Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron

Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron
March 2, 2021 | Forever
Source: ARC via Publisher (thank you Estelle) 

Reena Manji doesn’t love her career, her single status, and most of all, her family inserting themselves into every detail of her life. But when caring for her precious sourdough starters, Reena can drown it all out. At least until her father moves his newest employee across the hall--with hopes that Reena will marry him.

But Nadim’s not like the other Muslim bachelors-du-jour that her parents have dug up. If the Captain America body and the British accent weren’t enough, the man appears to love eating her bread creations as much as she loves making them. She sure as hell would never marry a man who works for her father, but friendship with a neighbor is okay, right? And when Reena’s career takes a nosedive, Nadim happily agrees to fake an engagement so they can enter a couples video cooking contest to win the artisan bread course of her dreams.

As cooking at home together brings them closer, things turn physical, but Reena isn’t worried. She knows Nadim is keeping secrets, but it’s fine— secrets are always on the menu where her family is concerned. And her heart is protected… she’s not marrying the man. But even secrets kept for self preservation have a way of getting out, especially when meddling parents and gossiping families are involved.

I was extremely excited to read Accidentally Engaged from the moment I heard about it. I love cooking and food and fake relationships—especially when it’s South Asian characters—so this book was right up my ally. Reena and I have our share of differences but there were so many moments where I felt like I was reading about myself. And I loved the relationship between Nadim and Reena too! I know that we have had a lot of conversations in the community about representation and who can write what. There was something magical for me about reading Accidentally Engaged that I don't think I could've gotten from a book written by someone who wasn't from the culture. It was the little moments that really changed it for me. For example, Reena made a random comment about how her father was taller than the standard and even had a full head of hair in his 50s which I thought was hilarious. No, neither of the topics are that deep but it’s the subtlety that I love.

I wanted to talk for a moment about how much I loved the infusion of food on this book. I don’t think people think enough about how important food can be in a culture. I am Indian and one of the biggest ways we show our love is through food. Not just the process of making the food but feeding people the food. Our cuisine is not the easiest to master and it is quite literally a labor of love. I’m not Indian Tanzanian so it was incredible to see how Indian and Tanzanian cultures infused in this book. I will admit that I did not expect to love bread so much while reading this book. I mean, I like bread, but there is a level of bread love in this book that made me truly appreciate the art. Now, I just want to bake all the sourdough bread and name my starter Nadim. This is also very random and a little bit minuscule but I loved learning that maani was another name for rotis!

The family dynamics in this book also made me feel seen in such a big way. I don’t have the best relationship with my parents and I don’t always get along with my siblings. My older sister and I have had our moments of arguments and not getting along. I really appreciate the fact that the family dynamics in this book are not perfect. Even as adults we have to work through our relationships and through our issues. The struggle between wanting to be your truest self but also wanting to respect your family is one that I know all too well and one that was portrayed so well in this book.

Now that I’ve talked about all of the representation I loved, let me take a moment to talk about how much I also loved the relationship. I truly felt that Nadim and Reena became friends before anything romantic happened between them. It’s awkward at times, and maybe even a little but uncomfortable but it felt real all the same. Plus, I love nothing more than two people falling in love while cooking! Nadim also surprised me with how sweet he was. I didn’t actually expect him to be such a cinnamon roll and to love him from the beginning. In the end, I loved both characters so much that rooting for them to get together was the easiest thing to do.