Radha & Jai's Recipe for Romance

May 24, 2021
Sharma (My So-Called Bollywood Life) deftly crafts a sweet romance steeped in food, dance, and desi culture. When 17-year-old Radha Chopra arrives in London for the International Kathak Classics semifinals, she has no idea her life is about to be upended. Having spent years training in the North Indian classical dance form, Radha is blindsided when she learns that her previous success may have had something to do with her mother’s affair with a judge. After Radha and her mother move from Chicago to New Jersey, the talented teen enrolls at the Princeton Academy of the Arts and Sciences, striking a deal with her mom: if Radha devotes herself to dancing for one year, her mother will pay her university tuition. At the Academy, Bollywood Beats dance team captain Jai dreams of attending medical school, a financial impossibility unless he wins scholarship money at a regional dance competition. When his attractive new friend Radha agrees to help choreograph his team’s competition routine, the teens will have to overcome their personal demons—including performance anxiety and difficult family relationships—to win. Financial and medical issues intersect with familial pressures in ways that relatably shape the well-wrought characters’ lives, while humor and romance leaven the quickly paced book’s exploration of serious topics. Ages 14–up. Agent: Antonella Iannarino, David Black Agency.

October 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-Radha is a gifted dancer of kathak, a North Indian classical dance form. Devoting her life to global kathak dance competitions, she is highly successful until the day she overhears other dancers claiming that her mother has had an affair with a judge and that Radha's past wins were unfairly awarded. Radha immediately leaves the competition, destroying her reputation and relationship with her dance school. Upon moving to New Jersey with her newly divorced mother, Radha meets Jai, who is captain of the school's Bollywood dance team and fiercely loyal to his family and willing to give up his dreams of med school for them. The two relatable high school seniors kindle a romance amid family drama, and along the way Radha finds herself and forges a relationship with her chef father through cooking. Mayuri Bhandari's narration is lively and expressive, although at times some of her character's voices seemed interchangeable. Bhandari skillfully conveys Radha's struggles with anxiety. Neil Shah excels in the narrative portions of his sections, but his characters' voices are soft-spoken and not differentiated well, except for the elderly school director, whom he performs splendidly. VERDICT Give this to fans of upbeat romances.-Julie Paladino, formerly with East Chapel Hill H.S., NC

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