Almost Single

December 22, 2008
In this amusing though flawed novel, Kala introduces the Bridget Jones of India. Aisha Bathia is an independent 29-year-old single woman living in New Delhi working as a guest relations manager at the five-star Grand Orchid Hotel. The job seems fabulous, but in reality the hours are bad and so is the pay. And Bathia's life as a modern woman is small compensation: a 29-year-old woman in India is not supposed to be unmarried. With her two best friends, Misha and Anushka (recently divorced from her cheating husband), Bathia searches for love, trying everything from online dating to fasting during Karva Chauth, the traditional Hindu festival for married women. But Bathia has her eye on only one man, Karan Verma, the handsome investment banker from New York, even though as things move along she begins to question exactly what she is looking for. While the romance scenes are not very tense or romantic, Kala hits a bull's-eye with the situations Bathia and her cohorts finds themselves in. With a plethora of disappointing chick lit novels out there, Kala achieves what many cannot—she makes her readers laugh aloud.

January 1, 2009
Aisha Bhatia enjoys her job as a guest-relations manager at a five-star New Delhi hotel, and herjaunts with her circle of singleton friends, but at 29 she is past prime marrying age, and her mother wont let her forget it. Then Karan Verma, a handsome businessman, checks into the hotel during a move from New York to India. While Aisha helps Karan find an apartment and plan a housewarming party, her role evolves from personal assistant to pseudogirlfriend. Even as they develop feelings for one another, Aisha questions whether marriage is really her calling. Debut novelist Kala offers chick lit with an Indian twist. Although the ups-and-downs of relationships will be familiar territory for readers, Kalas depiction of New Delhi, where tradition intersects with modernitywith such curious results asmarriages arranged onlineis distinctive. Her likable heroine, witty dialogue, and slightly saccharine plot will also attract romance readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)