The Arrangement
Sonali Mishra
Arjun is 30, single and feeling the pressure to get married, buy a house and have 2.5 kids. He’s resisted an arranged marriage so far, but with his best friends getting hitched soon he’s feeling pretty lonely. Even a spark with a green-eyed local Indian girl isn’t enough to get him engaged. Arjun finally agrees for his mother to arrange a marriage – but will any of them be the one?
This book could have done with some ruthless editing. It takes FOREVER for anything to happen, and there’s a fair few things that don’t add anything to the plot line. I don’t find Arjun’s business trip to be relevant, nor is his boss’ somewhat insensitive behaviour. Did I honestly care about how many choc chip scones he bought? No.
Is being beautiful a criteria when finding a new partner? Sure, if it’s an arranged marriage you hope they’re attractive, but it’s not a given! Arjun is also described in multiple places as being handsome. What about the rest of us? Considering that the theme of the book is that an arranged marriage can still work and possibly build a more solid love story than a spontaneous spark, the ending is quite disappointing.
Was going to a divorce party at a gay bar necessary? A secondary character can be useful, but honestly the poor guy seemed like just a way for Arjun to show some character growth. Don’t judge people based on what they look like…
Dude! What’s with wanting to be married? Isn’t a committed relationship sufficient? This isn’t 20 years ago where you couldn’t cohabitate and you couldn’t have kids. Yes, I get that culturally it might be a bit of a problem, but it doesn’t seem like Arjun has a problem with it personally (given we understand he’s had sex before, and otherwise he’s a hypocrite). Marriage isn’t forever anymore.
So, after all those complaints, I did finish the book. I vaguely hoped that Arjun would realise that it was super rude of him either way he chose and maybe spend some more time thinking about what he wanted. He needed to use his words a bit more! ASK her, don’t assume things. 3 stars from me.
Harbor Lane Books | 13th August 2024 | AU$24.99 | ebook
Many reviewers hated this book for the same reason I liked it! Thankfully, a lot of the text was dedicated to how the venture capitalists could support Stella’s Signature Scent start-up. There aren’t too many loooonnnngggg sex scenes that have them going at it like bunnies all night (and getting a blow by blow of the action). Does anyone read those $3X scenes and actually enjoy them? I’m also very over people saying ‘is it spicy?’ No, there’s no delicious cooking in this novel, just home-made mac’n’cheese.
It took me ages to read this novel because 1) I thought it was the first in a series and I didn’t want to commit and 2) I didn’t notice that it had gay protagonists. Unfortunately the plot was lacking. I’m not sure why I kept reading it – maybe I got too attached to poor Kadou and his panic attacks? Then again, I hated Kadou’s ex- who was just a comical steriotype of a gay man calling everyone ‘darling’ and ‘sweetheart’. Evemer tries to be the hard counterpoint to the ex- but never really becomes a 3D character.
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Hoang reports that she had problems completing this novel, just as her protagonist struggles to continue with her music. I’m so sorry, Helen, if I may be so familiar with you to use your first name. I didn’t find The Heart Principle to be as good as 
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