Book Name: A Sweet Deal
Author: Andaleeb Wajid
Publisher: Fingerprint
Genre: Romance
Rating: 5/5
Book Blurb: Say hi to Rumana. A freshly minted (baked?) chef who decides to trade her powersuit for chef’s whites to live her dream of owning a café. Cut to six months later and there is Not Too Sweet, a gorgeous little café with a burgeoning clientele. This is home and heart and everything in between. But Rumana’s baker’s bliss is cut short when competition drives in not only right into her street but parks itself right next door! What the…
Enter Daniyal—rock star chef, too good-looking, and annoyingly charming. With him around, Rumana flits between being putty in his hands—giving away a cherished recipe to him when he asks nicely!—and getting mad at herself for her actions. But battle lines get drawn when Daniyal decides to present her recipe to the world with his take on it. Attracted towards the wild-haired Rumana, whose sweet kisses are a complete contradiction to her angry personality, Daniyal has no idea what’s about to hit him.
At Daniyal’s Desserts, he can’t get her out of his mind.
At Not Too Sweet, Rumana is plotting sweet revenge.
Will the two be able to strike a sweet deal?
Review: A Sweet Deal is a romantic novel done right. The story is a bit cliched but it’s been told very well, there is no exaggeration and this is how a romance novel must be written.
We’ve been disappointed by the chick-lit genre in India and like the sub=par films churned out of Bollywood, the books published are nothing to write about.
However, A Sweet Deal is a bit of a surprise package and you will end up smiling at many places while reading it.
The story is pretty simple. Rumana and Neahrika run a cafe and struggle but manage to run it well. Things turn spicy when Daniyal decides to open a cafe and provides them with some competition. Rumana and Daniyal start a cold war but there is a happy ending, after all.
Andaleeb’s writing has matured and she is becoming good at churning out better plots. The plot of A Sweet Deal is simple but it’s developed so well that the overall novel makes for a good read. I’ve read some of her earlier works, and her writing has progressed with each book. With, A Sweet Deal, she seals her status as the queen of romance.
Some more thought and research could have been provided for the book- such as the finer aspects of the craft of baking, etc. but given the length of the book, it does well to hold the interest of a reader. The focus also tends to be on the two protagonists and the peripheral characters aren’t developed much.
A Sweet Deal is not so sweet at times- like life, and offers a lot of hope for the romantics.