Tastes like Shakkar
[Nisha Sharma]

5/5

REVIEW - Wow! Where to begin here! I absolutely loved this book! I really enjoyed Dating Dr. Dill, but Tastes like Shakkar takes the cake!! There were so many things about this book I loved. An amazing friend group of both guys and girls, enemies to lovers, Taylor Swift references, a play on the iconic scene from the movie Ghost(!!!), a little mystery, and some very surprisingly spicy smut! I couldn’t get enough of this book!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy for my honest review!

How do I say this nicely? More shakkar please (ad)
Book: TASTE LIKE SHAKKAR
Author: @nishawrites
I adore Bobbi and Benjamin. I love love Kareena and Prem (they'll always have a special place in my heart.)
And, I am so eager to read Veera and Deepak's story.
I need to say this before I get distracted, Deepak's bluntness and his quickness to call out bullsh*t were some of my fav scenes.
Tove that Bobbi is a plus sized woman who didn't fall into the stereotype and assumptions of a bigger woman who is insecure of how she looks. She's feisty, guarded, opinionated, so loyal and fiercely independent. I love everything about Bobbi.
Benjamin? I mean.. wow. Considerate? Passionate? I can't say more without revealing how I really feel about Bunty. You'll just have to find out Aug 1st and we can discuss together.
The aunties and Gudi (Benjamin's sister) were my favorite secondary characters. They brought humor, love, light and some much needed truth to every scene they occupied.
I can't wait for y'all to read TASTE LIKE SHAKKAR.
Thank you to @netgalley for an arc of TASTE LIKE SHAKKAR

🦇 Tastes Like Shakkar Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

❝ "As a wedding planner, I have learned to appreciate blunt honesty. I mean, what's sexier than that? Being completely transparent and straight with another person takes a kind of fearlessness, doesn't it?" ❞

❓ #QOTD What's your favorite Shakespeare play (or retelling)? ❓

🦇 Bobbi Kaur is eager to plan a blow-out, unforgettable wedding for her best friend. Unfortunately, she's paired with Benjamin “Bunty” Padda to complete the task; the groom's best friend and man who derailed her career as a wedding planner. After Bunty refuses to cater a big wedding account, Bobbi's boss and uncle loses his faith in her ability to one day manage the business. The Kareena Mann and Prem Verma (#Vermann) wedding could be her chance to prove herself and win an account with one of the biggest venues around. To make matters worse, someone is trying to sabotage the wedding. Despite their constant bickering and the shaadi saboteur's best efforts, can Bobbi and Bunty call a truce and (with the help of a few sleuthing, meddling aunties) turn the Vermann wedding into a happily ever after?

💜 How do I bottle up all my love for Nisha Sharma, Bobbi, and Bunty in a concise review? Oh, let me count the ways... (whoops, wrong play). "There's a skirmish of wit between them" is far more accurate. Tastes Like Shakkar picks up from the scene we missed in Dating Dr. Dil, when Bobbi and Bunty speak alone at Kareena's birthday party. A moment of misunderstanding flares into hostility, even though Bobbi and Bunty have more in common than they realize. Sharma does a stunning job of pulling from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing while staying true to her Punjabi-American characters. So many books are categorized as romcom more for the situational comedy than actual laugh-aloud moments, which Sharma brings in spades. Bobbi and Bunty have all the wit and sass of their Shakespearian counterparts, but they bring the heat, too. This sweet, sassy story has a flare of spice that's bound to get your blood pumping. Whether Bunty is cooking up a storm in the kitchen or not, there are plenty of mouthwatering moments to spare.

💜 Bobbi's independence and ferocity are inspiring, while Bunty's foodie notes, text, and willingness to SHOW he's falling first are heartwarming. The layers of similarity between them—taking on familial obligations while trying to prove themselves—bring Bobbi and Bunty together when internal and external forces try to drag them apart. The aunties are, as always, a hoot, and Bobbi's curvy representation (and better yet, PRIDE) warmed my heart.

🦇 As much as I loved the story's mystery element, I pegged the shaadi saboteur the moment Bobbi chooses her first suspect. Sharma leaves plenty of little breadcrumbs for readers to follow. Though there's a TON of sizzle and spice (I'm fanning myself at the thought of that throne scene), I do think it was rushed, almost entirely resolving the animosity between them with smut.

🦇 Recommended for fans of Shakespeare retellings, @sonali.dev / Sonali Dev's The Rajes series, or @saradesaiwrites / Sara Desai's The Marriage Game series! Any romcom lover is bound to fall in love with Bobbi and Bunty!

✨ The Vibes ✨
💞 Enemies to Lovers
🤏🏽 Forced Proximity
📜 Shakespeare Inspired
🔍 A Dash of Mystery
🪷 Desi/Punjabi RomCom
💐 Chef x Wedding Planner
👗 Plus-Sized Female Lead
📚 Second in a Series
💜 Contemporary Romance
😂 Banter & Humor

❝ "My body says 'let's go on an expedition!' while my brain is shouting 'evacuate mission!'" ❞

🦇 Major thanks to the author @nishawrites and publisher @avonbooks @harpervoyagerus for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #TastesLikeShakkar #NetGalley

A Punjabi-American retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. This is the second in the If Shakespeare Was an Auntie series and I enjoyed it more than the first book Dating Dr. Dil. (It was based on Taming of the Shrew and the misogyny bogged down the storyline.) The couple from the first book Dr. Dill and Kareena are now planning their wedding. Best friend of Kareena is Bobbi Kaur who is a high demand wedding and event planner. Her gift to her BF is to plan the perfect wedding. The grooms BF is chef and restauranteur Benjamin (Bunty) Padda. He wants to help with the food for the multi-day event.

But a shaadi saboteur is causing mayhem. Canceling cake orders, leaving threatening notes. It bring Bobbi and Bunty closer together as they try to fix all the road blocks that are meant to disrupt the wedding. There is family issues too. Bunty’s family is West Coast and wants him to relocate there to take more part in the family business. Bobbi’s dream is to take over the wedding planning business from her uncle but this wedding must be a success for that to happen. And to add to the meyhem they call in the aunties to help investigate who is sabotaging the wedding.

I like Bobbi’s curvy representation and Bunty’s willingness to confess his feelings first. There is amazing food descriptions, interfering families and friend and lover banter. I was rooting for their love story and for them to figure out a way to make it work. And thankfully Bunty doesn’t not have a bet name for his male appendage like Dr. Dil did. This is a very fun read and doesn’t skimp on the steaminess.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC via NetGalley and I am leaving a voluntary review.

Good freaking food.

I am so happy that Nisha Sharma's second installment delivers what I hoped it would. Bobbi & Bendy were such a great couple and their chemistry was delicious. The addition of kink was wonderful since I haven't seen it coming from this angle before. It written so well, and safely and I am so happy that I got to read it. It was funny and as always the Aunties were just the best. She really outdid herself with this book and I am excited for other to get their hands on it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon for an e-copy in exchange for an honest reveiw.

4⭐️ 2🌶

"You're delicious, Bobbi. The best thing I've ever tasted. Now come for me like a good girl."

Big thanks to Avon, Nisha Sharma & NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!

I absolutely adored Dating Dr. Dil so when I saw this on NetGalley I knew I had to request it! I loved Sharma's writing in the last one and enjoyed getting an update on Kareena and Prem along with the rest of the friend group. This one will have you immediately hooked with its enemies-to-lovers trope and the way Bobbi and Bunty argue was hiliarious. There's a little something for everyone with the romance element, family drama and a bit of mystery with someone trying to sabotage the wedding.

The chemistry was definitely there between these two and I could not waitttt for them to cross that line. But once it was crossed, I started to lose interest.... Originally there was hinting that they both were into the idea of bondage... which cool I'm all for some BDSM in a book. But it honestly didn't feel authentic or like the author has any experience with this type of thing. It felt like wattpad fan fic. At one point Bunty was all like don't worry we will go slow - I won't tie your feet... then literally the next sentence is like BAM I WANNA HOG TIE YOU AND SUSPEND YOU. That was the only thing that bothered me about the romance side. If it had just been more authentic I would have liked it more.

But my actual favorite part of this book was the mystery element. I LOVED the aunties and how they were on the case. I legitimately had no idea who could have done it and loved how that side of the story played out.

Overall, easily a 3.5-star read that kept me entertained through the entire thing. I am looking forward to whatever else Sharma writes for this series.... I am having a feeling that Veera will get her story next because I am dying to know what is going on based on that epilogue!

Talk about empowering! I loved how I walked away from this book feeling more confident than I have in a while. This book is a triple threat with enemies to lovers, forced proximity, and body positivity that you won’t want to pass up!

Bobbi Kaur is a top tier wedding planner who knows how to solve every single issue that could possibly come up. So when her best friend asks her to plan her 3-day wedding, she’s overjoyed! Until she learns that she has to work with her arch nemesis, Benjamin “Bunty” Padda.

What ensues is nothing short of name calling, spitefulness, and all out war as passion overtakes them. But even though a truce may be in the works, things still suddenly go wrong and it’s up to the two of them to figure out who’s sabotaging the wedding. And working together may just bring the passion into other areas of their life.

“Bobbi knew in the back of her mind that if she wasn’t careful, Benjamin could be the start of very dangerous feelings.”

Right from the start I was hooked on the chemistry brewing between Bobbi and Benjamin. Similarly to Dating Dr. Dil, this one was spicy in some very surprising ways! With a story similar to Much Ado About Nothing, I was overjoyed to see an average-sized, 30 year old woman take the lead and OWN her body, her mind, and her emotions. She set the stage to show that everyone is worthy of love regardless of what others tell you. And I am here for it!!!

“But feeling loved, being loved in this moment would be worth all the pain that was to come.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Publishing for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: fatpbia (in discussion), deceased parent (past, in discussion), racial bias, family tensions, consensual kink

Mild spoilers for book 1 this one can be enjoyed entirely as a standalone

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f contemporary romance
-she thinks they're enemies and he's been pining
-food is my love langauge
-bondage
-miscommuncation trope
-found family
-sooo much sexual tension
-epistolary elelements
-fat rep

I adored Dating Dr. DIl, but this book gahhhhh. Bobbi is fierce, independent, and relies on no one and definitely no man. Ben is a restaurateur who has given up on love with all of his obligations, especially to his family. Both are workaholics and just given up on love. Add in some major misunderstandings that make Bobbi not stand Ben despite their amazing chemistry and gosh these two. But forced to work together to help plan their best friends' wedding they call a truce.

I adored Bobbi. Confident, fat and just take no prisoner she has her walls way up. But Ben has just been pining away and is just so soft on her. Feeding her, taking care of her because she deserves it, recognizing how hard she works and just how she needs to get out of her head. I love how these two just got each other despite their frenemy vibes and just the tension between them, the banter. All of the text messages, because once these two stopped fighting it things still weren't easy. How Ben just adored Bobbi's curves her body, the consent between them, the bondage, how soft he was for her in the streets and an animal in the sheets. These two were just meant to be and I was here for every moment.

This was a gorgeous and steamy romance about giving up on love, it smacking you in the face but also figuring out how to fit your life and priorities around it. How it doesn't come easy but it's so worth fighting for it. Add in wedding hijinks, amazing family, meddling aunties (just the community in this book it just wraps you up in a hug). I also have to give a major shout out for the just way people with gluten allergies were treated as a reality and not as something to mock. I couldn't put this book down and now am rabid for the third. Nisha Sharma is quickly becoming a favorite and just delivers on the team (that throne scene IYKYK).

Steam: 4

This is the best second book of a series that I have ever read. I read it in one sitting and could not put it down! Bobbi and Bunty are enemies to lovers with a mix of forced proximity and they're aware of it the whole time. It was great to get follow-ups from Dating Dr. Dil but this book could also be read as a stand-alone.

Highly recommend if you're looking for sassy main characters with a good dose of spice.

when I saw this book was coming out and the excitement grew, I was honestly a little concerned. I had enjoyed the first book is the series so much, that I started to grow concerned that I had built it up in my head and book 2 just wouldn’t hold up. I was so very wrong! This book delivered more than I could have ever hoped!

Much Ado About Nothing is one of my favorite plays and seeing this modernized version was wonderful. Bobbi and Benjamin are truly two of my favorite characters and their story was beyond amazing. There’s not a single thing I was left wishing for once I got to the end of the book. Nothing felt rushed or lacking in any capacity, and it’s such a rare feeling for me to have with a book. I loved this so much and I hope everyone else enjoys it just as much. I cannot wait for the next book in the series!

Tropes:

✨ enemies to lovers
✨ forced proximity
✨ friend group romance
✨ plus sized fmc

If I could give Tastes Like Shakkar by Nisha Sharma 10 stars, I would!

Thank you HarperCollins and Avon for making this a spotlight romance on NetGalley! Much Ado About Nothing is one of the few Shakespeare comedies where a couple is on shockingly equal footing, and that carried through in Nisha Sharma’s adaptation. Both Bobbi and Benjamin aka Bunty are service professionals at the top of their game, but believably getting in their own way personally due to family pressure. I believed the depth of their connection even when their relationship began mostly in sparring. I also love whenever there’s a true villain for the main couple to thwart as a subplot, and a wedding saboteur was a brilliant stroke. Not to mention, the sex scenes were plenty spicy and definitely pushed the boundaries of what is usually in romances with illustrated covers in the best way 🔥

This book certainly stands on its own without having to read the first book in the series, Dating Dr. Dil, first, but any reader who did so would be missing out on a lot of fun.

I cannot stress how much I love this book, 5 very bright and sparkling stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tastes Like Shakkar features the characters from Dating Dr Dil as they plan their wedding. The focus shifts to Bobbi and Bunty who are working together to plan the wedding. This was a cute follow up to Dating Dr Dil and I enjoyed revisiting this close knit friend group. The tension between pleasing your elders and following your own path helped the story progress. Fans of Dating Dr Dil or enemies to lovers, open door romances will enjoy this one.

Read how: 📱
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Setting: New Jersey
POV: 2
Theme: Enemies to lovers

It took me a couple of tries to get into this book. I just felt there were a lot of characters. Now I understand why the author did an outline of the characters at the beginning of the book. I do like Bobbi and Benjamin's relationship but wish their love story was developed more.
What I love about this book was the food, god I wish I could participate. I love that the author didn't create an insecure plus-size female character.

This book made me so happy! It was so unconventional for a south asian romance. It broke all the barriers! I love the fact that we meet familiar faces again from Dr. Dil but I think I just love Bunty and Bobbi! Workaholics, sworn to never get married or in a serious relationship, both trying to prove their worth and weighed down by family responsibilities and then they come together and oh my - It is spicy… super spicy!

Kudos to Nisha for focusing on so many important issues, elevating the romance and spiciness in this book plus giving us such an awesome love story

3.5 🌟 rounded

I really enjoyed Dating Dr. Dil so requesting this book was a no brainer. A romcom + mystery? Yes please.

This book had me hooked until the 🌶 scenes. There was just parts of it that were a little unbelievable and so so much 🌶. (Disclosure: I prefer closed door romances). But the mystery aspect kept the book engaging for me. If you are drawn to spice, you'd def enjoy this book.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

I wish I could describe how it felt to be immersed in this story. There aren’t any words that can do the feeling justice. But I will try my best to explain.
As a first-gen Mexican-American, my heart burst with joy in reading a story about culture, family, and community. There was a sense of understanding in how it feels to be surrounded by it all.
You could feel the pride!
Bobbi & Bunty were chefs kiss (pun totally intended;) There was banter, humor, swooning, tension ;) Oh! And some good groveling! The friendships in this series shine, and the family moments brought tearful smiles.
I’m not one to enjoy 3rd person POV, but this was done flawlessly. I’m also not one the follow a series where friend groups pair off, yet I’m sooo shipping Veepak!

I liked this loose Much ado about nothing retelling and sequel to Dating Dr. Dill sooo much better than the previous book!!

Plus-size wedding planner, Bobbi is determined to help her best friend Kareena have a perfect Desi wedding. The only problem is that she gets tasked to work with the groom's best man and famous chef, Benjamin 'Bunty' on the wedding menu. Sparks fly from the start and slowly Bobbi realizes Bunty isn't as terrible as she first thought.

I loved their slow burn rivals to friends to lovers relationship. The sexual chemistry between them was FIRE (including lots of rope play and bondage). Great on audio and perfect for fans of Sonali Dev and Sara Desai. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

In the second installment of the "If Shakespeare Was An Auntie" series, Nisha Sharma brings us a Punjabi-American rendition of Much Ado About Nothing.

Benjamin and Bobbi are living the opposites attract / grumpy-sunshine trope. Like their personalities, this book was a showcase of contradictions. The chemistry was on fire, but the banter and dialogue weren't as compelling for me. I liked Benjamin and Bobbi more than the couple in the first novel in the series and I found I was more invested in the storyline overall. I loved that way fatness, or really any body type other than skinny model, is often treated in the Indian-American community was addressed. This was an area I haven't seen many authors ventures and I appreciated it. On the flip side, the names and pet names were rather stereotypical (though from what I've seen of Sharma's social media, this may well have been tongue-in-cheek). The aunties were, of course, a riot. I wished the cool fusion food ideas were real because I finished this book craving some good Mumbai street food.

All that being said, did I read this entire book in one fever dream sitting? Yes, yes I did.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Sexy and fun, spicy and sweet, with a Desi wedding and a mystery to solve, Tastes Like Shakkar hits all the high notes for me.
I loved everything about this book!

*I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I absolutely loved this book! Once I started it, it couldn't put it down and I finished the book in 1 day. It was so similar to Dating Dr. Dil yet so different at the same time. To start off, I LOVED that Bobbi was plus sized! It is definitely the representation we need in South Asian book. Also, I loved that this book explored different kinks and really got into *spicy details*. There is, once again, this stigma that surrounds South Asian literature that it should be pure and that Indians are "prudes" and such. I love how Nisha Sharma is breaking those stereotypes and giving us the spiciest scenes! This book was the perfect mix of cute/lovey dovey and spicy. Beyond that, the plot of the book was also super intriguing and I love how each character, including side characters, had a role in the book. The all contributed to the plot and weren't simply "side characters" if that makes sense. Overall, Nisha took so many different elements I Iove within a book and put them all together to create this masterpiece. Everyone needs to read this book when it comes out (August 1st) and make sure to clear your calender for that day because you won't be able to put this book down until you finish it!! Nisha AMAZING job, you truly have outdone yourself. I cannot wait for the third book in the series, Veera and Deepak's story. I know it is going to be just as amazing as the first two!!!!