I like reading light for the summer months, novels/novellas that are fun and fast paced or a perplexing, mysterious sci-fi. This eBook pick from BookBub, Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron, is the author’s debut novel. It’s a mix of relationship, cultural and generational drama along with wonderful descriptions of food and cooking. This romantic comedy was a delight that left me smiling.
The protagonist, Reena Manji, a young Asian woman working in finance, with a talent for bread baking, lives in Toronto, Canada. Her family, originally from India, settled in Tanzania and then moved to Canada. So, the foods described in the book is crazy – if you like ethnic foods, give this a read. The foods of India, East Africa and Canada come together to express this family’s roots.
Reena meets Nadim Remtulla, a good-looking Asian man with an English accent, who just moved in to the apartment across the hall – to find out that he’s working with her father at his company, their fathers are old friends and they are expected to marry. Reena’s parents are always trying to set her up with a potential husband. She’s not having that, despite her several past failed relationships.
Reena has friends and a cousin that live in her building and they hang out often – wonderful banter with these characters. She learns from her friends that the Food TV Network is set to launch the Home Cooking Showdown, a show looking for new talent in ethnic cooking with a prize of a scholarship to a leading culinary arts institute in Canada. Attending culinary school is something Reena always wanted to do – the catch- the competition is for couples only, married or engaged.
Meeting up at the local bar after Reena loses her job, and a night of drinking, a drunk Nadim and Reena end up jokingly video taping them both cooking potato bhajias, after he finds the ad for the cooking competition. He sends it in and it’s accepted. Reena agrees to go forward with the competition only if Nadim understands that they are just friends only posing as an engaged couple.
Nadim and Reena have become close friends, despite their interfering parents and the possibility that Nadim may have a questionable past. The exchange and developing relationship between them is charming, captivating and amusing. The reader also gets a few tips on baking and cooking along the way. Reena actually has names for various bread starters and informs us of the best way to develop a successful starter.
As the competition rolls along, the on-camera chemistry between Nadim and Reena seems so real. She wants to tell him how she feels, wanting to know if he feels the same way, but she is afraid to – she’s had too many failed relationships and their families expect them to marry. But then it all hits a wall as Reena’s family finds out about Nadim’s past and why Nadim’s father brought him to Toronto. Reena is devastated – is this another failed relationship or can she and Nadim move past their secrets and parent issues?
Ok, I didn’t want to put this eBook down. I thoroughly enjoyed the ending. All the family members of Reena’s and Nadim’s are shamelessly involved, either trying to keep them apart or support them. While reading, you may find yourself rooting for them, hoping they make it as a couple, battling with East Indian traditions of marriage and weddings from their parents; this in itself was entertaining and amusing to read. And, then the cooking competition. Ultimately food is the binding factor in this story. The love of cooking and food brought Reena and Nadim together and in the end, it also brought the families together.
I loved this romantic, cooking, baking story that centered on East Indian traditions and family of older and younger generations. So, if you are a fan of the Great British Baking Show and meddling families, Farah Heron’s Accidentally Engaged is for you!