A review by sri_savita
First Comes Like by Alisha Rai
5.0
Today was a tough day with work and this was a jolt of positive energy. I was wary of the awkward meet-cute, and Jia being very anxious, but you know what, I appreciated the realistic mental health rep for both of these characters as they manage careers in the public eye, especially as underrepresented South Asians in American media, and Dev's grief.
I also feel like Jia's need for a strong emotional bond before sexual intimacy made sense to me and spoke to a need for more gray-ace/demisexual representation in romance novels. We love to see it, especially when done well.
I loved the extended family, and all of Jia's sisters and their different personalities - it reminded me of my relationship with my sister, and just when I was getting sad about it, it was sweet to see how Dev was excited not only to marry Jia but get a new family and relationship with Jia's sisters too, and that was really touching.
All of these characters felt very real, and as an Indian reader, I felt like the layers of representation were done so well and there was a lot of nuance that brought this story depth, even with its Bollywood movie antics. And I, for one, love a good Bollywood movie, anyway.
Can't wait to listen/read the rest of this trilogy and will definitely be buying my own physical copy of First Comes Like for my shelf. Thanks to Libro.fm for my ALC copy of this audiobook! I am happy to own this own-voices story.
An added bonus is that this book made me want to actually wear makeup again for the first time since the pandemic started and I thought it was SO CUTE that Dev was familiar with Jia's videos.
I also feel like Jia's need for a strong emotional bond before sexual intimacy made sense to me and spoke to a need for more gray-ace/demisexual representation in romance novels. We love to see it, especially when done well.
I loved the extended family, and all of Jia's sisters and their different personalities - it reminded me of my relationship with my sister, and just when I was getting sad about it, it was sweet to see how Dev was excited not only to marry Jia but get a new family and relationship with Jia's sisters too, and that was really touching.
All of these characters felt very real, and as an Indian reader, I felt like the layers of representation were done so well and there was a lot of nuance that brought this story depth, even with its Bollywood movie antics. And I, for one, love a good Bollywood movie, anyway.
Can't wait to listen/read the rest of this trilogy and will definitely be buying my own physical copy of First Comes Like for my shelf. Thanks to Libro.fm for my ALC copy of this audiobook! I am happy to own this own-voices story.
An added bonus is that this book made me want to actually wear makeup again for the first time since the pandemic started and I thought it was SO CUTE that Dev was familiar with Jia's videos.