The Arctic Curry Club

I listened to the audiobook of The Arctic Curry Club. The story centres around Maya who follows her boyfriend to the Arctic for his work studying Polar Bears. However, Maya’s mental health takes a turn for the worse while she is there away from familiar things and with the extreme cold temperatures and the dark. Her boyfriend is also not very caring towards her.
A family trip to India sees dark secrets starting to emerge and every time Maya eats a certain Indian dish it brings back painful memories.
This is the story of Mayas journey in the Arctic and how she ends up setting The Arctic Curry Club up. I have to say I really enjoyed this story and the narrator, Zoha Rahman’s voice was especially soothing and calming for me despite some of the topics that were covered. Such lovely descriptions of India and the Arctic and also I felt hungry on more than one occasion! Thank you to Netgalley and to Harper Collins for my gifted copy.

The Arctic Curry Club Review

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Soon after upending her life to accompany her boyfriend Ryan to the Arctic, Maya realises it’s not all Northern Lights and husky sleigh rides. Instead, she’s facing sub-zero temperatures, 24-hour darkness, crippling anxiety – and a distant boyfriend as a result.
In her loneliest moment, Maya opens her late mother’s recipe book and cooks Indian food for the first time. Through this, her confidence unexpectedly grows – she makes friends, secures a job as a chef, and life in the Arctic no longer freezes her with fear.
But there’s a cost: the aromatic cuisine rekindles memories of her enigmatic mother and her childhood in Bangalore. Can Maya face the past and forge a future for herself in this new town? After all, there’s now high demand for a Curry Club in the Arctic, and just one person with the know-how to run it…
A tender and uplifting story about family, community, and finding where you truly belong – guaranteed to warm your heart despite the icy setting!

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it felt like the perfect wintery read, but now I really want to visit Longyearbyen and India 🙈 I will start by saying that the anxiety and mental health rep in this book is totally and utterly incredible because I could relate to all of the main characters thoughts, feelings and actions! I loved seeing her journey (physically and mentally) with some really interesting side characters too that I could’ve happily read more about!

I loved the audiobook and found the narrator really easy to listen to.

It’s a very cosy read, and I enjoyed it so much I flew through it! Thank you @avonbooksuk and @danireddwriter for the early review copy! Out on the 9th December it’s not one to miss ❄️

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to listen to and review.

Oh this was such a great book! Maya suffers from panic attacks and anxiety, yet still follows her boyfriend Ryan to the Arctic. We get to see how Maya uncovers secrets from her past, including details surrounding her youth living in India and the death of her mother. This book was pure joy to read - and Maya was definitely a character to fall in love with as she grows and develops into the person she truly is.

What a wonderful winter read.

I really loved this story, the icy setting and how the characters developed but what I loved most was the anxiety representation.

In a Nutshell: Because of the cover, this looks like chicklit. Because of the title, this sounds like chicklit. But it isn’t your typical light-hearted romcom at all. It goes into quite dark themes.

Story:
Maya’s boyfriend Ryan has got a fellowship in an Arctic town, so she packs up her life in London and accompanies him. The sub-zero temperature, the 24 hour darkness, and the constant anxiety over polar bears and other unknown dangers adds to her already fragile mental health. In these lonely times, Maya discovers her late mother’s cookbook. By trying out her Indian mom’s recipes, she is able to feel a connection that she had assumed was lost. Soon, darker truths come tumbling out, both from the past and from the present. Will Maya be able to overcome her under-confidence and make a success of her Arctic Curry Club?
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Maya.

I was expecting a typical fun-and-frolic kind of read because of that cover. The depth to which the book explores darker issues was quite unexpected. I don’t want to reveal any here as they would all be spoilers, but suffice to say that most of those topics aren’t a part of your usual chicklit fare. A part of me feels that there were too many issues covered within the span of one book, but most of the issues are touched upon without going overboard. Some of the darker revelations, which are supposed to be secrets, are quite guessable. But hey, this isn’t a thriller, so I won’t dock off points for that.

One of the main reasons I enjoyed the book was that I felt a kinship with Maya’s character, and not just because of her Indian background. (Okay, she’s just half-Indian. But still…) She has so much in common to me. She is reserved, anxious about going out, not sporty, loves trivia, makes hundreds of check lists, doesn't like being the centre of attention, is cost conscious, and needs recipes to specify the exact quantity of ingredients. One crucial difference between us is that she actually enjoys cooking, but I’ll ignore that for now. 😂 The other characters in the story are fairly well-sketched, some of them being stereotypical but some others being quite interesting.

The author Dani Redd seems to have researched a lot about the remote islands of the Arctic. This is the second story I have read this year that is based in an Arctic area. In the other book, the author seemed to have a checklist of items related to that locale and with each progressive chapter, covered one item at a time: cold, polar bears, Northern lights, and so on. That doesn’t happen in this book. While Redd clearly has knowledge of the area, the local revelations are done only when needed by the story. They blend seamlessly with the narrative and don’t seem coerced into the writing. I loved getting a look at an Arctic island lifestyle trough her words.

As an Indian though, my heart was more attached to the “desi” side of the story. And to my surprise, my experience was quite positive, especially as the author isn’t an Indian but a Brit who stayed in India for a couple of years. There is so much reference to Indian cuisine that my stomach was growling almost throughout the list of authentic Indian dishes. (It doesn’t help matters that I consider Indian food the tastiest food in the whole world!) What won my heart over was also that there's no reference to peacocks, elephants, cows, snake charmers, dirt or poverty, all of which are considered the staple of India by international writers. This part of the story was set mostly in Bangalore and the portrayal is as authentic as I could make out. The people feel connectable, the areas feel real, and the emotions, heartfelt. Yes, there were some few anomalies and a couple of clichés. For instance, a person who is from the urban part of Bangalore and not knowing English at all is quite a stretch of the imagination. Mangalsutra isn't a ceremony but a symbol of marriage. There is the mandatory “ashram” mention. There is also a reference to the drink that perplexes me: “Chai tea”. (For those who still don’t know, “chai” is the Hindi word for “tea”. So when you say “chai tea”, you are basically saying “tea tea”, which sounds really silly to us Indians!) But despite these few oddities (which only Indians would be able to spot), I’d still consider this one of the better fictional books by a non-Indian talking about India.

For a debut work, the book is quite ambitious and it mostly does justice to its story. There were many things I enjoyed, and without any spoiler, let me say that the author’s choice of ending for Maya was my favourite part.
I heard the audiobook, which clocked at 10 hours and was narrated by Zoha Rahman. This was a fairly mixed experience for me, though I am sure non-Indians won’t have the same issues as I did. Her pronunciation of the names of many Indian dishes and other Indian words were quite off. Otherwise, her narration was very enjoyable as she brings Maya to life with her voice.

Overall, this is a book you ought not to judge by its cover. It isn’t frivolous but goes into deep and dark mental territories. It offers a great glimpse into two quite contrasting regions of the world – the cold Arctic and the hot India. And though it is a bit trite in some sub-plots, it is still a very good debut contemporary romance novel.

Added benefit: there are two scrumptious Indian recipes at the end of the book. In the audiobook, this final segment is narrated by the author herself.

3.75 stars from me, rounding up to 4.

My thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio, Avon and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Arctic Curry Club”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.

The Arctic Curry Club takes us on a journey of Maya discovering who she is. She doesn't remember much of her childhood from before her mother died and suffers from depression and anxiety.
As she follows her boyfriend Ryan to the Arctic her mental health worsens due to the lack of daylight and how cold it is!

However just when things seem like they are at their worst Maya starts to realise who she truly is and what her passion in life is.

Even though this books has a strong theme of mental health it is written very well. Maya is a character that most people can relate to and her self discovery was brilliant to read.
For me this was a bit like eat, love, pray but in the Arctic!

I absolutely loved the transition from the Arctic to Bangalore and all of the food made me so hungry while reading this.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book especially those at the cabins. I also felt this book had very diverse characters. However I must say one of my favourites has to be Foxy!

I absolutely enjoyed this book and cannot believe it's a debut. Please write more :)

Completely not what I was expecting, despite reading the blurb prior. The cover gave a romance/rom com impression. It was however a lot more serious with a lot of references to anxiety etc. The story has a lot of depth and really believable characters. I also loved the cooking aspect. A very unique read.

I read this book both as an ebook and as an audiobook, and I loved both!

There's so much more to it than the blurb and the cover led me to think, and it has been a completely enjoyable and pleasurable surprise. It is definitely not a rom-com, it's actually very low on the rom side. The author decides to focus on anxiety, loss and bereavement, so we follow Maya through her journey through all of that and her successful arrival on the other side, all set in beautiful descriptions of magical landscapes and tasty recipes.

I loved Maya, I could totally relate to her and her struggles, she's so real, and the author was great in relating her story with a very delicate touch. Then I loved the food, OMG, I was hungry all the time while reading it, I suggest you make sure you have snacks close by.

Finally I even loved the arctic and, even though I hate cold temperatures, this book made me wish to travel there one of these days!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for both an ARC and an ALC for an honest review.

An emotional book that made me very hungry from cover to back page.

Based on the blurb and the book cover I expected an easy-going romcom, and I have received a lot more. There is romance and there are absurd and funny situations, no question about that. However, this novel presents serious mental health issues like clinical depression and anxiety without being too overwhelming and gloomy.

To me it started a bit slowly but then it picked up. The story and the location is definitely unique, and the overall message of the book is powerful. The description of meals and spices were absolutely brilliant and I was happy to learn that at the end of the audio book the author included two of the recipes mentioned in the novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Avon Books and Harper Collins UK Audio for this Advance Review Copy.

When Maya’s boyfriend Ryan moves to the Arctic for work, she comes along for the ride, only to find herself half frozen most of the time with extreme anxiety and a boyfriend who is acting suspiciously. She welcomes the opportunity to escape to her Dad’s wedding in India where she learns more about her mother and fantastic recipes. Little does Maya know that when she returns to the Arctic her life is about to change for good…

I really enjoyed the Artic Curry Club! I love it when a book surprises me and this one certainly did - it wasn’t that book I thought it was when I read the blurb - it was different but even better than I imagined. I really appreciated the authentic portrayal of life with anxiety, as someone who has experienced it. Maya is a fantastic character who I warmed to really quickly. She is very relatable and funny. The transformation she undergoes in the story is perfect, with an ending that is spot on.
In fact, every character in the book is well written and interesting and very likeable, with the obvious exception of feckless Ryan!
The plot is expertly crafted with lots of different storylines which keep you reading on to see what happens next. Not only that, it’s a foodie’s dream with mouthwatering descriptions of the recipes Maya makes and the memories they invoke. Yes, it definitely made me want a curry.

I was lucky enough to get the book and audiobook to review and on balance I would say I much preferred the book. It took me quite a while to get used to the narrator- I am not sure exactly how to describe it but at some points the pacing between the words and the inflection of the words were jarring - sometimes it was really fast and hard to distinguish between words. I did get used to the narration though and it didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the book. It was amazing that the audiobook have the bonus content of two recipients read by the authors. I will definitely be making those. What a fantastic idea. It would be great to have them in the book as well.

I would certainly recommend this book to my book group and the fellow bookworms in my life. It’s a fantastic read, especially over the winter when the frosts hit and you can close your eyes and imagine you are in the Artic with Maya.

Thank you so much Dani Redd, Avon publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.