Review: Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage by Susanna Carr

Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage

Susanna Carr

Harlequin Presents

March 18, 2014

After the glitter settles…

Tina Sharma and Dev Arjun's whirlwind romance made them Bollywood royalty, but beneath the glitz and glamour there's trouble—Tina is about to demand a divorce!

But Dev won't give in without a fight, so he proposes a deal: play the dutiful wife for two months, then he'll let her go. Tina is furious! He clearly regrets their shotgun wedding, so why stay together a day longer? But it isn't the days she should be worried about….

As Dev turns up the heat, Tina may just find herself wishing for a lifetime of pleasure with her devilishly delicious husband!

Now, I’ve never been married and I know marriage customs differ from country to country but Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage was just not my cup of tea.

Tina Sharma is unlike any heroine I have ever met…and I don’t know yet if that’s a good or bad thing.  At times I could see liking Tina as a friend if she were real, but most of the time, she was just too damn bad at being a wife to really feel for her struggles.  (That sounds bad, I know.  And Tina herself wasn’t even that bad).  I even felt bad for Dev Arjun (the hero), even though Tina and Dev both had issues when it came to their marriage falling apart.

The book starts out with Tina returning home from a recuperating vacation after her first miscarriage, her emotions are running high.  She’s still very much in love with her husband but no matter what she says to us-the reader-and to herself, she wants to make this marriage work.

Tina feels inferior because she came from the wrong side of the tracks and Dev grew up in the entertainment industry and had everything handed to him as a major action star (think Akshay Kumar).  And if you don’t know who that is; Google him or look to the right.  Everyone of Tina and Dev’s family and friends are against the marriage, so that would make it even more difficult for Tina to stay strong…which would explain why she was so weak throughout the book.

And even though there are women out there that are not as strong in their marriage like Tina, it was still disappointing to read in a romance novel.

Overall, Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage was a good story.  Great sex (when they had it), it was more implied than anything.  I’m not too sure about the customs, so I can’t really say I totally loved this book, but I enjoyed reading it just the same.