Parallel Paradise

by Mayapee Chowdhury

To appease her mother and against her better judgment, Bindi leaves England to visit her relatives in India. They’re not thrilled she’s given up her legal career to pursue her dreams in music, but all her troubles take a back seat when Bindi discovers things are not as they seem between her cousin Dhona and his long-suffering wife, Rimli.

Publicly, Dhona and Rimli are the image of a wealthy, enviable couple with a perfect marriage. When Dhona’s drunken womanizing gets too much for Rimli, she seeks comfort in Bindi, and they engage in a passionate love affair. Bindi has never felt so much for a woman before, and soon she’s falling head over heels for Rimli.

In the months that follow, Bindi’s music career takes off, Rimli has an opportunity to study in England, and their journey of self-discovery is only just beginning. But their relationship is put to the test by the homophobia of their family, community, and culture, and Bindi and Rimli will need to fight for a chance at love.

Content advisory: This book contains instances of infidelity.

Genres: Queer, Romance

Paperback

Published August 16, 2022

About the author

Mayapee Chowdhury has authored six books and contributed to two anthologies, including the recent Bold Strokes Books collection In Our Words: Queer Stories from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Writers. Mayapee has also written articles for various journals on a range of topics, writes and performs Spoken Word/Poetry, and has performed in various festivals in the UK. Never afraid to explore her creativity, Mayapee is also a singer and plays guitar, which she incorporates into her performances. Mother of one and an English Lecturer, Mayapee lives in the United Kingdom. When Mayapee is not writing, teaching, or performing, she enjoys sewing and Bollywood movies and is a devoted Madonna fan.

Reviews

[Pavithra M · Rating 1 out of 5]

I assume the Author of the book is completely unaware of the current happenings of India. The story is supposed to showcase two women getting into a relationship and the hurdles they have to cross mainly because of the culture they come from. However, there is not even a single incident to concretely cement as to why the women love each other - it is potrayed in such a way that they jump into action the moment they are left in a room. On top of that the Author has made some crude remarks on Indian law and culture - like drunk and drive , PDA or creating chaos will not be a problem in India, I wonder if she has ever visited India. I find this is half baked and absolutely do not give you any insight on the hardships faced by LGBTQ community. I wished she has researched more before writing this book.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy Charles really needs to get a life.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bindi's music career is only just beginning in England when she takes a vacation visiting her cousin and his wife in India. She finds it hard to ignore her attraction to her cousin's wife Rimli amongst the pressure of family, homophobia, and her career taking off. Not long after Rimli travels to England to study for several years, closing the physical gap between Rimli and Bindi and making their attraction all the harder to ignore. Does their love have a place in their very different worlds?

Although this was an interesting concept, the book just didn't land for me. I found the characters unlikeable and negative which made it hard to keep reading because I didn't care for them. This was a short book which wasn't helped by the lack of character development and the speed at which their relationship evolved from barely exchanging a few words to sleeping together. I really wanted to enjoy this but it was a struggle.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Sharmila · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m so disappointed in this book. I was really excited to receive the ARC as a former law student of South East Asian descent who has also dropped law for more creative endeavours, I thought I’d be able to relate and see some aspects of my life on these pages.

I was expecting rich imagery of India, and instead the depictions of India seemed to come from the authors own internalised racism??? As a POC, I think it’s so important to highlight the beauty of our cultures, backgrounds, race, and ethnicities. It’s also important to point out any outdated ideas within a country, such as sexism and homophobia. However, this novel just seemed to hate on India? And any progressive ideas were overshadowed by lack of depth and poor writing.

The main character, Bindi, whilst in India would complain about the people there, and even pointed out how they can look down on others less fortunate… all while also looking down on India.

The characters were lack lustre with no real personality or development. The romance wasn’t believable and the dialogue was stunted, inauthentic, cheesy and amateurish.

This could have been an amazing story about queer love in the South East Asian community and breaking taboos and social norms. Instead, we are met with a corny “romance”, badly written characters and horrific descriptions of India and its people.

Maybe this one should have stayed in the drafts folder…

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Bold Strokes Books Inc. for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Agirlcandream · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bindi is about to set out on a European music tour but is convinced by her mom to make a quick trip to India to visit her cousin Dhona and his wife Rimli. Raised in England, Bindi is surprised and shocked at the changes since her family trips as a child. Her cousin and his wife lead a lavish lifestyle while surrounded by poverty. The sarees her mother has packed for her have been replaced by the little black dress. Her cousin Dhona is a blatant womanizer and his wife Rimli is rude to her servants and to Bindi. Despite this rudeness, Bindi is attracted to Rimli.

The blurb caught my attention and I chose to read this book hoping I would get a peek at modern day India in addition to the life of soon to be famous singer, Bindi. Told from Bindi’s perspective, we see the expected domineering mother, Bindi’s own struggle with her sexuality, its possible impact on her career aspirations as a singer and yes, a lot of infidelity. It’s listed as a trigger warning so this is not a spoiler. The story has a soap opera feel to it with scenes shifting quickly to squeeze in as much drama as possible in 130 pages. The characters are larger than life, almost to caricature levels and this overshadows the relationship between Bindi and Rimli. This wasn’t the read for me.

2.5 stars

A copy of this book was received with thanks from the publisher via NetGalley for review.

[Anya · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel wasn't horrible but it wasn't great either. I didn't buy the love and relationship. It felt more like a revenge affair or just simple infatuation. Rimli was extremely unlikable, especially how she treated servants and her uppity fake behavior. Bindi just making excuse after excuse for her behavior annoyed me. What I found strange is that Rimli's and Dhona's parents weren't at all part of the story. One would think they have to say something about the divorce.

[thesapphiccelticbookworm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks to Bold Stroke Books and Netgalley for a copy of this book.

Bindi travels to India to visit her family, including her cousin, Dhona, and his wife, Rimli. Bindi soon learns that Dhona is a womaniser who constantly cheats on Rimli; when his behaviour gets too much, Rimli seeks comfort in Bindi's arms.

I didn't like how Bindi didn't have one single positive thing to say about India, her family's country. I understand her critiquing aspects of it such as the huge inequality, but this felt really over done.

None of the characters felt like real people, as there's no real characterisation, we never get to actually know any of these people. Therefore the whole romance fell flat, can't root for a romance if you don't get to know the people.

This reads like a rough draft of a book that could have been something with more time, padding and editing.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bindi is about to fulfill her dream of being a successful music career, first, though, she lets her mother talk her into visiting relatives in India. She is jarred by her return to her homeland when she finds that a favorite cousin, Dhona, is a drunk and a womanizer and his wife, Rimli, knows all about it. Bindi immediately feels sorry for Rimli but knows that’s as far as it should go with her cousin-in-law. While Bindi knows she’s a lesbian, she’s not yet acted on it, and certainly hasn’t told anyone in her family. Bindi returns to England to prepare for her tour, Rimli follows to study in England for two years. There are still many obstacles in the way of the two women.

Chowdhury has written a lesbian romance like none other seen in the genre. She’s provided her readers a look into every-day life in India and the pressures to conform to the misogynistic culture. The book is told in the first person POV so readers get to know the main character fairly well, but the other characters remain amorphous.

While this book has its ups and downs, readers will undoubtedly finish the book looking forward to Chowdhury’s next books.

My thanks to Bold Strokes books for an eARC.

[pooja · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whoever the author is had put little to no effort in doing research about India .

I'm 40% through the book and honestly the book is not for my liking and very bad but indian setting made me not to drop this even though the MCs are bland, one-dimessional with no personalities and have no chemistry.
But i reached my limit when one of the MC said India doesn't have drink driving laws.no shit i can bet almost every country in the world has drink driving law but somehow author think India still lives in stone age era.

I was so excited for this one but the author has pretty much ruined this book with her hate towards the country.
For now I'm not touching this again in near future.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a short and simple book.

I was hoping for more depth from the characters and their relationship, but we see a small peak into Bindi's life. We follow Bindi as her music career takes off and she struggles with her feelings for her cousins wife. As their whirlwind romance happens we follow its ups and downs and what it means for their experiences.

I think if the book had been longer we would get a better feel for everyone, but overall not a bad read.

[Gem · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are plenty of theories about parallel universes. But what if parallel worlds exist in our own universe? Not in the scientific sense, but in the societal.

This concept is an interesting element of Mayapee Chowdhury's latest novel, Parallel Paradise. Although the idea is fascinating, the execution unfortunately falls flat, leaving the reader with a lightning-fast read that doesn't really flesh anything out.

For the full review, please head over to my blog at https://gemslittlelibrary.tumblr.com

[Dr E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the Indian setting and the way the main character navigated the assumption of heteronormativity. The first person narrative gave an edgy feel to the story and I liked the fast pace of the writing. But the two leads moved way too quickly from hello grumpy wife of my cousin to I’m in love with you and we should sleep together. I know there’s only so much time in the world, or in this case a set number of pages, but some build up would have really helped the book.

[Nathalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate writing bad reviews but I was not feeling this book. The MC Bindi is so negative and throughout the book there is barely any personal growth. Same for all the other characters. I did not feel the chemistry between the two leads and sometimes it even felt like they didn't even like each other. I struggled through reading this and it became a real task to finish it.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[sonia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This ended up being a dnf for me about 50% in. I thought the characters were poorly developed. Without being given a chance to understand character motivations, the romance was flat to me as well. Did not enjoy the way cultural aspects were discussed.

[Liz Wine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story had a good skeleton of an outline, but there was a lack of depth in characters which may be partially due to the plot seeming to be accelerated/rushed.