I really enjoyed both the romantic and cultural elements of this story. I felt they struck a good balance throughout and the story kept me interested from start to finish.

Rating: 5/5 stars
Steam level: Open-door scenes

Thoughts:
Once in a while, I find a book that completely matches the tune of my heart and soul. It hits all the right notes and makes me feel seen in the best of ways, giving me a special type of euphoria that can only result from emotional validation. Sunshine and Spice is that kind of book for me. It has great pacing, lovable characters, and a vulnerable representation of difficulties that first- and second-generation immigrants might face.

Dev and Naomi’s subtle romance development features their endearing friendship, undeniable chemistry, and meaningful steamy scenes. However, due to their respective traumas, they both make hurtful mistakes. Although it would be so easy to vilify either of them for their actions, it’s clear upon closer inspection that their flaws are a product of their complex upbringings, which lead readers through a deeply emotional romance journey characterized by angst, affection, and personal growth.

Additionally, this book honors the unique experience of being a second-generation immigrant. For example, the author depicts feelings of being othered, the conflicting state of being in between cultures, and the complex, profound sense of gratitude that someone in this situation may feel for the parents who have sacrificed everything to give their families even the slightest chance at a better life–all while acknowledging the desire for individuality and meeting one’s own emotional needs. There’s no single answer to reconciling these experiences, which the author rendered beautifully and in the context of a sweet romance between two souls struggling to find their places in life. While this may not be everyone’s experience, this perspective was written very well.

If you are looking for your next book to read, I hope you try this one. Even if it’s not to your taste, I believe there is something in it for every reader to enjoy.

I received a free advanced copy via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Read this if you like:
- Pillow talk
- Grumpy, softie MMCs
- Sensitive, thoughtful FMCs
- Communicative, observant consent kings

I DNF'ed this - the first 100 pages were boring and couldn't keep me engaged. The writing felt like a continuous monologue inside the main FMC's head. I just wanted to know what was happening around her too!!!

Naomi Kelly started her own brand consulting helping small businesses get a refresh to make them more markable. Out on her own, Naomi is a bit desperate for this new job to help pay her ever mounting bills. The Mukherjee family eclectic store, run by the widowed matriarch, Gia, is in serious need of a rebrand. While they are Bengali, as is Naomi, she was raised far and away from her cultural heritage by her hippy, free spirit mother who felt oppressed by her parents.

Middle son and family peacemaker, Dev Mukherjee, has been living at home and helping his mother, secretly having quite his accounting job. Gia decides no good Bengali son can continue life without an arranged marriage and so hires a matchmaker much to Dev’s horror. While Dev is helping Naomi at the store in which she only has three months to turn around, one of the enthusiastic potential brides mistakes her for his girlfriend. They hit on a plan to their mutual benefit: she pretends to be Dev’s girlfriend while he helps Naomi get in touch with the Bengali culture.

Naomi is keeping secrets from Dev about her heritage because she has always felt out of step, fitting in nowhere, caught between her white stepfather’s background and a mother who refuses to acknowledge her Bengali family and their values. Naomi’s mother, “Sue,” felt oppressed and, conversely, rejected after having a baby out of wedlock. Naomi longs to belong while Dev can barely stand all the drama and demands of his own large and extended family.

Dev is used to going with the flow no matter how miserable it makes him. At times I felt frustrated with Dev that he did not “man up;” however, I can understand his not wanting to alienate such a very bossy and demanding family. He has much to learn about standing for what and who he wants while Naomi so desperately desires to belong, but not at the cost of her hard-won lifestyle. The author portrays well the dichotomy first generation South Asian Canadians feel when their upbringing clashes with new and disparate ways of modern society.

*Bengali culture
*Canada setting
*mother and aunties who make their own plans for the MMC
*matchmakers for arranged marriages
*fake dating

I loved the synopsis and I thought the premise sounded both interesting and adorable.

Unfortunately, I wanted to like this one more than I did; it’s a perfectly serviceable romance but I wanted more from the story.

I will read more by Ms Palit in the future, but this one wasn’t a favorite.



Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the DRC

Thank you Berkley Publishing for the advanced copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I really wanted to love this book, but did not. I found it very slow in the beginning and then sorta half way through it picked up. It started as a fake relationship and turned into a happily ever after. Very predictable. Naomi and Dev's trials and tribulations were entertaining. It was a sweet way to pass the time.

Read This Book If…you enjoy learning more about cultures different from your own!

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Sunshine and Spice by Aurora Palit

Genre: romance
Spice Level: 3/5🌶, 1-2 explicit scenes
Setting: Kelowna, Canada
POV: dual, 3rd person, past tense
Tropes: grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, secret relationship

My Thoughts:
This was a quick, fun read! I enjoyed the unique premise of being disconnected or alienated from your own culture. I always love a Desi romance where they’re set on avoid matches made by their parents. However, I was a little bored throughout. I thought it told a lot instead of showed. For example, I feel like we missed a lot of these two actually falling in love. And if you’re going to do a trope like fake dating, I need more than just standing next to each other at a party!

Thank you to the publisher for my advance copy!

A sweet and sexy South Asian-Canadian romance. Naomi was raised in small-town (white) Canada, by her stepfather and her mother who fled her own restrictive Bengali upbringing.

Meanwhile Dev is trying to avoid his mother Gia's attempts to arrange a marriage for him. So when Gia hires Naomi as a brand manager for her cafe, Dev realizes that pretending Naomi is his girlfriend is the perfect way to avoid all the women that the matchmaker is sending his way.

And Naomi thinks that learning more about Bengali culture from Dev is an excellent way to set herself up for success with the cafe.

How can fake-dating possibly go wrong?

This book immediately grabs you and pulls you in. Situated in a familiar town to me, it follows Naomi and Dev who find themselves in a fake dating situation. Dev is trying to scare off potential set-ups from a matchmaker and Naomi is trying to make a career for herself by revamping Dev's mother's shop.

I really enjoyed the characters and this book, however the third-act breakup was just not it for me. I found it a bit out of character for Dev to react the way he did when he discovered Naomi's 'secret' )if you can really call it that) and I felt like his secret (which to me was the bigger deal) was never really revealed/dealt with. And then the rejoining of their relationship was rather rushed and it felt like nothing was totally resolved. This feeling was also driven by the issues with Dev's brother not being resolved either. Like was he just the same? Did he change at all for his wife?

Absolutely loved the culture and South Asian representation, but felt like the love story was a bit of an afterthought, and honestly could have done without it.

I really enjoyed this book it was fast paced but did not feel rushed. This book was more than just a romance story, it was the story of immigrants and children of immigrants and the struggles that comes with that. It was very realistic, touching on topics like culture, dating with-in and out of ones culture. Also I can never pass up on a grumpy x sunshine plot!

This was a lovely debut centering on Naomi, a brand consultant with a new business who feels disconnected from her roots and Dev, an accountant, who feels suffocated by his. Naomi wants her business to be successful but doesn’t know the first thing about her Bengali background and a new client where knowledge of Bengali culture is incredibly important. Dev, her client’s son, wants to avoid his mother’s matchmaking attempts and find a career that makes him happy. Dev agrees to help Naomi navigate unknown waters in exchange for her agreement to make him look unavailable to all the potential brides that are thrown his way. Both main characters have complex relationships with their respective families and have to navigate tricky expectations of those around them. This was a fun one with such beautiful prose. Word of advice though, don’t eat this one while hungry because all the references to and descriptions of delicious food does not help.

Thank you to Berkley & NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mini Book Review
Sunshine and Spice by Aurora Palit

Tropes and Thoughts
📚New to me author
📚Bengali culture- large part of the story surrounded how FMC was raised, this was referred to as “white washing”
📚Match making/arranged marriage
📚Meddlesome parents and Aunties
📚Fake dating- while a popular trope I am feeling over saturated with it lately
📚Life changes after death of a parent
📚 Balancing traditions and culture with modern westernized social “norms”
📚 Role parents play in our lives as adults, the effects of how we are raised on our thought processes

Overall
An ok read, I wished there was more detail about how FMC was raised, I think this would have provided more depth to character and given the reader more insight into her relationships
The Author did make attempts to link past experiences of parents but characters still didnt feel complete to me, the potential was there to add more complexity and detail but it didn’t seem to come forth

Thank you to @Berkeley and @netgalley for my digital ARC in return for an honest review. Opinions expressed are my own.

Absolutely delightful romance. Loved the character development and the push-pull of cultural influence on upbringing and life milestones (ad someone raised in the conservative Jewish community, I’ve lived it in similar if different ways). I loved that all of the characters were discrete individuals rather than trope placeholders and that hey, there are men who can admit they’re wrong!

The grass is always greener on the other side, but when you take the time to look around, you just might realize the blessings that surround you right where you are.

Naomi recently struck out on her own as a brand consultant and is struggling to make ends meet. She is out of money and needs to win a redesign contract for a local Indian-Canadian bazaar or she might have to reevaluate everything. She has Indian heritage, but has never been engrossed in the Bengali culture, and it makes her self-conscious in a place that is so culturally vibrant. Meanwhile, Dev, the middle son of the bazaar owner, is dodging prospective wives sent by the matchmaker his mother hired. He has no interest in marriage, based on the experience he's observed from the men in his own family. Soon, it becomes clear that he and Naomi could help each other. She could pretend to be a match for him, chasing away any others, and he could help her with decisions that would make the redesign feel authentic.

Dev feels suffocated by the Bengali culture his family celebrates. Large dinners and festivals that Naomi finds fascinating are standard fare for Dev, and he is critical of the way his father and brother have treated the women in their family. If that is his only option for marriage, he would rather never marry. But try telling that to his mother. He feels rebellious toward the pressure and control he's feeling from his family - he just wants to be left alone.

Naomi's mother left her culture behind once Naomi was born. She felt her family trying to control her and her decisions and cut herself and her daughter off from them by moving to a small rural town and marrying a white man. Naomi didn't go to school with people who looked like her, and she didn't eat Indian food at home growing up. As an adult she finds herself craving some of that culture, and soaks up every bit of it she gets to experience with Dev.

I enjoyed this story quite a lot. It was well plotted, giving the book constant forward momentum, and the characters were interesting. I don't know much about Indian culture, and it was really interesting to read about it in the context of this book. Dev's weekly big family dinners seem amazing. Like Naomi, I'd love to experience that sometime!

It is the personal dilemmas that drive the book, but the romance was nice too. Even though it is called Sunshine and Spice, I wasn't really expecting it to be spicy. I guess the matchmaker/arranged marriage element made me think maybe it would be more modest, but there is definitely some spice later in the book.

This is a story about finding your roots and embracing your blessings. It's about finding out who you want to be, even if it's almost exactly the opposite of what you always thought it was. It's about following your heart and deep connection. It's about hard work and paving your own way. It is a rich tapestry of themes, layered with flavor and spice, just like almost any meal in traditional Indian cooking.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for providing an arc copy in exchange for an honest review. I'm so glad I got to read this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of Aurora's debut book! The storyline in Sunshine and Spice was unlike any South Asian romance book I have read, which I really appreciated. Naomi's lack of connection to her Bengali roots becomes increasingly apparent when she's hired on to do the rebranding of a local bazaar for Dev's traditional, close-knit Bengali family. Insert a matchmaker, some fake dating, parental involvement, and let the fun begin!

The plot for the story was unique and delightful. I enjoyed seeing two characters with very different family dynamics - Dev being very traditional Bengali and Naomi not knowing much about her culture - as we often see Dev's perspective represented through South Asian romance, but never Naomi's. The tension between the two opposite upbringings pulled at my heart strings and paved the way for conversations in the book about cultural expectations and judgements.

I loved the Indian references throughout the book including gulab jamun baking, Garba, and traditional clothing. I also appreciated the characters discussing consent <3

While I loved the overall concept of the book, I did not feel like I got to know either of the main characters particularly well or sense a longing/desire between the two main characters. There were several phrases that were repeated throughout the book (coconut and sunshine) that felt repetitive and did not aid to building details of the characters and their story after being repeated so frequently. The romance and character investment was missing for me as the reader, but I do believe Aurora has a gift for creative concepts and I look forward to seeing what comes next from her.

Quotes:
- "In his opinion, their traditions were as tired and dusty as the suitcases they had used to immigrate from India to Canada thirty-seven years ago; it was unwanted baggage, yet another thing on a long list of what had made him different from the kids at school."
- "It was clear that this guy had never had his credit card declined at the grocery store."
- "Naomi had everything she wanted but now all she wanted was to run away."

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁:
💕 Fake Dating
🫶🏻 Desi Romance
🍩 Cinnamon Roll Hero
☀️ Grumpy x Sunshine

Sunshine and Spice is fast paced and fun desi romance perfect for any rom-com lover.

Naomi and Dev are both struggling with their culture whether it is being disconnected from it (Naomi) or feeling frustrated with expectations (Dev) and they find themselves fake dating to help them get through this time in their lives.

Naomi and Dev’s chemistry jumped off the pages! Although the story is fast paced, it was a bit of a slow burn with some excellent steamy scenes. I felt like I learned so much about Bengali culture with this book and it made me want to learn even more.

Pick this one up for a story that is both sweet and a bit steamy with no shortage of family, food and tons of fun.

I seriously could not put this book down. I enjoyed watching Dev simp so hard for Naomi so hard and I enjoyed the family and friend dynamics of this book. I was annoyed the Dev didn't really grovel as much as I'd like (I think I was rooting for Naomi too much and truly saw no fault in any of her actions and was kind of giving Dev side-eye for not really trying to understand her point of view) which would have probably raised this to 5 stars.

Excuse me, but why did this book make me cry a few times? Like, I need Aurora Palit to apologize for the emotional damages that I experienced. Let’s go back to why I was crying multiple times while I was reading this amazing woman fiction book.

First, I love how complex the main character, Naomi, is. There is so much about Naomi than she lets on. For instance, she wants to connect more with her heritage but feels silenced by her mother's stubbornness about not partaking in their Indian culture. It’s something Naomi feels deeply about but refuses to talk about at first.

Second, the amount of times I feel for Naomi because she is trying her hardest to prove herself to everyone. It’s always hard whenever someone thinks they are better than you because of their age, culture, or status. And that’s what Naomi is facing when she takes a new client, who’s preferring a certain type of person in the Indian community.

Lastly, I cried about how vulnerable and messy Naomi was. She literally was herself throat and through no matter what. Even though she was facing a disaster, she stayed true to herself. She built herself on her own without any of her mother's guidance or support from the Indian community. That’s why I will always support her messy decision.

If you want to read about an emotional yet messy woman fiction read, then this book is for you. I know that I loved it!

Naomi and Dev’s journey from a fake relationship to genuine love is a delightful rollercoaster of emotions. Their chemistry is electric, and the cultural insights add rich layers to the story. The hilarious and heartfelt moments, from awkward Garba dances to cooking disasters, kept me hooked from start to finish. The way they navigate their dilemmas and grow closer is beautifully portrayed, making this a captivating and heartwarming read. I loved every bit of this charming, culturally infused romance.