some of the past chapters made me understand her better. The setting of India, Goa and Seattle was great.

Plot was interesting. First few chapters gave character background, Niki’s family, how she was brought up, her compliant good-daughter nature who did everything right and how she realized every practical choices of hers wasn’t right when she got laid off from her job and how that made her impulsively decide to attend her best friend’s marriage in Mumbai where she met hot and handsome rock star, Sam (Sameer) whom she instantly feel attracted to. The flirtations and attractions turn to vacation fling but as they spend more time together and as Niki’s time to return back nears they couldn’t deny their feelings for each other.

It was interesting to read how Niki would find India, would she feel connected to her roots, what will happen between her and Sam, what she would decide to do when her time in India comes to end, would she end relationship with Sam or would they find a way to keep it going.

Niki’s character was interesting. She was responsible, smart, and workaholic 29 yrs old Indian-American who was brought up like American who never visited India and also didn’t know her mother tongue and anything much about culture and festivals. Reading past chapters about her childhood, her observation of diaspore community and how her parents lived and brought her up made me understand her thought process, why she felt she was more American than Indian and why she felt insecure about label. Her jealousy towards her elder sister Jasmine was complex. Half the time I didn’t like how Niki thought about her behind her back but at the same time it felt natural looking at how less they interacted about their true feelings with each other. I liked how family relationship developed and Niki’s growth throughout story. It was great to read how Niki understood her sister who didn’t have it easy either and why she turned out rebel, how Niki realized she is her own person and she didn’t have to compare what Jasmine could have or could get away with had nothing to do with her decisions, how hard Niki was on herself and assumed things about her parents and her sisters than blaming it on herself, and most of all how she realized she wrong about boys she met in life and where she was wrong.

Sam was my favorite character. He looked like the player but never felt like one and I was surprised Niki assumed he was one. I liked he followed his dream of being rock star even though he had to go against his father’s wish. He was kind, caring, charming, and lovely person and amazing friend. I liked reading more about his background and his secrets, what he was going through because of his life choices and being Indian near to his father who didn’t support him. It was tough time for him and yet he was cheerful for his friend’s wedding. I like how he talked about it to Niki and it was sad how their conversation in climax went wrong. But I have to agree with Niki, he was an idiot for letting her go like that and not making effort.

What I loved most and how this was different from other South Asian own voice romances was, there were no toxic Indian Uncle or aunties (there was one but for brief scene and I don’t think that added much), no typical parents that are strict, try to force their kids to choose Indian boyfriend or attempted to fix marriage. Even in real life parents are not this open but yes now like this book parents have started being more open and flexible. Author included most of important topics that we deal in India- racism, classism, rape culture, harassment, threat of violence, gender and color discrimination, how most parents bring up their kids even outside India in traditional gender role. Diwali is my most favorite festival and I loved description of it, how and why we celebrate in India and it was interesting to see it celebrated in Mumbai by a character who was brought up like American and never visited India nor had much knowledge on it.

Romance was okay. It was Insta-love so those who don’t like this trope wouldn’t enjoy this aspect but still it wasn’t all bad. Just felt too Bollywood style. Banter between Niki and Sam in the beginning was good. sparks and chemistry was great from the beginning but it didn’t develop the way I wanted.

There weren’t many twists and turns. Climax was interesting with me anticipating some drama but thing that made them to break up was anticlimatic and just meh. I just couldn’t buy Niki didn’t want to discuss anything other than what she had in mind and it was unfair to Sam who wasn’t in right mind with his dream falling apart and was unsure what he would do with his life now. Everything that happened from Climax to end was also not what I expected. I agree with what Massoma said to Niki. big gesture before the end was good. End was feel good and lovely.

Why 3.5 Stars –

As much as Liked author making this different from books with Indian representation, I wouldn’t say this was accurate representation. Parents in this were much more flexible and open than they are in real life. Sam’s mother was okay for Niki to sleep with her son and they met only a week ago! So that was hard to digest. No Indian parents, even those living outside India would be okay with their son/daughter sleeping with person they just met.

There were other things that highlighted and was briefly mentioned that didn’t add anything to the story and those for some readers would portray negative pictures like, catcalling in street and harassment Niki experienced (It wouldn’t happen to every person no matter where they are from); Pandit warning family for not going forward with marriage as it’s in star bride won’t bear kids (nobody believes in that bullshit anymore, at least not elite to upper-middle class which was the case here); random aunty commenting Niki’s color and race (again that wouldn’t happen unless that aunty had something against your family); One thing that was hard to believe was Niki didn’t know any Punjabi word and didn’t know why Diwali is celebrated! (any Indian parents anywhere in the world would talk in their mother tongue and kids brought up outside India might prefer the language of that country but they definitely can understand their mother tongue). Another thing is When Niki asked about Diwali in Mumbai to many relatives, it was shocking nobody gave the right answer. Utterly unbelievable! (Every Indian grows up first learning about the festival then about their own mind and heart. it’s also in our study subjects. our elderly would beat us if we can’t even answer that simple question. So I don’t know how those Indians Niki asked to couldn’t answer her questions about Diwali).

Oh and Niki ran into Shah Rukh Khan in this book. SO typical Bollywood and yes that can happen in India but not recognizing him and calling him Uncle! I had to laugh at that.

I also didn’t like romantic aspect that much. It felt underdeveloped.

Overall, A Holly Jolly Diwali was heartwarming, lovely, and enjoyable own voice romance with South Asian representation.

I recommend this if you like,
South Asian representation
Indian culture and festival
Own voice romance
STEM heroin
musician hero
insta love arc
Vacation romance

When Niki Randhawa gets laid off from her data analytics job in Seattle, she feels like her world has crumbled around her. At 29, she's single, living with her parents, and having to start all over again career-wise. Before she gets back to the grind of a job search though, she decides to take advantage of her time off to travel to India for her best friend Diya's wedding and to explore the area her parents are from.

Swept away by the beauty of India and the chance to see new places and meet new people, Niki's heart is also stolen by Sam, a UK musician who just happens to be friends with Diya, as well.

Is this merely a fling, or could fate be intervening?

~~~

This book was just what I needed during Thanksgiving week! I loved learning about Diwali and Indian weddings (though I'd love to learn even more), which I previously knew very little about, as well as exploring India through Niki's eyes. The food descriptions had me craving Indian cuisine, I was constantly Googling the cities Niki, Diya, and Sam traveled to, and I also really enjoyed watching Niki evolve from a very straight-laced, risk-averse person into a woman who followed her heart and finally realized her own worth and what she deserved, even if that led to heartache or mistakes.

The secondary characters of Diya, Aasha Auntie, Masooma, and Jasmine gave Niki's character even more depth, and I loved the strong female relationships that were fostered and cultivated in this novel.

Last but not least, I loved Niki's search for love. While I initially thought she might end up with someone else closer to home, I couldn't help but feel butterflies and excitement as she and Sam kept crossing paths. As a hopeless romantic, I live for meet-cutes and love the idea of serendipity or kismet, so this was perfect for me, but I could also see how others may have found it far-fetched or too much like insta-love. Regardless, I was here for the chemistry, banter, and romance that developed amongst some heavier topics, including colorism, classism, and possible infertility. I felt that Sonya Lalli did a great job handling and incorporating these issues into her book, and this one definitely had me reading way past my bedtime to see how the ending would unfold.

❤️

Looking for a cute romance to kick off the holiday season? Then definitely pick this one up! Thank you so much to @sonyalalli @berkleyromance @berkleypub and @netgalley for my gifted copy, and to @berittalksbooks @dg_reads and @thephdivabooks for leading a fun buddy read!

I am here for all of the diverse holiday book and this romance set around Diwali was so wonderful! I loved it and the audio really brought the story to life.

Was this the perfect book? Not quite. BUT it did so many things well! First off I absolutely loved the inclusion of a holiday like Diwali that so so many people celebrate. I really felt unique and I hope the trend continues and becomes a routine part of the romance genre. Fans of holiday romcoms will eat this up!

This book was fun! It's fun different seeing books about holidays I'm not familiar with. Niki goes to India for a friend's wedding and decided to have a holiday fling with Sam and its super cute. I felt like I was transported to India for the holidays ! Ahhh I loved it and I can't wait for this author's next book.

This was straight up adorable. I liked really Niki's transformation from practical, do-good daughter to someone who became more independent and willing to take risks. I also really loved the way her family supported her. Another highlight was her reconnecting to her Punjabi roots, first with her best friend in Mumbai and later with Sam at the beach town. I really, really liked the chemistry she shared with Sam. It was cute, it was fun, it was a quick read, and the breakup scene was completely realistic—which made the reconciliation so much better!

Niki Randhawa lives a predictable, but stable life as a data analyst in the US. When she's unexpectedly laid off, she takes it as a sign that she should attend her friend Diya's wedding in Mumbai. Niki arrives just in time to celebrate Diwali where she meets Sameer Mukherji (aka Sam), a musician from London where they both form a connection. Niki has to decide whether she should go back to her predictable life or take a leap of faith and live a bold life she couldn't have imagined.

Niki sounds like a pretty typical South Asian first generation American, where you have the opportunities of America but the expectations of your immigrant parents. I could totally relate! It was nice to read about her stepping away from that and going on a trip on a whim. I did something similar in my mid-20s and lived in the UK for a year for work. It was honestly life-changing. While I didn't meet a Sam, I can understand how it shifts your perspective. I loved the representation of Diwali as well - I read Christmas books all the time so it was nice to see one set at Diwali time for a change. The romance was sweet but complicated, which made for a good read.

I recommend this to anyone who a) loves romance, because who doesn't?! and/or b) wants to learn more about the Indian culture and the celebration of Diwali.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy.

Thank you @berkleyromance for a copy of Holly Jolly Diwali. I always appreciate a romance that has more depth in the story and this one packs it all. This story is about expectations, familial duty and self discovery. I liked that both Niki and Sam were both at crossroads when they met. I love the slow burn and the connection they had. I enjoyed seeing the growth individually of Niki and Sam.

Adorable love story. Loved learning more about the traditions of Diwali. I just couldn't resist the alliteration of the title, the author saw an opportunity and took it!

A HOLLY JOLLY DIWALI was such a great read for mixing it up to incorporate cultures and holidays outside of Christmas into my reading this year.

Not only did it give a great glimpse into a culture that I previously knew little about, but it made it easy to relate to for anyone experiencing some of the same feelings as the characters. The way it was written made Niki's discovery of her own culture such an intregal part of who she is and becomes in this story.

While insta-love isn't always my favorite, I did enjoy this romance and the meet-cute that leaned into Niki's journey, but it wasn't what made the book for me. Instead, the focus on family with their expectations and pressure, combined with how to find one's self AND success made this a great story for me.

Pick this one up if you enjoy an own voice story with a lot of heart, with the life and traditions of Mumbai during one of their biggest celebrations. Thank you to Berkley Books for allowing me to read and ARC of this title right in time for the holiday season!