If you've read the tagline on the cover, you know exactly what to expect from this book.

Ramesh is just a guy looking to make money. And the best way he can figure to do that is by taking tests for rich kids so that they look smarter than they are. It's when Ramesh accidentally places in the top position of the All Indias for one of his clients, Rudi, that all the trouble begins. There's money, greed, power, influencers, kidnapping, and even romance. Who knew it could be so good and so bad at the same time?

I'll start off by saying that Raina is a powerhouse of a writer. He's a straight-to-the-point, no BS, tell-it-how-I-see-it type author. At times it comes off abrasive and off-putting, but the novel benefitted from that. It adds a really unique personality to the characters and the world within the story, and it doesn't put on airs and pretend to be light and uplifting. If that's what you're looking for in a book, don't pick up this one. If you're ready to get down and dirty with the characters, this one's for you.

Speaking to the characters, they felt very real to me from the moment they stepped onto the page, from the main characters of Ramesh and Rudi to all the smaller characters in between. I also appreciated that they never tried to be likeable. All of the characters in this novel are honest and upfront about who they are, and that's really what moves the story along. You're never stuck bemoaning a character's actions because from the start you know they're going to do things you don't like, and if you try to complain the characters will move on without you.

The one place this book fell a bit short for me was within the plot. The novel is divided pretty evenly into two parts. In part one Ramesh flips back and forth between then and now, which felt like it moved very slowly to me, and dragged sometimes. Part two on the other hand focuses solely on the now, and I flew through that part no problem. That's where the action was, and where things got really interesting. I appreciated the subtle themes and motifs of part one, and the action of part two, and I just wish they had been fit together a bit better. I also didn't love the ending, but I think that was the point. It feels very 'we came this far for nothing', and while I appreciated that as part of the overall message of the novel, I didn't appreciate it as a casual reader.

All in all, I give this book 3 stars, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for strong characters and in-your-face storytelling.

Thanks Harper Perennial for the ARC!