Beauty expert and influencer Jia Ahmed has her eye on the prize: conquering the internet today, the entire makeup industry tomorrow, and finally, finally proving herself to her big opinionated family. She has little time for love, and even less time for the men in her private messages—until the day a certain international superstar slides into her DMs, and she falls hard and fast.
There’s just one wrinkle: he has no idea who she is.
The son of a powerful Bollywood family, soap opera star Dev Dixit is used to drama, but a strange woman who accuses him of wooing her online, well, that’s a new one. As much as he’d like to focus on his Hollywood fresh start, he can’t get Jia out of his head. Especially once he starts to suspect who might have used his famous name to catfish her…
When paparazzi blast their private business into the public eye, Dev is happy to engage in some friendly fake dating to calm the gossips and to dazzle her family. But as the whole world swoons over their relationship, Jia can’t help but wonder: Can an online romance-turned-offline-fauxmance ever become love in real life?
Release Date: Feb 16, 2021
Series: Modern Love
Book: 3
Heat Level: Sensual
Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: Avon Books
Price: $10.99
The finale of Rai’s Modern Love series is fun and displays Rai’s author agility.
I’ve been reading this series since book one. My reviews of both The Right Swipe and Girl Gone Viral show me that my feelings towards this series haven’t waivered. I love the books, but each one misses the mark a tiny bit for me. In the grand part of storytelling, Rai has created a series of very different stories, with extremely different characters I believe they do a decent job of showcasing how social media has impacted romantic relationships and changed things.
The characters themselves, Dev Dixit, former Bollywood star and Jai Ahmed, a Muslim-American influencer on beauty is fabulous. Both characters have interesting backstory’s, even more interesting internal baggage and each one ends up getting involved with the other though not quite as intended. This story goes from a catfish to friendship and it’s so fun to watch it evolve.
Now, I won’t lie, I seen some other reviews for this book and there are some conflicting opinions about the heat level as well as the attraction between the main characters. My opinion is this, I feel like Dev and Jai have great chemistry that will only deepen with time. I loved how this book was different, how their coming together was different, influenced by their upbringing and backgrounds. To portray characters and a story so opposite of the other main characters in the series and still keep the same kind of tone and goal is a challenge that Rai pulled off.
Would I have liked more sexual tension between the two? Sure. Did it fit the characters? Nope. The story played out with a lovely Bollywood flair as well, which I think fit Jai, since she’s considered the one that’s ‘too much’. One could argue that Dev’s Bollywood Queen grandmother can compete in that category.
For fans of the series, this book also gives a nice touchbase on the relationships from the other books, ties into a previous Rai series and continues to build on the contemporary romance universe the author has created. Also, I now have a serious interest in Indian food and fell into a google hole of different varieties/recipes of roti and curries. My family is going to be at the mercy of my experimentation.
~ Landra
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