The audio was the way to go because this book is slow. I was excited for the Emma retelling but for some reason I spent the first 20% trying to figure out the storyline of this book.

*PLEASE HOLD WHILE I PUT ON MY ENGLISH LIT DEGREE HAT*

Listen, I love Jane Austen and I love Farah Heron, but I just didn't love KAMILA KNOWS BEST. Here's the thing...Emma is a hard Jane Austen book to adapt. It has a lot of struggles to overcome. The heroine of Emma is a bit spoiled, a bit self-centered, a bit snobby, and a bit misguided. There are also a LOT of characters and a lot of moving parts. It's a tricky thing to attempt and I think KAMILA KNOWS BEST fell prey to those problems.

Kamila and Rohan were both pretty difficult for me to really like. I love flawed characters, but there can be such a thing as too flawed. I found myself only kind of wanting these two to end up together at the end and that is not great for a romance novel.

And this book definitely suffered from too many characters. This works in screen adaptations because the viewer gets the visual to help them keep track of the many characters and the many shifting relationships in this story. An adaptation just almost never succeeds in print form. And KAMILA KNOWS BEST suffered for it. I just couldn't keep the characters straight. And, by the way, those characters also had dogs and Aunties and other relatives to keep straight. It was too much.

I wanted so much to like KAMILA KNOWS BEST, but in the end it just didn't work for me.

This is my third book from Farah Heron and I think she may be an auto buy author now! I've really enjoyed everything I've read and this book was great!

I love that it was set in Toronto. This is close to my own home town and so it's nice to be able to picture the scenes and have some familiarity.

What I also really love about her writing is the characters! In this book, the two mains were great! Kamila was fun, feisty, witty and unique while also being intelligent, fiercely loyal and generous. Rohan was also super smart, was passionate about his work, seemed like a genuinely good guy and was also someone who was incredibly loyal to those he loved. I could sense the budding romance between these two friends early on, but I really enjoyed the way their journey progressed. It didn't feel forced at all and the connection was quite genuine.

The secondary characters in this book were also great! It made me want to read more about them and I genuinely wished I was in this friend gang! Movie nights and delicious food sounds like a good time and let me tell you, this book made me hungry! I love the way this author gives attention to meals!

Of course, this book also featured a couple adorable dogs! Adding dogs to a book is something that will get my attention every time! Overall, I thought this was a great read and I really enjoyed the way the story came together! Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for my review copy.

<b><i> Delightfully Desi</b></i>

<i> Thank you to NetGalley and Farah Heron for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Releases June 14, 2022.</i>

<b>Overall Rating: </b>4.5/5
- Best friends to lovers
- Immigrant / POC (based in Canada)
- Bollywood goodness
- Third person single PoV
- Doggo cameos

<i>Characterization:</i> 4/5
<i>Dialogue:</i> 4/5
<i>Chemistry:</i> 4/5
<i>Secondary characters:</i> 4/5
<i>Unique quotient:</i> 4/5
<i>Steam quotient:</i> 2.5/5

<b> What worked for me:</b>

-<i>The hook - the writing style:</i> The first couple of chapters reeled me in so hard. The writing was so well done it set the stage and made the characters come alive by showing and not telling! The writing had be hooked until the end!

- <i>The premise:</i> Contemporary repackaging of favorite classics can go one of two ways: Disastrously disappointing, or deliciously delightful. This book is certainly the latter! I was excited about an Indian-origin character set in Canada!

- <i>Delectable Desi-ness:</i> I tend to be hyper-critical of books with a focus on Indian-immigrants, being one myself. This one was such a refreshing read. It had all the right Indian-immigrant feels that were so relatable (Indian cohort support system, bollywood movie nights), but none of the bland stereotyping! Plus, all the biriyani, momos, and nankhatai made me hungry!

-<i>Mental-health-positivity:</i> Not sure if this is an actual phrase, but ater reading this book I feel nothing describes it better. Without revealing the key plot points, I want to call out how mental health is approached, discussed, and talked about in this book. I especially note the <u>absence</u> of stereotypical desi attitudes, and a very realistic representation of immigrant attitudes towards mental health.

-<i>Kamilla:</i> I love how the author chose to model Kamila after Jane Austen's Emma - The author uses this opportunity to craft a charming main character who is unashamedly herself, goes through ups and downs, loves to be in style, and struggles with sexism as a result. There's something in her for everyone!

<b> What did not work for me:</b>
I cannot honestly think of anything that did not work for me. The book was decidedly less steamy than some others, but overall it worked perfectly for me.

I truly adored Farah Heron's Accidentally Engaged so I was excited when this came my way to read. As a wannabe foodie perhaps one of my favorite things about the way she writes is the emphasis on a love of food. Put romance and a love of food together and it is hard not to like such a book. This is also a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma and I adore that story so this had me intrigued at the outset.

Charming is exactly the word I would use to describe this read overall. It is a charming retelling of Emma. I have to say though, I think the fact that it was a retelling was a detriment for me personally. Not that I don't love the story, as I said previously I adore Emma, but this retelling is almost too faithful so there were no surprises and at times it was almost boring because I knew what was going to happen at almost every step of the way.

That said, it is hard to dislike this read either like I said. It is so light, at times funny, and cute that it won me over despite a lackluster plotline. It is easy to root for Kamila and Rohan's slow-burn romance and I did smile when they finally got their HEA. I think you will too and you may especially enjoy this if you are more unfamiliar with Emma so give it a go.

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever Publishing for a free copy in exchange for a review.

This was an utter delight, being back in the world the author created was so much fun! Loved the witty banter, family drama and chemistry mixed with tender moments too.

What a delightful Bollywood retelling of #Janeausten #Emma
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Kamila is happy with her life. A tight knit group of friends, a viral dog and a family she loves, not to mention her weekly Bollywood parties.
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Kamila is so busy with everyone else’s lives she’s not thinking much about her own love life, plus she has Rohan one of her oldest friends by her side. This friends to love is a sweet one with a great cast of characters. Also, do not miss out on the recipes in the back of this! I’m definitely trying them out!
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Huge thank you to @readforeverpub for and an advanced copy. This comes out tomorrow!
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This didn't work for me. I love Jane Austen so I was excited to read this, but it just missed with me. Basically, this one is a modern retelling of Emma, but make it Bollywood. Sounds great, right?

I may be too old for the millennial references (I am a millennial, but I did not connect with Kamila at all) and the expletives she made up were really terrible. "Fuddle butt" "poop nuggets"...🙄

The only thing I really liked about this book was the puppy named Potato. Everything else was a bit too much for me.

Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC for an honest review.

This was a really fun book. I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, but Emma is probably my least favorite of her books, so I was a little worried about how I'd like this one. I should have never doubted Farah!

This book is fun, it's a nice twist on Jane's story, and it had just enough differences to keep you guessing.

Kamila and Rohan have a great history and I love how more of that came out throughout the book. The definitely helps keep you on your toes.

I highly recommend this for Austen fans, rom com fans, and anyone who likes a fun book with unexpected depth.

This is one of those special romances that gives you the coveted happily ever after feeling while also staying true to the challenges of life with humor and poise. It's aspirational in that it shows a relationship built on communication, maturity, and a fair bit of teasing, and also in that it shows a woman coming to terms with her career goals, rethinking her judgments of other people (good and bad), and confronting her socialization and trauma that lead her towards people-pleasing. It peels back the veneer of girl power to look at how feminine presentation is mocked and belittled in a professional setting, how skills like event planning are both treated as necessary and even assumed for women while their importance and impactfulness are simultaneously minimized.

Kamila's story is an Emma retelling, an Austen work I have yet to read, but my experience with film adaptations gives me the (limited) authority to say that Kamila's meddling and social managing ring true to the original. She loves matchmaking, planning parties, running her dog's very stylish TikTok, and volunteering with the animal shelter. She's also the first to step up to support her friends and her Dad, and she's passionate about supporting women-led small businesses as an accountant. Kamila contains multitudes, and this is an example of single POV romance done well. Being so familiar with her mind helped me have compassion when she made a bad decision and made me all the more impressed by her fits and starts of ultimately profound personal growth. I found her not only admirable but likable, and the entire cast of supporting characters gave me warm, fuzzy feelings from her family to her friends to her secret nemesis.

In terms of the romance, Rohan is a dreamy love interest because he is supportive with no strings attached, learns from his mistakes, and is neither pushy nor a pushover. He challenges Kamila but respectfully and with love. While the romance wasn't always front and center with other moving pieces of the story, it always shone through. First, "accidentally falling asleep on someone's chest" is a god tier trope for me so 10/10. Purely because of this book, I have also decided to add to the list of best tropes "two people who always dress to impress becoming comfortable being a mess in front of each other." And it's not a trope, but intense attraction to forearms is something I can get behind. It's friends-to-lovers done right with layers upon layers.

This romance has it all. It covers issues with an intersectional view, covering disparate topics from mental health to race to family expectations. It's nuanced without derailing the story with a thesis, thoughtful while retaining a signature sense of humor I found irresistible. All the relationships show progress, and the enviable strength of Kamila's bonds with others don't smack of unrealistic perfection. Honestly, I can't recommend it more. Thanks to Forever for my copy to read and review. I'll 100% be seeking out more from this author in the future.

While the overall idea of Kamila Knows Best was really fun, I felt the execution just missed the mark for me. Kamila is an accountant who wants to help her father keep his business afloat which he is tending to some health issues. Her long time family friend Rohan has always been there to help her out and help her keep things running. Kamila loves planning elaborate Bollywood watching parties, dogs and dog related events, and loud clothing and because of this she is often not taken seriously in the accounting world where her father and Rohan work. An old enemy come backs into town and starts talking to Rohan making Kamila face her true feelings for him and what she wants in life.

I felt this book was kind of all over the place. Kamila was so scattered and had to get a handle on as a character. I couldn't really get a grasp on the connection between her and Rohan because there was no real time where they seemed to have any chemistry or anything in common other than family. There were lots of things that seems unresolved or not thoroughly explained the biggest of which was Kamila's issues with her mother. I felt that kept grazing the surface but it was never truly addressed in a meaningful way.

Overall, the book just felt chaotic and too scattered for me to truly enjoy although there were parts of if that were fun and I enjoyed the amazing food descriptions.

I kept thinking of Clueless the entire time I read this, and enjoyed it almost as much. Kamila and her friends were fabulous, and I really enjoyed watching Kamila figure out what was actually best.

Austen meets Bollywood? Sign me up! This book was a lot of fun. Kamila has known Rohan her whole life. Literally. He will tell you that she was the first woman to fall asleep on his shoulder...when she was just a newborn. These two have been friends forever. Rohan has always been there for her...helping out, solving problems, making her laugh. Recently, she finds herself leaning on him more and more as she is going through several changes with her job and home life. Her father is beginning to transition out of full time work and Kamila is hoping to take on the company her father owns full time.

I found this to be more of a women's fiction novel than a romance. There are definite traces of Emma in her which were so much fun. I loved the Bollywood spin on it with the great movies and descriptions of food that made me salivate throughout the book. Kamila is super likeable. She has the perfect mix of confidence and vulnerability that comes across as very relatable. Her friends and family are great. Rohan is this quiet, supportive hero that his hard not to love. While I felt more of the friend chemistry than the romantic type, I enjoyed anytime they were on page interacting. If you are a fan of Emma, I would definitely recommend this one. It's a fun book that will have you smiling throughout.

I know this is an Emma retelling but since I have never read the original Emma but I am a HUGE Clueless fan - I still consider this a Clueless retelling haha. I absolutely loved it. I ended up listening to in on audio and I thought the narrator did a fantastic job telling the story and making it come to life. I really loved how Farah told this story in a unique way, bringing her culture to life. I loved looking for the parallels to the original (aka Clueless). Very well done!

I loved Farah Heron's previous book, so I was excited to pick this up. Kamila did not disappoint. I loved her from the start and enjoyed seeing her navigate all of the relationships in her life. I enjoyed that the romance in this book took a backseat, and while it was present, it really let the rest of the storyline shine. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. If you liked Accidently Engaged, be sure to pick this up.

Kamila Knows Best is a sweet and fun retelling of Jane Austen's Emma. She did an amazing job giving her spin on the story. The Bollywood nights and delicious sounding dishes were so fun. Heron's books always make me hungry when I read them. I loved the characters Kamila and Rohan and their banter. It was a fun friends to lovers RomCom.

Thank you Netgalley and Forever for an advanced copy.

I really enjoyed Accidentally Engaged so I was very interested in Heron's next read - however, it was a letdown and I had a hard time getting through it. Kamila is an an accountant working for her father, who is getting older and having some minor health issues. Kamila is obsessed with her father's health and happiness and she doesn't know how to say no in her personal or professional life. She loves to matchmake with her friends and meddle in their lives. Rohan is her father's business partner and close family friend, and also the only person her father will speak to about his health issues.

I mostly liked the background characters of the book, pretty much everyone but Kamila and Rohan, and at times her father. Other than that, this book didn't hit any positives for me. Kamila is fake, petty, judgmental, self-centered, and manipulative. Rohan is secretly pining for her but is also fairly insulting towards her during 2 major blow up fights. Kamila holds a grudge against another family friend and is actively rude to her. I honestly couldn't find anything redeeming about either character.

I understand this is a retelling of Emma, which I have not read and know nothing about. But If this is similar to Emma, I know it is not for me. The book got a little bit better when Kamila realized her feelings for Rohan, but it fell right back down when the conflict was introduced. It's a strong no for me - but if Emma is a story you like, then this may be a book for you.

**Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

I loved the writing in this one! However, I found the characterization to be a bit confusing. Kamila is such a fun person though. I love how much she cares about her dad, it's really sweet. Aside from that, I was a bit bored throughout the story. I do look forward to reading other books by the author though!

In this Emma retelling, Kamila must navigate friends, family, and love to get her happy ever after. For me, having this be an Emma retelling was a double edged sword. On the one hand, it was fun to match up the characters in this book to to those in Emma and see what fun character updates Farah added. But on the other hand, Emma is the villain in her own story and not an overly likable character in the original work, which led to similar character traits in Kamila. I didn’t dislike this book, but it just didn’t click with me, and every time I put it down, the less I wanted to pick it back up.

There were times that I really liked Kamila and felt deeply for her and here struggles with her family, but there were other moments when I just wanted to shout at her (things like overfilling her schedule, holding grudges, being unwilling to listen, etc). I guess that would make her a “realistic” character but it just made it difficult for me to cheer for her. I did really like Rohan (the Mr. Knightly character) and his love of Bollywood. I wish this would have been dual POV so I could have gotten more of him. Overall this book was perfectly fine and I’ll read what Farah writes next.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book a lot - the story was great and there was strong character development. Kamila was so relatable and such a great character - she cares for her friends and family deeply, but doesn’t feel that she is always taken seriously. Rohan is just swoony - he’s just so solid and steady and there for Kamila. Loved the representation, loved the story, loved the characters and loved that it was set in Toronto. Farah Heron is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. Also, the food in this book made me extremely hungry!