#annika sharma

[bookishbethanyerin]

•ARC Review: Sugar, Spice, and Can’t Play Nice •

Whether you love an arranged marriage plot or are looking for a palate cleanser, Sugar, Spice, and Can’t Play Nice will do the trick.

The second book in a series of interconnected standalones focusing on a group of friends from Indian backgrounds who live in New York City, the story focuses on Payal, a posh British-Indian who is launching her own fashion line, and Ayaan, a family friend who is a bit of a black sheep and has more than a bit of a playboy reputation.

After a one-night stand ends in disaster for them, Payal and Ayaan are informed by their families that as part of a business acquisition, the two of them beed to agree to an arranged marriage. And though neither of them *wants* to marry the other, they both temporarily agree – but throw in their own stipulations.

From there, you go on a bit of a slow-burn journey as Payal and Ayaan start getting to know each other in earnest, and though nothing about the plot will surprise you, it’s still a very nice time as these characters warm to each other, navigate their families, and help each other grow.

I especially love that Annika Sharma writes this big cast of diverse characters from the Indian diaspora with so much care and nuance, really showcasing the breadth of experiences and differing expectations that people who grew up in differwnt places have – as well as the rich cultural commonalities and understanding that bring these characters together.

Overall, this is a fun, quick read that also serves up some drama and a teeny bit of angst – and that features The Penrose, one of my favorite Manhattan spots when I lived in NYC.☺️

3.5🌟

0.75🌶️

👗An enormous thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy!💕

#book review #arc review #romance books #sugar spice and can’t play nice #annika sharma #books

[topsportsasia]

Miss Massachusetts USA 2023 results: Annika Sharma crowned in Burlington

beauty pageant: Miss Massachusetts USA edition: 72nd date: January 29, 2023 venue: Burlington Marriott Hotel, Burlington, Massachusetts, United States candidates: 64 RESULTS PLACEMENTCANDIDATESMiss Massachusetts USA 2023Annika SharmaCommonwealth1st runner-upTatyana Brown Boston2nd runner-upBritt High Roslindale3rd runner-upLuara dos Santos Medford4th runner-upMelissa Sapini AttleboroTop…

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#Annika Sharma #Burlington #Massachusetts #Miss Massachusetts USA 2023

[conandaily2022]

Annika Sharma biography: 13 things about Miss Massachusetts USA 2023

Annika Sharma is a wealth management analyst and a beauty queen from Massachusetts, United States. Here are 13 more things about her:

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#Annika Sharma #Massachusetts #Miss Massachusetts USA 2023 #Miss USA 2023 #Youtube

[futuristicsaladparadise]

नमस्ते!

 你好!  

안녕하세요!

 Здравствуйте!

 Aloha! 

வணக்கம்!

Greetings from my AAPI kids, Kavi (with “Namaste” in Hindi), Ivy (”ni hao” in simplified Chinese), Paul (”Annyeong Haseyo” in Korean), Annika (”zdravstvuyte” in Russian), Kaile’a (”aloha” in Hawaiian) and Indi (”Vanakkam” in Tamil). 

#american girl #my dolls #ivy ling #kavi sharma #Annika Nazarbayev #paul park #Indi Chandrasekar #kaile'a kahale #ag #agig #ag dolls #American Girl dolls #aapi #dolls of color

[musingsofmonica]

May 2023 Diverse Reads

May 2023 Diverse Read

•”Yellowface” by R. F. Kuang, May 16, William Morrow & Company, Literary Thriller 

•”Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care” by

Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba, May 16, Haymarket Books, Political and Activism & Social Justice

•”Good Night, Irene” by Luis Alberto Urrea, May 30, Little Brown and Company, Historical 

•”The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese, May 02, Grove Press, Literary Historical 

•”Chain-Gang All Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, May 02, Pantheon Books, Literary 

•”Warrior Girl Unearthed” by Angeline Boulley, May 02, Henry Holt & Company, Thriller/Suspense 

•”Ander & Santi Were Here” by Jonny Garza Villa, May 02, Wednesday Books, YA Contemporary Romance

•”Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea” by Rita Chang-Eppig, May 30, Bloomsbury Publishing, Literary Historical 

•”Whale” by Cheon Myeong-Kwan, Chi-Young Kim (Translator) — Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, May 02, Archipelago Books, Magical Realism

•”Quietly Hostile: Essays” by Samantha Irby, May 16, Vintage, Memoir in Essays

•”You Are Here” by Karin Lin-Greenberg, May 02, Counterpoint, Contemporary 

•”Did You Hear about Kitty Karr?” by Crystal Smith Paul, May 02, Henry Holt & Company, Historical

•”The Lost Journals of Sacajewea” by Debra Magpie Earling, May 23, Milkweed Editions, Historical 

•”Hula” by Jasmin Iolani Hakes, May 02, Harpervia, Historical — Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology

•”Dances” by Nicole Cuffy, May 16, One World, Literary

•”Horse Barbie: A Memoir” by Geena Rocero, May 30, Dial Press, Memoir 

•”Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity” by Leah Myers, May 16, W. W. Norton & Company, Memoir in Essays

•The Late Americans” by Brandon Taylor, May 23, Riverhead Books, Literary

•Sugar, Spice, and Can't Play Nice” by Annika Sharma, May 02, Sourcebooks Casablanca, Romance

•”The East Indian” by Brinda Charry, May 02, Scribner Book Company, Historical 

Happy Reading! — mo✌️

#books #bookish #bookworm #bibliophile #book lover #bookaddict #booklr #reading #book #new books #bookaholic #booklover #reading list #reader #readers #x reader #may books #aapihm #aapi month

[hope-for-olicity]

Most anticipated books May 2023!

 May 2nd 

Jana Goes Wild by Farah Heron,

Darke Music by Rosanna Leo

Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams

Sugar, Spice and Can’t Play Nice by Annika Sharma

May 16th

Whisky Business by Elliot Fletcher

The Garden of Lost Secrets by Kelly Bowen

Unladylike Lessons in Love by Amita Murray

The Rachel Experiment by Lisa Lin

May 23rd

Planes, Trains, and All The Feels by Livy Hart

The Duchess Takes a Husband by Harper St. George

May 30th

The Paris Deception by Bryn Turnbull

Even If the Sky is Falling by Taj McCoy, Farah Heron, Lane Clarke, Cherish Reid, Sarah Smith and Denise Williams

#May 2023 anticipated books

[elenajohansenreads]

Books I Read in 2023

#46 - Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words, by Annika Sharma

Rating: 2/5 stars

I had trouble with this novel because of the wild disparity between the quality of the character writing. Kiran, as the MC, was genuine and compelling; her circle of friends was an odd bunch, a but thin, but clearly have potential for further development as they get their own stories in the series; but Nash, as the love interest, was bland and dumb and often felt like a stand-in for white readers (myself included) so that the author could explain aspects of Indian culture. He didn't have much of a personality at all, and this flips the script on how MF romances often work, where the female lead is the underdeveloped one, to better be a reader stand-in for the wish fulfillment of the genre, while the male love interest has a clearly defined personality (or taking it a step further, archetype) that the reader finds enjoyable and attractive. Honestly, this felt far more like women's fiction with a poorly-written romance included, than a romance with strong family/friends elements.

#booklr #book review #romance novels

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

May Book Releases

🦇 Good morning and (hopefully) happy Monday to all my bookish bats, dragons, and goddesses out there! I'm sure you've noticed, but there's a PLETHORA of insanely intriguing books (and their stunning covers) coming out this month!

📚 Which book are you most excited to read? Here are a few to consider adding to your TBR (like you haven't already):

🔖 Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams 🔖 Jana Goes Wild by Farah Heron 🔖 Queen Charlotte by Julia Quinn & Shonda Rhimes 🔖 The Comeback by Lily Chu 🔖 The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren 🔖 Summer Reading by Jenn McKinlay 🔖 That Summer Feeling by Bridget Morrissey 🔖 Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman 🔖 Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliot McLemore 🔖 Of Light and Shadow by Tanaz Bhathena 🔖 Dragonfall by L. R. Lam 🔖 Planes, Trains, and All the Feels by Livy Hart 🔖 Stars Collide by Rachel Lacey 🔖 Sugar, Spice, and Can't Play Nice by Annika Sharma 🔖 Not Today, Cupid by Jennifer Bonds

#book releases #book recs #book recommendations #book release #books

[olivias-shelf]

Kiran Mathur has always followed the rules her parents set down for her. Falling in love, especially after watching how her sister was thrown out of her family for following her heart, is not in the books. Nash Hawthorne has gotten used to abandonment. When the two become neighbors, they both end up questioning their beliefs.

I loved the CMC - especially having Kiran as an Indian from India, Akash and Sonam as Indian American, and Payal as British-Indian was also cool to see how they contrasted with each other. This steady friendship that Kiran has as a family away from her family is one of the highlights of the book. Each member of the CMC is a fun, fleshed out character.

As a rom-com, this book checks off so many of the romance tropes and I enjoyed reading all the cute scenes between the two of them. I also loved how this book was a bit of a love letter to New York City, and I loved reading about all these things they were doing even though I'm not familiar with NYC.

There are many pretty heavy topics that get discussed - parental abandonment, drug abuse, racism, casteism, emotional abuse/ emotional blackmail, acid attack, xenophobia, death of a parent. Both of our main characters have a lot of baggage when it comes to their family and upbringing, and their baggage understandably clashes in this story.

I'm not Indian, so I can't comment on how good the representation was in this story. I just think that if there were such a line that Kiran was not willing to cross when it came to her family, why did she not draw the line with Nash way before their relationship had started to bloom when it did? Nash was even angry that she had not told him earlier when she finally did confess. They clearly were having moments before their first kiss, so she clearly knew that this was where their relationship was going. I also didn't really like the almost-white-savior vibes that I got from some of the things Nash said or did, which was at the very least, incredibly ignorant. I appreciated that much of it was called out by Kiran, but I found that what Nash did in the climax to be very uncomfortable, and it was built out to be romantic, but I expected (given the way that the parents had verbally abused Kiran and emotionally blackmailed her with her decision to date Nash), that it would go very poorly overall. It left me feeling very torn when I was trying to reconcile the conclusion of the book with all the nasty confrontations that happened between Kiran and her parents.

Finally, there were a few small things that made me uncomfortable. I was a bit taken aback at the mentions of the pandemic, and how it was already post-pandemic life. It felt weird to read for me, especially since cases are still incredibly bad in the US, not to mention other parts of the world. Secondly, there were many mentions of Harry Potter throughout the book, which, given the fact that this book also mentioned the pandemic, I know this book was written relatively recently, makes me a bit sad that Harry Potter was chosen to be mentioned. I was prepared to forgive the first mention, but then both characters mentioned it multiple times, and it was never brought forth as some sort of thing they had in common or anything of that sort - it easily could've been written as another book series or fandom and given all the harm that JK Rowling has done to the trans community, I was a bit shocked to see it mentioned so many times.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the ARC.

#four star review #arcs #romance #love chai and other four letter words #annika sharma #asian mc #interracial relationship

[thyastudies]

14 south asian contemporary novels coming out this year

NEW BLOG POST! 14 south asian contemporary novels coming out this year

I’ve requested more ARCs this year than I normally do, so I have a very long list of contemporary novels to read! There’s a lot of adult and middle grade contemporaries I probably missed, this list is just based off of everything I have bookmarked on my computer. Much Ado About Baseball by Rajani LaRocca release date: June 15, 2021 Trish moves to the town of Comity, MA and finds herself on the…

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#a mystery at lili villa #adult novels #annika sharma #arathi menon #book recs #born behind bars #children&039;s fiction #dancing in thatha&039;s footsteps #farah heron #farah naz rishi #first love take two #it all comes back to you #lillie vale #love chai and other four letter words #middle grade books #much ado about baseball #nisha sharma #ownvoices #padma venkatraman #radha and jai&039;s recipe for romance #rajani larocca #saadia faruqi #sajni patel #sara desai #shanthi sekaran #south asian novels #srividhya venkat #sway with me #syed m masood #tahira in bloom

[hellokittyyy1]

#annika #Ishqbaaaz #surbhi_chandna ishqbaaz shivika ♥ #ishqbaaz #omkara #gauri sharma

[hirakdesherrani]

LOL. We are all biased when it comes to our favs. 

Its funny to see people on Twitter and Tumblr supporting and giving the leeway to Annika in this redux, which they absolutely refused to give to Gauri in DBO/Original Universe last year, when in fact, Annika’s vichaars are even more regressive than DBO!Gauri, this season. 

(Its okay to be biased, but then why claim to be neutral in the first place? Disgusting hypocrisy is what it is)

#ishqbaaaz #ishqbaaz #annika #gauri kumari sharma #fandom nonsense #my stuff

[topsportsasia]

Miss Massachusetts USA 2024 results: North Attleboro's Melissa Sapini crowned in Burlington

beauty pageant: Miss Massachusetts USA edition: 73rd date: March 10, 2024 venue: Boston Marriott Burlington Hotel, Burlington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States national membership: Miss USA candidates: 56 outgoing queen: Annika Sharma (Commonwealth) RESULTS PLACEMENTCANDIDATESMiss Massachusetts USA 2024Melissa SapiniNorth Attleboro1st runner-upSamantha VocaturaLove Lane2nd…

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#Burlington #Massachusetts #Miss Massachusetts USA #North Attleboro

[conandaily2022]

Miss Massachusetts USA 2023 results: Skarlet Ramirez crowns Annika Sharma in Burlington

beauty pageant: Miss Massachusetts USA edition: 72nd date: January 29, 2023 venue: Burlington Marriott Hotel, Burlington, Massachusetts, United States candidates: 64 FINALISTS PLACEMENTCANDIDATESTop 16Ashley CunninghamMeera GuptaHannah KelseyJudy LinMarisa LockhartNina MurraySectra OkundayeAracely RodriguezGabriela TaverasKaymesha VitalSamantha VocaturaTop 5Melissa SapiniLuara de los…

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#Annika Sharma #Burlington #Massachusetts #Miss Massachusetts USA 2023 #Skarlet Ramirez

[futuristicsaladparadise]

My keepers. I still have a lot, but the collection is certainly less overwhelming. Annika (center front, in the light blue shirt) is the doll I’ve had the longest, and Indi (second row, white shirt, dark complexion) is my newest. Many others have come and gone, but these are the ones that spark the most joy when I see them.

Most of them are historicals, but for this photo I decided to dress everyone in relatively contemporary clothing (1990s-2020s), just to see how they all would look.

Back row: Rebecca Rubin, Francie Whitman, Ivy Ling, Kavi Sharma, Apolline Kincaid, Mari-Luz de San Geronimo

Third row: Claudie Wells, Kirsten Larson, Elizabeth Cole, Paul Park, Blaire Wilson

Second row: Joss Kendrick, Nellie O’Malley, Indira Chandrasekar, Cora Sato

Front row: Sara Jones, Annika Nazarbayev, Florrie Whitman, Ana Rubin

#my dolls #american girl #American Girl dolls #AG #agig #ag dolls

[manmarziiyan]

The Ladies of IB + Appreciation

#ishqbaaaz #ishqbaaz #dil boley oberoi #text post meme #annika #gauri kumari sharma #bhavya pratap rathore #saumya tendulkar #saumya kapoor #svetlana kapoor #mallika kabeer chaudary #tlib #tia kapoor #surbhi chandna #shrenu parikh #mansi srivastava #surbhi jyoti #nehalaxmi iyer #navina bole #rehyna malhotra #my edits