Sari Not Sari is not only about finding love with another person, but with your culture and yourself.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for my eARC for review!
Manny Dogra is the owner of a mega-successful company called Breakup, which specializes in custom breakup emails and bootcamps for various relationship issues.
She's engaged to Adam and has rescheduled their wedding date repeatedly. Manny also lost her parents in recent years and never had the chance to learn about her South Asian heritage.
Enter Sammy Patel. While seeking a service Breakup doesn't offer, he whisks Manny to a Patel family wedding and in the process teaches her how to embrace her inner Indian.
Sari Not Sari is an absolutely lovely immersion into Indian celebrations and culture. Sonya Singh's writing is witty, charming, and carefully crafted to bring a slow burn to Manny and Sammy's attraction.
Also a great pick for Asian Heritage Month. Recommended!
Released on April 5.

Sari Not Sorry is a romcom that follows the story of Sammy and Manny – two Indian Americans and their quest for love. Manny, the CEO of up and coming company – Breakup – which you guessed it right, helps people break up with their partners, was raised in a very un-Indian (is that a word?) atmosphere by her parents who embraced their Americanness completely with very few ties back home or to their culture in India, so much so that Manny didn’t understand pretty much anything about her own culture at all. But when a magazine publishes a whitewashed photo of hers, she decides that it’s time to get to know more about herself and her roots. Enter Sammy, who is looking for a temporary break up from his girlfriend because he can’t bring her to his brother’s Grand Indian Wedding(tm). Manny’s company doesn’t do temporary breaks but she’s desperate and so she agrees, on the condition that Sammy take her to the wedding instead and give her a crash course on being Indian.

What I loved most about the book was how it was in the little things that Manny found herself. How she loved the clothes and the dancing and the whole extended family. All those things were just so heartwarming to see. I loved watching her get to know her culture better and also seeing her fall for Sammy was a treat to watch. The best part was how her relationships with everyone in her life were developed. It wasn’t just Sammy, but also his entire family who Manny got close to and she had such cute scenes with everyone. Even scenes with her best friends and friends of those friends… it was just so beautiful. All those people helped her find herself and I love that about the story. It wasn’t just Sammy who made a difference… it was a lot of people who did, because Manny decided she needed that.

Sammy was… he was great. I do wish he was developed a bit more, but the story mainly focused on Manny’s arc and Sammy was more love interest than a lead in his own right and he did great in that aspect, so I can’t fault that decision in story-telling much. He fit into the ensemble with ease and really made me like him right from the start. The contrast in how he treated Manny and how he helped her embrace her Indianness as opposed to her fiance who tried to erase every aspect of her culture from her was brought out pretty nicely.

Of all the supporting characters, I loved Manny’s two best friends – Anjali and Rob – the best. They were such a pillar of support to her throughout the entire story and I loved that. Other than them, Sammy’s sister, Manisha, was another favourite. Her and Manny hit it off very quickly and they became really good friends. They had their share of ups and downs but their entire relationship was handled very nicely and I loved their scenes together so much. Manny didn’t have many scenes with other people from Sammy’s family, but she did have a couple scenes with Sammy’s parents, brother, and sister-in-law and they were all very well done. Reading their interactions made me very happy.

Some of the twists in the story were very cliche and I saw them coming from a mile away, but they were still enjoyable as a whole, and I did love being proven right, so I cannot complain about that. The very many Bollywood references in this book gave me life. It was so good to feel so seen because I am a Bollywood buff too and just those casual mentions made me so happy! (SRK FOREVER!) I do think that the climax could have been more fleshed out, though. I’m coming to realize that this is something I struggle with a lot in romance, because I always feel that the reunion happened too easily, but that’s just me, so maybe everyone else will love it.

Overall this was a fun and breezy read and I enjoyed it a lot! 😀

I personally could not connect with the characters and felt that the plot fell flat and did not entice me.

I finished this novel in one sitting, which is one of the positives. But I thought the book was just fine. I know I had some quibbles with it after I finished it but it's been awhile so I don't remember them,

Hands down loved this book. It was so Bollywood in the sense that just like they mentioned there’s no eggplant emoji in Bollywood movies, there wasn’t a lot of romance, which was a nice change of pace! I could’ve totally enjoyed more spice in the book as well, but the lack of it didn’t affect the story being told. Break Up is such a cool idea for a company, and Manny’s coming of age finding her true self was really sweet. Sammy grew on me after his initial grumpy introduction, and I expected the plot twist. This book played out in my head as if it was a movie, rich in imagery and cultural traditions, bustling in the city, and I couldn’t help but picture Bride and Prejudice. This was a really fun read!

I'm rating Sari, Not Sari at 2.5 stars. I enjoyed reading about different Indian customs and foods. I liked the premise of the story: successful CEO reconnects with Indian roots and finds all types of love along the way. But, there were things I didn't enjoy, like the fact that Manny kept reminding us that she didn't feel Indian/wasn't raised Indian/missed out, etc. I got the picture the first couple of times it was mentioned. I also wasn't a fan of how the book ended. The ending felt rushed.

when i tell you i Hated this book I mean it.

not only does the author think that writing a whitewashed desi book in 2022 is somehow good rep, it's the EGO about it. especially when the book is awful and brings no progress to the already very diverse desi romance novels out there.

everyone is written as a stereotype, from the white gay bff, to the desi parents who can barely speak english (like come on, my dad is terrible at english but he can still speak it), and somehow making india a monolith??? i'm so TIRED

3.5 stars!

This was a very quick and enjoyable read. I liked this coming of age story about Manny trying to learn more about her Indian culture.

I felt the chemistry between the characters and thought the romance was sweet, but it was very fast. They only knew each other for a week. The ending was super rushed as well. But overall it was a good time!

Overall I enjoyed the book...loved the great descriptions of Indian culture, the focus on family and the general vibe. I did find the story a bit far fetched and it seemed disconnected in parts. It was a fun and easy read, and I'm grateful I had the opportunity to read and review it.

I was a bit offended by the stereotypes this book is about. The book is basically about stereotypes only 🤔

Manny's business model is breaking up with people kindly, but she seems to struggle with drawing boundaries for herself and winds up with a client at a family wedding. While there, she learns a lot about her heritage and herself, as well as a little bit about falling in love. This story was fun to read and the characters were interesting. I was half-hoping the Patels would invite me to their next wedding.

Do not recommend. Full stop. This is a book thriving on stereotypes and written for the white gaze. I'm not sure why this is getting so much hype. This genuinely was a lot for me to read. While I'm sympathetic to some of the experiences described in this book, I really despised how a lot of the characters existed solely as stereotypes.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this digital review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ultimately, I think the author wanted to tell a story about a woman who was raised to fit into American culture at the expense of embracing her Indian roots and somehow wound up trying to force it to be a romance when that wasn't the true heart of the novel. I would have liked the book much better if Manny had broken up with her fiance without needing the impetus of a slapdash love story to do so, but just because she had realized who she was and wanted to be. 

I recommend this book if you enjoy fashion and stories about the identity complications of being raised in America as a child of immigrants. If you're looking for a well developed love story, though, I can't recommend this book for that element.

After being whitewashed in a magazine photo, Manny begins a journey of self-discovery to connect to her Indian roots and find out what being a strong, proud, successful, Indian woman means to her. Through some twists and turns, her journey leads her to be Sammy Patel's the plus one at his brother's wedding. I really enjoyed the banter between Manny and Sammy. Once they agree to their plan, they both start to relax a little bit more and it's easy to see 1) how easy it is for them to be around each other and 2) that they both desperately needed someone to talk to.

This book is perfect for those people who enjoy a love story but are looking for one without all the spice. The story is rich enough without it. It reads like a love letter to Indian customs and traditions. The richness of this story comes from the celebration of Indian culture and the delightful side characters. That being said, after all the rich layering of Indian culture on top of Manny's desire to discover what being Indian means to her, I was disappointed with the ending. The author spent so much time bringing everything to life and the ending was so rushed. We were cruising along at a nice 60mph and then all of a sudden we are going 120mph and at the destination. The ending did not feel in keeping with most of the rest of the book.

I enjoyed this one overall. It was a fun idea for a story. I always love good character growth, and it was nice to see Sammy and Manny evolve. While I enjoyed the themes of family, culture and self discovery, it didn’t quite mesh well with the ending. In the end Manny is all about her love for Sammy, which seemed to negate the self discovery journey. The story focuses so much on those themes, that it makes the moment Sammy and Manny get together feel a little too abrupt. I wish we’d seen more of their relationship develop. I did love the characters and learning about their culture and traditions.

Amazing book! Obsessed with the characters and the writing was spectacular. Singh did wonderful with this book, I would recommend this to anyone and everyone. Can't wait to read more books from her

Manny is a super successful business woman who created a career on helping others craft a perfect breakup email and gain closure. She seems to have it all, thriving business and a successful fiancé. But after the crushed loss of her parents she has been so focused on work. She’s lost herself. Never giving her Indian heritage much thought, something makes her realize that she could be missing an important part of herself and maybe settling in her own relationship. This was such a great debut. It had me laughing and in awe of the boisterous Patel family and Manny’s foray into accepting her culture. The clothes! The food! The family! The culture! So vivid and bright I was sucked into this world with her and enjoyed every minute of it.

Such a great self-disvovery/romance with heart and found family.

Thank you to NetGalley for a chance to review this arc.

Cute, rom com book. Sari, finally wants find out about her Indian heritage, after she has built her life to be the perfect young American girl. How she pursues that journey is the gist of the book. Very entertaining, humorous and heartwarming.

This was a fast read. The character development wasn’t great. The cast of characters wasn’t likeable. The ending was down right stupid. I somehow finished this book but did not enjoy it.

This debut for Canadian Sonya Singh is such a fun read! I really enjoyed reading this book about Manny who is an CEO of a business named Breakup which provides breakup services for people. Manny is a American Indian who’s parents believed in the American Dream therefore did not immerse Manny into the Indian culture. She is also engaged to Adam who also sees her as American rather than Indian.

Then one day a new client by the name Sammy comes to Breakup requesting a temporary breakup with his girlfriend. He is also in need of a date for his brother’s wedding and Manny would like to learn more about her Indian traditions and culture. A plan is then devised. What could go wrong??

I found this book was a quick and fun read. But I do wish the ending was not rushed so much. I loved the ending and I wished it could have been a bit longer so we can have more closure with some storylines.

I cannot wait to see what Sonya Singh writes next! She will become an auto-buy author for me.