(Forever)
If you like cooking competitions and romantic comedy, you will love Farah Heron’s new romance. Reena Manji’s parents have done it again; they’ve arranged her marriage to her father’s newest hire, a “Good Muslim,” but the Nadim who moves in across the hall from Reena is rakishly good-looking, enjoys craft beer (taboo), reveals an impossibly cute dimple when he smiles, and Reena is instantly smitten, that is, until she discovers that Nadim is her future husband. Vowing never to wed, the two enter a cooking show competition (rules require two contestants who are “in a relationship”) pretending to be engaged. They are both foodies, and Reena is a spectacular bread maker, and their chemistry on screen is quickly matched by their chemistry off screen. Things are bound to get more complicated, and all is nearly lost when Reena’s father discovers Nadim is already engaged plus he is responsible for the failure of an expensive real estate project headed up by the family’s top competitors. Secrets get tangled up in other secrets; everybody knows everybody else’s secret but nobody’s talking… When a book references a “sister’s future sister-in-law’s cousin,” you know it’s a complicated family dramedy, and this one is worth unraveling to the sweet ending.
— Reviewed by Jenny Lyons of The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury.
 

10 Buzzy Romances for Spring 2021
People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry
Honey Girl, by Morgan Rogers
One Step to You, by Federico Moccia
Act Your Age, Eve Brown, by Talia Hibbert
Dating Plan, by Sara Desai
Float Plan, by Trish Doller
Been There, Married That, by Gigi Levangie
Serena Singh Flips the Script, by Sonya Lalli
Meet You in the Middle, by Devon Daniels
Meet Me in Paradise, by Libby Hubscher