It's Your Move, Wordfreak!

Crazy Desi Love #1

by Falguni Kothari

When Alisha Menon—divorce lawyer, chronic workaholic, and the Worddiva of word games—meets her online nemesis, Wordfreak, on a blind date at a swanky Mumbai café, she cannot believe he’s the same word nerd she battles tiles with at online Scrabble most nights.

In real life, Wordfreak is Aryan Rajaram Chawla, a green architect, a Page 3 god, and more than three years Alisha’s junior. In other words, he’s totally incompatible with her.

But their instant attraction cannot be denied. And, despite being wary of relationships because of their broken family backgrounds, Alisha and Aryan find themselves falling for each other—hard.

Then, an unthinkable tragedy occurs, and Aryan nearly loses Alisha, just like he lost his mother, and all his fears about relationships and loss resurface.

With the past catching up fast, Alisha and Aryan must decide whether to risk their hearts and trust their feelings, or is the word LOVE a deal-breaker?

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary

330 pages, ebook

First published January 18, 2012

About the author

Falguni Kothari is a USA Today bestselling author of “messy love stories” and kick-ass fantasy tales that are a “good choice for women’s fiction book groups.” Her novels are all flavored by her South Asian heritage and expat experiences, and delve into common, yet unconventional, themes of marriage, romance, friendship, family and parenthood. Her books have been reviewed and praised in a number of podcasts and publications, including the New York Times Book Review, starred reviews in Booklist and Shelf Awareness, Popsugar, Woman’s World magazine and The Times of India. Her essays and short stories have been published in Femina (India), Better Homes and Gardens, Book Riot and Writer’s Digest.
She is also an award-winning Indian Classical, Latin and Ballroom dancer, practices Karaoke in her downtime, is an empty-nester, and loathes flying and deadlines.
Find her online at www.falgunikothari.com and sign up for her newsletter for the latest updates and free stories!

Reviews

[Falguni Kothari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I'm thoroughly immodest. But I do love my book!

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

CW: suicide, mental illness

This is a great contemporary romance from Falguni Kothari. I felt completely immersed in the life and family of the two MCs, Alisha and Aryan. They meet online and decide to see if the online sparks are there in real life. The story takes place mostly in locales in India, with some scenes in London. I've never been to India but Kothari does a great job of placing the reader there. The descriptions throughout are vibrant; you can feel the heat of Mumbai, shiver to the London rain. Both Alisha and Aryan are fully drawn with real life baggage, close families, good friends, interesting jobs - it's all there. We see them learn to love, and Aryan especially, how to overcome the things that make each build walls. Sexy times are on the page but not overly graphic, the right amount of heat. I enjoyed this one a lot.

[Penny Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, but I'm rounding up.

Sweet, funny romance set in Mumbai. I really enjoyed the characters and situations. Very descriptive and evocative language. Good resolution.

I love that an online scrabble game brought Aryan and Alisha together!

Full disclosure: I won a copy of this book from the author online.

[Ankita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt it was little slow in the beginning but story picks up soon and then its fluid... witty conversation between characters was fun to read.

[Miss W Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have quickly become a fan of Falguni having read The Object of My Affection and Her Last Love Story. I couldn't wait to get my grabby hands on this book.

I really enjoyed this romance set in Mumbai. I have recently been reading a lot of Indian romances and I am loving learning about the culture .

The characters in this book, Aryan and Alisha are strong, well developed and so relatable.

The idea that a scrabble game online started their love story is one so unique and fun, I enjoyed every minute of this book. I have to say its quite adorable that Aryan still called Alisha "Sunshine" even when he was less than pleased with her.

I really enjoyed the ending as well, but I am not a spoiler type of girl, so you NEED to get this book for yourself.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful read! Perfect mix of romance and drama. Totally loved Alisha's self-assured, independent, mature and pragmatic character versus the charming, brooding, moody and self-doubting character of Aryan. All-in-all, a thoroughly enjoyable & engaging read!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by Falguni but it won't be the last. I enjoyed this book. I thought that the romance seemed very realistic. In the beginning you have that attraction and the rush. I loved the easy relationship of the first quarter of the book.

In many romance novels the characters fight that attraction, in this romance the attraction gave them the strength they needed to deal with the conflict. I liked that.

[Leslie Hammes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up - I liked the name and cover. Yes, I definitely judge a book by it's cover. I was very pleasantly surprised and rooted for the hero and heroine to resolve their issues and realize they could find a HEA together. Even though they came from different worlds they shared a passion for Scrabble. The heroine keeps telling us her actions are out of character; something about the hero causes her to be not her normal self. And yet, he fits into her life and his family embraces her openly. Heartwarming, believable, and satisfying.

[Menoka Malthoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story, mainly because I could relate to a young cloudless meeting on an online game and started dating.
You would think all that follows are the many issues that young couples face, but there’s so much more to this story.

Love blossoms, family heals.... making you feel all emotional with a smile on your face.
This has to be one of my favorite books.

[Jillyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.

I loved the premise of this book (& the darling cover), but unfortunately, it fell far short of what I expected.

My first disappointment stems from the book's description. I feel mislead, I expected more of the actual courtship between Alisha & Aryan. But the book starts with their blind date. I felt left in the dark about how they met, only being told throughout the novel now & then that their chats were flirty, risque, or witty.

I never felt any real attachment to the characters. Aryan is alright. I was a fan of Alisha's... Until Mr. Kumar showed up. Then, the "strong" girl tried to talk rationally to an abuser, allowing herself to get pommeled "in the name of justice." Aryan shows up the next night, sees her lying broken, & instead of feeling empathy or sympathy or hell, sadness. He gets enraged with her not letting him know- to the point that he hurts her in his "point making." She screams at him to get out & her mom comes in calmly, saying that she heard the conversation. Yet, she says to stay with him.... After he has blown up & pinned her injured daughter down in fury. After this point, I honestly stopped caring.

I found Alisha to be weak, Aryan to be insufferable, & his "bombshell" explanation for his brooding was anti-climatic. It didn't play out like I thought it would, & I don't mean that in a good way. I would have been done with Aryan a long time ago. It's odd- I'm a child of divorce & the daughter of a stroke survivor, but still, I wasn't emotionally invested in this plot.

The end, when I finally reached it, seemed rushed. Admittedly, the epilogue did make up for it a bit.

A non-plot related thing that bugged me was that non-English words were italicized but not explained. Obviously, I figured out a brief definition based on context clues, but a thorough one would have been nice. This book would have benefited from a glossary or footnotes.

I wish I liked this book. Truly, I do. I wanted to love it. I'd think about reading the sequel, but only if I won a copy.

[Priti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hats off to Falguni for writing such a sweet and loving book. I loved loved loved this book a lot. I especially loved the way Aryan calls Alisha Sunshine even at time when he is brooding. All the characters in the book are well-defined and you can easily visualize them.

After reading this book I am sure Falguni must be damn good at the game of Scrabble. I loved the way that she played around the words to give us a wonderful and extremely enjoyable book.

If given a choice between two books of Falguni Kothari, I would always choose this one. It is more interesting and better written as compared to "Bootie and the Beast"

For complete review visit: http://bibilophile.wordpress.com/2014...

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!
I was thinking I'm jumping into a light read but this was far from it. It started off a little slow but picked up the pace soon after. I had really low expectations for this one but I'm glad it surprised me. The characters and the plot were interesting and I related so much to it. I loved how the setting was in Mumbai and had some references which I understood as I am an avid fan of Hindi movies. The "Page 3" thing was new, though. Kudos to the author. I loved the journey of reading this book. It was funny, raw and real. Exactly how I like my books to be.

[Hemant Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a very interesting love story with 2 very strongly written characters who would seem like someone you could identify with.

Falguni excels in bringing out the complexity of characters and the chaos within their minds and hearts resulting in complicated relationships and interactions. The unpredictability of human emotions and turns a relationship can take is the key to her story-telling. And she navigates well.

[Mansi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scrabble, the poor game, a mere pawn, regaled to the back as the backdrop of this book. Scrabble should complain. I would if i were Scrabble and if i was such a fun game and you sold books using me and my sterling credentials to promote it. Without Scrabble this is a sappy, romantic not for me kind of book.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not in my usual genre, It's Your Move made me laugh, cry, held me captive, and inspired an urge to hug the author when finished. Good thing she lives over 1,000 miles from me!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just an okay read for me.
What I did like: I thought the concept about it was really neat! Who thinks to actually meet someone from their online scrabble game?

What I didn’t like: I found it to be a bit boring and a tad to follow with all of the names and titles but never actually explaining who everyone was. The timeline was also very quick-there was a period we’re it jumped several weeks at the very beginning of the book which threw me off big time.

[Rads S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it !
That simple like,
I see myself as Alisha she's tough , no nonsense lawyer from Mumbai living her life 🥺🥺
it's realistic, heart warming a bit sad but it feels like life how he went through his stuff and she was there but she didn't (couldn't) interfere in his process of healing. That's ❤️❤️.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's cute, but slightly frustrating since I don't know Hindi words or other languages/dialects spoken in the book and there is no glossary. It also needed another pass at editing, but that didn't make it unreadable. Just made you stumble while reading every once in a while.

[Sia · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a normal love story. I wanted to get over nothing connected me much

[Tara Durham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read. I felt that the characters were well developed and very different from each other. Overall a light read that makes you smile.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the first time, I am saying “Buy this book”. I looked and unfortunately, it is difficult to locate. Next I want to say to Falguni Kothari, “Please write more!”

I have not been so riveted to a book for such a long time. I took it with me everywhere I went.

“It’s Your Move, WorkFreak!” by Falguri Kothari, pulled me in at first because I love Scrabble. I haven’t played for years with any one for lack of a player. The first part of this book is a delightful back and forth chitchat between Alisha Menon, aka Word Diva and Anyan Rajaram Chawla, aka Wordfreak. They met through on-line Scrabble. It was fun being led through their moves and reading their playful banter. This is not slow; instead it is explosively funny through the character’s own wit and old Indian sayings.

After five months of playing Scrabble on-line they decide to take the scary but exciting step into expanding their relationship.

The second part after they met is turbulent and very emotional. Since they are off line and in person, we start to see more developed characters, and we start to hear, see and smell Mumbai. Friends and relatives of the two flow into this story and are very important in the uncovering of the many secrets.

Alisha has an agenda of trying to please her parents by pretending to be the obedient daughter and marrying who they select. However she is hiding another life from them, one that she is not so proud of.

Anyan has a mysterious past that he refuses to talk to anyone about. He won’t discuss it with his father or Alisha. He has buried his thoughts and feelings about the past for most of his life.

If you love Scrabble, if you are interested in Indian culture, if you want to read a page turner that rips through your hands, read this book.

I received this book as a win from GoodReads and that in no way influenced my review.

[Sigrun · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw this title in the giveaway pages, I thought, "Wordfreak, that's what I am." So I entered the contest and was especially happy when I won a copy of this book. Thank you, Falguni.

One of the things that I liked most was that it gave me some more insight into what life in India is like. I recently read Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, and though I found the book compelling, I also found so many parts of it sad. This book was definitely and antidote to that. Despite some difficult times in this one it is certainly much more optimistic.

Unfortunately, I am not very good at doing book reviews, but I really enjoyed this story. I loved learning more about India, about the customs, the people, and the general way of life of mostly the middle class.

The only thing in any way negative was that it contained a fair number of Indian words that I couldn't understand. I soon realized that the book was printed in India--probably mostly for in-country consumption. If there are reprints and wider distribution which I think would be wonderful and commendable, I'd love to see a page with a list of the non-English words with a translation or explanation. The same goes for your future books, Falguni. Thank you. I really enjoyed my visit to India; I love traveling.

[mandyfujita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received the book "It's Your Move, Wordfreak!" by Falguni Kothari for free through Goodreads First Reads. I am glad that I entered the contest and won. I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue between the main character Alisha Menon and her scrabble partner Aryan Chawla. They met from an online scrabble site and after much prompting from Wordfreak (Aryan), Worddiva (Alisha) meet face to face at a restuarant. They find out they are very much alike and even live in Mumbai (used to be Bombay, India). She is a divorce lawyer and he is a successful architect.

The supporting characters are also very funny and witty. I think I enjoyed this book a lot because it was very witty and light. There were a lot of family issues to deal with on both sides, but that's how it is in real life. I would recommend reading this book. It is a fast read and very entertaining.

[Jo-anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book a delightful read. I found the author's description of the countries and cities of which she wrote rich with detail. Her characters were multilayered, inviting and likeable. Except for Alisha's clients ex- husband. And this too was eye opening for me, to read about this character and how in this culture his actions towards his wife were tolerated, however slightly.
The love scenes were tastefully done, respectful yet sassy at the same time. Alisha and Aryan's love affair is completely believable and charming.
I did not want the book to end, I wanted to live quietly inside this book, like a fly on the wall to enjoy the life of these I had stepped into the moment I opened the book. That to me is a great book!

[Mike McAdam · Rating 5 out of 5]

* I got this book free through a goodreads giveaway *

I loved this book! I hesitate to call it a romance novel though I guess technically that is what it is. Two very headstrong individuals go from online acquaintances to.... (I don't do spoilers). It is definitely worth reading. The characters are fun and the plot is interesting. I didn't lose interest even for a second. The pacing is good and the story is realistic. It is a testament to the characterization when you can think of people you know that are just like a few of these characters. I highly recommend this book.

[Sheetal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just reviewed this book on my blog..
all in all i really enjoyed this book..When i read it i desperately needed a good dose of romance and i sure got it :)
http://thoughtsunrestricted.wordpress...

[Jamiegirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed and even cried. This book is ridiculously funny and for scrabble fanatics like me, the plot is long overdue.

Ms Kothari - When is the sequel coming out? :)

[Keanna Lewis]

I realy love the consept of adding Scrabble and making it the centerfold of the story and the characters.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its was so funny to read and it was just my kind of book to read on a Sunday. It take you to a places that you never want to leave.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Didn't want to put it down. A very quick read.
Looking forward to more of Falguni's work!!