The Love Arrangement by Ruby Basu

‘The Love Arrangement’ is the latest book by Ruby Basu.

Independent and free-spirted Annika has no plans to settle down anytime soon… if only her parents felt the same way. But when her father unexpectedly falls ill, she’ll do anything to make things better. Even if it means suddenly blurting out she has a boyfriend. The only issue is, he doesn’t exist. Then, by chance, she bumps into handsome entrepreneur Rav, and she can’t believe her luck. He’s single, sworn off relationships and looking for a date to attend work events with. He’s the perfect solution to her troubles. Or is he? Because there’s just one slight catch – he also happens to be her childhood nemesis. It was only ever supposed to be a simple, temporary arrangement. Nothing more. Certainly love was never part of the terms and conditions. But Annika’s about to discover that some deals are made to be broken…

Annika aka Nikki teams up with her childhood nemesis Rav to pretend to be a couple to to get her traditional Indian parents of her back and to help Rav with a work pitch. This arrangement works perfectly for both of them but the last thing that Nikki ever expected was to fall to in love with Rav and for the arrangement become real.

I loved Nikki, she’s fun, brave and works hard in her environmental job that takes her away for periods of time. Her brother and sister are married with children and her parents long for her to settle down so to put their minds at ease, she agrees to be in a pretend relationship with childhood friend Rav, a successful man that many women lust after and when Nikki announces their relationship, she is the talk of the neighbourhood.

Nikki is fiercely independent and when she pairs up with Rav, she has to adapt her way of life but this really makes for lovely reading. Rav is an intense man driven by success and Nikki’s warmhearted and bubbly spirit helps him relax and as the pair pretend to be partners at significant moments in each other’s lives, such as family weddings, work events, Nikki begins to see Rav as a genuine boyfriend and how well they work together as a team.

This story is a warm and fun tale, that was great to get lost in. Packed with interesting characters, insights of the bright and vibrant Indian world as well as the hardships of the pressure to settle down, ‘The Love Arrangement’ is a sweetly written story about love and family.

You can pre-order ‘The Love Arrangement’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from 13th October 2022.