The Shaadi Brouhaha.. : Arranged Marriage Hungama by Anjlee Shah #BookReview

I vaguely remember an interaction with Anjlee Shah before the release of The Shaadi Brouhaha, when she was promoting the book on social media. I remember reading an excerpt and making a mental note to pick this up. Then, the usual happened. You know, work, baby, travel and all that. I forgot about it. Fast forward to today, where armed with a Kindle Unlimited subscription for a year, I prowl the catalogue for interesting reads. The book popped up again and I lapped it without hesitation.

Plot of The Shaadi Brouhaha

The Shaadi Brouhaha has a very simple plot. It is the story of a girl’s quest to find a groom – the arranged marriage way. As per the book blurb on Goodreads,

Launching a newbie into the Indian matrimonial scene is like introducing a new iPhone in an already saturated market has to be sleek, overflowing with catchy features and better than the already available versions. So when twenty-five-year-old Nitya Trivedi is forced into it by her ever so enthusiastic mother and pestering relatives, she hardly knows what she has bargained for. In her journey to find her soul-mate, she becomes Dollarkumar’s Poundkumari, ends up fasting on party days to make peace with her horrorscope, attends hilarious ‘arranged’ meetings through various matchmaking portals and people – all under the nose of her extremely evil, but deliciously debonair boss Rudra Desai. With besties tying the knot and cousins ‘stealing’ prospective groom, wonder how Nitya’s mother will find the perfect match for her only daughter. But as always, love will find a way in the midst of The Shaadi Brouhaha..

The Shaadi Brouhaha – What I Liked

While the theme of the book is not new, the writing is fresh and real. The book is peppered with arranged marriage cliches like supposedly well meaning relatives who do more harm than good, boisterous would be grooms and even one time married ladies who suddenly become authorities on arranged marriage! Despite all that, Anjlee manages to keep the writer hooked. Her writing is so real I felt that I was chatting with a friend. The biggest asset of the book is its humour. The book is absolutely hilarious. I was chuckling loudly so often that people at home began wondering what was wrong with me! I love the dramatic characterisation of Nitya’s mother. There is immense scope of drama and humour when a young girl and her enthusiastic, dramatic mother are thrown into the arranged marriage scenario. It is very easy to be boring or go overboard. Anjlee does neither. The book moves along at a decent pace each character adds its own colour and humour to the story.

The Shaadi Brouhaha – What I Did Not Like

The one thing that I did not understand was the male protagonist, Rudra Desai. If the author was going for the Mysterious Handsome man effect, she totally nailed it. Why did he get attracted to her in the first place is something I am wondering. In the beginning, he is intimidating and later, a bit of a buffoon. Sending a private email to the whole office? Writing suggestive things on office email? C’mon, a senior guy would be more discreet than that! But apart from this little snag, the book was perfect.

The Shaadi Brouhaha – Overall Thoughts

That small glitch I mentioned above would probably make me deduct half a point from this otherwise perfect 10 novel. In my eye, a book that entertains, has great language and relatable characters is the perfect book. It does not have to be a complex, layered literary classic. The Shaadi Brouhaha is a lovely read with guaranteed laughs. I highly recommend it.

This is Anjlee’s first book and I sure am waiting to read more books by her.

Disclaimer – This is not a sponsored post and I was not compensated by the author or the publication for it. I am doing this to bring a great book to my readers 🙂 The link below is the amazon associates link for this book though and if you use it to order the book, I stand to make a small commission.