You know these restaurants that go all smarmy over you about their 'Asian-Mexican-fusion-kitchen' or something similarly stupid. Most of that fusion stuff is a lie coming down to one spice or one ingredient being added to a perfectly normal dish. The ones that are real fusion are somewhere in between inedible and plain disgusting. Who needs geranium sauce? Meaning that fusion has a decidedly negative connotation for me.
Lucy Monroe serves up a fusion romance; the fusion is Indian-American. And it works. No, I didn't eat the book. The set-up of the story is so clever that from the start you are always caught on the wrong foot when drawing conclusions. I don't want to spoil it all by explaining. Suffice to say that throughout the book, nothing is where it should be in a straightforward romance. Get into it and let yourself be led by the nose at Lucy Monroe's bidding.
The book profits from expert input by Mayurika Saxena who contributed and double checked the Indian elements for veracity and consistency. Thanks to that, the story is believable despite it's unbelievable parameters at the outset. The characters are well developed and make innate sense throughout the development of the storyline. There is no point in the story where you would have to say, 'they wouldn't'.
To make it quite clear, the story is built on believable characters. You don't get hit over the head with 'Indian-ness' or 'American-ness' to score cheap points in the ethnic community. The fusion is just that, the coming together of Indian and American culture and traditions and how they can influence each other. They don't need to be enemies, they, like all culture and traditions, compliment each other. One enhances the other.
This book was sent to me for free by the author. Lucy Monroe's book The Maharajah's Billionaire Heir was published in 2020. I recommend it to anyone who likes his story books to contain unexpected twists and turns and doesn't mind picking up some knowledge about another culture. You can always come back and comment if I was wrong about you being outguessed while reading.
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