“Sonya Lalli’s savvy novel puts relationships in all of their forms–family, friends, and romance–on even footing as a young woman works to find happiness.”–Shelf AwarenessSerena Singh is tired of everyone telling her what she should want–and she is ready to prove to her mother, her sister, and the aunties in her community that a woman does not need domestic bliss to have a happy life. Things … a happy life.
Things are going according to plan for Serena. She’s smart, confident, and just got a kick-ass new job at a top advertising firm in Washington, D.C. Even before her younger sister gets married in a big, traditional wedding, Serena knows her own dreams don’t include marriage or children. But with her mother constantly encouraging her to be more like her sister, Serena can’t understand why her parents refuse to recognize that she and her sister want completely different experiences out of life.
A new friendship with her co-worker, Ainsley, comes as a breath of fresh air, challenging Serena’s long-held beliefs about the importance of self-reliance. She’s been so focused on career success that she’s let all of her hobbies and close friendships fall by the wayside. As Serena reconnects with her family and friends–including her ex-boyfriend–she learns letting people in can make her happier than standing all on her own.
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I was looking forward to reading this book, since I heard it was about a heroine who didn’t want children or to get married, which isn’t something we see often in “Romance,” though this book was really more women’s fiction.
Serena Singh is a mid-thirties professional in advertising living and working in Washington, DC. That’s all I’ve got. There’s no other plot to this book. Serena tries to make friends, tries to do great at her amazing job, and tries to figure out her romantic life. There is no plot to this book, which made it incredibly boring. I probably would have DNF’d it, had I not been provided a review copy.
There’s things I liked, sure–I could really relate to Serena, in that I am also a professional woman in DC trying to make friends who likely does not want children. I liked that Serena was a bad@$$ in the top of her field, and a woman of color to boot. I liked seeing her friendship develop with Ainsley. But if you’re NOT like me and have some similarities to Serena, I can see this book being incredibly annoying for a reader. Serena could be an incredibly frustrating character at times, as she was incredibly stubborn and closed off to the point of extremes. Her aggravating tendencies combined with the lack of plot really made this book a no-go for me.
Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review!
3 stars – 4/10
Serena Singh has always known what she wants out of life – a successful career, long-lasting friendships, family – and what she doesn’t – marriage, children. Despite the fact that her parents cannot see Serena’s happiness without these things in her life.
She’s got the successful career part down, but when it comes to friendships and her family, it’s not going so well. Ever since her sister, Natasha’s, wedding, Serena has felt their close bond slipping. When Natasha also announces her pregnancy, Serena sees their relationship going the way of all her married friends with children: promises to meet up that eventually fall through, not seeing each other for weeks, then months, at a time, eventually almost becoming a passing acquaintance.
So Serena decides to take matters into her own hands. Forming a friendship with Ainsley, a new co-worker makes Serena see that maybe she’s focusing too much on work, and is herself part of the reason her other relationships have fallen to the wayside. So as she sets off to “flip the script” Serena will have to reckon with her past to learn that letting people in can bring about the most happiness.
I love how Sonya Lalli continues to tackle the universal theme of the expectations placed upon women in society. Yes, oftentimes there are differences, but really there are so many similarities such as the pressure placed upon women to want a marriage and children and anything different must be some kind of defect on the woman’s part.
Seeing the choices that Serena’s own mother, Sandeep, has made in her life, and how opposite they appear to be from ones Serena would make herself, causes friction within the family. Serena has her reasons, but they’re reasons the reader isn’t completely privy to until very close to the end of the story. Sonya Lalli gives a few chapters from Sandeep’s point of view and by the time we get to the end, to the root of the main conflict between parents and child, I wish we would have gotten to delve deeper into Sandeep’s own story. I felt like her voice was such a valid one to be heard, and we just didn’t get enough of it.
In that regard I felt like there were a few points where the story just didn’t really know what its main conflict should be. Is it the fact that Serena is bucking traditional female roles within Indian culture? Is it the deep-seated issues within her own family? The story kind of tries to make all of them relevant, but then blurs the line between them so much that the distinction, the impact isn’t felt as clearly.
I loved the idea of this heroine who genuinely doesn’t have any interest in being married or having children of her own. I was so hoping that Serena would stick to her guns and the story wouldn’t delve too deep into finding a romance. While romance isn’t the main focus, it’s hard to separate the idea of this woman who is proud to not be married (essentially being single), but then bringing Serena’s ex into the picture. An ex in which there’s still a lot of baggage. I almost negates the idea that Serena is fine without having a significant other in her life. It also didn’t help that I wasn’t drawn into the relationship Serena had with her ex. It didn’t break my heart that it had ended, and I equally didn’t really root for them to make it work.
I was much more invested in the aspect that finds Serena looking for new friendships. I mean, how many of us have gotten to adulthood and found it extremely difficult to forge new, meaningful friendships? It’s not easy. This storyline was completely on point for me. I loved seeing Serena and Ainsley form their bond. I loved that they provide each other with opposite perspectives. Ainsley is the hard working, married, mother of one. Serena the hard working, single woman. Their friendship grows and strengthens because they put the work into it, not because it’s necessarily easy, but because they want to. Like any relationship, it takes work. Serena begins to see that it takes two people to make friendships work and that she’s possibly been slightly unfair to her friends.
This was the main relationship draw for me. But I felt like there were times it was overshadowed by others aspects of the story.
Overall, I really enjoyed spending time with Serena Singh. I loved her unabashedly strong belief and convictions in her worth and abilities. I loved how she has strived to stay true to herself, and I loved seeing that we all still have the ability to grow.
Serena Singh is content with her life. Her baby sister is getting married, she’s getting a new job and she has an okay-ish relationship with her parents. Maybe they won’t always be on her case to get married and have kids now that her sister is getting married.
It seems like all of Serena’s friends are at a different stage in life than her. They’re almost all married with kids and she’s feeling left behind. It doesn’t help that her new job isn’t quite as easy as she thought it was going to be. Her team is resentful of her position and isn’t exactly wanting to make anything easy for her. It isn’t until she bonds with a fellow co-worker, Ainsley that Serena starts to really examine herself. Is she too focused on her career? What about making new connections and hobbies?
I loved connecting with Serena and especially her mother, Sandeep. Being brought up as a Sikh Punjabi I related to so much of what both of them were going through. I am a second generation South Asian/Indian American and often felt and still do feel the same pressure that Serena was feeling. I really liked seeing the growth of her daughters from Sandeep’s perspective as well.
But what started off as a really strong book, dragged for me in the middle. The pacing was off at times and I do feel that there were parts of the story included that didn’t really add to Serena’s journey. The romance with a former flame didn’t really add to the story and I definitely did not feel the connection or angst of a second chance romance.
I appreciated the aspect that Serena was a strong and independent woman. I really loved the relationship she had with her friend Ainsley and her mother Sandeep. Overall I enjoyed the cultural references in Serena Singh Flips the Script, but the romance and latter half of the book fell flat for me.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.