The Shaadi Set-Up, Lillie Vale’s debut adult novel, overflows with internal angst, situational humor, and the oft-dreamed-of second chance at first love. It also examines the struggles mid-twenty-somethings encounter when finding their grown-up groove and combining business and romantic relationships. The result is positively entertaining friction-fiction.
Rita Chitness is a furniture repairer in Goldsboro, NC, who re-purposes unloved pieces into works of art that belie their origins. She’s also an interior designer who hasn’t officially gotten her business off the ground despite influential neighbors clamoring for her pieces and one who offers a big job. Romantically, Rita’s in a high-maintenance, semi-new relationship with Neil Dewan, which is kept secret from their parents because Neil’s father was once the love of Rita’s mother’s life.
Neil’s ready to make it official, and while he thinks marriage would solve his problem of a nagging mother, Rita thinks she has a better scheme: both of them subscribe to MyShaadi.com, create targeted profiles, get matched officially. That would be the perfect way to break it to her parents that she’s dating, of all the people in the world, Amar Dewan’s son. [Read the full review here]
When Loose Ends Meet 