Category: ARC Reviews

What could go wrong at a lavish Indian wedding with your best friend and your entire family?

Tina Das wants to belong, but she just isn’t sure where. India or America? Brooklyn or Bombay? Manhattan or Delhi? Or start from scratch in London–she still has fond memories of her one-night stand with Rocco Gallagher, the handsome Australian, as they traipsed through Covent Garden and Seven Dials, but he never called back so maybe it’s time to let that dream go, and focus on finding the next big story for her streaming network instead.

She’s hoping she’ll find it at her cousin’s lavish, weeklong Delhi wedding, and has taken her best friend Marianne Laing along for the ride to Delhi’s poshest country club, Colebrookes. Marianne has always had international tastes, in life and in love, yet can’t help but think of sweet, steady, khaki-clad Tom back home in New York.

Also in attendance are Tina’s divorced parents: her mother, Radha, who’s bringing her American “boyfriend,” David, to the wedding, and her father, Neel, who’s using the visit to India to explore the idea of dating again, only to discover it and he have both changed completely in the decades he’s been away.

Infused with warmth, charm, and wicked humor, Destination Wedding grapples with the challenges of work, love, and finding the people who make a place feel like home. 

Firstly, I would like to thank Netgalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review of Destination Wedding.

You know how sometimes you breeze through a book in a matter of hours or days? And sometimes, a book takes weeks or even longer?

Well, this book has been on my kindle for a couple of months and I have been reading a chapter here and there. The premise is everything I’d love in a book. Tina was born in Ohio, but doesn’t feel like she belongs or identifies as American. Her family is from India and she used to visit there in the summer, but also feels like an outcast. Now, in her early 30s, Tina, her family, and her best friend flies to India for a big lavish wedding, where Tina goes through an identity crisis.

It seemed like it would be a fun quick read; however, this book started quite slow for me. I originally wasn’t sure if I would finish it. I kept picking it up and putting it down. It took me a while to really get into the book because the chapters are a lot longer than I’d like. I like short chapters because I tend to zone out, so books with long chapters just generally drag for me.

I did not get invested in any of the characters, which is another reason why it took so long for me to finish. The characters all felt underdeveloped. It also jumps around multiple POVs within the chapter instead of alternating them by the chapter. This made for a confusing read at first because it is quite a few characters being introduced. However, once you meet all the characters, it flows better and makes more sense. Basu also has a creative way of inserting subtle humor throughout the book. It made reading the chapters more bearable and fun.

One of the things I really did love about this book was that with the story being based in India, Basu incorporates Indian rituals and cultures and that made the book feel more authentic.

Overall, while there were bits and parts of the book I enjoyed, it fell flat for me. I honestly think this would probably have been better as a movie instead of a book.