A Holly Jolly Diwali

By: Sonya Lalli

Narrated by: Richa Moorjani

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

"Lalli's prose is deft, her characters are delightful and her book is the just-right holiday romance." (USA Today)

One type-A data analyst discovers her free-spirited side on an impulsive journey from bustling Mumbai to the gorgeous beaches of Goa and finds love waiting for her on Christmas morning.

Twenty-nine-year-old Niki Randhawa has always made practical decisions. Despite her love for music and art, she became an analyst for the stability. She's always stuck close to home, in case her family needed her. And she's always dated guys that seem good on paper, rather than the ones who give her butterflies. When she's laid off, Niki realizes that practical hasn't exactly paid off for her. So for the first time ever, she throws caution to the wind and books a last-minute flight for her friend Diya’s wedding.

Niki arrives in India just in time to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, where she meets London musician Sameer Mukherji. Maybe it's the splendor of Mumbai or the magic of the holiday season, but Niki is immediately drawn to Sam. At the wedding, the champagne flows and their flirtatious banter makes it clear that the attraction is mutual.

When Niki and Sam join Diya, her husband and their friends on a group honeymoon, their connection grows deeper. Free-spirited Sam helps Niki get in touch with her passionate and creative side, and with her Indian roots. When she gets a new job offer back home, Niki must decide what she wants out of the next chapter of her life - to cling to the straight and narrow like always, or to take a leap of faith and live the kind of bold life the old Niki never would have dreamed of.

©2021 Sonya Lalli (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A sweeping global romance that epically showcases India's festival of lights."--Entertainment Weekly

“A delicious holiday romance, cozily wrapped up in a story about rediscovering your roots and taking a chance on newfound love. Niki’s decision to attend her friend’s wedding in India provides a compelling exploration of family, reinvention, South Asian culture, and newfound love. What a fun read!”--Uzma Jalaluddin, bestselling author of Hana Khan Carries On

“Funny and heartwarming, with lush descriptions of Indian beach resorts and chaotic city streets, Lalli’s latest multicultural romance is extremely satisfying; her characters are refreshingly relatable. Highly recommended for fans of Sonali Dev and Sophie Kinsella.”--Booklist (starred)

Growth in the end

I began reading this book yesterday and I found Niki Randhawa very boring. She has the "Good Girl Syndrome", she has always been the good girl, sensible, must get it right the first time, she keeps it all so tidy, she MUST live up to her parents' expectations. Unlike her sister who does her best to be nothing like her parents or sister. One day, her parents tell her she is too proper and a spinster, she is 29, lives at home, has no friends, or relationships... the next day they set her up with a doctor, and she gets fired. She decides to get reckless and go to India for her best friend's wedding. I hope she meets someone there because I'm not vibing with the doctor.

Niki is 29 but feels younger in experience but more boring, I wanted a romcom with a true adventure in India but I felt the story though short was very slow and uneventful. The ending was the sweetest part.

Funfunfun

It is easy to say that if you like romance books, this will fit easily onto your shelf. It's pretty typical as far as the genre goes, but I personally liked how inclusive it was. I haven't read many books with Indian MCs, let alone characters, so I'm really glad I found this one and that it was still a very cute, well written book to read. My one request would be to get a sequel focusing on Jasmine!

Fun, breezy and romantic

This book was fun, smartly written. I enjoyed the references to my home town and found myself giggling more than thought I would. It’s a breezy story full of warmth and charm.

Cute

I liked the main characters together but I felt like the book tried to cover to many different topics/ plots and it was a little messy

👍

It was a great 📚. I would recommend it to anyone. Very real in content.

Fantastic!

I listened to this all in one go. The narrator was terrific. I’m thinking I’m going to be revisiting this listen every year.

Funny, romantic

I’m a bit of a newcomer to Indian culture (being a white woman raised in the Northeast USA), so I can’t speak to how genuinely authentic this is to Indian culture, but from my experiences as an outside observer and a therapist working with Indian clients and colleagues over the years, I enjoyed the references to traditional Indian clothes, foods, culture, biases, family norms and the bucking of them. I love that the story of romance and coming of age exists in all cultures and reading about them.

A Young Young Young Adult book

it was hard to come to terms with the fact that the characters were above 30 years old. I am also from a conservative culture but this immaturity was frustrating. Also, the banter was not witty, funny or remotely interesting. I really don't understand what made either character lovable. I didn't fall in love with either of them, so it was hard to see how they fell in love with each other lol

Plenty of culture, not enough romance

Plenty of culture, not enough romance.

After getting laid off from her job Niki travels to India to attend her friend’s wedding. While I can say that I learned a lot about several of the wedding ceremonies and traditions (thanks to a lot of Googling) it shied away from Diwali customs and I thought that’s what the focus of the story was about. I was wrong. In fact, Niki herself isn’t sure what Diwali is so she asks around and never gets a clear answer. Once in India, she meets the bride's friend Sam and begins a flirtatious game of will they or won't they admit their feelings for each other. Don’t worry it only takes them a week to fall in love.

Seeing as these characters knew each other for such a short period of time it was hard to feel the chemistry and therefore root for them. I also felt that the story kept straying away from the romance (what little of it there was) to criticize India and show how awful, outdated, rude, disrespectful Indian people can be. I thought this was supposed to be a celebration? Diwali, a wedding, and a romance?

I felt like so much of what happened wasn’t important to the romance. The back story about Niki’s job, her relationship with her sister, the random flashbacks from when she was a child, even the back story about Sam’s band and his relationship with his father, even the fricking wedding…. I just didn’t see the point of cramming all this into the same book. It felt much longer than the 315 pages I read. This book really could have benefitted from a glossary! I don’t mind stopping every once in awhile to look up a term here and a term there, but this was overkill. I am not familiar with these terms of endearment, items of clothing, ceremonies, recipes, etc. So having to stop and google as much as I did pulled me into and out of a story I was already feeling lukewarm about.

Ultimately, I found it to be Niki Randhawa’s personal journey mixed with a story of family, friends, culture, and a bit of love.