Bookworm in the City

No. 13 – A book set during a holiday
A Holly Jolly Diwali / Sonya Lalli

In my experience holiday reads mostly tend to be cutesy low-angst reads set during Christmas; it’s an entire sub-genre of romance novels and cosy murder mysteries that seems to have gained in popularity over the past few years. Hanukah seems the second-most popular holiday for setting.
And I have to admit; I was tempted. I’m into Christmas (booked a trip to a Christmas Market way back in September) and do enjoy cozy reads, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling it yet. I also kind of wanted something different because Christmas and Hanukah are not the only holidays celebrated in the world. So behold: a book set during Diwali, the Festival of Light celebrated by Sikhs, Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. Judging from the cover alone I figured one thing would be the same: it’s a cutesy low-angst read. After a couple of serious and intense books I could use something a bit lighter so I eagerly got in.

The story is about Niki: twenty-nine and single. Or very single, as her parents call her when they stage an intervention one Saturday night in the living room. Because yes, she’s still living at home. She chose to stay at home in order to save up as much money as possible to repay her student loans after she graduated college and landed herself a job as a data analyst. Niki is organized, always thinks things through, and isn’t the most spontaneous of people. Her parents have set up a blind date for her with the son of friends of friends and although Niki isn’t enthusiastic she is too obliging not to go. To her surprise she has a good time on the date but the timing isn’t perfect: she’s late to meet him because she was busy getting fired due to budget cuts in the office.
Getting fired leaves her in a state of shock but it also suddenly frees up her calendar. Now, she can go to India to attend her friend’s wedding there. Her family is surprised to discover her spontaneity but welcome it. Niki herself isn’t quite sure how to feel about it but does realize that the trip will be a good way to get a new perspective on her life and future.

Niki travels to India for the first time in her life. The daughters of immigrants, Niki and her sister grew up more American than Indian: Niki doesn’t speak Punjabi, doesn’t know the meaning of Diwali, or names of Bollywood actors. This meant Niki and I had the same knowledge gap and I learned along with her, which made things very easy to follow.
During the wedding celebrations Niki meets Sam, bass player in a band, and it is lust at first sight for both of them. Niki’s flirting skills are rusty but Sam isn’t much better. Sam lives in London, Niki in Seattle, and because there’s no risk about bumping into each other after the wedding, Niki is onboard for a fling. She’s never had a fling and thinks it’d be a great way to get rid of her goody-two-shoes image.
Sam and Niki are both close friends of the bride and both of them get invited to join the bride and groom on their honeymoon, in fact, there’s a whole group of friends going along to Goa.

Side note: I think it’s a wonderful idea to have your best friends along on a holiday and this couple had been together since high school and had been on a lot of holidays together already anyway and combined with a massive wedding I get that you’d like some quality time with the “insiders”. What made it slightly weird for me was that it was still referred to as a honeymoon instead of as just a holiday but probably that’s just the word association.

Although they are not officially a couple (Niki has her mind set on nothing serious) they are considered so by their friends and basically anybody they meet. It doesn’t help that Sam invites her to stay at his family’s home. His mother is there as well so it’s no wonder their fling doesn’t move beyond flirting and some kisses. Niki’s sister warns her that this is all too serious for a holiday romance but Niki doesn’t want to hear it and shouts angry words back at her.
After the call, she has to admit that this is indeed more than a holiday romance and tired of being the boring one, is ready to throw caution in the wind: because she’s between jobs anyway, and he’s seen her at her worst after she suffers from food poisoning, she tells Sam she will move to London for him. As I can tell from personal experience it’s not smart to move country for anyone unless you really want to move for yourself as well. Because Sam’s smarter than both Niki and me, he tells her that. But because Niki isn’t really listening she’s hurt by the message, and the travel romance becomes the travel drama.

This book is a lot of things: it has romance, travel, self-discovery, and cultural sense of being.
Every time I felt I had reached my limits with Niki, she did something that made me give her another chance. And in the end she did show growth and development and those are the most important things in a main character.
Most importantly, I really liked reading a book set during a non-Christmas holiday and will be on the lookout for others. Additionally, I’ll also be on the lookout for the follow-up on this book, which is centered around Niki’s sister Jasmine.