I absolutely loved this book all the way up to the end, where it completely dropped off. When it abruptly closed out, the first words out of my mouth were, “That’s it?!” I can see now that it’s part of a three-book series, but at the time it was published, I can only imagine how disappointing that must have been for readers. Just an FYI – the series follows the three women and three men introduced in this book, so I would highly recommend starting here before diving into the other two, as this one sets the foundation.

While I have no interest in reading the other two, my assumption (and sheer hope) is that Prem and Kareena’s story continues through those books, giving the reader some type of clear closure about what happens rather than just leaving us to make assumptions, since they have become a love match. 

Again, I truly enjoyed the story, but I’ll definitely say that, having very little knowledge of Punjabi and Gujarati culture, a lot of things went over my head or were outside my comprehension. My approach was just to accept what was being described and move on with the story – or I Googled it to better educate myself.

As for the characters, I absolutely loved Kareena’s strength and presence. She is the type of female protagonist I admire and tend to root for in a story. Even when she was on the verge of compromising her beliefs for what she truly wanted (her mother’s house), she still chose herself above everything else. I also enjoyed the evolution of Prem’s character. In some contemporary romances, the character who resists has an unrealistic lightbulb moment, and you can’t figure out how they came to the conclusion that suddenly allows the two main characters to be together. In this one, we watched Prem’s resistance, but also saw everyone around him trying to help him see what he didn’t, to translate what he was saying from a different perspective, to help him understand how he really felt despite the logical arguments he continuously made. It was endearing and made me root for things to work out for him – for both of them.