& Then they Wed by Riya Iyer
My Rating: ★★★.5
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Quick Note: I applied for the advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for a review on Netgalley.
About: Rian Shetty is all business (& a little baggage), focused on getting another Michelin star and taking care of his Nanamma (grandma) while she’s staying with him. As a favor, he agrees to host one of Nanamma’s friends’ grandchildren, a doctor he assumes is a guy. Except when he gets home one day he finds the beautiful, single, Aditi who is on the hunt for a suitable husband to complete the picture. As much as Rian tries to maintain focus, he can’t help but notice Aditi brightening up every aspect of his life.
What to expect/tropes:
Forced proximity
Dual POV
Grumpy sunshine
Roommates to lovers
Curvy FMC
Jealous/Possessive MMC
My Thoughts: This was such a nice change of pace, when it seems most popular romance books feature white women with perfect bodies. I loved the representation of larger bodies, people of color, AND someone with dyslexia. This book also included a glossary of some Hindi, Tamil, and Teluga terms and a playlist!
I’ll admit, I was a little intimidated by the glossary at first. I was worried I’d have trouble with the references or culture that I’m not super familiar with, but I was worried for nothing. You can enjoy this regardless of being familiar and don’t need to really reference the glossary much. I did have trouble getting to the main part of the story because it had a pretty slow start (and not like slow burn, just slow). However once it was going, this was extremely steamy (so. many. scenes.) Lots of delicious tension and obvious chemistry between Aditi and Rian.
I couldn’t rate this book higher because of the slow start, the confusing POV switches at time and I felt as if Nanamma could benefit from being a little more fleshed out.
