A review by crystalisreading
Bollywood and the Beast by Suleikha Snyder

4.0

Bollywood and the Beast was an enjoyably dark and romantic read. Anything derived from the Beautiy and the Beast fairy tale intrigues me, as does anything Indian and Bollywood, and this story did not disppoint. From the inescapable heat between Rocky and Taj, to the slow and subtle but incredibly strong passion of the secondary romance, this was a sweet, fascinating, engaging book, set in a world that is not familiar to me. I actually found the secondary romance (which I'm not describing at all, due to potential spoilers) to be almost more engaging than Rocky and Taj, with its painfully slow burn that is all the deeper for being potentially taboo. Fiesty, aggressively can-do Rocky and scarred, bitter Taj were engaging too, though. Taj's brother is a sympathetic character too, as is Taj's assistant/ caregiver, and of course the sweet grandmother. It took me time to warm up to Rocky's parents, but I learned to appreciate them too. there were other characters that were briefly encountered that I realized after I was well into the book were characters from previous books in the series. Oops. I didn't really feel like I was missing out on anything essential to understanding the story line, though, by having read the books out of order. The parts that were relevant, from the interview with Sunny to the relationship between Nina and Ashraf, were explained adequately in this book. And while there is the inclusion of lots of Hindi and Urdu names and phrases, as well as the cultural practice of many different variations on a character's name, I didn't have trouble following the story. In fact, I picked up a few of the terms.
Utterly engaging. A feel-good read I didn't want to put down until I was finished. I'll be seeking out the other titles in this series.