It's a good story, but it felt like this book was trying to be too much and threw everything it had at the narrative. Also filled with lots of extraneous details, which look fun at first but get tiring further along as you go because nothing is moving in this very big book. It's also the style of Indian writing to have large swathes of backstory - like every character, you have to get the backstory of asap after they happen on the page, which was just too much after a while. Felt this could've done with a good editor, as well, for the extra details and pacing
Still, it's a fun story overall - it was just too much for this reader

There's nothing that got to me as much as the description of mouth watering food in this book!
Revolving around 4 characters, involving family, lust, computers, lies, love and culture it's an engaging book to read and I enjoyed it. Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

I know I am late with feedback when the title disappears from my kndle, fortunately it was on KU and so I was still able to read it.

I thought this book about cyber security, political intrigue and criminal investigation was, for me, a very slow starter. The early part of the book seemed to meander through Mumbai without really getting down to identifyng why it was there. I liked the family relationships with Athith and Vikram and the background for Seema and Madhu but it seemed to be going nowhere.

However the latter two thirds mad up for this in action and emotion.

I am not sure whether i would want to read on but I enjoyed what i have read

This was a fun, diverting read with a well-fleshed out heroine who has an interesting backstory that makes you want to root for her.
It's close to a comic caper with a well-paced narrative that flows easily.
The modern-day setting in India was also fun and the attention to detail particularly around cybersecurity was pretty good and accessible.
The only criticism I had was the description of the terrorists as 'Islamic' when describing past attacks which denoted a particular bias (terrorism has no religion).

I admit I chose to read this based on the description and cover, but I am so glad I did. This was a pleasant surprise, it’s a great romance that hooks you in from the start and you’ll find you can’t put it down to the end. The characters are beautifully written and I came to be attached within a few pages , I was sad when it ended as I wanted more. I loved this beautiful story of corruption, love and family. Thoroughly and wholeheartedly recommended

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Really good read. I’m became a fan of this author from reading this book. Good read. Really enjoyed this story. I will read more. Go read This now

This was a disappointment for me. I liked the setting and premise but really disliked all the male characters.

Thank you to the author, BooksGoSocial and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun, fast read - a romantic comedy set in a high-powered IT firm in Mumbai, with an investigative component. The author did a great job of bringing both the main and the secondary characters to life. The story flowed well, helped along by lots of humor and wonderful attention to detail. Well done, particularly for a debut author!

Love this different take on the Indian spy novel - with the "plucky" heroine to the choices she has to make. It's laugh out loud funny in the best ways. I will be looking forward to more from this author.

The first 45% and the last 30% of this book were absolutely brilliant, I could not fault the author or the story, it was so joyful! The little bit in the middle of those two sections did feel a little bit confusing, I struggled to keep up a little bit with what was going and had to keep going backwards to remind myself of names and how the characters related to the story.

Once I closed this book I had this feeling of content settle over me, like when you've just finished watching your favourite film. I felt so happy.

I also felt a mixture of many other emotions reading this book, which was testament to the author and how well she could change the direction of the story with nothing more than a few words. Dropping us from the happiest of heights, down to the lowest lows...

The characters were the absolute making of this story for me, every single one brought something different to the story, but were woven together so well that you would think they were always meant to form these relationships with each other.

Seema was a truly beautiful soul, she was likable from the start and had some badass lines! Adidith and Veema had this wonderful relationship, that even though they weren't blood family they still looked after each other as if they were. And all of the side characters who individually brought something so wholesome and relevant to the story.

The story itself was romantic AND thrilling, I couldn't have asked for more from a story! It did start got get a little complicated at points but the author managed to bring it back around and finish it off on a flair.

A couple of stand out points that I wanted to mention as well:

How the author used traditional Hindi words and phrases.

How the author wrote very candidly about suicide and homosexuality within the later aspects of the story. Without giving too much away I thought it was really well done and cleverly introduced.

The ending of One Monsoon in Mumbai truly cemented this as a beautiful read, I enjoyed every second of this book and cannot rate it highly enough.

I wasn't 100% sure what to expect when I started this book.
I honestly picked it because of the cover and the description.
But color me surprised! This was a great rom-com that definitely kept my attention from start to finish. The story is about a white collar crime and corruption in India. This book could easily have been boring, but it most definitely was not.
This was a great book that was easy to read with a fun, easy to like main character.

Thank you to Netgally, the publishers and Anitha Perinchery for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review

Loved this adventure against the beautiful Mumbai landscape. It was fun, real, story of corruption and love and family and heart.

One Monsoon in Mumbai is a fun spy romance with a humorous adventures..Seema has grown up in the slums of Mumbai where the one person that seems to care about her is the man that teaches the youth to be pickpockets. Her aunt rescued her from that life and got her a job at the Intelligence Bureau. On her first assignment, Seema is supposed to romance the suspect and break into to his computer systems. Her aunt keeps a very close eye on her niece to ensure that she keeps her virtue.

Seema is successful in becoming the girlfriend of the wealthy charming suspect but has not been able to find the information to convict him. A complication arises when Seema boss finally arrives back in town, Vikram is an adorable nerdy tech wizard who also happens to be the best friend of her suspect. In addition, he is an expert in Cybersecurity. and she has to be careful that he does not catch on to what she is doing, To further complicate the issues, Vikram and Seema are attracted to each other, This novel leads you on a fun adventure with the humorous adventures of Seema. I recommend this book.

I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately it didn’t pull me in or hold my attention. After about a week of reading and only 40% through I had already figured out the ending. The characters had no depth and the storyline was flat.

One Monsoon in Mumbai has a very cool premise.

Seema is a brilliant hacker who goes into a company as a spy and starts dating her target Adhith in order to gain access to his digital files so that she can expose his father for political corruption.

But it all goes sideways when her Adhith's best friend, and head of the company, Vikram comes back and she begins to fall for him.

It's an enemies-to-lovers romance between Seema and Vikram with hilarious banter between them in the midst of this corruption take-down plot.

I totally enjoyed the book for the most part! I've never seen such a book set in India and the Indian humour and banter was fun to read. I laughed out loud multiple times.

It was also awesome to see a main character like Seema who is a badass spy working to bring down people using her mad skills.

While the book spent enough time on building up the characters and the plot well, the pacing suddenly increased at around 75%.

The author tried to do a climax type of scene where all plot threads come together and make a scene. But the execution was NOT good.

After that, everything wrapped up so quickly and it was not good. I'm disappointed that after a really good start and middle, it wasn't ended well.

(Note: I was provided an eARC through Netgalley)

Thank you so much to BooksGoSocial for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun and short read! I went into this book expecting a light-hearted, fun rom-com and while that definitely was the case, the cyberspy aspect of the story made it 10x better. I think I would rate this book 4 stars. The reason I took off one star was because there were often several, multi-paragraph info dumps and flashbacks inserted into the middle of a scene, which I think disrupted the scene. I often found myself a little confused about when the info-dumps/flashbacks started and ended and when we returned to the present scene.

Also, please be aware that this book contains several mature themes, including sexual harassment (depicted) and sexual assault (mentioned). There is also an extremely graphic attempted suicide scene which I thought would be quite triggering for readers, so please be cautious before choosing to read this book. This is an adult novel (18+).

One Monsoon in Mumbai tells the story of Seema Rawat, a young woman who works as a cyberspy for the Intelligence Bureau in Mumbai. She volunteers to take on the assignment of investigating the son of a prominent political figure, Adhith Verma. After infiltrating the company Adhith works for and becoming his girlfriend, Seema is just a step away from proving Adhith guilty. But then, Adhith’s best friend and Adhith and Seema’s boss, Vikram Joshi, returns to Mumbai after a business trip along with his own talented cybersecurity skills, and throws a serious wrench in Seema’s plans.

First of all, I loved the premise of this book. I’m a sucker for a good spy-action-thriller-romance and while this book was not as daring as something like Mission Impossible, it was still so much fun. Seema is a badass in her own way. She has overcome so much from her childhood to the woman she is when the book takes place and I really admired her. I loved following her along in her mission, and I only wished that we got to see her start the mission right from the beginning instead of only joining her after she had already infiltrated Adhith’s company and had already become his girlfriend. I absolutely loved her relationship with Vikram. Their banter was hilarious and amazing and I think their A+ chemistry was so apparent right from the get go. Looking back at their arc from their first meeting to the end of the book gives me all the feels--I really loved them together! I also really liked Vikram as a character and his relationship with Adhith and his family. You can tell that he’s an extremely caring, supportive person from the lengths he would go to to protect his friends and family.

Adhith seemed like the clueless-golden-boy type and it always made me laugh thinking about how he wasn’t able to pick up on Seema’s true intentions. His arc with Madhu was a little surprising to me--it seemed like he was only infatuated with her because he thought she was attractive and knew how to use a gun (sort of falling into the manic-pixie-dream girl trope), so it was a little hard to believe their relationship. I did find the entire party scene (at least the first half of the party) in the end to be so funny in which Seema, Vikram, and Adhith were all trying to carry out their own agenda.

I also loved that Mumbai was the setting and backdrop for this story. Although I’ve never been to Mumbai when traveling to India, the book in general made me really nostalgic about being in India. Obviously, the Indian representation was great and I loved all the little details Anitha Perinchery included--such as the mix of Hindi and English, the chaiwalla, and the taxi & bus rides. Even Payel Biswas--the one minor Bengali character--made me so excited!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it if you are looking for a short and sweet spy romance!

The story was great, the characters and their arcs were wonderful. However, I personally did not enjoy the narrative and writing style. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would be excited for the author's other releases

This book was such fun! I found myself wanting to get back to the story of the characters and cheer them on. Additionally, my new daughter-in-law is Indian, so it was interesting to learn more about that beautiful culture. Learning more about the geography of India was also enlightening.

Seems and her auntie have escaped the ghettos of India to become highly skilled, highly educated professionals. This book is a cavorting romp through an assignment almost gone wrong. Despite some wrong turns and close calls, both Seema and auntie are successful at their jobs, and also at love.

DNF the writing style was a bit odd I felt like there was too much unnecessary detail given without adding anything valuable to the plot. I just couldn't get into it, which is a bummer because I was really intrigued by the plot summary offered.

Seema Rawat is a genius with IT systems and should have been a shoe-in for a top job when she graduated. However, her lowly birth in the slums of Mumbai counts against her and the only job she can get is for the Intelligence Bureau (IB) where her auntie Madhubala works. Her first big assignment is to go undercover to work for the Finance Minister's son Adhith's company to try and uncover proof of widespread corruption. With a fake history and cover story Seema gets a job and soon catches Adhith's eye with her good looks and shy persona (so very different from her real personality), but although he may look like a male model it is Adhith's best friend Vikram who catches Seema's eye.

Can Seema keep Adhith dangling while falling for Vikram and crack the case?

This book was fun to read, the comedy value of a cyberspy whose auntie keeps interfering in her investigation and the jealousy between Vikram and Adhith cannot be understated. When Adhith falls for Seema's auntie it becomes a French farce (Indian farce?) which reaches its zenith at Vikram's parents' wedding anniversary party.

If you want a charming, funny, romance then I highly recommend this.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.