The Takeover Effect: The Singh Family Trilogy (Singh Family Trilogy, #1)

by Nisha Sharma

• ISBN10: 0062854178
• ISBN13: 9780062854179
• Publish Date: 2 April 2019
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Nisha Sharma won me over as a fan with her debut, My So-Called Bollywood Life. When I heard she was writing an adult romance series, I knew I had to read it, and all I can say is - book two, please!

Who?

• Hemdeep - The oldest Singh son, who had been estranged after a falling out with his family. He had left his post as CEO of Bharat, Inc., his father's business, to start his own firm, but returned to the fold to help his brothers save the company.

• Mina - The sharp and smart attorney sent to review the takeover offer per her uncle's orders. Her goal was to get an equity partnership in the law firm started by her deceased mother without having to agree to an arranged marriage.

What?

Both Hem and Mina smelled a rat, and were trying to uncover the mole, who was sabotaging Bharat, but will they be able to expose the criminal before it was too late?

Why?

This was a sort of different kind of romance for me, because there was a lot of plot, which wasn't really central to the romance, but you know what? I throughly enjoyed it. The takeover brought Hem and Mina into each other's orbits, but it also had them running an investigation linked to corporate espionage. I found all the suspense and business elements rather intriguing, and was eager to nail the bad guys.

Sharma wove the romance into the story without taking away from it. She managed to balance the plot and the love story quite well, and I thought the two parts complimented each other.

Yes, I liked the whole find-the-mole-save-the-company thing, but I LOVED the romance. Hem was super swoony. He had a little bit of alpha going on, but he was also a very modern man, raised by a super strong woman. He showed a lot of respect for Mina and saw her an equal. I thought the two were fantastic together. There was chemistry and heat, and many beautiful and tender moments too. Lots of swoon.

Most importantly, though, was that Mina fit into the Singh family. Hem might have been on the outs with his parents, when the story began, but when his family needed him, he did not hesitate to come to their aid, and due to this, family played a huge role in this story.

The dynamic between all the Singhs was wonderful, and their home was filled with so much love. I was such a fan of Hem's mom. I adored every second I spent with her, and the interplay between the brothers was also stupendous. Sharma made me fall in love with this family, and by the end of the book, I cared for each an every one of them.

Some more things to gush about:

• This book was a lot of fun. They took their jobs seriously, but when away from work, Hem, Mina, and the gang knew how to cut loose.

• Once again Sharma gave a shout out to Central NJ. It's fun to see places local to me mentioned in a book, because it does not happen often.

• You many not want to read this on an empty stomach, because these characters share a LOT of meals, and each one was described in mouthwatering detail. Yeah, this had me wanting to head down the street to Moghul Express.

• I love when characters come to terms with things causing them pain. Both Mina and Hem had some baggage, and they dealt with it, and were able to move on to bigger and better things.

This was an easy book for me to love. It sort of had it all - fantastic characters, a hot and swoony romance, an intriguing plot, and fabulous family focus. All these things left me chomping at the bit for the next Singh romance.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

BLOG | INSTAGRAM |TWITTER | BLOGLOVIN | FRIEND ME ON GOODREADS

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookworms
*I received a free copy of [title] from [publisher] via Edelweiss. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *The Takeover Effect was an excellent story on absolutely every level! A boardroom thriller / romance, it kept me riveted from start to finish.
Add in a very strong and intelligent female lawyer, and a strong-minded, honest oldest son in charge of his own company coming back to save the family, and you have a recipe for greatness!

[llamareads]

I had previously read and loved Ms. Sharma’s My So-Called Bollywood Life, which was YA, so I was ridiculously excited to hear she was writing an adult own voices romance! While there were some parts that were a bit rough, the book generally lived up to my expectations!

After a falling out with his father over his ex-fiancee, Hem left his dad’s company to found his own and distanced himself from his family. But when his father has a heart attack, he agrees to return as interim legal counsel in order to prevent a takeover. There he meets Mina, a lawyer hired to help decide if the takeover would be in the company’s best interest, and sparks fly. Like Hem, Mina has her own issues – her scuzzy uncle has ordered her to find in favor of the takeover if she wants to remain at the company her mother founded. Mina’s determined to come to her own opinion, however, and it’s soon clear that someone’s trying to ruin the company. Between corporate espionage, an arranged marriage, and strained family relations, not to mention professional ethics, what chance do Mina and Hem have?

I adored Mina. She’s strong, capable, and unafraid to stand up domineering men, and though there wasn’t that much of her actually doing her job in the book, the parts that were made her seem very competent. I liked that Mina and Hem were from the same background – both Punjabi Sikhs – so they had a similar background to work from, and I loved that their food, traditions and language that were so important to them were incorporated so well into the book. I definitely had a humongous craving for paper dosa! Hem was an interesting character, simultaneously both grounded and rich playboy, buying expensive clothes for Mina randomly. I liked his relationship with his family, especially with his brothers, and how connected and responsible he still felt for his family’s company, even though he walked away from it. The relationship between Hem and Mina moved quickly, and was initially pretty insta-lust. At times Hem bordered on just plain too alpha for me with the way he pushed Mina, but she was also quick to set boundaries with him. Their banter was amazing and the thing I loved most about their relationship.

While I’d normally save the cons for later, there’s a lot about Hem’s ex-girlfriend, Lisa, so much that she felt like a third person in their relationship. I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I can understand why he’d compare his next girlfriend to the last woman he was involved with. On the other hand, it felt weird that he viewed literally everything Mina did in comparison to her. Plus, Lisa was white, and, well, almost stereotypically culturally incompetent – viewing everything from multi-day weddings, to his family dynamic, to his religion with mild contempt. Perhaps it’s the environments I’ve been in (working in IT, especially), but while I don’t doubt there are plenty of white women who would feel the same, I can’t imagine someone dating someone while rejecting everything about the culture that made him who he is. The thing that bothered me most, though, was a throw-away sub-plot about them having a drug dealer who’d been involved with an uncle “taken care of” in India. While I don’t think anyone would disagree there are corruption issues in the Indian government, I’m not sure that these rich families would have such a cavalier attitude towards murder.

Going back to the positives, I love Ms. Sharma’s writing style. It’s very emotionally laden, very soap opera-y or Bollywood-y, but while I think it worked perfectly in her YA novel, there were a few times it was too much in this book. The corporate plot was interesting and held my attention. Well, to be honest, the whole book did – I couldn’t put this book down and tried to read it in one setting!

Overall, despite my critiques, I very much enjoyed this book, and I’m very much looking forward to the next in the series! If you’re looking for an enjoyable romance with diverse characters and don’t mind an overly alpha hero, I think you’ll love this gem!