My So-Called Bollywood Life

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Stripes Publishing and NetGalley!

My So-Called Bollywood Life is about film geek Winnie who is a Bollywood enthusiast and runs a review blog where she reviews movies. She is also the subject of a prediction by a pandit who says that she will meet the love of her life before her eighteenth birthday, that his name will start with an R, and he will give her a silver bracelet. Naturally, she thinks that the guy in the prophecy is her boyfriend, Raj, because it makes sense. Until it doesn’t and they break up.

I really enjoyed My So-Called Bollywood Life. It’s a funny, light-hearted, and poignant YA Contemporary about first love and destiny. Here, Winnie has to face her own beliefs about her destiny and the reality that’s unfolding in front of her. First, her boyfriend break up with her. Then, her position as the head organizer of their school’s student film festival is challenged and may be in danger. Then her ex wants her back but she’s already starting to fall in love with someone who’s name doesn’t start with the letter R and thus, cannot be the subject of her prophecy.

As a coming-of-age story, MSCBL is a pretty good one. Winnie’s ex tries to disparage her love of movies and her choice of career but she stands by it. She has a passion for movies and film critique and it’s something she wants to do and make a career out of. I liked how she doesn’t take shit from Raj for it.

Also, I really enjoyed the epigraphs with Winnie’s film reviews. She’s very witty and also obviously very knowledgeable on Bollywood films, especially older ones. Those parts make me want to search the films mentioned and maybe watch them for myself.

I really enjoyed how Indian culture takes center stage in this book. It’s such an interesting and rich culture and I love how the author shares it with us through the characters, a large portion of which are Indian. She doesn’t explain all of the terms but Google is just a click away and learning more about it by searching things up is pretty fun because learning things is fun. And besides, you can glean a lot from context clues anyway. I loved how Winnie takes pride in her culture and is very invested in it.

At its core, MSCBL is a YA Contemporary Romance and for me, it hits all the right buttons for one. It has all the fluff and just the right amount of drama that I enjoy in the contemporary romance books that I read. I enjoyed how Winnie and Dev’s relationship progressed and I thought that it was pretty realistic. Also, I liked that Dev really supports Winnie and even shares her passion for film. They are seriously one of my new favorite contemporary couples because of healthy and just lovely their relationship was.

Overall, I really enjoyed My So-Called Bollywood Life and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA Contemporary.