Nisha Minhas

"Tall, Dark and Handsome" was a fun book, just like all of Nisha Minhas's books.

Our main characters are Saffron, an Indian woman brought home by British parents from an orphanage in India when she was just a few years old, who on a flight back from trying, and failing, to find the meaning of life in India, meets Cory on the flight. They immediately hate each other, but he still gives her his phone number and shortly after she decides to call him up, even though she's sworn to date only ugly men, and Cory's the titular tall, dark and handsome guy. The turning point for her is that she dug through his carry-on bag while he was away from his seat and there was a photo of him hugging a group of orphans in India, something that means a lot to her.

Cory is actually England's richest and most successful pornography baron, the driveway of whose mansion contains a Ferrari, Porsche and an Aston Martin, but is sick and tired of girlfriends who only want him for his money. So when Saffron calls him up, he buys a cheap, worn out van, and pretends he's a plumber struggling to make ends meet, and can't afford to buy her flowers or a decent restaurant.

As their relationship develops, and both of them feel the other is "the one" and they fall deeply in love, the lies just keep piling on. Saffron has an idea something isn't quite right, especially when Cory tells her on Sunday that he has no jobs lined up for two weeks, but then says he can't spend the night, because he has work the next day. Saffron's brother, with whom she shares a house is even more suspicious and as a journalist for a cheap tabloid uses his resources to dig for all of Cory's dirt…

Cory knows he has to come clean at some point, and figures he'll do it after three of the blue toilet flush cleansers have worn out, then it'll be time.

The plot point with Lace, Cory's most recent ex-girlfriend, who is desperate to get back into Cory's bank account sort of starts but fizzles out without any serious tension. And a lot was built up about the secret, locked room in Cory's mansion that could've been even more dramatic.

But overall, a fun, enjoyable book.… (mais)

Another fun east-meets-west chick-lit book from Nisha Minhas.

In this one we have Jeena, a young, British woman with fairly "liberal" Indian parents. They're liberal enough to let her wear very short skirts and go out to night clubs as long as she doesn't speak to any men, since they're planning to arrange her marriage.

Unbeknownst to them (at least until page 10 of the book) she does see and sleep with lots of men, including Aaron, who she's having sex with on page 10 when her parents come home and puzzled by the line of clothes strewn through the house and the noises coming from her bedroom walk in and see (including the insult of Aaron wearing her father's turban...)

And thus starts the problems... Her family plans to take her to India, where she's never been, in one month to marry her off to the first man who'll take her. Her parents are deeply offended that she feels India, their homeland, is a "foreign country".

Instead, she gets Aaron, an incorrigible womanizer who tells all his hundreds of girlfriends up front that he's only interested in sex and no commitment, and drops any woman he feels might be getting emotionally attached to him, she gets him to agree to marry her for one year, just long enough to evade her parents' plans. They just have to live in the same house and he's free to tell any women he brings over that she's his lesbian roommate.

But of course, nothing goes as planned and deep down they both realize they are really in love with each other, but of course getting to them admitting it is the whole adventure of the book.

Jeena's thoughts about Indian culture get a little repetitive through the book, and some could be trimmed to streamline the story and keep it moving forward. Personally, I had some trouble with Jeena's name, not being spelled how American's spell Gina, and yet one letter off from my wife's name, it was a stumbling block for my eyes going down the page.

But overall, a very fun read.… (mais)