Serena Singh Flips the Script

By: Sonya Lalli

Narrated by: Ulka Simone Mohanty

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Sonya Lalli's savvy novel puts relationships in all of their forms - family, friends, and romance - on even footing as a young woman works to find happiness." (Shelf Awareness)

Serena Singh is tired of everyone telling her what she should want - and she is ready to prove to her mother, her sister, and the aunties in her community that a woman does not need domestic bliss to have a happy life.

Things are going according to plan for Serena. She's smart, confident, and just got a kick-ass new job at a top advertising firm in Washington, DC. Even before her younger sister gets married in a big, traditional wedding, Serena knows her own dreams don't include marriage or children. But with her mother constantly encouraging her to be more like her sister, Serena can't understand why her parents refuse to recognize that she and her sister want completely different experiences out of life.

A new friendship with her co-worker, Ainsley, comes as a breath of fresh air, challenging Serena's long-held beliefs about the importance of self-reliance. She's been so focused on career success that she's let all of her hobbies and close friendships fall by the wayside. As Serena reconnects with her family and friends - including her ex-boyfriend - she learns letting people in can make her happier than standing all on her own.

©2021 Sonya Lalli (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

“Sonya Lalli's charming novel explores how our relationships define us. Through honesty, humor, and vulnerability, Serena Singh reminds us that new, fulfilling connections are possible at any age. This equal parts relatable and entertaining story is a delight from start to finish!” (Saumya Dave, author of Well-Behaved Indian Women)

“Heartfelt and forthright, Lalli’s culturally rich work of women's fiction is exceptional.” (Booklist, starred review) 

Fun read! A friend-com about making friends as adults

This book takes the traditional rom-com script and applies it to friendship, in a heartwarming story full of growth and humor.

Serena is a mid-30s woman who emphatically rejects the expected life path for Punjabi Indian women, focusing on career, with family as the background drumbeat.

She finds that friends have drifted away as they marry and have kids, so she starts online friend-dating. It doesn't go well, in the traditional rom-com hilariously bad series of dates (but for friends) - including accidentally ending up at a nude sex club, and being kicked out of a book club for accidentally saying the wrong thing. In the end, she finds her BFF in the woman next door (well, in the next cubicle) - and what a wonderful friendship it is.

In the background is her deep love for her traditional Punjabi Sikh family, even as they disapprove of her modern American choices, and unspoken tensions simmer below the surface. Eventually she realizes that those unspoken conflicts have impacted how she approaches relationships of all kinds for her entire life, and they all come to a more honest and respectful approach to each other.

Oh and there's actual romance - a boyfriend or two - on the side. It's important, but equally weighted with the relationships with family and friends. I'm not sure I've ever read a western book with this approach, and I love it. We women hold so many kinds of important relationships, and yet books usually only focus on the one. It was refreshing to read a book that so closely aligns with my lived experience (even though I myself chose marriage and kids, unlike Serena).

It all stitches together neatly into this tapestry of relationships that all interrelate. I liked how ex boyfriends were still connected to her friends and family even after breakups - her sister stayed connected to one ex, and her BFF's husband continued to hang out with her most recent ex. It was a nice illustration that breakups don't have to mean enmity, that peripheral friendships can outlast romantic relationships, and that community creating can be as important as romance.

The narrator (Ulka Simone Mohanty) was fabulous - she nailed the Punjabi accents, with so many individual voices, as well as the American ones. I especially loved the voice of Dr Singh.

A hearty two thumbs up for this light, fun, but thoughtful novel. I'm going to go buy the next audiobook by Sonya Lalli!