My So-Called Bollywood Life

By: Nisha Sharma

Narrated by: Priya Ayyar

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

The romance of Stephanie Perkins meets the quirk of Maureen Johnson, then gets a Bollywood twist in this fate-filled debut that takes the future into its own hands.

Winnie Mehta was never really convinced that Raj was her soul mate, but their love was written in the stars. Literally, a pandit predicted Winnie would find the love of her life before her 18th birthday, and Raj meets all the qualifications. Which is why Winnie is shocked when she returns from her summer at film camp to find her boyfriend of three years hooking up with Jenny Dickens. As a self-proclaimed Bollywood expert, Winnie knows this is not how her perfect ending is scripted.

Then there's Dev, a fellow film geek and one of the few people Winnie can count on. Dev is smart and charming, and he challenges Winnie to look beyond her horoscope and find someone she'd pick for herself. But does falling for Dev mean giving up on her prophecy and her chance to live happily ever after? To find her perfect ending, Winnie will need a little bit of help from fate, family, and of course, a Bollywood movie star.

An NPR Best Book of the Year

"A delightful and humorous debut." (Kirkus Review, starred review)

"The perfect timepass for both the Bollywood-obsessed and filmi (melodrama) novices." (Teen Vogue)

©2018 Nisha Sharma (P)2018 Listening Library

Critic reviews

"A delightful and humorous debut." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Full of heart, culture and laughter! This sparkling story left me smiling for days." (Roshani Chokshi, New York Times best-selling author of The Star-Touched Queen)

"The perfect timepass for both the Bollywood-obsessed and filmi (melodrama) novices." (Teen Vogue)

Pleasantly Surprised!

I wasn’t expecting to like this book because of the cover, honestly, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised. This author knows how to write YA well and to make a storyline for kids appear to be something adults and young adults want to listen to/read.

I didn’t necessarily get the blog reviews in the beginning of each chapter. I remember her saying that she was gonna start off with those, but I found them to slightly out of place and confusing.

Overall, I love the diversity, I love the setting of the story, and I enjoyed the characters, as well!

Clever, insightful YA

I'm not a great fan of YA, but this book was terrific. The narration was excellent and fit the main character. The writing was breezy and clever. I learned a lot about Indian American culture. Thoroughly enjoyable.

A Great Idea Lost in A Shallow Plot

I REALLY wanted to like the this book, The beginning was mind blowing and I was really interested in what will happen .. but as the story progressed flaws floated to the surface .. the plot was simply stupid and everything was moving way faster than your average Bollywood movie, I did like the Shahrukh khan dreams but the story was just boring nothing in it appealed to me
but I will make sure to check out the movies mentioned that I still haven't watched :)

The narration was really bad, I even would suggest you read it in a physical form because this performance was bad, it felt like a robot .. it lacked emotions and no voice ranges