I Wish We Weren't Related was family drama on steroids.

The love of Reeva's life left her for her sister Jaya 4 years ago and her other sister Sita sided with Jaya. The sisters have been estranged ever since.

Their mom is a high maintenance Bollywood star, who loves to keep secrets. The biggest one being that their dad didn't die when Reeva was 5 as she led them to believe. He actually just died, and the sisters are thrust together for 2 weeks for prayers as they try to uncover the secrets of the past.

There is a lot of emotional trauma that Reeva needs to work through, and I really felt for her. I loved her story, her facing her past, moving on, and learning to be strong. And honest.

The audiobook was superbly done!

I do think it was a bit long in parts and would have been even better with a bit more editing to tighten it up.

I received a gifted galley of I WISH WE WEREN’T RELATED by Radhika Sanghanil for an honest review. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group, PRH Audio, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

I WISH WE WEREN’T RELATED follows Reeva, a young Indian woman whos life is turned upside down when her mother calls to let her know that her father has died. The complicated part of this is that Reeva and her sisters have long believed that their father was already dead.

Reeva and her sisters have complicated and strained relationships for various reasons, but her father’s last wish was for his daughters to attend his funeral prayers which means spending two weeks together. They take this time to explore their relationships with each other and try to get to know the father they never knew.

There were a lot of positives about this book. Reeva is dealing with a lot in her life (a new relationship, an ex who cheated on her with her sister, the mystery of why her parents faked her father’s death, and a stressful law career come first to mind) and all of this has led to stress-induced alopecia (hair loss). I think that the mental health component of this and Reeva’s journey of self-discovery was well done.

I did feel like the characters in this book were a bit tough to love a lot of the time. When I say that the relationships between sisters are strained, I really mean it. The best friend and the boyfriend are also adding more stress to Reeva’s life. This is a book where if you want messy family drama you’ll get plenty! This is a book that really relies on a failure to communicate (in a very intentional way) to keep the plot going.

I enjoyed the first 75% of the book but then the last 25% kinda dropped it a little bit.

Reeva is the eldest of 3 daughters. She lives in London and is a divorce attorney. She hasn’t spoken to her sister in about 4 years, since her youngest sister cheated with Reeva’s boyfriend at the time and her middle sister stood by the youngest. Their father has been dead for 30 years, or so they thought. When he actually dies their mother informs them that he’s been alive for their whole lives and in order to get their inheritance they have to participate in the 14 day Hindu funeral prayers.

There is so much that goes on in this book that I don’t even know where to start. I enjoyed the story about sisters who haven’t talked getting back together. I thought it was interesting to see how they worked through their issues and see their relationship grow. The whole dad being alive and not really dead and the trauma behind that didn’t really end up being my thing.

Without spoilers, I found the reason that this mom faked his death for 30 years to be a bit extreme. Which I guess was kind of the point. But then Reeva reacts as thought the reason makes sense? She gets super mad at her dead dad for something that happened 30 years ago that she repressed.

Reeva did honestly get on my nerves by the end of the book. I think the fallout of so many of her relationships showed that she wasn’t a very good or likable person. I also got irritated by the self-help vibe towards the end of the book. She had one conversation with her aunt and one hypnotherapy and all of a sudden was like “I know exactly how to be a better person now!” I mean, she still admitted she had a lot of work to do but she was immediately making big changes. Also, her supposed best friend was terrible.

Basically, I enjoyed the sister aspect and learning a little bit about Hindu funerals. I didn’t love the friendship, love, or mystery aspect. Like I said, the first 75% of the book was interesting and enjoyable. The last 25% left a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth. It wasn’t a bad book but it will definitely be one that’s forgettable in a week or two.

This was a funny, messy, big family drama that sees three estranged sisters forced to reunite when the father they thought was already dead actually dies.

Big shot divorce lawyer, Reeva hasn't talked to her sisters since one of them cheated on her with her ex and the other took her side. Now in order to receive her inheritance she has to spend 2 weeks honoring her father with her sisters in a series of South Asian funeral customs.

Moving and full of secrets, lies and reconciliations (although a touch too long imo). This book tackles some heavy topics, including an alcoholic father, and absentee parent, cheating and a relative dying of cancer. Reeva herself is also struggling with her worsening alopacia - a condition that sees her hair falling out.

Good on audio and perfect for fans of Nicola Marsh, Sonali Dev and Sanji Patel. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and prhaudio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

This story was okay. I think it should’ve been a little shorter….some of this story just seemed to go on and on and drag.

Reeva worried so much and it was quite annoying. Her mom is toxic. I didn’t feel as connected to these characters I hoped I would’ve.

Reeva thought her father had been dead for thirty years, so when she gets a phone call from her mother saying that her father recently died, shock doesn’t even begin to cover how she’s feeling. To make matters worse, her dad requested in his will that Reeva and her estranged sisters attend his two week funeral prayers. There’s no part of her that wants to go, but she does and in the process learns so much about her family that she never expected.

This is a story about complicated family relationships and learning to start over, but it is done with a lot of humor. Reeva is lost and has many flaws, but I felt for her from the beginning. From her very complicated family dynamics, to struggling with her personal relationships, and coming to terms with her alopecia, she has a lot going on throughout this book. While she wasn’t a perfect character, I often wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything would be okay. This book is filled with soap opera level drama, a lot of angst, and some fairly heavy topics, but there are bits of humor throughout that lighten it up.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I Wish We Weren't Related is a heartwarming novel that delves into the complexities of family dynamics with a cast of captivating characters whose stories intertwine to create a truly captivating narrative.

This is the story of sisters in their 30s finding out the father they were told died decades earlier only recently died. His will states if they fail to go through the entire grieving period they won’t receive their inheritance.
Enter a multitude of family dynamics, grievances and everyday life issues. The novel is told in a breezy tone that belies some serious problems. If you enjoy books about sisters with issues you might want to check it out. For me it was an okay read.

I Wish We Weren’t Related
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 3.5⭐

Thanks @netgalley and @berkleypub for the digital advanced copy. This releases on 7.11.23 with a post on Instagram scheduled for closer to publication.

The story follows Reeva, a successful divorce attorney, as she navigates the news that her father has just died… meanwhile Reeva and her two sisters had been told he died back when they were small children. What kind of person was her father, this man that she thought was dead, and why did he remain out of her life for over 20 years? Throughout the story, Reeva uncovers the truth and secrets in her family. In the process, she unpacks and overcomes a lot of trauma, betrayal, neglect, and hardship. We see her at her lowest points all the way through to her making peace with her family’s actions. At times, this felt a bit similar to another book I loved - The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, but IWWWR felt like a heavier read.

Other than Reeva, the characters were pretty unlikeble - even her new love interest. The eventual confrontation and resolution between Reeva and her sister, Jaya, was realistic to their family dynamic but felt oddly unsatisfying. Still, while the books had its share of sweet and silly moments, the family drama was the focus with a well-developed main character who works on herself to overcome her trauma.

Reeva learns her father, who she thought was dead, has now actually died. To inherit, she and her two estranged sisters must spend two weeks together at his home for the funeral rites. Forced to confront the past, they take tentative steps to repair their relationship while coming to terms with the loss of the father they never really knew.

This is a funny and deeply emotional women's fiction about learning to live fearlessly and authentically. Loved it!

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Lawyer Reeva gets a call from her Bollywood actress mother announcing that her father has died – for the second time.
Reeva was told when she was a child that her father had died but now he really has for real. For Reeva and her two younger sisters, Sita and Jaya, to inherit his estate, they all have to attend the two-week period of prayers and funeral for a man they never really knew.
And Reeva hasn’t spoken to her sisters since Jaya stole her boyfriend but now the trio need to come together to discover more about their father and why their mother lied to them.
This was an enjoyable story about being thrown into an awkward situation amid complicated family dynamics. The author adeptly shares scenes and details that immerse us right into Reeva’s life and her approach to becoming a better person made it all such a life-affirming read.

This book was a lot. Not bad? Definitely not for me. There's a lot going on and most of it is really heavy with very little warning. A lot of drama, a lot of extreme emotion and angst that drags on and on but then everything is magically okay? It maybe could have been 100 pages shorter.

This story ended on forgiveness and that's fine but I didn't think it seemed realistic given the intensity of family fights and betrayals. Perhaps I'm just not a good person because I would never have spoken to any of these people again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much for an advanced copy of I Wish We Weren't Related. This book was interesting and surprised me!

I did enjoy this book, but it is not a book that I would normally gravitate towards. It is a story full of family drama, and the drama got old fast for me. I was interested in the outcome of the story and I enjoyed meeting all the characters, but I also felt exhausted when I finished the book...so much drama!

If you are the type of reader who thrives on the drama among characters, this is the book for you. You will love it! For me, it just felt draining.

I ultimately went with a 3⭐️ rating because the book was just a lot for me to take in, but I did enjoy many aspects of it. I honestly think this will be a popular book among most readers!

Disclaimer that this was one of those offerings directly from Berkley, not something I picked for myself - should've noticed it was labeled general fiction. This book was a bizarre mix of telenovela-worthy family drama, self-help manifesto, and mediocre womens fiction. It didn't even do any of the above particularly well; there's also a lengthy TW list I've attached to the end of my review.

First, the good, because I believe in balanced reviews when I can manage them. It was quite refreshing to see Alopecia representation on-page. Main character Reeva and her sisters, each distinct millennial archetypes, were good vehicles to explore the issues plaguing the modern Indian diaspora. The writing included a few good observations and funny lines. I learned about Gujarati, and some more Indian religious practices.

But, and to play off the title - I wish I hadn't wasted my time on this. I found the characters hateful, not at all aided by the internalized racism flavoring the narrative (the protagonist even acknowledges her own on-page, lol), and they do absolutely despicable things to each other, which is all tidied up with some lame heart to hearts and forgiveness at the end, because they're family. Or Something. As a queer who has cut off most of my blood family, I am entirely off-put by narratives that push the "reconcile despite anything because we share blood" agenda. No.

The pacing is glacial, and the book is a lot of long conversations of emotional excavation and trauma resolution. This could be bearable, but there wasn't enough unf to even the mysterious faked-death plot to give the story some flavor. It literally reads like a self-help book for long, long passages, through which characters spill their guts, analyze complicated feelings about family, and even, in one scene, go through a very detailed hypnotherapy-slash-emotion counseling session.

And...just a lot of terrible stuff happens. The inciting incident for the whole plot is of course the paternal death, but there are other sad things that happen, as well as the rundown of various awful stuff the sisters did to each other. Like, everyone here is making the worst decisions. The ending tries for a preachy, self-helpy optimistic tone, but this was simply an unpleasant book with little to redeem the time I spent on it. I saw other reviewers skimmed parts - golly, I wish I had.

Now for TWs. The most significant is for animal death and mention of violence towards animals. There's a major misunderstanding which leads to many, many horrible lines about cat killing, a cat being murdered, every awful turn of phrase you can imagine. And characters are <i>flippant</i> about this hypothetical tragic and horrifying act, because it wasn't a human child. I was so turned off.
Other TWs include alcoholism, alcohol-fueled domestic violence towards a child, the aforementioned alopecia, a character dying of cancer, internalized racism (specifically mentions of colorism, among other stereotyping throughout). There is also a past cheating event committed between siblings which is alluded to a lot.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!

I stayed up late reading this. It was so quick and entertaining that I couldn’t put it down. And I wanted to know the family’s history. The writing was a beautiful balance of humour and many types of love (romance, familial) while also handling some darker and serious tones.

I appreciate how Reeva was more traditional with her lifestyle. She’s very much like me. I find that a lot of modern protagonists are pretty progressive so it was refreshing to read someone who still had “older” values like wanting marriage and kids. Although it was an interesting perspective for her to get called out on her values (personally attacked a bit there, but I loved it) and see her better understand other views.

The Inheritance Games wishes it was like this. (Hot take from me, I know). I was definitely more invested in this family drama plot line here. Reeva’s family was way more interesting and developed which helped because I could differentiate them (an issue I sometimes have when books have big families and everyone is kind of the same). It was comforting to get to know everyone and see Reeva familiarize herself with her unknown family which fixing her bond with her sisters. And everyone had some sort of character development by the end of the book which was amazing.

Finding out the truth behind everything bumped it up to five stars. The way my jaw dropped …

Yeah, no. I read Radhika Sanghani's other book and did not like it, but I always give second chances in publishing. But Radhika manages to make me despise this book faster than she made me dislike her debut. First dozen pages and its filled with enough internalized racism for me to DNF it right then and there. As subtle as it may be to non Desi folks, I'm not putting up with it in books anymore. It's 2023 for goodness sake.

I wish I had liked the characters more but as the story went on, I found their language and attitudes unpleasant to read and follow and I had to skip through the book in order to finish.

I really enjoyed this book, especially the family intricacies. The main character was so relatable, in that she felt disconnected from her Indian culture and could not speak Gujarati, a reality for many diaspora South Asians today. This was a wonderful read, albeit complicated and messy, but wonderful nonetheless. Overall, the novel was a bit crazy with the whole death faking, but in the end I found Sanghani portraying a very honest and real South Asian family dynamic.

Reeva Mehta's life has not gone as she's wanted, to top it all off, her Bollywood famous mother calls to tell her that her father has died. Seems sad, except Reeva thought her father had died when she was five. Now she is being forced to stay in her father's home, with her two estranged sisters, to complete his last rites.

I enjoyed this book, although there were parts that really frustrated and annoyed me. Reeva's sisters were so ready to vilify their father for possibly cheating, yet the fact that Rakesh did the same thing, if not worse, wasn't thrown back at them. Also, maybe I'm a strict parent, but Sita's kids were brats and nobody seemed to discipline them.
I really felt bad for Reeva and totally empathized when she felt at her lowest point. I love how her character grew for her own betterment. She was definitely a bigger person than me, especially when it came to her sisters. Jaya was completely obtuse and Sita was a b**ch. I actually liked Saraswati, at least she owned her personality and faults.
I look forward to reading more by this author. Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Reeva Mehta’s life is a bit at a standstill. She is still astranged from her sisters and barely sees her super star mother. She is happy to work at a midlevel law firm as a midlevel partner.

Suddenly this all changes when she finds out that her father has just passed - the father that she had thought passed THIRTY YEARS AGO. He has requested in his will that his children come together and spend time in his home during his funeral prayers. This causes great stress to Reva and her alopecia acts up.

Can Reeva solve mystery of her father's 30 year disappearance? Wills he make up with her sisters? Finally solidify her relationship with the man she is dating? Make peace with her cat and her alopecia? Read more to find out! This was a fun novel but I found that everything didn't quite come together. Everything was VERY BIG and VERY DRAMATIC but not quite believable. However I did enjoy that sister issues and the boyfriend problems and had fun with the book. #IWishWeWerentRelated