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The Chai Factor
RECOMMENDED: The Chai Factor by Farah Heron is $1.99! Aarya really loved this one and gave it an A-:
The Chai Factor is very much a swoonworthy rom-com: it’s funny and sobering, it has witty dialogue and disquieting situations, and it’s sigh-worthy and rage-inducing. I laughed, I cried, and I cheered for Amira and Duncan. The Chai Factor is an essential book for your list of summer reads.
Amira Khan has no plans to break her no-dating rule.
Thirty-year-old engineer Amira Khan has set one rule for herself: no dating until her grad-school thesis is done. Nothing can distract her from completing a paper that is so good her boss will give her the promotion she deserves when she returns to work in the city. Amira leaves campus early, planning to work in the quiet basement apartment of her family’s house. But she arrives home to find that her grandmother has rented the basement to . . . a barbershop quartet. Seriously? The living situation is awkward: Amira needs silence; the quartet needs to rehearse for a competition; and Duncan, the small-town baritone with the flannel shirts, is driving her up the wall.
As Amira and Duncan clash, she is surprised to feel a simmering attraction for him. How can she be interested in someone who doesn’t get her, or her family’s culture? This is not a complication she needs when her future is at stake. But when intolerance rears its ugly head and people who are close to Amira get hurt, she learns that there is more to Duncan than meets the eye. Now she must decide what she is willing to fight for. In the end, it may be that this small-town singer is the only person who sees her at all.
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Empire of Sand
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri is $2.99! I believe this is part of today’s Kindle Daily Deals. This is an adult fantasy novel with some romantic elements. Though this is marketed as adult fantasy, some readers it felt like it was more YA. Empire of Sand has been on my TBR pile for a while; have you read this one? Aarya highly recommends it.
A nobleman’s daughter with magic in her blood. An empire built on the dreams of enslaved gods. Empire of Sand is Tasha Suri’s captivating, Mughal India-inspired debut fantasy.
The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited.
When Mehr’s power comes to the attention of the Emperor’s most feared mystics, she must use every ounce of will, subtlety, and power she possesses to resist their cruel agenda.
Should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance…
Empire of Sand is a lush, dazzling fantasy novel perfect for readers of City of Brass and The Wrath & the Dawn.
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A Change of Heart
A Change of Heart by Sonali Dev is $1.99! This book has been mentioned on several previous podcasts. Readers note this romance is a bit angstier and moodier than her previous books, which may not be for everyone. Have you read this? What did you think?
Dr. Nikhil ‘Nic’ Joshi had it all—marriage, career, purpose. Until, while working for Doctors Without Borders in a Mumbai slum, his wife, Jen, discovered a black market organ transplant ring. Before she could expose the truth, Jen was killed.
Two years after the tragedy, Nic is a cruise ship doctor who spends his days treating seasickness and sunburn and his nights in a boozy haze. On one of those blurry evenings on deck, Nic meets a woman who makes a startling claim: she received Jen’s heart in a transplant and has a message for him. Nic wants to discount Jess Koirala’s story as absurd, but there’s something about her reckless desperation that resonates despite his doubts.
Jess has spent years working her way out of a nightmarish life in Calcutta and into a respectable Bollywood dance troupe. Now she faces losing the one thing that matters—her young son, Joy. She needs to uncover the secrets Jen risked everything for; but the unforeseen bond that results between her and Nic is both a lifeline and a perilous complication.
Delving beyond the surface of modern Indian-American life, acclaimed author Sonali Dev’s page-turning novel is both riveting and emotionally rewarding—an extraordinary story of human connection, bravery, and hope.
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We Set the Dark on Fire
RECOMMENDED: We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! This is a YA fantasy novel and Elyse gave this one a perfect grade. That’s right, it earned an A and it’s on sale:
The bottom line is, We Set the Dark on Fire has elements that I love–women coming together to dismantle the patriarchy, rebellion, secret affairs, and it’s written so superbly that I found myself relishing every chapter. There’s always an element of danger, of being found out, hovering in the background that carried a wonderful tension through the entire novel.
In this daring and romantic fantasy debut perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale and Latinx authors Zoraida Córdova and Anna-Marie McLemore, society wife-in-training Dani has a great awakening after being recruited by rebel spies and falling for her biggest rival.
At the Medio School for Girls, distinguished young women are trained for one of two roles in their polarized society. Depending on her specialization, a graduate will one day run a husband’s household or raise his children. Both paths promise a life of comfort and luxury, far from the frequent political uprisings of the lower class.
Daniela Vargas is the school’s top student, but her pedigree is a lie. She must keep the truth hidden or be sent back to the fringes of society.
And school couldn’t prepare her for the difficult choices she must make after graduation, especially when she is asked to spy for a resistance group desperately fighting to bring equality to Medio.
Will Dani cling to the privilege her parents fought to win for her, or will she give up everything she’s strived for in pursuit of a free Medio—and a chance at a forbidden love?
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Oooh I’ve been meaning to get WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE! Yay!
Ok, question for y’all. I’ve been thinking I’d like to transition out of the amazon ecosystem. What do you use? I hate reading books on my iPad, and am looking at Kobo but also other ereaders like Pocketbook and Boox.
Please share your thoughts on eink readers!
Crier’s War by Nina Varela (which got an A- here) is on sale for $1.99 everywhere! For anyone like me waiting for the second of the duology because it ends on a cliffhanger, it comes out September 8th.
Loved The Chai Factor and Empire of Sand so much!! They’re both favorites.
@Penny I highly recommend Kobo. The Pocket integration is great for reading articles distraction free, and the Overdrive integration is really seamless. I hear that there’s color e-readers on the horizon but I’ve been hearing that for a while.
@Egged Thank you! The color Eink screens are intriguing for sure! But who knows if/when they’ll be available where I am… The pocket feature sounds right up my alley…
I bought all the books in Sonali Dev’s Bollywood series when they were all on sale, and am looking forward to reading them based on the reviews and comments I’ve seen.
I dreaded reading the Dev book when I saw what it was about. I’m still filled with rage at what happened to the main characters but am glad I listened to it. I love how the reader gets to know Jen’s character through the beginning bits of each chapter.
However, if you’re the type who likes comeuppance to be instant, have the next book ready to go.
ICE CREAM MAKER owners, alert!
The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, the ice cream book one of my favorite podcasters (Jasmin of the Knitmore Girls) swears by, is a Kindle Daily Deal for $2.
EMPIRE OF SAND was really, really good! I picked it up because at the time I wanted a little something different and I have no regrets. I bought the sequel as soon as I could and look forward to her next book ( a fantasy novel in a whole new world with a f/f romance), THE JASMINE THRONE coming out next year. Point is yes, everyone should take advantage of that sale. I will warn that both of of Tasha Suri’s books can be quite heavy with these content warnings : slavery, colorism and violence against women.
@Penny I have a Kobo. I must admit the interface is not as good as the Kindle app (specifically the interface can be slower/less responsive, although you habituate to it after a while), but I have no major complaints.
@Momo thanks! I’m going to pick up a refurb & hope for the best!
Tasha Suri’s books are really good, though not YA, IMO, whatever lines in the sand we’re drawing to make up YA currently. I think there’s a real tendency to brush all fantasy written by women into YA, especially if it contains romantic elements. I don’t know, it’s a blurry category and there are marketing differences in the UK and US as well, but I’m always kind of wary when I see reviews on a female fantasy author’s books saying it ‘felt too YA’ or was marketed incorrectly.
The Chai Factor recently helped me get through waiting for an ultrasound with an uncomfortably strong need to pee (pelvic ultrasound, so I couldn’t), so on that basis along I recommend it.