Thanks to Netgalley and Dell for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Way You’ll Be Mine is the first book I’ve read by Naina Kumar. The bright and beautiful fuchsia cover caught my eye.

For a debut, I wanted to be invested in the story but somehow it just was okay for me and felt like a rough draft with so much potential.

There was too much inner monologue instead of actually communicating with each other. There are huge sections of info dumps that could have shown instead of told.

I did like the representation of desi/Indian culture but it just didn’t have that spark of attraction between Meghna and Karthik until the middle to last part of the book. Then I could actually see the attraction between the two and developing love and affection.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

I liked this book! I had a little bit of trouble connecting with the characters, but I think that may have been more of a me problem than a problem with the book :-)

Meghna and Karthik agree to a fake engagement after their moms introduce them as an arranged marriage option. Meghna is hung up on her best friend and ex who is engaged. She wants a partner, but it's not Karthik. Karthik wants to stop going on traditional arranged marriage option setups without disappointing his mom. He has no intention of marrying. Ever. Let the cards fall where they may.

Calling all romance fans. This one is definitely swoonworthy and has more depth than many. The characters have history and complicated feelings about jobs, love, family and life in general. We all know where this is going, but the journey there is a joy to read. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a love story!

Meghna has not had success with love and now her college crush and BFF is engaged! Maybe this is the reason that she decides to meet a guy that her parents have deemed a potential match. But stoic and ridiculously handsome Karthik is not what she expected, especially since he has no interest in love or relationships. So what could possibly go wrong, or oh so right, when they decide to be fake engaged to help ease current stressors?

This book was so much fun! Meghna is a delight of a character and you can't help but feel for Karthik. This story would have been adorable just with the surface level plot, but there is so much more depth and emotion! Seeing the characters growth was the biggest delight I had while reading this book. There were a lot of places where the author could have just skimmed over a subplot, but she didn't do that she fully utilized those subplots to feed the overarching story. This resulted in a fully thought-out romance that felt real and teaches you.

Honestly, the only reason that you may not like this book is if you do not like the fake relationship trope. There are a couple of times that you want to yell at the characters, but how many times in your life did you just get something so wrong that your loved ones just want to shake you? That was the feeling that I had in these moments, which is in my opinion a compliment to the writing.

Overall, I loved so much about this book. The romance was spicy and sweet, the characters were rich and lovable, and the story was amazing. I honestly wish there were more romances like this and will be recomending it to all of my romance lovers. Thank you, Naina Kumar, for writing a book that made me feel so many things and still gave me a very life-like HEA.

Say You'll Be Mine by Naina Kumar. Pub Date: January 16, 2024. Rating: 3 stars. In this novel, two characters start a fake engagement to stop their families from hounding them about marriage. I thought this was a clever storyline to highlight the portrayal of Indian culture marriage, how some couples are selected to be married, etc. I learned a lot about the Indian culture through this novel. Such a cute story with a heartwarming ending. Thanks to #netgalley and #randomhousepublishinggroup for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Fake engagement/ fake dating is one of my favorite tropes and this is a cute romance for it. Meghna's best friend and secret crush tells her that he's engaged and asks her to be his best "man," she says yes to act like she can moved on. She asks her parents to matchmake her. Karthik is tired of his parents hounding him to get married and so after they meet, Meghna and Karthik agree to a fake engagement to solve both of their problems.

I really liked reading about the arranged marriage aspect of the story and the South Asian aspect of matchmaking, but I don't think the chemistry between Meghna and Karthik was as developed as it should be. I also hate miscommunication as a trope and this book had a lot of it in the plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this eARC. Say You'll Be Mine is out now.

Fake engagement, one bed, third-act breakup, there is truly something for everyone in this book.

"Say You'll Be Mine" kept me thoroughly entertained. I was surprised to find out that this is a debut novel for Naina Kumar. It was a fun read and I found myself rooting for the characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House- Ballantine for gifting me this ARC. I enjoyed it.

This was a cute fake engagement story about a guy trying to escape the cultural matchmaking and a woman trying to get over a crush on her soon-to-be married best friend.

If you’re looking for a cute romance with an Indian twist, then I would recommend Say You’ll Be Mine. Traditional Indian marriages are arranged and both MCs in this one are trying to appease their parents’ matchmaking pressures…and voilà, a fake engagement trope is born. I enjoyed both Meghna and Karthnik’s little quirks that made each one fall for the other. Solid, cute romance.

this was a super well written debut! very cute as well. it’s a slow burn which is always fun, but the miscommunication trope is one of my least favorite trope, and this one had a lot of that. aside from that, i enjoyed this one and would recommend it to the right person. I’d definitely read another release from this author as well!

thank you to netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this didn’t quite work for me. Something about the characters’ interactions with each other and the side characters didn’t feel completely natural and so wasn’t as invested in their story as I wanted to be.

I absolutely loved this book! What a wonderful debut for author Naina Kumar.

When Meghna's best friend/secret crush suddenly tells her she's engaged and asks her to be his best man, she will do anything to make it seem like she's moved on. She'll even agree to her parents finding her a husband the old matchmaking way. Luckily for Meghna, Karthik is tired of his parents hounding him about marriage and so the two decide to enter into a mutually beneficial fake engagement. These two couldn't be more opposite in nature and yet somehow they find comfort and support in each other, breaking down each other's walls and assumptions and discovering that maybe what they have been faking is better than what they thought they wanted.

I just love these 2 together! This was such a fun and cute read and I really liked the way the concept of arranged marriage was handled. I can't wait to read more from Naina.

4.5 stars rounded up

Thank you to Netgalley, Dell, and Random House for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this engagement book so much! this a new to me author but the vibes were so great. one bed. good chemistry, slowburn. I loved it!

Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was sooo cute! I really enjoyed it. I loved reading about the Indian culture, matchmaking, meddling families, wedding antics, grumpy x sunshine, and the fake engagement.

The audiobook made me laugh out loud.

This was a really sweet book. The entire time I’m rooting for the main characters to get together for real and share their feelings and innermost thoughts with one another. At times I did get frustrated with the characters in their lack of communication but it was a well written novel.

A good romance should give the reader the feeling that she has just fallen in love; we should be vicariously giddy. This book did not do that. The characters had no chemistry, and overall, it was a largely forgettable book that I could’ve dnf’d at any time without ever wondering more about it.

Wonderfully solid debut novel! I loved this slow burn romance with some Indian cultural references. It felt very real and authentic which I really appreciated. I love a fake dating/engagement situation. The banter and chemistry were great! I'd definitely read more from this author!!

I really enjoyed this book. (4.5 stars but there’s no half option!) The story focuses on Meghna and Karthik as they embark on a fake engagement scheme that will ultimately make them question big beliefs they each hold when it comes to what they want and what they will accept.

I loved the fake engagement in this and thought it worked really well against the backdrop of arranged marriages. It made it feel more plausible to me. Meghna had great character growth as she learned that what she thought was support may have been something totally different. Karthik also has good character growth as he realizes he might want love after all and it was nice to see a man in a book get help for his issues.

The love story was cute and I felt like there was enough about each character that I was invested in them and what happened to them as a couple. I really liked their epilogue as well because it was not at light speed in their relationship and it didn’t end with my least favorite trope as so many romance books do.

There’s a tiny bit of spice and it’s really well done, not explicit and actually gives you butterflies instead of making you cringe (well, if you’re like me and have a lot of words you can’t stand lol).

The book does lean heavily on the miscommunication trope or rather the no communication trope and it can be a little frustrating because I wanted them to just talk to one another, but it makes sense in the story given they’re faking and both think the other is more committed to continuing to only be fake engaged than they really are.

Overall, this book was sweet and I stayed up all night reading it, which is how I gauge just how committed I am to the story. I highly recommend it if you like lighthearted romance!

This book will probably end up being one of my top 2024 reads. Did I read it last year? Absolutely.. But it was published this year and I reread it this year so I get to make the rules!

Have I mentioned how much I love fake dating lately?!?! ! I love fake dating! I love watching two people fall in love, while trying not to fall in love, while keeping that love.secret. It’s swoon gold!

BUT THIS?!? Naina had to go and add my Kryptonite, Cultural expectations and family pressure! Ohhhhh the drama! I am here for this! This whole book is absolutely delightful and I could not recommend it more!

Thank you, NetGalley and Dell Paperback.