ARC Review: Kismat Connection by Ananya Devarajan

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Kismat Connection by Ananya Devarajan
Published by Inkyard Press on June 13, 2023
Genres: YA Contemporary Romance
Pages: 304
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating:
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Blurb:

In this charming YA debut, a girl who’s determined to prove her star chart wrong ropes her longtime best friend into an experimental relationship—not knowing that he has been in love with her for years.

Is it possible to change your fate?

Madhuri Iyer is doomed. Doomed for her upcoming senior year to be a total failure, according to her astrology-obsessed mother, and doomed to a happily ever after with her first boyfriend, according to her family curse.

Determined to prove the existence of her free will, Madhuri devises an experimental relationship with the one boy she knows she’ll never fall for: her childhood best friend, Arjun Mehta. But Arjun’s feelings for her are a variable she didn’t account for.

As Madhuri starts to fall for her experimental boyfriend, she’ll have to decide if charting her own destiny is worth breaking Arjun’s heart—and her own.

My Review

From the beginning of this book I was definitely enjoying the story and characters. Since I had just finished binging Never Have I Ever, I was really in the mood for more of this culture. I loved how the astrology was so much a part of the story for these characters. It made me wish I had such a mom/auntie to do that same for me.

Madhuri was definitely understandable in her reluctance to believe in astrology and star charts. But it was easy to understand also why Arjun would be so much more ready to accept it, especially as the connection to his culture and a family was something he was missing in his own house. Arjun’s family life was hard to read about. And I guess it showed how good he was and how much he really loved Madhuri that he never really blamed her for taking things for granted. Although honestly she didn’t really ever take her family for granted, just the whole astrology thing, and the family “curse” of falling in love with their first love forever.

It could just be my own bitterness at never falling in love that made me a little irritated she fought that so much. However, that way she did act was something that would be a little annoying for me in any other story, so between that and the fact that Arjun made her wait a bit at the end, I did mark down to a 4.5 stars here on my blog instead of the full 5 I’ll give it on the other sites.

But in the end, I was left with a smile on my face, and just wishing I could see the costumes and the dances described in the books. I’m also left wanting to really find some Bollywood movies to see more of this type of dance for sure!