The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Say You’ll Be My Jaan
Author: Naina Kumar
Published: January 2024
Genre: Romance
Themes: Fake dating, grumpy/sunshine, arranged marriage

One sentence summary: Fake dating to get your parents to leave you alone in their plans for you? Sounds easy!

One sentence review: Any man that tries to calm a situation with ice cream is a going to be a winner in my book.

Review:

Meghna hasn’t had much luck in her past relationships and her parents have no issue with her finding her own, but maybe she needs a little help from them.

Karthik will ever get married, it’s that simple. He’s seen his parents fall out of love and his father turn into someone he isn’t and he just doesn’t want that. But then he meets Meghna and a plan begins to form.

Let me start by saying that any man that tries to calm a situation with ice cream is a going to be a win in my book.

I really enjoyed this one, it’s two of my favourite tropes: grumpy/sunshine and fake dating and they are a such a good pairing. Especially when you add a sprinkle of he falls first (but just doesn’t have the words).

Meghna and Karthik are adorable to watch work out their fake relationship. There are some really sweet moments and equally frustrating ones where you end up shouting at the book – “you like her, just tell her!”, or is it just me that shouts at fictional characters?

I sobbed at the ending, it was super cute. Naina Kumar has secured herself as an autobuy author for me.

If reading more is something that you’re looking at doing this year then should check my reading challenge out here! Read nine books from nine prompts over the first six months of the year and be entered into a draw to win a bundle of bookish goodies.

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here.

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And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 17/02/2025