This was such good fun! I went in with mid to low expectations because I’ve been let down a lot this year with contemp romance but this was FANTASTIC! High on chemistry, loved the banter, the puns were a personal favourite!! It was up it was down it was different enough from the standard romcom that I was hooked but not so different that it lost the essence of the genre; it was so well done!
I loved the plot, I loved that they had things going on in their separate lives aside from the romance, it definitely made them feel more 3D. It got a little convoluted towards the end but I have a feeling that was maybe a setup for a spin off book about the best friend and brother….? Unsure but that did get a little distracting- nothing major though.
To be completely fair, all of the back and forth could have been avoided if he just went to therapy bUT that’s besides the point 😭 It was well paced, it was good, it was funny, it was wholesome and sweet and comforting, I also appreciated the low steam, it left a lot more space for dialogue and plot progression.
It was just a really good, really solid romance! Can’t wait to read more from this author 🥰

This was a definite 5 star review for me. This is the best book I’ve read with the fake relationship trope. Often it’s quite easy for this trope to be quite cringey as the characters can seem really silly as it’s obvious they both like each other. But this book does not do that at all. I also think the trope worked really well in the context of arranged marriages too.
The pace of the book was perfect, they didn’t fall too quickly and didn’t realise too slowly.
The characters were all loveable and their backstory’s felt raw and real. I love the development of the main characters through the book.
I fell sad that the book is over. I wanted to keep reading about their life and I could definitely see me re-reading this book again in the future.
100% recommend this book.

Meghna and Karthik meet via their parents. Although sparks do not fly on their first meeting, Karthik later calls Meghna and proposes a fake engagement to get his mum off his back about getting married. Meghna takes him up on the offer with the agreement that he'll be her plus one for her friend's wedding.

In the efforts to make their relationship believable to the rest of the world, they end up falling for each other. However, there is a lot of miscommunication between the two and being two educated people, it just felt odd. There were also subplots involving Karthik's father, a relationship between Meghna's brother and best friend, and the infuriating character that was Seth.

I did find at times that the writing really dragged, especially when it came to dialogues and that the ending was quite rushed - but overall Say You'll Be My Jaan was a sweet light read.

This has all the best romance tropes: grumpy x sunshine, fake dating/engagement, and miscommunication. It weaved in several storylines to do with Meghna and Karthik's lives alongside their own romantic arrangement. In particular, I was interested in Karthik's dad's misgivings.

I did really enjoy this and had read Yinka, Where's Your Huzband? but I anticipated a lot more to learn about Indian culture. The only other one slight let down was the incredibly bad "acting" coming from Ankita when it became clear she was hiding a secret. I think we all knew what it was!

All in all, this kept me reading till the very end. A thoroughly light-hearted and enjoyable read!

Wow!!! I LOVED this book so much!!

THIS is how you do fake engagement! Meghna and Karthik were the perfect not perfect MC's and their chemistry was palpable. I was absolutely hooked.

Meghna and Karthik agree to a fake engagement to appease their parents and so that Meghna has a date for the wedding of her friend (who she still has a thing for) but while you can fake an engagement, pretending you DON'T have feelings for each other is much harder!

This rom-com offers a heartwarming and refreshing portrayal of Indian culture, exploring its influence on relationships, parenthood, and family values—an enriching perspective on cultural representation.

Meghna and Karthik form a pact in the form a fake-engagement to navigate an ex's wedding and appease their parents' matchmaking efforts. While somewhat predictable, it was thoroughly engaging as it addresses rom-com clichés through relatable protagonists and their honest responses to obstacles that impacted their interactions. You can't help but sympathise with them both, making the miscommunication part a less painful ordeal! Which was the only frustration but considering their circumstances, the miscommunication felt well accounted for. The romance unfolded sensibly, pacing itself as both characters evolved individually, contributing to their growth as a real couple. I particularly enjoyed their mutual support amid aspirations and personal challenges.

This was a truly lovely and thoroughly entertaining read! Also, it sets the stage for a potential series that delves into the stories of the supporting characters, which I look forward to (:

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for this ARC and introducing such a delightful debut from Naina Kumar!

Meghna hasn’t had much luck in her past relationships and her parents have no issue with her finding her own, but maybe she needs a little help from them..

Karthik will ever get married, it’s that simple. He’s seen his parents fall out of love and his father turn into someone he isn’t and he just doesn’t want that. But then he meets Meghna and a plan begins to form..

Let me start by saying that any man that tries to calm a situation with ice cream is a going to be a win in my book.

I really enjoyed this one, it’s two of my favourite tropes: grumpy/sunshine and fake dating and they are a such a good pairing. Especially when you add a sprinkle of he falls first (but just doesn’t have the words).

Meghna and Karthik are adorable to watch work out their fake relationship. There are some really sweet moments and equally frustrating ones where you end up shouting at the book - “you like her just tell her!”, just me that shouts at fictional characters?

I sobbed at the ending, it was super cute and a very fitting end. I’m excited to see what Naina Kumar comes up with next!

Say You’ll Be My Jaan is out January 14th and if you love a good romance then I definitely recommend pre-ordering.

I really enjoyed reading this story written from 2 different viewpoints. At times it was frustrating that the characters weren’t more open with each other, as this would’ve solved a lot of this problems, but to be honest would we not do the same in their situation given the misunderstandings about each others feelings. I wish a bit more story had been given to our heroine’s best friend, as it felt like there was a story developing there, but the author ran out of time to finish it, but overall it was a lovely romance, and nice to not have the main characters being all American blonde hair, blue eyed popular types for a change. Bring on more diverse characters like these; they were great!

A great debut!
I enjoyed the different tropes with the characters having a good amount of growth.
It had such a rich and beautifully portray of Indian culture!

A great romance- a little too much miscommunication for me but hey!

Say you'll be my Jaan wasn't wholly what I was expecting, but I loved it all the same. The perfect romance for lovers of a fake-dating/engagement and grump/sunshine tropes. Meghna is still hung up on her college boyfriend, so when she gets an out of the blue invitation to his wedding and then gets asked to be his best man, she realises she needs a distraction, needs to move on. Enter Karthik. Karthik has vowed never to marry, he see's how unhappy his mother is, and he's so afraid of turning into his father and forcing that life on someone else. When they get paired by their parents, the two make a deal, a fake-engagement. For Meghna, for support for the wedding and for Karthik, to get his parents off his back. Three months of fake, happily engaged bliss... what can go wrong, right?

Meghna was a character I instantly empathised with. She's warm, loving and simply wants a life filled with the love her parents have for one another... not too much to ask for. Unfortunately, being hung up on your college boyfriend tends to put a spanner in the works on any future romance. She ache's for something more in life, someone to settle down and have a family with. And on the flip side we have Karthik, someone who wants nothing to do with marriage, or so he claims. He is absolutely the grump to Meghna's sunshine, but while she grew up in a household filled with warmth and love, he grew up in one that felt ice cold, with the only love he felt coming from his mother.

I think one of the things I loved about this was how well the author wove the culture of both families into the story. It was chock full of cultural references, with the arranged marriage, as well as the fact that the characters come from different parts of India and I enjoyed getting to learn the nuances between their two cultures. It wasn't representation for representations sake, instead their customs and heritage played such a huge part of the overall story and really helped develop them as characters. I did also enjoy the kind of side plot that wove throughout the story about Meghna and Seth, the ex she still holds a flame for. We as the reader could see the truth of him way before she could, and I enjoyed seeing Karthik take no shit when it came to their relationship and be more than willing to call her out.

I did enjoy the romance, the banter especially was off the charts and I loved the scenes where we see the characters be a bit more open with one another, allowing their feelings to show through. It's grump/sunshine, there's only one bed, slow burn romance at it's best. What I didn't love was the amount of misunderstandings these two went through. It seemed like every other page or so there was some sort of misunderstanding, mainly blamed on Karthiks lack of emotional depth, but the man surely can't be that oblivious. I don't mind a little bit of it in a romance, it adds to the tension after all, but I just felt it happened way too often and I also felt like some of the reactions to these situations were blown a little bit out of proportion. We did get a nice spicy scene towards the end of the book that I loved and tbh, despite the multiple misunderstandings, I still adored these two absolute idiots in love,

Overall I loved this book and am hoping the author is planning to write more books focusing on Meghna's and Karthiks friends who play small parts in this one, but add plenty of humour and sometimes tension to the story. If you like your romances slow burn, with basically two idiots in love, plenty of culture and a great side plot I would highly recommend giving this a go.

Loved this book. Great debut and loved the chemistry of the main characters. Wasn’t too overloaded with plot but just enough to tide through. Enjoyable cosy read.

I absolutely loved this. It was so cute, yet, the obstacles the two face are so refreshingly realistic. It’s funny, edge of your seat romance and an easy five stars from me. Huge thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Say You'll be my Jaan is a sweet, adorable romance and made even better now I've read what Jaan means. My thanks to Netgalley for my early copy in return for an honest opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley for an eARC of Say You'll Be My Jaan.

This was an adorable story of a fake engagement between a middle school teacher and an engineer. Meghna is full of life and joy - and her vibrance is fully explained when we meet her loving parents. On the other hand, Karthik is more stoic and serious, and guards himself from an emotionally unavailable parent. It was lovely to see the different types of marriages (love marriage and arranged marriage), as well as see the process of arranged marriages being portrayed in a positive light.

I adored the tropes in this story: fake engagement, grumpy sunshine, only one bed (however the spice is minimal, maybe butter chicken level) and he falls first. The characters are quite mature so they have conversations and give each other advice about their careers.

However, I didn't enjoy: the amount of miscommunication, cheating (only the side characters) and minimal spice.

This would have been a five star read but, after I finished, I realised that aside from the main characters being either half or fully Tamil, there was no Tamil representation throughout the book. We had a lot of North Indian representation, such as Hindi jokes, the food, the clothes, the actor that Karthik is compared to is from Bollywood. The arranged marriage process is called a 'rishta' instead of the Tamil equivalent and even the term of endearment that Meghna's Tamil father calls her is in Hindi. The characters' Tamil heritage seemed redundant and somewhat performative.

Loved it, would recommend. The things we do to keep our families happy, prearranged marriages, misunderstandings, crossed wires, it's all here in a lovely book.
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

Love, love, loved this book!
It was great to see the new take in ‘introduced marriages’ described in a truly realistic way.
The characters of Karthik & Meghna had been devoted really well and were a joy to read and share in their story.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review this book.
I will definitely be recommending.

Once of my favourite romances of this year, hitting an arcade style win on all your favourite and most loved tropes - sunshine x grumpy/opposites attract, fake relationship/fake engagement, forced proximity, only one bed, and yet there is so much mor to offer in this debut by Naina Kumar. Our protagonists Meghna, a teacher who dreams of writing plays for grand theatres one day, and Kartik, an engineer who has no intention of ending up in an arranged marriage, are formally introduced to each other by their families. After their initial meeting they decide they're not compatible but faking their engagement for three months could have its benefits - Meghna needs a plus one to her best friend's wedding and Kartik just need an excuse for his mum to stop introducing him to girls, period. As they start spending more time each other under their guise of their engagement, its only a matter of time before sparks fly....but with the three month countdown looming and their parent's expectations growing with each passing day, what happens once the wedding is over and the excuses finally run out?
This is a phenomenal debut. A perfect blend of Asian heritage and western culture, I have to laud the representation - as a British Asian of Indian descent, I found myself laughing out loud and nodding away at so many references (That's not to say this read isolates - definitely a book for all romance lovers!). Amongst the romance tropes, thoug , there is a depth to the writing which adds an emotive edge to the plot. The scenarios are relateable and conflicting emotions are expressed with such finesse that the story unfolds beautifully. The character development is brilliant and nuanced so that, although there are heavier topics (gender bias/adultery) which are brought up within the narrative, they are dealt with discreetly and with sensitivity. I found myself choking up as I was reading and it definitely wasn't something I was expecting. Meghna and Kartik and (some) supporting characters are very likeable which just made it a smooth sailing read - I couldn't put this one down! Congratulations Naina, I am *so* glad your friend encouraged you to write a romance novel for your first - I will eagerly await the next! Thank you @vikingbooksuk and @netgalley for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for an unedited honest review.

My favourite thing about reading if that you go through the emotions along with the characters and boy I did go through it with this one!

I went into this feeling it would be a light hearted fake engagement romantic comedy but instead we went through the impacts of family trauma, unrequited love and pressures of family tradition.

I really liked both characters, I loved Meghna’s no nonsense attitude and Karthik’s grumpiness which was really a cover for his deepest fears.

I loved how the relationship wasn’t clear and easy to follow, I liked the complicated nature of it and how the author didn’t gloss over the impact family can have on how we perceive love.

Instead both characters built a relationship built on friendship and supported each other in overcoming their struggles themselves.

Although this wasn’t what I initially anticipated the book was so much more!

I’m not really a romcom reader, but I read this in two days; I was absolutely hooked! It was great to read an Indian romcom with fully developed, complex characters with their own narrative voices and agendas. I loved the references to Indian culture, words, food and family relationships…I felt there were a few loose ends that didn’t get fully tied up, however I still really enjoyed the overall plotline, particular the split narration. I would love to read Kumar’s next book!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I haven't even finished it yet but I love this book! I'm already thinking of people I'm going to recommend it to. The characters are lovable and the storyline balances the 'will they, won't they' storyline perfectly.

I can totally see this being turned into a film screenplay - sending that thought into the universe so that it happens.