chronicallybookish's Reviews (1.53k)

The cultural and religion aspects of this book were phenomenal. It’s the kind of representation that has the potential to be life changing for someone.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book was giving nothing.

Everything was so surface level and very sterile. There was no character development or plot or stakes. A book needs strong characters or strong action—or both, but at least one—and this had neither.
Kismat Connection is told in dual POVs, following best friends turned fake couple Madhuri and Arjun. Neither character had a personality. Arjun was fine, he was just boring, but I really disliked Madhuri for most of the book. She was constantly lashing out and biting off Arjun’s head, but it’s fine she doesn’t mean it, she’s just stressed. She really just used and abused* him the whole book, and he was this doting lovesick little puppy the whole time. He deserved better. I really don’t like them together.
I think the character relationships and interactions were the weakest part of this book. Every singly interaction was so sterile, even the ones that were supposed to be messy. Every conversation was just people saying the perfect things and articulating their emotions verbatim. It felt like a scripted conversation you have in group therapy to practice using different skills. Like when you practice your “I Feels”. No one talks like that, and its so ingenuine and honestly boring to read. A book needs drama, and almost every argument in this book ended with a too-perfect apology within a paragraph. There was no emotions. It was robotic.
The book was also very surface level in the general narration and plot. It’s 300 pages, but it spans an entire year with no real time skipping or anything. It’s just all telling instead of showing. There’s no depth to anything at all. The plot points are rushed, and so many things like interactions with friends (especially everything with Olivia and Brynn) are written as if they’re supposed to hold emotional weight, but they don’t because none of those emotions or dynamics are actually explored on page. We’re just told this happens and that happens and it makes Madhuri or Arjun feel like this. We don’t get to experience any of it with them. We rush from plot point to plot point with no scenes showing processing, no time to let it sink in or to let the characters react and feel their feelings. Typically there’s like a paragraph at most before the next thing happens.
This reads like a really detailed outline, and it just needs so much more fleshing out.
I honestly had to force myself through this, because I was really bored, and Madhuri really pissed me off with the way she treated Arjun—and kind of everyone else, but especially him.

<i>Special thanks to FierceReads and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.</i>

I don’t rate memoirs. To me, there is something deeply uncomfortable about assigning a numerical value to a book that someone wrote about themself, their life, their experiences. Who am I to judge what they went through or how they chose to portray it? Sure I could get nitpicky on sentence structure and writing craft or in this case illustration, but a book is more than that, so I simply give memoirs no rating at all.
I think this was an impactful, important book. I think it’s going to mean so much to so many people, and I am so glad that it exists. I’m glad I read it, though it made me feel ill to read about some of the things that the author experienced.
I was a little uncomfortable with how many slurs were used, repeatedly. I understand that this is a memoir, set in the 90s, and these things were really said to the author, but I’m not sure how I feel about them repeating them directly, even if it was condemned in text. Many of these slurs were not this author’s to reclaim. The use of slurs is complicated, and I understand the point that they were trying to make, and I’m not even sure it was wrong of them to use these slurs in their memoir. I’m kind of confused on what the “right thing” is when it comes to that sort of thing, if there is one at all, but I did think it important to just, point out, especially since slurs can be very triggering to read, and basically every slur you can think of (except the N word) is used in this book, including ones I’ve never even heard of before.
That said, I do recommend this book. I think everyone should read it, if they are in a place to do so.

 Quick Stats
Age Rating: 18+
Spice Level: 1/5
Over All: 4.5 stars

Special thanks to Berkley Romance and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.

TW: loss of family member, suicide, grief, sexual content

Ashley Poston is simply phenomenal—and I adore her in this adult romance space. There’s something about her writing—the narration, the emotion—that feels slightly reminiscent of Emily Henry, to me. I find it kind of funny, that EH went from writing YA paranormal romance to adult contemporary, while AP went from writing YA contemporary romance to adult paranormal romance.
Though I think if I had to describe this book and The Dead Romantics, I’d say theyre kind of a soft paranormal romance. Because they’re magical—ghosts, apartments lost in time—but they’re much closer to what you’d think of as contemporary romances than what you’d think of in paranormal romances, or at least how I think of those genres.
All of that is to say, I love what Ashley Poston is doing with her latest books, and I want more of it.
As for this book specifically—I really enjoyed it! I didn’t find it quite to the level of The Dead Romantics, but it was a solid book. Fun and swoony and heartfelt. There were a few instances where I felt like the writing was trying a little too hard to be deep and emotional and introspective, but those instances were greatly outnumbered by moments where those emotions felt genuine and sweeping.
I loved Clementine. Her voice was distinct and easy to get swept up in. I loved watching her grow as a character, and I was sad to part with her at the end.
Iwan, too, was easy to love and easy to fall for. I loved seeing the differences between him in the past vs the present, while Clementine stayed the same. It’s a very interesting juxtaposition to explore, and one that doesn’t often get explored.
The two of them together was just perfection. The chemistry was tangible and their little banter had me kicking my feet. I love nicknames in theory, but in reality they tend to be very hit or miss for me, but this one was definitely a hit! It was a little overused (he referred to her by name [or by nickname, I suppose] at least 5 times as often as she did, sometimes multiple times in a page) but there were so many layers behind him calling her that, that I couldn’t help but love it.
This is, like The Dead Romantics, more of an emotional romance than a romcom, despite the voicy narration and some comedic scenes and aspects. There is a very centralized theme of grief and loss that could easily be triggering to some, especially if you go in unprepared. I really enjoyed the way it was addressed, though. Despite the fact that it was more distanced in timing than the loss explored in TDR, it felt heavier at times in its exploration. I didn’t cry as much as I did reading TDR, yet I felt more depressed while reading the scenes as they occurred—not in a bad way, at all, just in a way that was notable. There is so much love in this book, in many forms, and one of those forms is explored through grief.
All in all, this was a really good book, and I look forward to whatever Ashley Poston releases next, whether its another adult romance or back to the YA sphere.