Marriage & Masti Annotation

How had he missed Veera this whole time? How had he not thought about her in any other way than as a friend? Maybe he was afraid of losing what they had together. She had quickly become his safe space, the person he turned to when he needed help figuring out all the complicated details in his life.”

Author: Nisha Sharma

Title: Marriage & Masti

Genre: Romance

Publication Date: August 27. 2024 *Note: I received an ARC of this book through Edelweiss and Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. *

Number of Pages: 352

Geographical Setting: Goa, India, New York City, New Jersey

Time Period: Modern Day

Series (If applicable): If Shakespeare Was an Auntie #3

Plot Summary: Veera Mathur has been through a lot recently. Her two best friends fell in love, the man she’s been in love with for years got engaged without telling her, and her father fired her from the family company before selling it. Deepak also hasn’t had the best year. In order to secure the board votes to become CEO of his family’s company, he was ready to marry Olivia Gupta. However, when he finds out he's been dumped via TikTok video, all his plans come crashing down and he wants the one person who always made him feel confident and helped him.

When Deepak gets a call from Veera after eight months, Deepak rushes to help her. After a night of drowning their sorrows in drinks, Deepak and Veera accidentally get married. When they sober up, they realize a marriage could be exactly what they each need for their careers. But as their lives and souls become entwined and the lines between fake spouses and real spouses blurs, they have to decide if love is really worth risking everything.

Subject Headings: Contemporary Romance, Rom-Com, Adaptation/Retelling

Tropes: Fake Marriage, Marriage of Convenience, Friends to Lovers, Only One Bed

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Appeal:

Character - This book is Dual POV told from Deepak and Veera’s perspectives. Both characters were present in the first two books of the series and were always the quietest in a group of loud and opinionated people. Because of this, I was very excited to get to know Deepak and Veera in their book. Deepak has essentially done everything he can to secure his family’s company and legacy, including ignoring his own heart. Understanding that his family wouldn’t want him to sacrifice his own happiness for their company is a large part of his character arc.

Veera is described as a softie and is often underestimated and taken advantage of due to this softness. Seeing her come to terms with this but also learning how to use her own voice. While it pained me that Veera distanced herself from her best friends (see Relationships), I completely understood where she was coming from. For Veera, it was easier to run from things than face them head on, but she learned to stand up for herself and stop running in this book.

Genre - This book is 100% a romance with a Happily Ever After. For those who want a modern rom-com with a HEA, this is a great book. As I read a lot of romance, I’ve noticed a trend of having third act breakups due to miscommunication. This book did not have a third act breakup, which I enjoyed. Instead, the drama focused on Veera’s relationships with her best friends and twin sister and the CEO vote for Deepak.

Relationships - Deepak and Veera’s friendship growing to a romantic relationship is central to this story. Deepak is centered by Veera’s advice and unwavering confidence in him, and when his life starts falling apart, he wants to know what Veera thinks he should do, as her thoughts are most important to him. Their fake, drunken wedding ceremony opens his eyes to seeing her as more than just a friend. For Veera, who has always been in love with Deepak, it's more important for her to be honest and ask for what she wants when she and Deepak get fake married.

Veera has several other relationships that are important to her story. Since getting fired from her family’s company by her father, she has gone no-contact. Being fired and told it’s time for her to get married caused her to travel the world trying to build her own company with her sister to prove that she is capable of running a business. Eventually though, she realizes that her father’s opinion is not worth it and decides to start a business for ethical lending, her passion.

Veera’s relationship with her twin, Sana, is equally important. When Veera first finds out that Deepak is engaged, she calls Sana who comes to help her. When they are both fired, they travel the world together hoping they can open up their family’s business again with them leading it. However, after 8 months of traveling, Sana tells Veera she doesn’t want to do that long term, and Veera finds out that Sana wasn’t actually fired by their father, but quit after Veera was fired. This and other developments force Veera to confront her sister, who, despite being twins, insists that she is older and needs to protect Veera because she’s too soft. They learn how to love and support each other in the way they each need, and their sibling relationship is very important to Sana.

The first two books in the series followed Kareena and Bobbi, Veera’s two best friends. In both those books, the girl’s friendship was a source of comfort to each other. When we begin Marriage & Masti, Veera has put a distance between herself and her best friends. When she’s in a tough spot, she thinks of them, but doesn’t reach out. Even though they never intentionally left her out, Veera feels out of place given that both Bobbi and Kareena have partners now. Veera struggles with how their relationship has changed, and it’s understandable why she put distance between them, but she had to learn to speak up for herself and realized that their relationship might change, but their love for each other won’t.

Authenticity - What I love about Nisha Sharma’s books is that you are constantly learning about the Indian American experience, and this book is no exception. In each book of this series, you focus on different aspects of the Hindu courtship and marriage traditions. In the first book, it focused on the courtship aspects, mainly arranged marriages and engagements, while the second book focused on the events leading up to the wedding, including the sangeet, mehndi, and haldi ceremonies. This book focuses on the actual wedding itself and the ceremonies that come after, like the groom’s parents welcoming the wife into their home after the wedding, and Karva Chauth, a holy day where women fast for their husband’s prosperity. These books are a beautiful and fun way to understand these traditions.

Nisha Sharma also does a lot to explain and unpack generational trauma and the differences between first, second, and third-generation immigrants. Both Deepak and Veera’s families emigrated to the US and built successful companies. While Deepak feels immense responsibility to continue his family’s legacy and has been prepared to be CEO his entire life, Veera has had to fight every step of the way, mainly because she is a woman. Her father fires her before the two companies merge, saying she can finally settle down and get married. The different familial expectations for Deepak and Veera affect their characters immensely, but they also work hard to deconstruct the negative effects these expectations have on them and their personal lives.

Sexuality - While this book is not as spicy as the first two books in this series, sex is present and important for their relationship. Deepak and Veera both use sex as a way to share their feelings with one another without voicing them before they’re ready.

3 terms that best describe this book: Engaging, Witty, Heartwarming

Similar Authors and Works (why are they similar?):

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors

Tying the Perfect Knot: A Practical Guide to Beautiful Hindu Weddings by Padmakar Gangatirkar

This book features many of the traditional Hindu wedding ceremonies, including the ceremony itself and many after. I wanted a book that would explain many of these ceremonies and why they’re important.

Hitched: The Modern Women and Arranged Marriage by Nandini Krishnan

The books in this series focus on arranged marriages and the pressures Indian women feel to get married. I wanted a book that focused on this tradition and how it affected women.

Mergers and Acquisitions from A to Z by Andrew Sherman

Business is a large part of Marriage & Masti. I wanted a book that would help explain much of the background in the mergers between Deepak and Veera’s family companies.

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Each book in this series is a retelling of a famous Shakespeare work, and Marriage & Masti is based on Twelfth Night.

The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest

This book features an accidental, drunken marriage that turns into something real like Marriage & Masti.

The Spare by Ava Rani

The Spare is a high-tech, billionaire romance written by an Indian-American. Like Marriage & Masti, the characters' family businesses are important to the story.