Naomi Kelly will do anything to make her new brand consulting business a success. When she lands a career saving contract to rebrand the Mukherjee family’s failing local bazaar, she knows there can be no mistakes. But as the “oops” baby of a free-spirited Bengali mother, Naomi’s lack of connection to her roots represents everything Gia Mukherjee disdains.
Enter, Dev Mukherjee.
Dev knows everything his mother wants…including her wish for him to get married, like, yesterday. When Gia hires a matchmaker (without, you know, asking him), Dev vows to do whatever it takes to avoid ending up in a cold, loveless marriage. When a potential match assumes Naomi is his girlfriend, the solution to both their problems becomes clear: Naomi will pretend to date Dev in order to sabotage his mother’s matchmaking efforts in exchange for lessons in Bengali culture. Flawless plan, right?
But as Naomi and Dev bond over awful dancing at Garba, couples cooking classes, and tackling the rebrand as a team, they start to realize while their relationship may be fake, their feelings for each other are starting to become very real. As the line between reality and rumor blurs, Naomi and Dev must confront what it means to fit the mold, and decide how much they’re willing to risk for love.
Release Date: Sep 10, 2024
Heat Level: Sensual
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley
Price: $10.99
A solid debut!
This was one of the new to me authors for 2025, and I’m happy I gave Sunshine and Spice a shot. It turned into a heartfelt, less rom-com romance. There is a solid grumpy/sunshine vibe between the characters that will appeal to those who love the trope.
Taking a step back, I won’t rehash the blurb. What’s familiar? This has the age-old opposites attract, grump/sunshine, forbidden romance vibe. The hero, Dev, comes from a South Asian family steeped in culture and tradition. Whereas Naomi, our heroine, was raised with a more Western approach. Naomi gets tangled up with Dev when she’s hired to oversee his mother’s store rebrand. Except Dev needs more help, he’s currently the target of his mother’s matchmaking schemes. What better way to get those potential brides off his back than faking a relationship with Naomi in return for helping her make the rebrand a success?
What makes this story unique? The main characters, the setting, the entire dynamic of the story. There is so much to unpack, from the cultural elements present to Naomi’s constant feeling of ‘other’ as she interacts with Dev and his family, longing for her own connection to a culture she lost out on growing up.
There are constant dynamics between what both Naomi and Dev want and the expectations that have been ingrained in them since childhood. For Dev, it’s his desire to be an obedient son, not to make waves when everyone else in his family is known for causing disruption. For Naomi, it’s being raised to be her own person without cultural ties or expectations yet craving what Dev has always taken for granted. This push and pull is what dragged me into the story after the book had a bit of a slow start. However, I won’t lie; series firsts tend to have a slow momentum sometimes as they set the tone and world.
For the overall story pacing, once the adhesion beat takes place, locking Dev and Naomi into a partnership of sorts filled with heat and attraction, I couldn’t stop reading. I enjoyed the ride of Dev and Naomi falling for each other and was equally eager for when it would all fall apart like a house of cards. Palit did a great job of keeping me guessing, and I couldn’t really predict how this would end.
Overall, if you are looking for something with a touch of the familiar, though with an immersive romance from a totally different perspective, Palit brings a breath of fresh air to the contemporary genre. For readers who enjoy Nisha Sharma.
~ Landra
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