Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron

e-Audio, 10:51:56
Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
Release Date: March 8, 2022
Published by: Hachette Book Group
Read from: April 9-11, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: 
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary Romance, Retellings, Set outside the USA, Realistic Fiction, Adult

      Jane Austen’s Emma goes Bollywoood in this delightful retelling from the highly acclaimed author of Accidentally Engaged, perfect for fans of Abby Jimenez and Jasmine Guillory.Kamila Hussain’s life might not be perfect, but, whew, it’s close. She lives a life of comfort, filled with her elaborate Bollywood movie parties, a dog with more Instagram followers than most reality stars, a job she loves, and an endless array of friends who clearly need her help finding love. In fact, Kamila is so busy with her friends’ love lives, she’s hardly given any thought to her own . . .
     Fortunately, Kamila has Rohan Nasser. A longtime friend of the family, he’s hugely successful, with the deliciously lean, firm body of a rock climber. Only lately, Kamila’s “harmless flirting” with Rohan is making her insides do a little bhangra dance.
     But between planning the local shelter’s puppy prom, throwing a huge work event, and proving to everyone that she’s got it all figured out, Kamila isn’t letting herself get distracted—until her secret nemesis returns to town with an eye for Rohan. Suddenly, it seems like the more Kamila tries to plan, the more things are starting to unravel—and her perfectly ordered life is about to be turned upside down.

*MY THOUGHTS*

I went into this with an open mind. Don’t throw tomatoes at me, but Emma is not my favorite from Jane Austen. I think it may be because she was always so blatantly wrong, but Idk lol But this retelling was pretty spot on and since I’m not a HUGE fan, I think this is why this one bothered me. But if you’re a huge Emma fan, you will love this one.

The best thing about this book was hands down Kamila. Her vibrant clothes and her go get it attitude was something I admired. This is the type of thing I can only hope to do, but can never quite pull off. I also loved that she was SO. SMART. And she continued to be her own person. Even when people doubted her, she kept showing them all the things she could do and do well at that. This made me especially happy because it showed that she had so many different ways about her. I loved seeing her step into all those roles. And let’s be honest, the way she loves her dad?! So, so sweet! Kamila was just all around a great person.

And I loved that this was a diverse romance. The main character is from India and is also Muslim. This is reflected in many ways, (the Bollywood movies, the saris,etc.) but as a foodie, the food in this mostly caught my eyes. I wanted to try literally everything at her movie parties. I won’t speak on the representation as I’m not a part of either community, but I did feel like it was done in a tasteful way.

I also really liked the love interest. But, this is where the retelling got on my nerves. How she missed something so obvious, I don’t know. I knew from the very first time that person was introduced. And I guess that was to make the plot move along, but it was crazy lol It made me roll my eyes. But I definitely rolled my eyes more in the actual story lol But besides that lol I thought the love interest was really sweet. They are a cinnamon roll with a love of romance movies and my heart melted at that. And the ending what they do in hopes that she came along with it?! SA-WOON! I think that was my favorite part of the whole book.

And of course, I loved the puppies. Like, if there’s ever a book with puppies, I’m going to read it. And I’m glad I found and read this one. I wanted so bad to hold Potato myself, but I had to settle for what he looked like in my imagination. And all the dog clothes and things OMG I wanted that backpack for my chihuahua lol Don’t judge. I just think they’re a fun element to add to the story. Because dogs are the best. (Yes I know that this really had nothing to do with the actual goings on in the story, but it made the experience better for me since I’m a dog lover lol)

Since I listened to this on audio, I wanted to mention the narrator. She did a phenomenal job. She was able to keep the voices different enough for us to know who was who, even while changing genders. What I didn’t care for was the added sound effects for the text tone lol I kept thinking something was going wrong with my phone (That’s where I listened to the majority of this.) I was trying many times to read hands free and every time it went off I picked it up thinking it was a real notification.

Emma isn’t my favorite, but I still really enjoyed this. I love Heron’s writing and I hope to see more retellings from her in the future! Hopefully there’s a P+P one floating around in her head somewhere.

Overall, I give this