Product Description

The author of the "enchanting" and "delightful" (USA Today) debut novel For Matrimonial Purposes returns with a romantic comedy about a new bride leading a secret double life.

After an arranged marriage in her native India, Priya moves with her husband to California, where they share a house with his parents. Playing the traditional daughter- in-law role, she’s expected to clean, cook, and—because she doesn’t immediately get pregnant—find a job as well!

But the job, at a glossy Hollywood gossip magazine, isn’t at all what Priya’s in-laws had in mind for a traditional Indian wife. She soon finds herself with a secret life that she must hide from her disapproving new family.

All the while, she is growing into a marriage with a man whose loyalty is decidedly torn between his parents and his bride. This is hardly surprising, given that he met his wife only a week before their wedding. The question is, can this fragile new love survive the pull between tradition and ambition?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #736945 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fairy tale fun bursts from the confines of an arranged Indian marriage in this delectable follow-up to For Matrimonial Purposes (2003) when Priya, the youngest of four unmarried sisters, finds herself the one chosen for matrimony and life across the seas in Beverly Hills. Though she lives in the land of movie stars and happy endings, Priya's marriage is anything but. Her husband, Sanjay, remains far more devoted to his conservative parents than his bride, and they have no compunction about working Priya to the bone. When after a few months her belly remains as flat as ever, they even send her off to get a job. Luck lands her a position as a receptionist at the tabloid Hollywood Insider, and her exotic politeness wins over the red carpet community. Soon she's vaulted to the position of reporter and hobnobbing with the glitterati. The novel's charm derives in large part from grounded details about the immigrant experience. That Priya's disintegrating marriage remains more important to her than fame and fortune gives the story a fresh twist and will have readers longing to know what will happen when the divide between glamorous life and devoted wife becomes too great.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Daswani's second novel is a thoughtful romantic comedy about a young couple's first year of marriage. Priya leaves her family in India to move to Los Angeles with her new husband, Sanjay, a man her family arranged for her to marry. Though Sanjay clearly cares for his new wife, he allows his demanding parents to boss Priya around, and when she doesn't get pregnant, her mother-in-law tells her to find a job. Priya longs to be a journalist, but her in-laws forbid it, so instead she takes a job as a receptionist at the glossy magazine Hollywood Insider. But after she fills in for one of the assistants at an important interview and endears herself to the actor by not printing his ill-advised comments, Priya finds herself being handed the journalism job she has always coveted. And though she knows her in-laws will be angry if they ever find out, she takes it. There's plenty of Hollywood glamour, but ultimately the heart of this winning novel lies in how Priya and Sanjay grow in their marriage. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Fairy tale fun bursts from the confines of an arranged Indian marriage in this delectable follow-up to For Matrimonial Purposes. -- Publishers Weekly

The culture-clash dilemmas ring heartbreakingly true. -- Entertainment Weekly

Customer Reviews

Improbable, yes -- but it could happen! P
Following an arranged marriage to a handsome, likable man, Priya leaves India for Los Angeles. Although she's a college graduate, she's been raised to be a good stay-at-home wife.

Living with her in-laws, Priya finds herself stifled. She spends hours helping with cooking and cieaning, and she's expected to be humble and respectful with her husband's parents. Luckily Priya's mother-in-law encourages her to take a job. She lands a spot as receptionist to a top Hollywood news magazine.

Continuing to be humble and polite beyond Hollywood standards, Priya befriends a coworker who teaches her how to dress. Unfortunately, she has to sneak to her gym to change clothes, because her mother-in-law forbids dressing western-style...except in some old clothes that are beyond vintage and retro.

Because Priya says yes to everything, she gets asked to do all sorts of work for the reporters. Her lucky break comes when she interviews a big star. She does such a great job that she gets promoted fast.

Now her home life gets even more tense. Her husband refuses any kind of counseling. Priya makes her escape and ...well, it's a romance!

Although Priya's rapid rise is hardly typical, it's not impossible. As a career consultant, I've learned that someone who is young, humble and non-threatening can often rise faster than someone who carefully strategizes. And I'm convinced that, as the saying goes, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Village Bride is a light-hearted book. I Don't Know How She Does It and Revenge of the Middle-Aged Housewife meets Bend it like Beckham and Monsoon Wedding. Enjoyable on its own unpretentious terms. .

Priya is delightful as a young woman who's not ready to ditch tradition but who's no longer willing to be subordinate to her husband. I empathized with her fear of merging on the freeway -- I felt the same way when I learned to drive in California!

Curl up with this book on a cold fall day or pack it in your bag for a long airplane flight.

Easy, Addictive Reading
When I heard Kavita Daswani, author of "For Matrimonial Purposes" had written a second book entitled The Village Bride of Beverly Hills, I eagerly got ahold of a copy as quickly as I could.

In this book, the main heroine Priya has just gotten married (in an arranged marriage) to Sanjay, a well-to-do Indian man living in Los Angeles. As is the tradition in Indian marriages, Sanjay lives with his parents, and as the wife, Priya is expected to take care of the household and try to have children. However, when it doesn't happen (the children part at least), Sanjay's parents decide Priya is to get a job. Priya is only too happy to comply, as she is tired of catering to their every whim. She can't seem to relate much to Sanjay either, with him either always at work or taking his parents' side against her.

Somehow Priya manages to land a glamourous job at a major Hollywood media company, starting as a receptionist and working her way up. Soon she is leading a double life - interviewing famous movie stars, wearing revealing designer clothing, and making friends at work. Then she goes home at night (after changing into her old drab clothing) and is the perfect wife who cleans and cooks. She can't tell Sanjay because he will disapprove. And his family would be angry. SO what's a girl to do? Can she keep up the double life or will it all crumble around her in disaster?

I enjoyed "The Village Bride of Beverly Hills." Once again Kavita Daswani's easy flowing, addictive and intriguing story-telling drew me in. I was able to sympathize with Priya's situation, as she was a pretty likeable character. However, I found a lot of the story to be very unrealistic and unlikely. The author also could have done a better job of researching her subject matter. However, I must say that the story was well-written enough and enjoyable that those factors didn't matter as much as they normally would. I am definitely looking forward to this author's next novel. She has a particular way with words that will keep you reading until the end.

Don't miss it!

Likable and Interesting
I liked this book. Author Kavita Daswani opens the door, without apologies, to a fascinating part of Indian culture-- arranged marriages. The main character, Priya, was likable. While her in-laws were a pain, they weren't so bad that I hated them, and instead accepted them and their traditional ideas at face value. The book was a fun, easy read, and well written. I find myself re-thinking parts, and realizing the subtleties I mised at first read.

While the Hollywood Insider job may not sound plausible to some, I was willing to see it as simply a good example for illustating the point of work vs. family vs. "good Indian girl" vs. being free to make one's own choices.

I look forward to more from Kavita Daswani.