Marriage Unarranged by Ritu Bhathal
It all s̶t̶a̶r̶t̶e̶d̶ ended with that box…
The year 2000 and Aashi’s life was all set.
New Millennium, exciting beginnings, new life.
Or so she thought.
Like in the Bollywood films, Ravi would woo her, charm her family and they’d get married and live happily ever after.
But then Aashi found the empty condom box...
Putting her ex-fiancé and her innocence behind her, Aashi embarks upon an enlightening journey, to another country, where vibrant memories are created, and unforgettable friendships forged.
Old images erased, new beginnings to explore.
And how can she forget the handsome stranger she meets?
A stranger who’s hiding something…
About the author
Ritu Bhathal was born in Birmingham in the mid-1970s to migrant parents, hailing from Kenya but of Indian origin. This colourful background has been a constant source of inspiration to her. From childhood, she always enjoyed reading. This love of books is credited to her mother. The joy of reading spurred her on to become creative in her writing, from fiction to poetry. Winning little writing competitions at school and locally encouraged her to continue writing.
As a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and teacher, she has drawn inspiration from many avenues to create the poems that she writes. A qualified teacher, having studied at Kingston University, she now deals with classes of children as a sideline to her writing! Ritu also writes a blog, www.butismileanyway.com, a mixture of life and creativity, thoughts and opinions, which was awarded first place in the Best Overall Blog Category at the 2017 Annual Bloggers Bash Awards and Best Book Blog in 2019.
Ritu is happily married and living in Kent, with her Hubby Dearest, and two children, not forgetting the fur baby Sonu Singh.
Follow her at:
Facebook : www.facebook.com/RituBhathal/
Instagram : www.instagram.com/ritubhathalwrites/
Twitter: twitter.com/RituBhathal
TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@ritubhathalauthor
Website: http://www.ritubhathal.com/
Review
‘Marriage Unarranged’ was a light-hearted chickpea romance that filled my heart with joy! It also made me very hungry and I needed to order a takeout of aloo gobi after reading it. I am not a romance reader, it's not my genre of choice but this year I'm challenging myself to read stuff I wouldn't have before. I am SO pleased I read this as I loved it. Maybe because I am obsessed with everything to do with India and also went to places in the book but I couldn't put this one down.
Aashi is due to get married to her fiance Ravi later in the year and is about to discuss the exciting topic of honeymoons! But she finds an empty box of condoms and being a good Sikh girl they haven't been used with her. She dumps him but now has to face the insular and sometimes judgmental community she lives in. To put some distance between it all she jets off to India with her brothers and best friend. But then she meets a handsome guy on the plane…
So a bit of personal history here - why does a white girl like me have a blogging name ‘Bindu’? My mum was a hippy and we went to India a lot when I was growing up. One time when we got back there was a Homepride curry advert on tv and the woman was called Bindu. A guy from school started calling me that and I ended up loving it! Anyway, we visited all the areas in this book - Delhi and Amritsar and reading this book brought back lovely memories for me. I liked how it didn't shy away from the painful memories of the massacre and the horrific actions instigated by General Dyer. An event relatively unknown in the UK which shouldn't be the case!
I loved all the characters but especially Aashi and Kiran - I loved their friendship and the support they gave one another. The family, in general, was lovely to read about and I would love to read more about that - thankfully this is turning into a series and I can't wait to read what is coming next!
If a lighthearted, warm fuzzy read is what you are after then this one is for you! It has all the ingredients to make it a great romance and I hope you give it a bash! Let me know if you do.
