I loved this until the last 30 pages, very slow burn and allowing the leads to care about each other before they developed a romantic relationship, the last 30 pages ruined it for me, everything sped up too quick and the ending made no sense, a bit upsetting since I had loved everything else so much

Sari, Not Sari was a fun and colorful debut filled with loud and lovable characters. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

I really enjoyed seeing the way the author handled the way our main character, Manny, rediscovered her culture. It was especially engaging to see Manny learn that it’s not just about projecting your culture through celebrations, clothing, and food; but also by the relationships you cultivate within your community. In fact in this case the family dynamics and friendships were what fully made Manny realize she was enough by just being herself.

This book also dived into the way one deals with grief and how this can trickle into our love lives. Whether that be clinging to a relationship out of obligation or relying on someone to distract you from your grief. It was truly an insight into how some relationships are right at one time but not meant to be forever.

I also loved the Bollywood themes throughout the entire book! As someone who loved Bollywood movies it was incredible to see the story incorporate it both as part of her learning her culture and also seeing it play out within the plot.

While overall I did enjoy this book I had a bit of an issue with the pacing. I struggled through the first 50% of the book. Like really had to push through but a bit after that I was starting to get hooked. I wish the first half may have been condensed and shortened a bit and the last half expanded upon. A lot of things felt rush at the end and it made certain things feel unresolved because it felt like a bandaid was used to patch over some of the conflicts that developed.

I also kind of wish this was more focused on the romance because that felt a bit like InstaLove for me. I just wish we got to see more of a development of Manny and Sammy’s relationship, especially since they were both in serious relationships at the time. It would have been nice to see more interactions between the pair, which is in part why I wish the last half was expanded over the first half.

I’m not sorry— I did not like this book.

Sari, Not Sari has a hilarious and lovable rom com premise: Manny Dogra is the Indian-American CEO of Breakup, a breakup-for-hire company on a continuing journey of self exploration. She is engaged to Adam Jaimeson, a globe-trotting architect, and seemingly content with their team of two. But Manny is faced with family, career, and love dilemmas when her white-washed magazine cover is revealed and Sammy Patel hires her services, all within 24 hours.

Manny meets Sammy when she is in the midst of realizing her identity crisis. Is she Indian even if her parents Americanized her upbringing? Is she Indian if her parents did not pass along any traditions or customs prior to their untimely passing? Is she Indian if the magazine white-washes her cover photo? And if she is, how can she show and celebrate that part of herself? Especially if, apparently, Adam “doesn’t see color”?

My concerns about Sari, Not Sari include:
-The seeming over-generalization of Indian culture. Manny joins Sammy for a whirlwind week of Patel family wedding celebrations. She hopes this time will help her learn how to embrace (become part of?) her Indian heritage. But can anyone consider themselves knowledgeable or immersed in a culture after any amount of time or any number of celebrations? Is that even fair to ask especially considering the different cultures and subcultures of a country with 1.3 billion people?!

-The cheating. I guess the whirlwind romance trope has its place in rom coms. (More on that below) But both Sammy and Manny were willing to cheat on their partners, each of 2+ years, without nary a pang of guilt or consideration of consequences. I understand this lack of concern may underscore how wrong their respective relationships were at the foundation, but such behavior is profoundly immature, especially considering how successful and revered both Sammy and Manny are in other aspects of their lives.

-The pacing. I’m all for a suspension of disbelief, especially in a rom com, but this book— and all its events— took place only over a week? That’s a bit much even for a whirlwind romance. The last third of this book was especially rushed and whiplash-worthy.

-The lack of character development. I was hoping to read this book and end with admiration for Manny. A self-sufficient, ambitious young woman? I’m on board. But I wish I had seen more of Manny’s development into her business minded self. It seemed like most of Manny’s business acumen should have been attributed to Anjali instead. And I gotta be honest, I didn’t see the spark between Manny and Sammy either.

I won’t be recommending this book. Credit given for the funny parts.

I absolutely loved this book! I wasn’t sure in the first few chapters but once the story started unraveling, I was hooked! I love Manny and her back story! I love Sammy and his Indian family! And most of all, I love all the feel good feelings I got with this book! So much fun! I would definitely recommend this sweet romcom to other readers! 4.5 stars for me!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for having me review this eARC for my honest opinion!

I was really excited about this book. It has been everywhere on social media. I loved the title and the premise. I, unfortunately, did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Right from the start, I didn't get the premise of being born to Indians but not knowing what it meant to be Indian and insinuating that you could take a crash course and somehow learn about your culture? That did not make any sense to me. When introduced to Adam and his family they comment about the fact that they never treated and acknowledged that Manny was not white. I do not want to go on about everything I didn't like but unfortunately, this book just did not work for me.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sari, Not Sari is a wonderful friends to lovers, light romance that features so many fun and interesting insights into Indian culture, embracing heritage, and self discovery. Our heroine is Manny, the CEO of Breakup, a highly successful company that helps people formulate the perfect breakup email or whatever else they need to end things with whomever they’re dating.

In the midst of planning her own wedding and taking on more clients, she starts thinking more about her South Asian heritage and realizes she knows very little about Indian culture, due to her parents (who Manny is still mourning the loss of) assimilating to American culture.

Ultimately, she agrees to take on a client, Sammy, who needs to pause his relationship with his girlfriend who isn’t Indian, so he can attend a relative’s wedding without judgment from the family. Manny sees this as an opportunity to go with him and learn as much as she can about her heritage.

I can’t speak to how accurate the portrayal of South Asian culture was since I’m not part of that culture, but as an outsider, I still highly enjoyed reading about the traditions, food, entertainment, and fashion they discussed and experienced. I also particularly found the family dynamics to be interesting, especially how there are certain expectations many families have for their members.

Sari, Not Sari is the perfect read for anyone wanting something light that still touches on some important subjects, and a nice balance of budding romance and self discovery. It will be out on April 5th!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story looks at both sides of the tale of two young Indian-Americans and how they are dealing with their heritage. Manny is a successful female CEO who was never exposed to what it truly meant to be Indian. Sammy is from a family that embraces his heritage and expects him to do the same. The story is told in somewhat of a chaotic and funny manner. The characters have big personalities which explodes colorfully on the pages. Sammy and Manny find that being Indian is a unique perspective but one that leads them to loving each other.

First, it is SO amazing to see more representation in romance novels. I've always loved reading YA and Romance books since I was 15 and at 23 finally being able to read about women who look like me makes me so happy. On top of that, this book was so incredible! I loved reading about Manny because she felt like such a relatable character! She is headstrong and confident. One of my favorite tropes is "fake dating" so if you're into that then you will love reading this!

I was really excited when I got a advance readers copy of Sari, not Sari , but I find I really don’t like it . The writing and the main character arejust not working for me .

Sari, Not Sari by debut author Sonya Singh is the story of an Indian American who heads a start up that helps people break up with their partners over carefully articulated emails. Manny Dogra is successful and engaged to a high flying architect but she is also struggling with her ethnic identity. After a fight with her fiancé over her ethnicity, Manny decides to help Sammy an India who wants to temporarily break up with his girl friend because he can't take her to his brothers wedding because his family wouldn't accept a white girlfriend, Manny who is not in touch with her Indian roots decides to go with Sammy as a business partner while she gets a crash course on Indianess by attending an Indian wedding. How Manny experiences Indian culture and figures out herself forms the premise of the book.

I have been wanting to read this book for a very long time because it was written by a promising debut author of South Asian origin. Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. I had issues with representation, Manny's work ethic, shallowness, infidelity and several more things. I found that the characters lacked depth and were all judgmental. I was deeply saddened that Indian culture represented here was loaded with cliches and had some cringe worthy moments. What I did like was some cool pop culture references. I loved the references to the trail blazing Indian women referenced as well.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster CA for the ARC of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an amazing debut novel, and I cant wait to see what Sonya Singh comes up with next. Her characters are lovable, relatable, and real. Who doesnt love a story that centres around a female boss! The "will they, wont they" will have you yelling at the pages, and bingeing this novel in record time!

Thank you to Netgalley, Simon Schuster and Sonya Singh for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVE reading culturally specific romances, especially Desi ones. I was so excited when I was granted approval for this book because I thought the concept was interesting, and at it's core it was a "finding your way" story. The cover, the brightness of the yellow in contrast to the two characters Manny and Sammy is show-stopping. The story itself started off super cute- I loved meeting Manny and learning about her life, and I liked that she didn't have this connection to her Indian culture because it gave the reader the opportunity to go on this beautiful journey with her. I though the concept of her company, Breakup, was super interesting- I think one emailer said it best when they said "oh great now I'm a millennial" lol. Well I AM a millennial and this is exactly a business concept we would get behind.

I wanted to love this book SO MUCH, but it was hard to get past the hectic writing. It was just...not good. It read like a brain dump with no editing, just dialogue upon dialogue with fake emotion expressed through an overuse of exclamation points. As mentioned the beginning was really, really good, but all the dialogue between Manny and Sammy was so boring and void of any and all emotion. I couldn't believe that they ever even liked each other let alone agreed to spend a week together for #OperationIndian. The only part that I could feel the emotion was the whitewashed magazine cover and the super out-of-touch in-laws; the anger, frustration and disappointment definitely came through in those parts, which makes me sad as it gives the reader the impression that the writer experienced those things which breaks my heart.

With all that being said, I would still recommend this book. The story is super cute and there were a lot of characters that were a lot of fun. If you like soap operas, honestly, you will really enjoy this book.

Sari, Not Sari out 4/5/22!

There are quite a few issues with this book. There was a cheating situation that wasn't addressed. there was also a kind of racist issue that wasn't really handled. You can't just put stuff like that in a book and not fucking handle it! the characters were very wishy-washy. One minute it's "You're a bitch and a liar" the next "I'm sorry I was mad at someone else and was taking it out on you." Like that's not toxic! (sarcasm) The end would've been better if the dude wouldn't have proposed to her after not talking to her for a week! Also, he had literally only met her 2 weeks before!

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Cananda for the ARC! Out April 5th!

Manny is a goal oriented CEO of Breakup, a company that helps their clients break up with their partner by email in a amicable way. Still dealing with the loss of her parents, Manny feels as though she has lost a piece of herself, specifically her Indian heritage. Manny ends of meeting Sammy and they come to an agreement. Sammy will help guide her through Indian customs at his brother’s wedding if Manny helps to temporarily break up with his girlfriend. Family, culture and hilarity ensues. Manny must find who she truly is and learn to embrace it all. This was a fun book, but I felt more could have been added the plot to make the story a bit more rich and complex. It just left a little to be desired in my opinion.

I was excited to read a debut by a fellow Indian-American. However, I am left VERY disappointed. This book was superficial, not nuanced, and way too rushed. I did not enjoy the romance aspect of it at all; and the characters felt forced and stereotyped. It takes years to understand a culture with depth, not days or weeks; and the least you would do is respect yourself & your culture enough to not water it down as much as was portrayed in this book. Unfortunately, not an author I would read again.

This book was so sweet. You can’t help but fall in love with Manny as she works through what it means to embrace her Indian heritage and culture throughout the book. As the CEO of a company called Breakup, which helps people to craft the perfect breakup emails to their not-so-significant-other, Manny knows the ins and outs of what relationships can look like, and what to stray away from. Luckily, she is engaged to Adam who seems like he cares more about his job than he does about Manny. Some of the things that you find out that he did and continues to do make you want to walk up to him and smack him, at least I did anyways. Then enter Sammy, a man looking for Breakup to help him pause-breakup his current relationship so he can go to his brother's very Indian wedding without his white girlfriend. At first I was hesitant about whether or not I liked Sammy, because breaking up with someone out of fear of your family not approving irked me, but eventually you can’t help but begin to like him a lot. Manny accompanies Sammy to his brother's wedding under the ruse of being business partners, but in reality, Manny helped Sammy pause his relationship and Sammy is showing Manny what having an Indian lifestyle can look like. It was all very sweet and you can’t help beginning to root for Sammy and Manny to fall for one another. However, at the end of the book, I do wish that he had respected the fact that Manny WAS engaged at the time of everything going on, I won’t spoil anything, but I really didn’t like certain lines being crossed that were! The side of Indian culture that you get to see is really neat and it feels a little bit like you’re learning alongside Manny as she experiences all these new things. Overall, this book was well written, it's a very sweet and unique premise, and I have a feeling that it will become a favorite romance once it's published.

Thank you Net Galley // Simon & Schuster Canada // Sonya Singh for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review! All of the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I am going to say this first, from the BAT, this book was not what I expected and all in a good way. There are reasons why these characters are all fictional, because honestly? I was not a huge fan of Manny, there was something about her I really didn't like, she is so put together but then a hot ass mess. Especially when it comes to her identity, I mean, for a woman who runs a business based on helping others breakup with people, she couldn't use her phone or her computer to find out more about her culture? I do it all the time, lol. But then she meets Sammy, and this is where everything changed and I was in LOVE with her, not only was Sammy a strong male character, he played no games, and he challenged Manny, which I loved. They struck up a deal, she helps him, and he helped her, or better yet she invited herself to his family wedding celebrations, which I LOVED!

Manny got to know more about how to be Indian, which is amazing, and THIS point in the book all the way to the end, were page turn worthy, at least for me. The family, the outfits, the events leading to the wedding day, some of Sammy's family secrets revealed, a ton of emotions, because I genuinely cried in some parts, and finally feeling like you belonged. I started to love Manny more and more, especially the moment she shared with Sammy's father, and even with Sammy as well.... I cant forget to mention how funny this book is as well, I had to hold back lots of laughs, this book gave me a lot of emotions, I went from annoyed, to excited, then happy, annoyed, then ugly crying, and the end left me with my mouth open and screaming "YASSSSSS GIRL!!!!!!"

Thanks netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

First. I have a soft spot for debuts. Especially Canadian authors that are adding their voices to the mix. So I went in with high hopes and left happy.

The premise isn’t one I would have been drawn towards but I think many readers would be. Call me old-fashioned but the dating world is wild online 😂 and so I had a hard time connecting.

That said, it’s definitely an easy read that so many will love. I look forward to seeing more from this author. Congrats on your first novel!

Thank you so much @netgalley and @simonandschuster for my e-arc copy of SARI NOT SARI by Sonya Singh! This one publishes April 5!

This one was a little hard for me to give a rating on. I read 85% of it in one day, so I obviously enjoyed it. I loved learning more about the south Asian culture- that was so interesting! Also loved having a female lead who was CEO of her own company 👏🏻 Manny, the MC also deals with racism, and sexism within her career choice. I really liked how the author dealt with this issues.

The part that made me not too sure how to rate this book is romance part. Manny is clearly in the wrong kind of relationship. Her fiancé is, in simple terms, awful. When Manny goes with a client to help him with his brothers wedding, they end up “falling in love” with each other. Except it was way too fast for me. It seemed (to me), within the last chapter, Manny and Sammy realized they were in love with each other, had broken things off with their significant others, and gotten engaged. That just seems way too fast and unrealistic to me.

I did enjoy the characters of Manny and Sammy, but I just think their romance happened way too fast.

3 1/2 stars. I will read more from this author.

Things I liked about this book: learning more about Indian culture, families, weddings, etc. Lots of fun details sprinkled into the book.

Things I didn't love about this book: seemed to repeat itself a bit, or just say the same thing in a different way, over and over. And, the last chapter/ending was so rushed. Very disappointed that 96% of the book is basically all the same, and the last 4% wraps it all up in a disheveled bow.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.