Local authors publish SA-flavoured romances

The following books have a few things in common:

• They’re both written by South African authors
• Both feature Indian characters
• Both books have strong friendships at their core

Here are my reviews of both of them:

Review: Pillow Talk

Author: Nivashni Nair Sukdhev

Publisher: Jonathan Ball

A paragraph in the author’s thanks text at the back of this book made me giggle.

It read: “To my son Riav … You are not allowed to read this book, ever!”

I suspect the life ban may have been because of the spicy scenes in the book. I found the scenes only mildly spicy though, compared to what’s in other books of the same genre. I would rate the spice level in this book as curry, and not because it features Indian characters.

Breaking the mold

While this book may fit very snugly in the romance genre, it does break the mold somewhat. I like authors who are bold enough to do this and who are able to do it well because tweaking the tried and tested romance formulas can make or break a book.

This novel adapts the tropes in a way that is intriguing. It retains everything that is comforting about the predictability of the genre while bending the rules just enough to make it interesting.

Synopsis

The book is the first of a series and is set in the fictional town of Rally, KZN. This story centres around childhood friends Shona and Senthil.

Shona, a talented fashion designer, feels trapped in her family’s old-fashioned tailor shop. She’s having a secret fling with Senthil, a handsome lawyer from a wealthy family.

When she walks out of the family business, in a frustrated fury, she finds herself at several crossroads, both in friendship and life.

As Shona and Senthil’s relationship deepens, she discovers that she needs to dig deeper into her past to understand her present while planning for her future.

Review: Next Level Love

Author: Shameez Patel

Publisher: Hachette

I have been looking forward to this book for a while because I enjoyed its predecessor Playing Flirty.

That is also where we first meet Link, the male romantic lead. He is the quiet background gamer in the Playing Flirty friend circle but he returns in full neuro-divergent romance hero glory in this secret identity trope – which is a book about nerds, for nerds.

Synopsis

The female lead is Elizabeth, a wannabe civil engineer who has some steep kerbs to climb. They’re of the sexist kind, of course, albeit of a slightly different variety than what the average STEM heroine faces.

Elizabeth’s checkered past is very public, thanks to her rich, movie-industry stepfather. When she lands an exclusive internship, her peers wrongly assume her stepfather used his influence to get her the spot, which makes the ambitious runaway extra eager to prove herself.

Her bosses saddle her with Link, who neither knows nor cares about her prestigious surname or dubious past liaisons.

Unfortunately for Link, his promotion is on probation, because the grouchy gentle giant is notoriously uncommunicative, and he too needs to prove himself.

Link wants nothing more than to just put on his noise-cancelling headphones and bury himself in his work but not even a bland office divider can stop his pretty officemate from getting under his skin in a way that only one other woman ever has — his anonymous online player two: @pancakesareelite.

Sprinklings of Mzanzi

This book is set in America, since its predecessor is centred around the San Diego Comic Con.

Patel was very clever though in how she snuck in South African references which are sure to make her local fans smile.

Swoony but only mildly spicy

When it comes to spice, this book has a generous sprinkling of lemon pepper.

If you prefer books that are more explicit, don’t look away. This book may not have graphic sexy details but its romantic banter is so swoonworthy, it’s next level 😉.

I can’t remember reading any love confessions this heart-melting since the love letter in Persuasion.