Partners in Crime is the Alisha Rai book I’ve always wanted. I had such a good time with this.
Exes Mira and Naveen get kidnapped together and work together to get themselves out of the trouble Mira’s late father got them into. This is a fun ride, and I recommend not thinking to hard about time. If the last couple of years have taught us anything, time is fake. Also fake – Mira’s name and utterly boring accountant persona. Even more fake – the reasons she gave for breaking up with Naveen.
Mira Chaudhary starts the book off by being dumped by her boyfriend over lunch and then having to pay for said lunch. While she anticipates being dumped by the matchmaker too (she’s ruining Hema Auntie’s 100% match rate), she gets a call from a lawyer’s office about her aunt’s will. At the lawyer’s office she is surprised to find Naveen Desai was her aunt’s attorney – the last time she saw him he worked for a high powered firm in San Francisco. The last time she saw Naveen he was asleep in his bed and she texted him a breakup note. Naveen is very unhappy to find out the woman he knew as Amira Patel lied to him about her name and her family.
Over the course of a couple of days, Mira and Naveen get a crash course in each other. To survive and keep their loved ones safe, they work as a team. For both of them, they are forced to question what they are really looking for in life. Mira has been searching for a stable, respectable marriage, but when she was on the path to that with Naveen she panicked and bolted. Naveen has been rebuilding after trying to conform to family expectations exploded his life. Family is at the center of their adventure in bad ways and good.
The situation that Mira and Naveen have to work their way out of keeps the plot moving at a brisk clip. The heart of the book is the two of them getting to know each other without artifice. I thought Rai did a nice job of balancing the romance and the action. I loved the two epilogues that solidify the happily ever after.
CW: death of parent off page, death of family member off page, alcoholism, toxic family, alcoholism and recovery, child neglect in past, kidnapping, guns, gunshot wound, threats with guns, death threats, threats of physical violence, threats to an elderly man.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Tor Books and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
