I really enjoy reading books about family development, especially ones from a different culture. I enjoyed the immersion and the adventure we got from this family. They seemed so well put together, but every family has their flaws. The characters were uniquely themselves through the whole story and it was great to see how they build this family structure. We see that in their actions and also in the way they were treating each other through the book.

I really enjoyed the plot of this book and the turns that it did take. I did feel that the ending was a lot, but it really did bring the book together. I was able to slide into this book very easily. It was entertaining and very life-like. It just felt so relatable and I can recommend that to so many people!

4/5 stars for the folks who love family, post-divorce life, new beginnings, and life's adventures!

**Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free review copy! I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I would like to say that I enjoyed Late Bloomers by Veepa Daradarajan, but I can’t honestly say that I did, though it was well written and the characters were multi dimensional. That said, I didn’t like a couple of them at all and the others were only okay, maybe a bit too wishy-washy. I had a hard time getting into the book and never felt truly immersed in it. The book was told from four different points of view, which was interesting but not enough to really hold my interest. The book was touted as being funny on some levels but, for the most part, I thought it was depressing. Two stars.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions stated are solely my own.

This book is wonderfully messy. The characters are messy, their lives are messy, and they all know it.

The idea of a couple who had been in an arranged marriage divorcing after 30+ years is a great one and the author brought it to life in a realistic way. It’s much harder than I would have thought.

The book is light and deep at the same time. The ending, which seemed rushed and was off paced from the rest of the book, left me wanting a little more closure. Other than that, it’s well written and completely engrossing. I’ll read this author any time!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are mine.

I really enjoyed this novel and was sad when it was over. Even though I don’t have a ton in common with these characters, I somehow identified with all of them.

After 36 years of marriage, Lata finally works up the courage to divorce Suresh. She was set up with him when she was 20 in an arranged marriage, and he wasn’t abusive, an alcoholic, or a gambler, so she told herself that just because he was always negative, she had no reason to complain. Now, she wants to try life where she’s working, alone, and not taking care of her children and husband all the time.

Suresh does not want to be alone, but his online dating of other Indian-American women is not going well.

Their adult children Priya and Niresh are having relationship problems of their own. There are chuckles along the way. Recommend.
NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES MAY 2, 2023.

Late Bloomers follows the members of an Indian-American family in Texas as they struggle to find their footing after a divorce reshapes their relationships. The characters are well-developed and mostly sympathetic (I was not a fan of the daughter). The story is engaging and well-written. You end up rooting for the characters despite their flaws.

Deepa Varadarajan has crafted a delightful family story about two generations in an Indian American family, the immigrant parents with a traditional arranged marriage who left India for America to seek more opportunities four decades ago; and their American born thirty-something children. Both generations are trying to balance to the cultural yearnings of their heritage with present day realities.

We meet them after the parents have been divorced for a few years. Suresh, a surly man who doesn’t understand any women whether Indian or American, young or old, is discovering internet dating. Lata, an educated woman who suppressed herself for decades in subservience to her uncaring spouse, is at her first American job in a library and a patron is flirting with her. Priya is their 35 year old unmarried (the scandal of it!) daughter and history professor who is having an affair with a married man; Nikesh is their 31 year old son, a Harvard educated corporate lawyer, who is in a relationship with the “stern Nordic” Denise, the mother of their nearly one year old son, Alok. Oh, Denise is Nikesh’s superior at the white shoe law firm. Nikesh has failed to mention to his family that he and Denise are not married.

Alok’s first birthday is coming up, an occasion for this group to come together for the first time in years. Suresh remarks that it’s hard for parents to parent children, and harder to parent adult children. And now the children are also trying to parent their own parents.

This is a heartwarming, witty debut from Deepa Varadarajan that will have you laughing and crying. I fell in love with each of the characters (well, maybe not so much Suresh, although his old time views on everything are extremely funny) and even some of the supporting characters like Deanna, Lara’s young colleague, and “Pantene hair woman” Mallika, who has moved into Suresh’s house with her young son, are well drawn. This is a family dealing with cultural turmoil and everyday worries, but still obviously loving each other in their own ways. 5 stars!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO No green eyes at all.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Apparently, Suresh has become quite the gardener in Lata’s absence; she expected a weed-filled yard.

This is exactly what literary fiction should be. Full of heart and characters that you want to root for even when you’re frustrated with their choices. My favorite hands down is Lata, it’s so rare we see older women take charge of their lives and choose to go it alone. I would have loved this story to center on her journey but I was satisfied with how it ended for her.

I truly loved this book and the characters. You can connect with each one easily. No family is perfect, no family tells each other everything. Parenting is hard, no matter the stage you are in.
I would love to see a sequel to this one. And Deanne was a great character for some comic relief.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this one ahead of publication.

Thank you, Netgalley, for letting me read this book.

Sadly, I nearly quit reading at the first chapter. Nothing against the writer, but I had assumed the book was about women. Fair warning: it is about a family, including the father and son. Each member gets their chapters. I must admit that listening to text-to-speech, it was hard to tell who the chapter was about. I think that if an author sets up a book this way, they should include the words Chapter 1 or another number and then the name of the point of view. That would clear confusion right up front.

Once I figured out who the chapters were about and the book's aim, I could see the novel through.

On the other hand, though this book was about an Indian-American family, it was universal in many ways. People not listening to each other. People not expressing their authentic truth. People jump to their own conclusions. Gossip. Betrayal. The reader wonders if they will ever find their way to healthy relationships. It was hard to live through all of this.

It is worth the read to learn how new Americans of other origins might see how this melting-pot culture gets in their own ways, too.

We often hear it said that there are three sides to every story. Well meet a book that has at least four sides to the same story.

When Suresh and Lata separate after thirty-seven years of marriage, they have differing stories as to why this happened. Add a daughter who is buried in her own life and you get a third version. And then there is the son, who is hiding his life from his parents, and you have the almost final piece of the story.

Suresh tries his hand at online dating and ends up with a woman who moves into his house with her eight year old son. Lata vacillates between wanting to go out with Len, and wondering why she should bother. She is, after all, in her 50's. Add a young coworker without a verbal filter, a nosey friend, a private investigator, an assumed daughter-in-aw, and grandson's first birthday party, and everything you thought you knew becomes another question.

Deepa Vanadarajan's marvelous book, Late Bloomers, tells a story of a family and unnecessary secrets and the results. A great read from multiple points of view.

this was a really good book! i enjoyed reading through all of the different perspectives, and how although all were separate, their lives were intertwined with each other. this was a lovely story about love and how it affects each person differently, and how each person deals with it differently. i would for sure recommend and overall 3.75/5⭐.

Ah, another family drama. I usually either love or hate them but this time I was just “meh.” Late Bloomers centers around an Indian American family who are navigating their way through the aftermath of the dissolution of a 36 year marriage. The reader heads the POVs from the father, mother, and two adult children (a female and a male). As with many family dramas, this was often slow and steady which is fine as long as the reader is invested in the characters’ journeys. For some reason, I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and so I was a little bored with the slow progression of the novel. How odd, then, that after a mostly slow and steady novel, the ending seemed rushed and not as well executed as it could have been. I appreciated the cultural references that brought personality and uniqueness to this family since, at times, I felt like I was reading a story I’ve read before. I know this novel is touted as funny, but I generally found every character sad and the overall novel melancholy, which is fine, but not what I was expecting. It was a fine book, but just not overly engaging for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Trade for the advance electronic copy. All opinions in their review are my own.

omg I loved this book so much. It was soothing and the definition of uplit. No one has it figured out and we can all learn together. I did have some reservations about the casteist tendencies of the author. There are more Tamilian stories to tell that are outside the Tam-Brahm narrative. So while I enjoyed the book, I did feel twinges of unease.

“Socializing was a team sport. You made friends as a married couple, you got invited to parties as a married couple, you attended parties as a married couple, you said “goodbye” and “thank you” and “this gulab jamun is excellent” and “next time, you must come over to our place” as a married couple. It was like pairs ice-skating. Maybe you could do the double-jump-axle-thing by yourself, but you’d never get up as high or land as far as you could if your partner was throwing you. Alone, it just wasn’t the same. Each time, standing on a friend’s doorstep in jewels and a freshly pressed silk sari, idlis in hand and an apology ready on my lips, I felt like a spectacle.” ~Lata

The Ramen family is a hot mess, but lovable. Each chapter focuses on one of the four family members, and the author writes with a mix of heart and humor in the telling. The story moves along well as each chapter connects to the next. Lata is my favorite character. She is gentle and kind with a strong backbone. Her friendship with Deanna is a great part of the story. The other family members are more self-centered, especially Suresh—but he is funny. Definitely a good read that has stayed with me.

Advanced reader copy courtesy of the publishers at NetGalley for review.

This was a delight, perfect for fans of warm-hearted, multi-generational stories. When a thirty-six-year old arranged marriage end, all four family members—two parents and two adult children—are left to deal with the fallout. I so enjoyed watching each character work through their (often wonderfully over-the-top) issues.

Late Bloomers is the story of an Indian family living in Texas in the mid-2000s and the different life paths the four members have taken. Lata and Suresh are the recently-divorced parents of Priya and Nikesh. Lata and Suresh are learning to navigate their lives without the other for the first time since their arranged marriage over 35 years ago; Priya and Nikesh have established their own lives independent of their parents but have their own unique struggles to overcome.

I thought this was a very good first novel. It established its characters well, had an obviously well-thought-out plot, and stayed interesting throughout. I really enjoyed Lata's character and how determined she was to have her own life without her ex-husband. As a librarian, I was delighted that her first ever job was at a library. Even though there were things she didn't understand (her colleague's fashion sense; jazz music, initially; her son's partner), she was always willing to learn more about them and didn't judge them harshly. I also really liked how the novel explored a complicated subject from the perspective of a minority family.

I would've liked to have more detail about how each character got to the point in their lives where we first meet them and see more of a resolution to each of their journeys. Why did Priya stay with Ashish for so long? What was the breaking point in Lata and Suresh's marriage? Why was Nikesh so afraid of showing his feelings? It would also have been really interesting to see more of the impact of the divorce on Priya and Nikesh.

Mala telling Lata her big news was a bombshell a la The Room. I understand why it came about when it did, but it landed a bit flat. I was also running out of patience with Suresh towards the end of the novel. Every time it seemed he'd grown a bit as a person, he immediately reverted to the judgemental jerk Lata divorced.

I've found myself telling everyone about this book with one word: It's just delightful.

Late Bloomers follows the later-life-love-struggles of the Raman family. Both parents are recently divorced and grappling, quite comedically, with a modern and tricky dating world for those past their 50s. The reader is also given unique perspectives from each of their children. Nikesh, a has-it-all NYC lawyer with a new one year old who is attempting to understand if love or the unit of a family means more. Priya, the single eldest daughter, is observing her siblings as parents while also navigating her affair with a married man.

It is an interesting and messy set-up that Varadarajan puts the reader into. I found that I'm most appreciative of the honesty with which characters navigate love, attraction and family in a way that seems more true (in both dialogue and plot) than most. The book reads like a classic romantic comedy: uncanny, yet poor timing, lots of miscommunication (that holds true even with the invention of cell phones!), and resolution that leaves you warm and fuzzy.

Thank you to the folks at Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me and advanced ebook copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advanced copy of Late Bloomers in exchange for a review!

This was so heartwarming!

I loved this twist on perspective and how warm and light it was- there were moments where I chuckled out loud and moments I found very heartwarming. This story isn't one I could've ever imagined but certainly something I deeply enjoyed reading - and an extremely strong debut for the author. You seldom see stories about navigating divorce told from the perspective of non-white families, and I loved seeing it here in a lighthearted and fun way. 3.5 stars!

Insightful, sad, charming--this novel tells the story of the love of a family interrupted. After a 36-year marriage, Suresh and Lata Raman have just gotten divorced and neither of their grown children are particularly happy about the disruption. Or their parents' choices on their new--separate--paths. We see love in its many flavors and with its many flaws as the children and parents learn each others' secrets and how to love each other despite them. The book opens with a family stuck in old patterns, and each member is unsure how to relate to each other now that those patterns no longer serve them. Each one is imperfectly human, choosing to love each other anyway. I found the book to be more sad than charming, but always achingly real, chronicling honestly the human quest for love and belonging through their hopes and regrets.

“Late Bloomers” is a debut novel by Deepa Varadarajan. This book follows one family - a set of parents (now divorced) and their two children, a son and a daughter. Although things may look okay on the outside, each of them has things they’re keeping hidden from other family members. This book takes place over a few weeks, but it’s amazing how much is packed into those few weeks. This book is about a family, but it’s more than just a family drama - there’s hurt, there’s trying to grow, there’s love, there’s grief, and there’s trying to make sense out of this crazy roller coaster ride we call life. I found a number of the secondary characters interesting to read about, especially Len’s love for jazz and Lata’s lovely in their own way co-workers. I must admit to really liking the tales Suresh had about online dating. This was an enjoyable book that felt a little over-the-top but also crazily believable in many ways - or at least based upon some of the stories some of my Indians friends have told me. I look forward to reading another book by Ms. Varadarajan.