"My akka said that you couldn't be happy for long, but that you got these moments of pure joy - when everything feels just perfect. Like when you've eaten just enough to feel full, but not enough to feel bloated. Or you bite into a piece of frui that's just right... The trick is to recognise those moments when they happen, so that you can remember them when you need to later."

GENRE: Romance
RATING: 4.75/5
FORMAT: eBook ARC
Tropes: Wedding planning, Traveling, Love Triangle, Romance Author x Literary Author x Wedding Planner

Review:

Having read 2 of Jeevani Charika's book, I was super excited for this and it did not disappoint! This time, we get to follow Kalpana, Sampath and Marcus as they try to plan a wedding in Sri Lanka by taking a trip there while managing their writing and author careers

This differed a bit from Charika's previous books and yet, we dive into our emotional themes in a wholesome way that feels like a hug, which we get to see in a lot of the author's books. I thought the concepts of learning who we are and not having to choose one part of our identity was handled quite well in here. Additionally, we get to see a bit of grief and learn how joy adds so much beauty to our lives, whether it's in the form of a book (Romance, of course!) or different aspects in our lives, like colours, traveling and so much more.

I really enjoyed getting to know Kalpana and seeing her develop as a character, watching her embrace who she is and her career as a Romance author. We slowly see her understand the importance of what she does and how spreading joy is just as important as writing any other genre, even if others don't see it! This leads to a theme of embracing joy and understanding that actually being happy and spreading it is important for who are we without it?

And Sampath, well he starts out as the wedding planner and turns out that he already likes Kalpana's books (yay) so its definitely quite lovely to see their journey unravel and watch how he get to learn more about Kalpana and notices the red flags in Marcus that are being ignored. And well, as for Marcus, you'll just have to read the book because I definitely can't express my dislike for him without spoiling the book!

I think what Charika does so well is that she expands on the small moments and dives into them, making the book feel so much warmer and gives us insight into who the characters are and what they want on a deeper level. I'd highly recommend all her other books that I've read, especially Playing for Love and How can I resist you? if you enjoy this one!

I was provided a free advance reader copy and I’m sharing my honest thoughts.