The Takeover Effect (Singh Family Trilogy, #1)

by Nisha Sharma

[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!