Title: The Wedding Setup
Author: Sonali Dev
Genre: Romance
Published On: January 11, 2022
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Source: digital
Pages: 67
Synopsis:
From USA Today bestselling author Sonali Dev comes a heartfelt short story about one womanβs journey of self-discovery and what it means to be happy.
Ayesha Shetty lost her brother seven years ago, the same time she lost everything else important to her: her dreams, her fierce independence, and the man she loved. Not wanting to see her mother hurt anymore, she put her wild self away and became the dutiful daughter her mother needed and took on her brotherβs role in the family business.
Now her best friendβs big, fat Indian wedding is a chance to get away from her endless duties at the restaurant and maybe even have some fun (if she remembers how). But a setup arranged by her mother, with a doctor no less, is the last thing she needs. The fact that he checks all her motherβs boxes just makes everything betterβ¦and worse.
Then Emmitt Hughes shows up. Her brotherβs best friend. The love she once chose over family duties and her responsibilities. The one she asked to leave, and who did. The one who knows the real Ayesha. Torn between a love from the past that could cost her the only person she has left and her sense of obligation to her mother, will Ayesha find the strength to stop thinking about what everyone else wants and finally put herself first? Or is the old Ayesha truly gone for good?
My thoughts
(Spoiler free)
Oh my heart! This was my first experience reading Sonali Dev, and if itβs any indication of her other work, Iβve seriously been missing out. Iβm very impressed with how she managed to make me fall for these characters so completely in such a short piece of work. My only complaint: I wanted more!
From the first sentence I connected with Ayesha. I could feel her grief for her brother, the joyless life that had become her new normal, stemming from the duty she felt toward her mother and their restaurant, their livelihood. As soon as Dev introduced Emmitt, the love Ayesha has given up, I sensed the angst and the heartache. Each one of their (too short) scenes together leapt off the page and had me rooting so hard for this couple.Β
“Suddenly she wanted to know everything. She had to put words between them so she could breathe through the thick swirl of emotions that had once defined her. Slowly, one by one the words eased out of her. ‘Seven years,’ she said. A lifetime. A moment. ‘Tell me what you did for seven years.'”
Sonali Dev, The Wedding Setup
And Emmitt. Lovelorn Emmitt. Heβs truly a character to root for. Devoted. Unflappable. And witty.
Dev even manages to squeeze in some surprises and an ending that had me cheering and swooning.Β If youβre a fan of star-crossed lovers, couples up against the biggest odds, and love interests that say ALL the right things, don’t hesitate to pick this one up!
Thank you to Amazon Publishing for providing me with an advance copy.
My Rating:
Purchase on Amazon
The Wedding Setup Excerpt
Goose bumps rose across Ayeshaβs skin, one sharp dot at a time.
βAyesha.β
That was it. Just that one word. Her name. In a voice that was its own ghost.
She squeezed her eyes shut. One tight squeeze. Tight enough to hurt, tight enough to almost dislodge the false eyelashes Andre had pressed into her lash line one by one with the precision of a surgeon. Then boom! she was in control again and back to Ayesha on Ice.
Eyes blank, face set, she turned toward the voice.
Emmitt.
The impact of him was a body blow.
The entire universe stilled. Words werenβt a thing. Or sound. Breath? What was that?
Ayesha! Get a grip.
No grip. Thatβs how it had always been. Sheβd had no grip when it came to Emmitt Hughes. Not even a little bit. Not when sheβd spied on him and Ajay playing Mario Kart and Minecraft and GTA for hours, for years. Not when sheβd yearned and dreamed and spun stories with him at the center.
Iβve made my love for you, my god.
It was the cheesiest of lines from one of those Bollywood songs her parents had played on repeat at the restaurant. Amma had loved translating the over-the-top lyrics and explaining their nuances.
Back when Amma was full of stories and songs and laughter. Before Ajay.
Ajay.
Her brotherβs unspoken name fell between them like a glass bauble and shattered.
βYou remember Emmitt,β Edward had the gall to say.
Bela shot him a glare.
You didnβt tell me he would be here. Ayesha threw the silent accusation at her traitorous best friend, who gave her nothing more than another worried look.
No, Eddie. Remind me again who he is? The snarky words stuck in Ayeshaβs throat. Old Ayesha would have said them. Old Ayesha said everything.
βEmmitt,β New Ayesha said, every feeling buried under her customer-is-king voice from the restaurant. βNice to see you again.β
His Adamβs apple bobbed in the long column of his throat. How was he still so darned beautiful?
One swallow, and then he smiled back. Banking feelings where no one saw them had been his thing. Emmitt the Wall. Thatβs what Ajay had called him. Her brother had been best friends with him since Emmitt had moved to Naperville in fifth grade after his parentsβ divorce. Years of friendship, and heβd still held Ajay at that slight distance heβd been so good at. Something she would always wish she hadnβt cured him of.
You broke me, Ayesha. You broke every defense Iβve ever had against the world.
She, Ayesha Shettyβtoo tall, too dark, too outspoken, too intense, too ambitious, too everything for everyone else had been just enough to break through Emmitt the Wall.
βItβs nice to see you too,β he said gently, sounding . . . she dug through her brain to come up with the right word. Grown-up? Contained?
Good. Because Ayesha was all those things now too. Not a grenade with its fuse pulled, ready to blow up the world.
Interview with Author Sonali Dev
The Wedding Setup may be a short story, but it is tremendously powerful. How would you describe it to readers?
Thank you. Itβs the story of a girl who used to be a rebel who followed her heart and fought for what she wanted, and then her brotherβs death leaves her responsible for her widowed mother. Itβs about being knocked off your feet and getting stuck, and learning how to stand back up and reclaim yourself.
The story invites us to take an intimate look into a mother-daughter relationship. This is a universal theme, however, you also steep the plot in your own Indian heritage. Can you tell readers what this story means to you as a daughter? What it means to you as an Indian woman?
There is so much of my own relationship with my mother in this book. Weβve always been incredibly close. Sheβs outspoken and confident and she modeled some powerful behaviors for me growing up about owning her own body and her voice. But there were the other parts where she was a product of her time and culture, believing in absolute terms that it is a womanβs duty to nurture her family, to marry βat the right time,β to be a certain kind of mother. These are things she pushed hard. Things I internalized but also fought to do on my own terms and not hers. Ayeshaβs relationship with her mother used to be this way, and then a tragedy changes their dynamic. So, itβs an exploration of how battles for identity get derailed by tragedy and grief and what it takes to heal.
Ayeshaβs mom describes her as obedient, responsible, and βalways putting everyone else before her own needs.β After hearing this Ayesha (internally) feels hypothermic. Can you explain how these seemingly sweet compliments completely destroy your heroine?
The mother-child bond comes with a kind of intuitive understanding of each other thatβs unique to that relationship. So, while Ayesha has lost her fiery spirit and both she and her mother have lost years to their grief and struggle to survive, her mother knows who her daughter is deep down and how much sheβs buried. So thereβs a very nuanced intent to these βcomplimentsβ and they hit the nerve theyβre meant to hit. Ayeshaβs reaction to these words is her dead parts coming back to life.
It only takes a momentβone secondβfor Ayesha to break free from her iceβ¦a single word from Emmitt has her coming back to life. Why does she have such a powerful reaction to someone she hasnβt seen in seven years?
Ayesha had a crush on Emmitt for many years before they got together. Sheβs always had a strong reaction to him. The years they spent together as young adults were years when she came into herself, and felt seen and cherished. Then she loses all of that when her brother dies and they break up. So, itβs a combination of things that come together when Ayesha meets Emmitt again. They have a natural connection, but also, with his return come all the memories of who she used to be and how much she used to let herself feel.
Ayesha has never forgotten how Emmitt turns βher messy, impulsive, unfettered emotion into something beautiful.β But she has forgotten the effect that she has on him. What buried memories are uncovered as she watches Emmitt react to their reunion?
Emmitt has always dealt with the world and the pain it causes him by keeping everyone at armβs length. But Ayesha destroys his defenses with her ability to love (and do everything else) so fiercely. So, when he loses her heβs already lost his ability to protect himself. Their joint grief is what separated them, so, while they understand each otherβs pain they both also understand the loneliness of not having each other to lean on. Theyβve had to make the journey to healing individually, but meeting each other again brings up the piece that needs the other to heal.
How did you get to know your couple? How were you able to understand what was needed to heal their broken hearts?
The one theme that threads through all my books is finding yourself on the tightrope between personal freedom and responsibility to family and community. Healing is always about finding or rediscovering your love for yourself. So, I understand my characters through that lens: how have they lost themselves? What about themselves do they need to reclaim and fall in love with? A truly connected couple is one who aids this journey in each other, recognizes it, and supports it.
In a limited number of pages you not only give readers a living, breathing couple, but also an avalanche of equally interesting characters like Ayeshaβs best friend, suitor, auntiesβ¦and you even create depth with characters that are no longer living. Why was it so important to spend time with these secondary characters? What do they reveal about your hero and heroine?
I believe that as humans we are a sum total of our relationships and the world we live in and build for ourselves. How someone treats other people and how they respond to how they are treated is what constitutes character.
At its heart, every story is about a person who is somehow at odds with the world they live in or with themselves because of the expectations of their world, and the journey they make to resolve that conflict. Ayesha wouldnβt be Ayesha without her mother and Bela, her best friend and the community she was raised in. Bela has been her wild other half growing up, then their paths diverged, but they continued to be each otherβs support. Her mother has become a crutch she uses to hold on to her grief. Emmittβs grief over his friend has run his life for seven years too. So the secondary characters are just as integral to the story as the protagonists.
While the plot focuses on grief, there is also great joy to be found. After all, the backdrop of the story is a giant wedding. What do you personally find the most fun at a traditional Indian wedding celebration?
Iβm always only there for the food and dancing! Fine, and getting to dress up. And the wine. Also, maybe the chance to hang out with family and friends I only see at weddings. And the drunk aunties and uncles.
After readers devour The Wedding Setup, which of your other books would you recommend they read next?
First, thank you so much for devouring The Wedding Setup! Iβm incredibly proud of my Raje series, a set of retellings of my four favorite Jane Austen novels set in a politically ambitious Indian American family from Northern California. Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors is a gender flipped Pride and Prejudice. Recipe for Persuasion is a two-generational homage to Persuasion set on a Food Network show. Incense and Sensibility, the love story between a gubernatorial candidate and a yoga therapist who can save him but also destroy his campaign, pays tribute to Sense and Sensibility. And the upcoming The Emma Project (May 17th 2022), which is a gender flipped Emma that explores what it means when a person with tremendous privilege offers charity to someone who has much less.
About the Author
a Rafflecopter giveawayWill you be adding The Wedding Setup to your TBR? Let me know in the comments!
Aah, I loved this post so much! After finishing this short story, I was disappointed in myself that I hadn’t read Dev’s other books yet and I went straight out to buy Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors. I can’t wait to dive in! π Also, this interview made me love this short story even more. There’s so much about it that I resonate with, especially being torn between personal freedom and familial duty… And if that’s the one theme that runs through her books I know I’m gonna be taken on one heckuva emotional ride!
Oh yay!! I would love to hear your thoughts on Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. And any of her other books. Oooh, maybe you could do a series of posts about your reading experiences!! π₯° I so want to pick up another one of her books, but I don’t know where to start. Just from reading this short story, I can tell she’s very good at writing about the struggle between family and self. Very happy I finally gave her a try!
This sounds like a great story! I haven’t read it yet (or Dev’s other work) but the whole Austen re-imagining series is on my TBR, so hopefully I’ll get to those soon!
I’m thinking that’s probably the next thing I’ll pick up by her. I’m super intrigued by those, as well. π