Right off the bat, Nisha Sharma's Radha and Jai's Recipe for Romance looked like an absolute treat, and I am happy to say I was not disappointed ... I laughed, I Googled words, and I wept as I finished the book in the wee hours of the morning. It was a beautiful thing to witness both Jai and Radha find their joy.
A simple, sweet novel about two teenagers who share a passion for dance and manage to fall in love while tackling their worst insecurities. Teenagers will love it and adults who enjoy sweet romances will likely be swept away by it too ... Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance is a sugar-sweet slice of romantic comedy that’s the right kind of tropey. Fun, with genuinely moving character-driven moments and meditations on grief and avocation, it manages to strike a nice balance between the developing romance between our hero and heroine and some serious family-driven character development.
This entertaining novel alternates between Jai’s and Radha’s third-person perspectives. Changes in their relationship, and between each of them and their immigrant families, are well paced, authentic, and page-turning. Both characters are well developed and easy to root for. A perceptive and textured romance.
Sharma deftly crafts a sweet romance steeped in food, dance, and desi culture ... Financial and medical issues intersect with familial pressures in ways that relatably shape the well-wrought characters’ lives, while humor and romance leaven the quickly paced book’s exploration of serious topics.
