When I heard that there was a new YA Desi romance coming out, I was really excited. However, I didn't realize this was a groundhog day style book. Raina wakes up again and again, only to relive the same day. Instead of being a compelling YA novel about herself and her family, this was a repetitive, and at times, boring, novel. I couldn't really understand why she liked her boyfriend so much, and there wasn't much explanation given for the groundhog day style of storytelling. Raina was a flat character, and it was hard to understand her ambitions during the repetitive storytelling. I also started this book under the pretense that it was a story about falling in love. However, the love interest is already her boyfriend. I think this is partly an issue of me not enjoying the book, and partly a marketing issue on the part of the author and publisher. Why say this is a YA romance set within the competitive Desi dancing outlet, when it is actually, in fact, a groundhog day living-the-same-day-again-and-again story about a girl having relationship issues with her boyfriend? There is very little actual dancing going on in the story, as well as barely any context about her dance team. I wish this story was what I was promised, but it wasn't. A sore sore disappointment in my opinion.

i love ananya and her books so much, i knew i was a fan for life since kismat connection and this just solidified my stand. i have rarely read a romance about an already existing couple and the way this was executed the miscommunication, the issues that can arise was something i really liked, the magical realism part was definitely my favourite, seeing how each day or more like each chance unfolded was incredible, sometimes funny sometimes sad as even though i knew the whole iyer love prophecy thing ( read book one for it ) i got sad every time they broke up.
all in all this was a really good spin off series with a lot of confusion, romance and the perfect amount of bollywood.

Not 100% sure about a proper rating, but it definitely rounds up to 4 stars on goodreads! I'm honestly not too picky when it comes to romcoms (may be related to age & relatableness, but I only love YA romcoms), something I've realised as I've received many eARCs since I started reviewing. This is a good thing, as I've learned that romcoms are so fun!

With the main character Raina, I can see some disliking her: she closes herself off to others who aren't family, can be dismissive of her boyfriend's feelings, and focuses too much on perfection and doing what is expected. But I honestly understood her, and could relate to the unwillingness to be vulnerable to non-family. Plus, she goes through a lot of character growth!

The romance was sweet (pretty sure this is the most romantic teenage boy I've ever read about) but also filled with a lack of communication, something that the time loop and its (almost) endless breakups really highlights to Raina. So, Raina's development through the book made the ending a satisfying one!

Personally, I enjoy consuming fiction with time travel and other similar elements, because they always make me wonder about how I would react in a similar scenario, especially with time loops. I definitely understood why Raina reacted the way she did and I liked how she did try to do things a little differently each time.

Overall, I had a fun time reading this book, though something felt missing to me (I can't place it at the moment, but it's not a big deal). Still, it was a great romcom, and I enjoyed it!