thank you to netgalley and inkyard press for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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2⭐️

i wanted to love this book so much, i even forced myself to finish it in hopes that it would turn out to be good in the end. sadly, it didn’t.

kismat connection tells a story about a family curse and a girl determined to break it. according to her curse, madhuri iyer is doomed to a happily ever after with her FIRST boyfriend and also her upcoming senior year is set to be a complete failure. to prove everyone wrong madhuri starts a relationship with one person she knows she’ll never fall in love with: arjun mehta, her childhood best friend. what could go wrong?

the answer is everything. throughout the whole book we are only being told about what’s happening but it’s never shown. there was no development, neither in the characters nor in the plot. the fake dating lasted five seconds, i swear. madhuri and arjun are friends and arjun has feelings for madhuri that are unrequited. but, we get an insta love out of nowhere. their dialogue was so unnatural and something that no teen would say nowadays. it felt strained and i cringed the whole time. it’s obvious that the author tried a little too hard. i just couldn’t find one likeable character in this book and at that point i should’ve just given up on it completely.

the one good part and the one i actually enjoyed is the exploration of culture and astrology. literally the only thing that held my attention.

this book tried to address important issues and topics but then again i didn’t care enough for it to make a difference.

to conclude, this book was not my cup of tea but some people might like it more than i did. my advice is to read for yourself and decide.