Thank you to #netgalley and #simonandschuster for access to this e-ARC. This complimentary copy was provided to me in exchange for my honest review. This book will be hitting the shelves April 5.

Just a heads up before I even begin to discuss this book. If you go into it hoping for a romance, you're not going to be satisfied. If you go into it knowing that it's a whole lot more about personal growth, I hope, like me, you enjoy the heck out of it! I am also blown away that this is @sonyasinghwrites debut novel and simply cannot wait for more from her!

Manny Dogra is the CEO of Breakup, a company that helps people deal with breakups, chiefly the creation and delivery of breakup letters. She was raised by two immigrant parents who taught her she could be all she dreamed of, but didn't instill a love of her cultural background with her, instead wanting to do things the All-American way. She is delighted to have made the cover of a well-known magazine only to be absolutely crushed when it comes out and she has been completely whitewashed and her mother's necklace, which she never removes, has been photshopped out. In a self-identity crisis, she agrees to assist Sammy Patel, an obnoxious customer, in exchange for him taking her to his brother's wedding so she can learn what it is to be "Indian".

I have to admit that up until a few months ago I had never really thrown myself into the East Indian culture, in books or movies, and yet I keep finding myself blown away by the vibrancy of the culture. I would recommend Kamila Knows Best or Serena Singh Flips the Script to continue in this vein. Like I said, the romance side to this book is completely secondary to Manny's desire to find herself, a recurring theme in some of the best books I've read so far this year. I mean, a girl needs to discover who she is before she can give a damn about finding the right guy to go with that person. Bad Luck Bridesmaid and Wedding Ringer being recent faves of this sort!

After a few really unsatisfying reads lately, I'm ecstatic to give this book a 4.75. Holding that .25 back in hopes of bribing my way into attendance at a Patel wedding! Oh, I can't do that in good faith.. 5 STARS!!

I am super torn about this book. I enjoyed the heck out it and love the journey of Manny from All-American girl to desi supermodel. I loved how Sammy helped her learn more about her family and his brother’s wedding brought her closer to her culture. It was fascinating.

I loved what a strong business woman Manny was and the Breakup world was so interesting and fun. But for someone in the business of helping people break up, she was an idiot about her own love life. Adam was a dolt.

Neither Manny nor Adam acted like they truly cared about each other and zero chemistry was there. But what I didn’t like most was that Manny did not send the break up email in time. That was disappointing.

And while, you could totally tell that Manny was falling in love with the Indian culture, you could not tell she was falling in love with Sammy. Manny spent most of her time with Sammy’s relatives. It just made the romantic aspect of this story less believable.

Having said that, I still loved this story and loved these characters, flaws and all.

sooo I would not classify this as a romance novel!! I liked the characters and the story line and the Indian cultural representation ... but this was at best chick lit

Sari, Not Sari by Sonya Singh
Standalone
Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: April 5, 2022

Manny was in the business of breaking-up with people for a living. Which I thought would be an interesting premise for a book because it would obviously explore some of the less glorious aspects of a relationship. Instead it took a strong, confident woman and gave her a clinical-like perspective to relationships. I didn’t really have a reason to care or root for her other than as a woman I wanted her to succeed. I get that part of the story consisted in chronicling her journey to finding the light and warmth again through exploration of her identity. It didn’t really come across very well. Her week-long crash course into Indian culture was full of cultural stereotypes. The author does her due diligence by referencing that experiences can vary by family but that doesn’t account for the constant Priyanka Chopra references or claiming she expected M.I.A. to come on the radio. The book lacked the heart and warmth that I’ve come to associate with stories of large and involved families.

The relationship between Manny and Sammy itself was puzzling and this is where this review gets spoilery. It was not clear to me when their relationship flipped on its head and suddenly they were in love. Infatuation I could understand. Open-ended intrigue to explore new feelings would have made more sense. But the chapter where Sammy gets down on one knee made me want to throw my Kindle out the window. Sure the two of you might make sense on paper but why do you love each other? When did those moments take place that made them think about the other person differently? It’s not even the Instalove I have an issue with but the fact that little groundwork was spent on their actual relationship and more time was spent on Manny’s journey in self-exploration so there was no payoff in the end when they came together. I was just happy she kicked her former fiancé to the curb… which took place only a few paragraphs before Sammy got down on one knee.

There just wasn’t anything positively memorable about this particular story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simo nand Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn’t horrible but I didn’t love it either. This book claims to be a rom-com. It felt very rushed and unrealistic. I felt absolutely no connection between the two main characters, like at all. I didn’t see how they fell in love or anything. It was such a slow burn and in the end wasnt even satisfying. Just felt so fake. But it did keep me hooked because I was waiting for that moment of connection but never got it.

This debut is going to be a hit, I just know it! A perfect rom com for all of my fellow romance lovers and a little bit of education on Indian culture as well! I loved every page of this story and could not put it down. All of the characters were loveable…well…minus one, haha. This is a perfect read to unwind after a long day, on a beach, or just curled up in bed. I was so immersed in this book and I can’t wait to see more from this author!

The winter is getting long, so when I saw Sari, Not Sari, I had to request it. I had “summer reading” vibes from the synopsis and this book did not disappoint! Overall, I think it was a really cute story that has potential to be picked up for a movie; it would be absolutely beautiful to see on a screen as Indian wedding culture is always so stunning.

But yes, it is predictable. Doesn’t make it less cute.

That being said, I have to address the cultural part of this book. As a white woman, it was uncomfortable at times to see the generalization of the Indian culture throughout this story. I have read several reviews from Indian women about this book and I urge you to go read them first before picking up this novel as it is their voice that should be heard before mine.

I’d like to thank Simon and Schuster Canada for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Manny Dogra is the CEO of a successful company than handles breakups cleanly. When her face is whitewashed on the cover of a magazine and her fiancé Adam sees nothing wrong with the picture, Manny wants to learn more about her Indian heritage. Sammy Patel has an unusual request for Manny but in turn he will introduce her to his family's Indian traditions at his brother's wedding. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. This is my honest and voluntarily given review. This is a fun rom-com read. I love reading about some of the rich Indian traditions in Sammy's family. I also love the colorful descriptions of the food and clothing. Both Manny and Sammy are such sweet and open characters. I hope to read more by this new author in future.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars

This book had a strong start and it’s all downhill from there. It’s an enemies to friends to lovers type of trope but none of that is clearly established. The dialogue is cliche and the banter is boring. Also, I found the entire plot to be entirely unbelievable. With that being said. I think the author has a lot of potential but this attempt was poorly executed.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Shuster for this ARC copy of this book.

This was a cute story about a woman who runs a business that breaks up with people for their clients. With the help of a client, she learns about herself, her relationship, and her culture. I took me a while to get into the book and I don't think I was ever fully sold on the main couple. Although they talked about some real life things, I felt their relationship was superficial. I also thought the ending wrapped up to quickly. Overall, it was a sweet, easy read.

Manny is the beautiful young CEO of Breakup, a company that helps people manage their breakups. Manny’s parents were both born in India but always wanted Manny to be an ‘All American Girl’, so Manny has never connected to her roots. When Manny sees herself on the cover of a magazine photoshopped to make her skin appear white, and her Fiancé can’t understand why she is so upset, Manny is determined to learn more about her Indian culture.

When Sammy approaches Manny needing her help with a temporary breakup, she decides she will help in exchange for Sammy showing her all the Indian Traditions she missed out on growing up— the perfect place to do that? A weekend trip for Sammy’s brother’s wedding.

I adored this book. I was captivated by the characters from the beginning. As soon as I started reading, I didn’t want to put it down.

I loved how the relationship and love developed between Manny and Sammy, but the shinning star for me was the story of Manny finding herself through connecting more deeply with her culture. However, I cannot comment on the accuracies of the representation of the Indian culture and traditions in this book.

This book felt like a perfect balance of romance, family, and finding oneself. The side characters were also a lot of fun to read and I loved all the fashion scenes. There were also a lot of pop culture references which was a fun addition.

I am really picky when it comes to endings in the Romance genre, and this one is a five star ending for me. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but it perfectly ended the story.

I definitely would recommend picking up this book when it releases on April 5th.

Thank you Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with this book in exchange for a honest review

I’ll start off with what works. The cover is so pretty.

Now on to everything else. The writing was just not great. I know this was an ARC, and this wasn’t spelling and grammar issues, this was just poor writing. People were falling into each other’s arms so many times. The unnecessary repetition of “what is the gay ex-boyfriend now best friend for!” Yikes. The dialogue was so unnatural and awkward and lifeless. They say sari, not sari in the dialogue so many times. Adam was such a nothing character. He existed just so we could hate him. He could have been removed completely and we wouldn’t have missed him.

The story was just a mess. And I love rom-coms. Especially the ones where things that would never happen in real life happen, but they have to be well written or it just falls flat.

I just, cringed a lot reading this. The ending was so ridiculous. I was really disappointed. This is a big do not recommend from me.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the ARC of Sari, Not Sari in exchange for my honest review. This is a debut novel by author, Sonya Singh and I loved it! Manny is a work obsessed woman with a fiance who also is. She is CEO of a company that sends carefully crafted breakup emails for their clients. When an Indian client, Sammy shows up asking for a temporary breakup, Manny gets way more than she bargained for. Manny and Sammy both realize that they haven't been honest with themselves or their loved ones through spending time with family, friends and learning more about Indian culture. So many great and unique characters in this story and such beautiful descriptions are painted by Singh of what Indian culture offers. Highly Recommend!

This book is a great contemporary rom-com that kept me entertained and made me feel good and made me want to keep reading.

This is not just another rom-com. The main character Manny Dogra appears to have it all. She has a successful business, is in a good relationship and on the outside it all seems perfect. But under the surface she has lots of questions about her past, parents, heritage and even her culture. But why rock the boat right?

The characters in this book are great. I fund Manny easy to relate to. I wasn't sold on the relationship between Manny and Sammy though. I didn't feel the connection between them and they didn't communicate very well. Manny runs her own business which specializes in helping people find a nice way to end relationships. I enjoyed seeing a female owning and running their own business. But her staff appeared very unorganized and all over, being a savvy start up.

This book is about finding your place and purpose in life. It makes you think about who you are, your family and where you belong. Manny finds a new client and goes through an upset which cause her to take sometime and look for answers to questions that she has always been wanting answers to. By searching out these answers Manny is able to find her own happiness and herself.

This book was very enjoyable. I felt it could have been a little longer. There were spots where I felt it was rushed. I had a hard time believing that this all happened in one week. for a debut novel by this author it was a great start. I look forward to reading more by her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada, Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sari Not Sari is about the business of breakups. Manny’s company does just that: affects smooth break ups for their clients. But one week changes everything for Manny. She compromises on some of her own principles to become more Indian, something she wasn’t in tune with.
I liked Manny and her ambition, I thought her relationship with Adam was an after thought. I did think the ending was a bit rushed and contrived, it overall, it’s a satisfactory read.

this book was a debut novel and i tried to keep that in mind while reading but it was tough due to the fact that there was a lot of stuff i didn't enjoy about the book. i'm not gonna do a deep dive due to the fact that this book isn't published yet.

first off, i feel as though i should say i'm indian. in fact, i'm gujurat which is the same place sammy (the love interest) is from if we base it off his last name. because of this, i feel as though i can accurately judge this novel for its misinterpretations and such.

starting with our main character, manny. i can easily say that manny is one of the worst romance protagonists i have had the non-pleasure of meeting. she was annoying and quite rude at times. like, i understand that she's not that connected to her culture but that doesn't give her an excuse. i could relate to her a tiny bit because i'm an indian living in a town where i'm one of maybe 4 poc families. but i definitely could not relate to her disdain for the culture. she almost seemed disgusted by it at first? refusing to drink things such as chai and saying that wearing shorts would be appropriate for an indian wedding is pure ignorance and disrespectful. also the fact that she outright refused to believe sammy when he was telling her about how indian families act was so rude. she fails to believe that other indian families weren't brought up like her.

on another note, there are multiple gay characters in this book. one of them is a gay white man named rob who's manny's best friend and get this, he compared him being a queer white man to being a poc. like? this issue has been talked about in recent years for how inappropriate it is and i did not expect to find it in this book. when i read that, i automatically wanted to dnf. also, the book specifies that rob is gay in like... every other sentence he speaks. he commonly refers to himself as "manny's gay ex-boyfriend and best friend." it feels like he was just added for a sprinkle of representation and for the gay best friend trope.

now this is a romance novel so i might as well talk about that to. it sucked. it was absolutely terrible. i don't want to spoil so i won't say much but this whole book is in the span of a week i think? and a week is definitely too short to be saying the l word and even moving beyond that. the ending of the book was garbage and made me drop this from a 2 star to a 1. it was just so unexpected and came out of nowhere? like you barely know each other and BAM! suddenly you're doing this?

there's so much more i could complain about from the interpretation of indians to how manny's whole company is built on breaking up with people through email but i might save that for when this book comes out. or maybe not because i really don't want to experience this book again.

this book had cringe dialogue and even though it was a debut, i feel like there was too much wrong with the story for me to enjoy it. i did like the sprinkles of indian pop culture though. it was nice seeing them refer to songs that are on my bollywood playlist and actors i grew up watching with my dad.

bottom line: i dislike priyanka chopra and i dislike this book. but of course, i recommend you pick it up for yourself and see how it is!

This debut novel by Sonya Singh was a fast and fun read about a Bollywood Boss Babe learning her culture and finding love!

The story was predictably sweet. I appreciated the growth and self acceptance our female lead went through. However, the ending was too convenient and felt contrived. It felt like it took away some of the growth and progress our leads made.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Sari, Not Sari in exchange for an honest review. ~

Oof, okay, if I hadn’t just come off another great romance, I might have been able to push through this, but I did, so I’m not gonna do that to myself.

The title of this automatically just pulled me in, a cute pun and Indian culture? Yes please. However, at 30% in, I’m just cringing and ready to get out.

We’re introduced to Manny, who doesn’t have any connection to her roots and has been unhealthily putting off grieving her parents’ death by obsessing over her company. Her company is based around helping people to break up with their significant others via email, which I initially thought was kind of a joke, but nope, it’s completely serious. When Manny’s whitewashed in a magazine cover to advertise her company, she realizes she needs to finally learn about her culture.

Even though this is a romance, Manny is already engaged to Adam, an absent, insensitive, and equally job obsessed man. From first being introduced to him, I couldn’t stand him, which made me wonder, what is the point in him, other than to act as an obstacle for the budding romance down the line? Oh, also, his super-rich parents are also low-key racist and constantly subjecting Manny to microaggressions.

I’d hardly met our love interest Sammy, who is dating a white woman, but needs to temporarily break up with her for his brother’s wedding, because “it would look bad if he’s dating a non-Indian woman.” His whole dilemma feels like an AITA post waiting to happen. I haven’t even met his gf in the story, but I just feel bad for her.

The biggest issue with this is that the writing style is VERY dialogue-focused, which wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that the dialogue doesn’t feel natural at all, it seems so inauthentic. Every conversation seems forced and long-winded. It’s making for a very slow-moving read, when I usually blast through romances in no time.

I just don’t really want to keep reading, so I’m officially dnfing at 30% in.

Ownvoices reviewers: ( [1](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4598264305) [2](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4579660043?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1) [3](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4344586296?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1) )

I quite enjoyed this story. Much like Manny, I know nothing about Indian culture, and while I'm sure this only gave us a small glimpse, I still enjoyed it. It was a very quick and fluffy read and kept me entertained.