Review: First Comes Like by Alisha Rai
We all know I’m a fan of rom coms, so I couldn’t say no to this new one from Alisha Rai. It’s the third book in the Modern Love series, which I haven’t read all of, but now I’m definitely interested! It was fun on audio as well (thank you Libro.fm for my ALC!). It’s not a new all time favorite romance, but it’s good when you need something fast and sweet. Plus, the love interest is an actor and I always love stories that feature my profession to see if they get it right lol.
Synopsis: “Beauty expert and influencer Jia Ahmed has her eye on the prize: conquering the internet today, the entire makeup industry tomorrow, and finally, finally proving herself to her big opinionated family. She has little time for love, and even less time for the men in her private messages - until the day a certain international superstar slides into her DMs, and she falls hard and fast.
There's just one wrinkle: he has no idea who she is.
The son of a powerful Bollywood family, soap opera star Dev Dixit is used to drama, but a strange woman who accuses him of wooing her online, well, that's a new one. As much as he'd like to focus on his Hollywood fresh start, he can't get Jia out of his head. Especially once he starts to suspect who might have used his famous name to catfish her...
When paparazzi blast their private business into the public eye, Dev is happy to engage in some friendly fake dating to calm the gossips and to dazzle her family. But as the whole world swoons over their relationship, Jia can't help but wonder: can an online romance-turned-offline-fauxmance ever become love in real life?” —From the publisher
What I Liked:
The Dual Perspective—I love dual POV in romance because I think it can remove the feeling of miscommunication that can be so frustrating for readers. Plus in the audio recording, we have dual narrators which is my FAVORITE!
The Cultural Nuances—The main characters both come from different cultural backgrounds and the story blends traditional and modern values as the characters struggle to make their families proud while staying true to themselves.
The Discussion of Representation in Media—As an actor, I’m always interested in “behind the scenes” stories of Hollywood. The storyline regarding Dev’s work on an American television show was so real to how the industry is. He was reduced to a two dimensional side character and a white actor manipulated him.
What Didn’t Work:
The ending was a little rushed, so I felt like we didn’t get a satisfying ending to the love story.
There were some twists and turns I was expecting and personally wished they’d gone in the other direction.
TW/CW: Loss on a parent, loss of a sibling
Character Authenticity: 4/5 Steam Rating: 1/5 Overall Rating: 3.5/5