The Shaadi Set-Up | Vale, Lillie

Lange Beschreibung
In this witty and heartfelt rom-com debut for fans of Jasmine Guillory, Emily Henry, and Tessa Bailey, an Indian American woman signs herself and her boyfriend up for a matchmaking site to prove they're a perfect match, only to be paired with her ex instead.

High school sweethearts Rita Chitniss and Milan Rao were the golden couple, until the day he broke her heart. Now, six years later, Rita has turned her passion for furniture restoration into a career and has an almost-perfect boyfriend, Neil. The last thing she needs is for Milan to re-enter her life, but that's exactly what happens when her mother, an unfailing believer in second chances, sets them up. Milan is just as charming, cocky, and confident as he was back in school. Only this time, he actually needs her business expertise, not her heart, to flip a hard-to-sell house for his realty agency. 
 
While Rita begrudgingly agrees to help, she's not taking any risks. To prove she's definitely over him, she signs herself and Neil up on MyShaadi.com, a Desi matchmaking site famous for its success stories and trustworthy enough to convince everyone that she and Neil are the new and improved couple. Instead, she's shocked when MyShaadi's perfect match for her isn't Neil...it's Milan. Ignoring the website and her mother is one thing, but ignoring Milan proves much more difficult, especially when she promises to help him renovate the beach house of her dreams. And as the two of them dive deeper into work and their pasts Rita begins to wonder if maybe her match wasn't so wrong after all....

Rezensierung
One of: 
New York Post's Required Reading Picks
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Best New Romance Books
PopSugar's 14 Best New Romance Books That Will Sweep You Off Your Feet 
BuzzFeed's Romance Novels You Need to Read This Summer 
SheReads's Favorite Second Chance Romance Books
BookRiot's 17 Swoonworthy Indian Romance Books
Motherly's 19 Best and Buzziest Books of 2021 for Moms
PopTonic's Best Second Chance Romance Novels 
 
[A] pitch-perfect contemporary love story Entertaining throughout, Vale s delightful storytelling will charm readers. Shelf Awareness

With a lovely cast of secondary characters and snappy dialogue all around, The Shaadi Set-Up is a humorous and heartfelt romance about finding your first love for the second time. Lillie Vale s adult-fiction debut is a charmer. Washington Independent Review of Books
 
Positively entertaining friction-fiction The Shaadi Set-Up hums with a sexy vibe and tons of heart thanks to great characters .The concept of the second generation getting a second chance at first love is just too irresistible to pass up. India Currents

A fun, quick read; witty and heart-felt. Mountain Times

If you loved the beach house aspect of Beach Read and the renovation of it, The Shaadi Set-Up might be the thing you re looking for. Reunited exes have to work together to flip a house! Rita and Milan will find out that their feelings for each other are not easily forgotten. BookRiot

A solid rom-com that s well-written and is a good look at the lives and culture of the Desi world A charming fall read. Red Carpet Crash

I loved every single second of reading this beautifully addictive second chance romance, The Shaadi Set-Up checked all the boxes in creating a relatable and fun-tastic slow burn .I absolutely loved that this book had so many real parallels to what Desi (Indian) kids face when it comes to marriage and keeping their families happy, the best part being that Vale managed to highlight the funnier side to this issue .Rita and Milan will forever hold a special spot in my heart, along with their meddlesome families. Vale is definitely a new favorite author of mine and I would highly recommend reading this book ASAP! Harlequin Junkie

YA author Vale makes a splash with her laugh-out-loud adult debut....Vale evenly balances heart and heat, while imbuing her rom-com with cultural specificity and delicately exploring familial obligation and heartbreak. Hilarious and heartfelt, this second chance romance proves it s never too late to start again. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Vale s sweet, slow-building, funny, second-chance love story, her debut romance novel, offers lush settings, a clever and amusing predicament, and a memorable match. Booklist (starred review)

Vale s bittersweet, slow-burn story of lost love and difficult choices is lightened by plenty of humor and charming characters. It will please fans of Jasmine Guillory, Sonali Dev, or Tessa Bailey s Hot & Hammered series of renovation-themed romances. Library Journal

The writing has some standout moments, from the author s celebration of Indian American culture to her lush and mouthwatering descriptions of food. Kirkus

The Shaadi Set-Up is my favorite ever second chance romance. Hilarious and emotional, with characters who feel so real I didn t want to let them go, Rita and Milan punched a hole through my heart. I can t wait to dog-ear all my favorite passages. This is an absolute treasure of a love story. Sarah Hogle, author of You Deserve Each Other and Twice Shy

Charming as hell and wonderfully witty, The Shaadi Set-Up had me grinning, swooning, and sweating. Watching Rita and Milan torture each other is truly delicious, and the tension between them is so thick you d need several buzzsaws to cut it. A pitch-perfect romantic comedy and a new all-time favorite. Rachel Lynn Solomon, author of The Ex Talk

'Funny, sexy, and so full of love! With hilarious and vibrant prose, memorable characters you can't help but fall in love with, and a new twist on modern dating, this second-chance at love story is addictively readable. I was rooting for Rita and Milan to overcome their complicated history and find their happily ever after from the moment I met them on the page!' Farah Heron, author of Accidentally Engaged

What sets The Shaadi Set-Up apart is Vale s luscious prose and deft characterizations. A fun yet thoughtful novel that ties together love for family, friends, and the one that got away, The Shaadi Set-Up is a heart-warming debut you won t soon forget. Elizabeth Everett, author of A Lady s Formula for Love

Buchausschnitt

Chapter 1

I drag myself on a walk around my neighborhood twice, the soup of North Carolina s early June humidity plastering my hair to the back of my neck. Still half asleep, I let my dogs set the pace and try not to nod off behind my enormous incognito-actress-style aviators that cover half my face.

Most girls would try to squeeze in a morning cuddle with their hunky boyfriends as soon as the alarm goes off, but I launched out of bed this morning before mine could hit snooze. As holdover from his college days, Neil s mom still calls ten minutes after his second snooze to wake him up. In the beginning, he d ignore her second how are you doing this morning, beta call, but three months into our relationship, he s comfortable enough to carry on a speakerphone conversation with his mom while he shaves and gets ready.

In almost every other respect, we re fine. But if he just hit reject the way he used to, I wouldn't be out here at the asscrack of the morning, wincing at the sheer audacity of the sun streaming directly into my eyeballs, despite my sunglasses.

To kill time, I pause at the bus stop and let the kids pet my French bulldog Freddie who pretends not to enjoy it and my Jack Russel terrier mix Harrie who unabashedly does. I get to chatting with the Instagram-wellness-peddler-pretty-at-eight-a.m. moms who ve seen my latest upcycled furniture drying out on my driveway.

Rita! a woman calls from across the street, beckoning me to join her and her friend.

It doesn t take long before the frenemy neighbors vye for the same vintage Queen Anne dressing table, and their frenzied bids have already crossed double the asking price on Instagram.

I have to admit it s a beautiful, if somewhat boring, piece.

I thrifted it from a local flea market last month at end of day, price dropped because the crusty seller didn t want to load it back up on their van. Even with its busted cabriole legs, peeling paint, and cracked mirror, it was a steal at under a Benjamin.

I would have loved to paint it a bright pop of color, hot pink, peacock green or electric blue, but the clientele around here prefers their paintwork just like they prefer their neighbors - conservative. So refinishing to the original walnut color and painting the new legs and drawers in champagne it is.

My phone dings with a new email in between a particularly fierce volley between the always-glowing skincare ambassador and the went-vegan-for-the-likes yoga instructor who I know for a fact smuggles home Zaxby s wings and fried chicken from Bojangle s.

I don t want to take my eyes away from the bidding war in front of me; in any case, emails are harbingers of evil, usually credit card statements or sales bots who have scraped my email from Dharma Designs Instagram s contact info.

Skincare Lady s final bid takes it up to triple, well above markup, and I arrange to deliver it later this week. Shaking on the price isn t easy, especially when I know my (um, her) dressing table is only going to be used as a prop to display her overpriced gunk for sponsored posts (I mean, she has a mini fridge just for her skincare!), but I need the money.

And secretly, I was rooting for her to come out the winner.

So I grit my teeth and take her hand, both of us pretending we don t see last month s chipped black polish clinging desperately to my tips.

She has a flawless gel mani. Because of course.

Yoga Girl smiles through her teeth and says Oh well, maybe next time! with neighborly gusto, but her eyes are slits. I'm glad she was outbid. She always responds to my Hey with Namaste and asks if I know her Indian friends.

My email dings again.

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