The Sari Shop Widow

I grew up in a large city where, on the river, Heritage Weekends were held during the summers. Each week a different nationality was featured with the various foods, dance, music of that heritage was enjoyed. The local university had an engineering school where many people from other lands came to get an education, so they could return home and make life better. I became enamored with all things Indian. I made friends with several folks from India, immediately loved wearing saris, and enjoyed so many new foods. When I saw Sari Shop Widow in the Kindle store under the Christian Romance tag, I just knew it was for me. The main character is a young adult widow who lives with her parents who help her run her upscale sari boutique. As I am very traditional in my own worldview, I love the arrangement for her and for them. When I'm reading, I'm usually looking for, first of all, a good story, then some heat between the characters and God's influence on them. I was not disappointed for the most part. The story has depth, I feel like I know the characters personally. She struggles with the future of her shop, honoring her parents, living her life in her way.....all the same struggles that most of us have. Her parents struggle with the same things that I struggle with as a parent of two beautiful daughters. I have the same intrusive family members that she has and struggle to put up with. The story was not predictable either, which I really appreciate. I mean, I can still enjoy a story even when I know what's going to happen next, but it is way better when a surprise or two are thrown in there. The `heat factor' was certainly there! Ooh boy howdy. That's all on that for now. Here's where the book let me down-through no fault of its own though. I love technology as much as the next 21st century gal but the Christian tag on this book was off. While there are many Christian Indians, this family was not. The `rich uncle' did his rituals at 4am, which was humorous to be sure, but God had no influence on them. God's name was vainly spoken a few times and one character used many expletives in his daily speech. I can only assume that because the word God was used in the book that the tag of `Christian' was added. Now, back to the `heat factor'... Because this is not a Christian book and most of America is promiscuous, I can't fault the premarital sex from my Christian worldview. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book with the limitations noted above. If you can live with the language and the really spicy stuff, then by all means, you will love this book!

I picked up the book merely out of curiousity for a different culture, and was rewarded with a great love story. I would recommend it to all women who are into a good romantic book with a healthy dose of a cultural variety.

I got this book free on Kindle and it was a good read, hence the three stars. The rich cultural family life and love relationships were a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed reading the emotional growth of an almost-40 Indian-American widow (a successful fashion designer and partner in a family sari shop) and her relationship with (first) a sex-buddy type of boyfriend to whom I never warmed up. She finally lets herself fall for someone who truly loves her for herself and who is someone of whom her family would also approve, despite one sort of black mark in the relationship department on the part of the hero, and with the sex buddy on hers. Though her husband has been dead for ten years, she still carries a torch, which made me really love her character. This meant the eventual hero would have to really outshine the almost-beatific love she had for her dead husband. I felt that the ending was somewhat abrupt and not as richly written as the rest of the book, but I did get my happily ever after. It was just lacking the previous zeal of the other chapters. The characterizations of her family were well drawn. What a scrumptious hero who is even more empathetic because of a slight disability that has a secret story behind it. I look forward to other books from this author and will be hunting for some more good ethnic romance reads. This is not my usual reading fare and I was happy to have gotten the chance to be introduced to this author because the book was free on Kindle for a short time. Next time, I will buy her title!

Anjali Kapadia is in a bit of trouble. Her family's business, a classy boutique named Silk & Sapphires in the heart of New Jersey's Little India, is in financial ruin. In an effort to save the business from bankruptcy, her father has called on her entrepeneur uncle, Jeevan Kapadia, to come and help. The problem? Jeevan has a reputation for being a bit of a dictator; he likes things done his way, or not at all. The idea fills Anjali with gloom, but she will do just about anything for this business, which she helped develop after her husband died several years prior. When Jeevan arrives, though, he is very different, and brings along a visitor he treats like a son. Rishi Shan is Jeevan's partner is business, and has brought along some ideas that will radically change the small boutique Anjali has put her heart and soul in. What's more, he imposes on Anjali's life in a way that makes her wonder if she'll lose her heart to him in the process. The Sari Shop Widow is a delightful story that gives readers an insight into Indian culture and values. The need for Anjali to remarry is present throughout the novel, and the traditional values of her uncle and parents war with her mainstream American views of the world. Yet the underlying current of the novel, the relationships Anjali deals with, is universal, so anyone, whether familiar with Indian culture or not, will enjoy the story. The plot can be predictable; I had guessed the ending as a few chapters into the book, but it presents a more sophisticated romance story than Harlequin would publish. The emotions of the story are real, and very easy to relate to. I would still recommend this book to anyone interested in a light-hearted romance.

Despite the other reviews being wowed with the "glimpse of an exotic culture" I found this to be little other than a love story. The sari shop and the Indian heritage were red herrings. The shop could have been any shop - the culture could have been from anywhere. I didn't "get" the Indian link at all. What I did get was - boy meets girl, girl takes time to warm to boy (but she got the hots for him that first meeting it would appear). Boy fancies girl - so instead of staying for the week that was planned, he stays for months. Never mind that he has a successful global consulting business to run - that can wait apparently. The family don't warm to the boy until they "understand" him better. They all live happily ever after. That's the story and it's incidental that they work in a sari shop. If it was Victorian England, this would be a bodice ripper - as it's contemporary USA, I guess it's a sari shredder of a novel.

Great attention to detail, lovely character development, and lush descriptions of fashion, food and fabric. The plot was a bit too "chic-lit" and predictable, but I enjoyed the characters enough that I could gloss over that.

I thought I would get a thoughtful insight into the Indian immigrant culture from this book. It falls very short of that. The writing and language is simple, the characters are straight forward and the book is bland. SPOILER ALERT - Girl sad from her dead husband, girl puts her heart into shop; shop is in financial trouble -> parents call the uncle from India to help. Uncle is known to be evil and unscrupulous. Uncle comes and moves into their New Jersey house. Uncle turns out to be not so evil after all. Uncle arrives with hot interesting partner. Hot interesting partner puts the moves on girl and wins her heart. Shop gets out of trouble, girl very happy.

This book was light and crisp as the warm summer air. It was very juicy, and an easy read. There's a cute love story in this book, though predictable and often soap opera-ish you will not want to put this book down until you finish reading! The descriptions of the various Indian fabrics (as the story is set in a Sari Shop Boutique) are quite beautiful and well written. If you want your typical heroine with the happy ending set in the modern day with many complications and life's twists, I would highly suggest you read this book! If you are expecting something from the Bronte sisters (wuthering heights or jane eyre) that is not what this is; think more Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants but with an Indian twist and only 1 main character.

Very Happy Customer!

A good read. I enjoyed reading it randomly though the story was okayish it’s not that bad though for a one time read.🫧

Another great book by shoban. Good story-would have been good to read more about the ending with Anju and Rishi.

A good read and helped pass my time on holidays, however it didn't compare to Shobna Bantwals other booksI have read that kept me up all hours till I finished the books.

I was hoping this would be similar to books by vikram Seth, Rohington Mistry and Manju Kapoor but unfortunately I was very disappointed. It should have been listed as a Mills and boon book with an indian twist. The characters are very 1 dimensional and the story is as sheer and transparent as a cheep sari. Please don't bother with this book if you're looking for a good story, richly described caharacter and a well written plot. I won't be reading anything else by this author.