Sunshine and Spice, the first novel by Aurora Palit, will indubitably appeal to readers who enjoyed Sara Desai's The Marriage Game or Farah Heron's Jana Goes Wild. Clever, steamy, and featuring a huge, quirky cast of South Asian characters, Sunshine and Spice is a romance to devour.
Naomi Kelly's mother turned her back on the rigid social mores of her Bengali family while pregnant with her daughter, so Naomi grew up in small-town Canada surrounded by her white stepfather's family. Naomi has never quite felt like she belonged: she's too brown for some people, and not Bengali enough for others.
Dev Mukherjee is overwhelmed by the expectations of his traditional Bengali family--especially now that his mother, Gia, has contacted a matchmaker to find him a wife. Naomi meets Dev when she is hired as the brand consultant to make over Gia's Indian goods shop. Naomi quickly realizes that she and Gia's sexy accountant son should team up to solve each other's problems. Naomi will pretend to be Dev's girlfriend to scare off all the matchmaker's candidates, and by spending time with Dev, Naomi will absorb more Bengali culture, which will help her successfully relaunch Gia's business. With interfering aunties, brides-to-be, and marketing competitors around every corner, how can Naomi and Dev's ruse possibly go wrong?
Sunshine and Spice is a nuanced and entertaining look into the lives of first- and second-generation immigrants and the expectations they have to deal with. Readers will root for Naomi and Dev to outlast their naysayers and find love. --Jessica Howard, freelance book reviewer