The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev

For nine months Sonali Dev's books have sat on the bookshelves of the independent bookshop in which I work.  For nine months I have watched them fly off our shelves.  For nine months I had myself convinced that they were not my type of book.  I love romance, obviously, but I prefer light hearted romantic mysteries, mostly contemporary because I like to understand my settings and characters. I had never encountered a romance novel that involved Bollywood nor Indian culture in general.

However, a week ago Sonali Dev found herself in our bookshop and engaged in a conversation with yours truly.  After meeting such a fascinating woman and getting a first hand run down of her novels there was no way I was going to be able to resist reading her books.  I bought The Bollywood Bride and grabbed the advanced reader copy of her next book: A Change of Heart (review to come).

Today I needed a new book for the elliptical and grabbed The Bollywood Bride.  This novel follows Rai, a successful Bollywood actress with a dark and troubled past, and Vikram, the boy who changed her life and whose heart she later shattered.  Now, after ten years apart, they are thrust back together to celebrate their cousin's wedding.  Rai is swamped in secrets, Vikram is holding onto his rage, but together they are battling a continued passion for one another.  

I'll be honest, there were a couple times during the book that the Indian phrases and cultural activities confused me, however, Sonali does a phenomenal job of explaining the definitions and meaning behind activities without being overt about it.  Despite my ignorance pertaining to the Indian culture I still found myself enjoying the novel greatly. 

The Bollywood Bride is a darker type of romance novel than I usually choose to read.  I like tension and suspense in my novels, though usually that comes from not knowing who the murderer is.  In the case of this novel the tension and suspense came from knowing Rai's deepest, darkest secrets, and also knowing that Vikram knew nothing.  In the most troubling moments of the novel I found myself desperate to flip to the end to make sure everything would end alright (I resisted, but it was quite the internal battle).  

Sonali Dev knows how to write, that much is clear, but she also knows how to write raw emotions and believable characters.  This book was a deep, emotional, riveting read that had my heart breaking and soaring at different moments.  As a plus, I also learned a lot about Indian culture and the Bollywood scene.  I recommend this book to romance readers wholeheartedly, but especially to anyone looking to break out of the typical romance novel mold.