Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Release Date: January 7th, 2021
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After sitting next to him on a flight to Delhi eight years ago, I didn’t think I’d ever see the tall, green-eyed gorgeous stranger again.
Except in my dreams.
But now, Clark Cooper is the COO of my company and I’m going to have a lot more to lose than just my job if we act on our undeniable attraction.
We’ve traveled very different roads over the past eight years and carry a lot of baggage.
We’re both fueled by guilt. My guilt adheres me to marry the man my orthodox Indian parents choose. His guilt has him running from relationships, let alone marriage.
But you know what they say about the things we can’t have.
We always want them.
I’m all about contemporary romances by women of colour about women of colour and in Swait M. H’s debut Kismet in the Sky, we go on a journey with Avni and her relationship with Clark.
Their first meeting was a million miles up in the air on their way to Delhi 8 years ago. Young Avni was captivated by the handsome and charming green-eyed American while he was pretty fascinated by the dusky beauty. Their lives go in different directions after that and 8 years later, they cross paths again when Avni ends up with a job at the tech company that Clark started with a friend. And the rest, as you know, is in the book.
Kismet in the Sky is a second chance romance with a touch of forbidden love. Avni comes from a traditional Indian family where your parents are going to set you up with an eligible Indian man to spend your life with. She’s 24 and in the perfect age bracket for that, so obviously her parents are trying to set her up and failing, because Avni is particular about what she wants. Clark, on the other hand, is a commitment phobe. He doesn’t want a relationship and he’s not looking for romance, he’s got his hook-up on the side and he spends all of his time working and building up the company.
“Maybe not Clark Kent, but I’ve found my Superman.”
So when they reconnect, it’s a shock at first. It grows into something more gradually, but Avni’s been waiting for and looking for Clark for 8 years and now that he’s in front of her, she doesn’t know how to handle it. There’s a bit of a slow burn, but at the same time, there’s this burning desire to have each other, no matter what. I love how nicely the inner conflict was portrayed, because it’s clear that Avni is struggling to hide her desires to be with Clark, especially when he’s very open and forward about what he wants.
The romance, the steam, the story setting and the world building was all absolutely fantastic. Swati M. H. has done such a great job of immersing you in this world and in Avni and Clark’s lives that you feel like you’re walking right beside them the whole way through.
The only thing I did not enjoy – and I completely put this down to me being an Indian and not wanting to relive my own experiences – was all the Indian elements. I love our culture and I understand the whole ‘arranged marriage’ side of things, but the repeated mentions annoyed me a little. At the same time, it made me feel like this was falling into too much of the stereotype that people have about Indians and Indian families.
“As I explore the little dark specs inside his brilliant greens, I find myself falling. Falling for him. It’s a feeling of being both scared and safe. Hungry and full. At war and at peace. I’ve never felt this kind of sensation before and I’m worried I’ll be addicted soon.”
All that aside, Kismet in the Sky is a great love story about two people who fight against all the things stopping them from being together. Because in life, love sometimes can’t be forced and it can’t happen the way others want it to.
Thanks to Swati M. H and Candi Kane PR for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
anna reads here 