The Breakup Expert

by Sonya Singh, Sonya Singh

Manny is a high-flying CEO who runs a company that specializes in other people’s breakups. Happily engaged and often featured in the media she appears to have it all. But when she is photoshopped to look less Asian and her fiancé decries he doesn’t “see race” she decides it’s time to reconnect with her roots.

Determining she needs to learn more about her community, she convinces a client to take her to his brother’s big Indian wedding. When they arrive, Manny is instantly thrown into a celebration filled with fashion, food, dancing and family.

There she discovers more than she could have ever dreamt of…

Genres: Romance, Audiobook, Fiction

303 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 17, 2022

About the author

Sonya Singh is an author, writer and storyteller. A former reporter, she brings a strong command of character, voice and structure to her fiction, shaped by years of experience in media and communications.

Her debut novel, Sari, Not Sari (Simon & Schuster, 2022), received early industry attention ahead of its release, including selection for the Debutante Ball, and launched an international two-book deal.

Her forthcoming novel, The Fake Matchmaker (Doubleday Canada), further cements her voice in contemporary romance, exploring modern relationships, cultural identity and the expectations placed on women, blending humour with emotional depth.

Across both novels and her screenwriting work, Singh focuses on character-driven stories that balance wit, heart and relatability.

Reviews

[Carmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0

I am a SUCKER for Desi romances - I love the drama and the extravagance of an Indian romance, it's so captivating and I just live for it. This book brought my love to Desi romance back and I am grateful for it.

The plot is incredibly flimsy, I admit - the way that the two leads got together was not very believable, but I will let it slide cause their chemistry was incredible!! I believed the way that they fell in love, and I like the unlikeable significant others, it just added to the drama. The fact that this took over a span of a few days was actually incredible - it felt like they were there for weeks, but I turned my brain off and just let it happen. It was good, clean fun and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I liked that this dealt with the dilemma of cultural identity - I feel like books are too afraid to touch on that subject, let alone have their main protagonist be absolutely clueless about their own culture, and I think in a way, it is good representation, especially for those people who grew up around white culture. I, however, think that it is a little too soft and doesn't deal with a lot of Manny's inner suffering. I also don't think Sammy really challenged her or showed her any kindness for not understanding Indian culture - I think the characters didn't provide Manny with enough clarity for her to really understand, but I do like that they were accepting and Manny herself was open to education. It was fine on that aspect.

I liked that the book did not cater to white people and it was SHAMELESS with it. I haven't read a book that wasn't scared to paint white people as casual racists and the antagonist of a ROMANCE book - I am blown away. Thank you for making an Asian romance that didn't make all white people good and 'blind to colour'.

[Vikky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a very white washed indian and after reading this book I have learnt more about my culture than I have ever done from any family. My only issue is That I would have liked there to have been more romance between Manny and Sammy and I wanted her to confront Adam at the end and get him to explain why he did what he did. Overall a great book with great representation but I would have liked a bit more of that indian spice that I so desperately lack in my own life

[Fabienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise was good but it felt rushed and wooden. Maybe it was too short? Also the whole idea of a company based on helping people break up with people seems very contrived. They can't exist in real life can they? Its kind of the opposite idea to the film Hitch, which also seems contrived.

[Fanni Sütő · Rating 1 out of 5]

Argh. I could literally guess the whole plot after 25 pages. (Except for a major plot twist that 1 in the end contributes to nothing 2 as unlikely as me ever reading this book again.)
The whole book is a cringe festival. I am not Indian but I love the culture from the bottom of my heart and it even made me shudder. Everybody is so strerotypical but stereotypical from like the early 2000s when ppl didnt know better. The writer thinks the only type of Indian dance is bhangra. It is really as if she knew a few words and would try to deploy them in the story to flex she knows.
The story is that she grew up in the US and her parents wanted to fit in so they didnt teach her anything about India. Like she has no idea what or when diwali is. Fine but it is not like we live in a globalised digital age where you can resaerch anything and learn about studf easily.... and then she has like a big revelation that omg I am Indian. Wow now shit Sherlock.
This could have been a good book had it been written by someone with more empathy.

[Jainand Gurjar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Break-up Expert by Sonya Singh is a contemporary fiction of around 304 pages. This is the story of Manny Dogra, the CEO of a company who is specialized in other people's break-ups. A very successful person, who appears in many magazines, interviews, and shows and is in a relationship with Adam, a proud fiance, who is proud of her and her company, it looks like she is having what she wants! But when she is photoshopped to look less Asian and more white than she did normally in a magazine, she felt she has lost a piece of the puzzle of her life, and so she is on her way to get reconnected with her roots! And here comes Sammy Patel, an unusual client of Break-up, who is helping her to rediscover herself! To know what happens to them, read the book.

The book started very well and kept me engaged from the start. With very intriguing language and characters, it goes ahead very smoothly. With many anecdotes in between, it was a very intriguing read. The character sketch of Manny was very well portrayed. The characters and their mental situation were well represented and their dynamics were shown beautifully. The everlasting friendship of Manny with Anjali, Rajeev, Rob, and Jay and the new emergence with Manisha and Aliyan was something that stood out the most for me from the book.

The story was predictable to me. Although it represents the Indian culture and traditions in the book where Manny wants to find herself, I felt the representation was a little stereotypical in some places. Also, the connection and relationship of the main characters with each other and some backdrop of their actions was something I felt should have been given more space and time as it felt a little underwhelming. The excessive Priyanka Chopra's mention in the book didn't work for me as well!

Overall, it was an enjoyable, engaging, interesting, and fun, one-time read for me. If you are looking forward to something new, exciting, and similar to the concept, you can give it a try. I will give it 3.25/5 stars.

[Catalina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed this quick and fun novel. I liked the main character and was in love with the Indian culture in the book. I adore Indian food and I liked reading about the wedding parties and the food. The main character's development and education into Indian Culture was interesting. I also liked Sami and his family.
I think the ending was a bit rushed and I would have liked more after the big disagreement.

[Shifa Joshi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot could have been very interesting. But i am just not a fan of the construct if this book. Everything was just happening, with hardly any context or substance. Enough time was not given for the story to realistically pan out.

[Marty R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copy: Audiobook
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐.5/5
Spice Rating: 0/5🌶️
POV: Single (Manny Dogra)
Genre: Contemporary Romance x Desi Romance

ABOUT
Manny Dogra owns a break-up service, helping relationships all over the world. A client, Sammy Patal, calls to ask for help with a temporary break-up as his current girlfriend isn't Indian (and bringing a non-indian girl to your little brother's wedding is a no-go in the Patal family), but Manny declines, as the case will go against her company's policy. But when the world forgets she's an Indian woman, she makes a deal with Sammy to go to his brother's wedding as his fake business partner, to find her roots and experience true Indian culture.

REVIEW
I actually just wanted to read this because I wanted to know if it had spice, and none of the reviews I read told me anything about it. 🤣 Unfortunately, it hadn't. It's a closed door romance.

My knowledge of the Indian culture is minimal, but I will say that I learned a lot from this book. I always appreciate that.

I liked how the love story came full circle in the end. It was beautiful. But at times, the general story was a bit boring. Except for the last 30 minutes. Holy moly, it was fast paced by the end. 😳

Every chapter started with a break up problem from a possible client to Manny's company, and in all honesty, I could have gone without them. They kinda overwhelmed me, because there were no resolution to them, just a bunch of random people sharing their problems. In conclusion, I would be a terrible therapist. 🤦‍♀️

Manny's character wasn't really strong-willed. Something felt off with her. Her cluelessness about her roots was somehow reflected onto her personality and her knowledge of love. Which was weird, since it's her job. 😕
I really liked the side characters. All these various friends, family members and personalities. Whether they were indian or not, they were all different.
Unfortunately, Sammy was simply just boring.

[Siddhant Agarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept of the story is interesting where an expert on breakups decides to discover her Indian roots. The story begins as we are introduced to Manny and her firm Breakup which specializes in writing breakup emails for client so as to have a clean breakup. The story truly begins when she is pestered by Sammy to take up his case for a temporary breakup and in return, he promises her to help her discover her roots by taking him to his brother’s wedding. The story starts off on a good note and we start connecting with Manny and her struggle to find her identity. As the story progresses and we meet the Patel family, the plot starts feeling more like a Bollywood movie complete with song and dance sequences, and family secrets. The overall pace of the story was good, though the middle was a bit slow. The breakup requests that headline each chapter are interesting to read, however apart from a couple of instances, they do not seem to relate to the general plot of the book. The stereotypes that Sonya pushes into the plot, however, do not stand true in most of the cases, such as elephant decorations on tables, all Indian dances being Bhangra etc. The climax is quite filmy and the revelations of the secrets can be guessed in the initial parts of the story.

Coming to the characters, Manny Dogra as a person looking to find her roots is created wonderfully. With a successful career in a niche field and a fiancé she loves, she has what most people dream of, yet she feels a void in her life. I liked the way she is presented and how she finds her roots one step at a time. Sammy’s character as a conventional Indian male who is scared to face the reality of his relationship with his family. Sonya also introduces some interesting characters such as Aliyan and Manisha who add a layer of interesting flavor to this story.

[Emonmiahh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Breakup Expert by Sonya Singh

Book Rating: ⭐️⭐️

This book was about, in my opinion, a cruel but business like approach to breakups, where one rule fits mostly all, which is why you definitely know it’s a work of fiction! Manny Dogra as an MC was just stereotypically wishy-washy and cringy af. The themes they tried to explore, weren’t hard hitting enough and felt more directed to a western audience which I get, but there was nothing special or individualistic about this read.

Cultural romance will always make me feel cosy and warm, and this book, as cheesy as it was, did exactly that! From naming famous Bollywood stars in every page to cringy use of Hindi words where they weren’t needed, to the overly used stereotypical tropes and the appealing phrases; it felt like home 🥰

I don’t feel that this was perhaps her best works, I’m sure she has many excellent titles under her name. But unfortunately, her style of writing was subpar and I won’t be checking out any of them… unless it’s really something more than this, albeit creative narrative, but not enough exploration and depth in my honest opinion.

Although, having finished the book, and after reading Bend It Like Beckham, I will however say that I did laugh a few times. That’s just because I don’t get to hear much Asian specific humour. I could see why people would like this book, which is why I had given it two stars (purely for the laughs and the innuendos). But for a more seasoned reader like myself (if I do say so myself that is, in the least big-headed way), it just wasn’t to my liking or the sort of book I would read again. But each to their own, I guess.

[Fatima Fakih · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a light read !

I enjoyed reading it.

However, I believe that the writer concentrated on lots of details but made the ending very fast. It was nice to talk about the details of Indian wedding culture, but it didn’t make sense to me to hold an Indian wedding in California. It would have been much better story if the setting was in India, if she talked more about the streets of india, if she gave more details about the Indian culture in general. She just focused on a wedding and the details were sometimes boring.

[morgan 🥀 · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘falling in love, when you get to choose it, it makes you feel so full, you can hear love in your heart.’

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

i needed a little pick-me-up recently, so i decided to dive into this romance, and i absolutely adored it.

based on manny’s unstable sense of self and her indian heritage, she decides to take a week off to attend a wedding with sammy. this book was lovely, i’m more familiar with south-indian culture, so it was interesting to learn some more about the north. i loved manny, she was a big girlboss™, but i was rooting for her so much. i loved the cast of characters, the drama, the descriptions of the outfits and food and decorations.

however, the ending completely ruined this was me, it felt like several dramatic scenes were thrown in, with the ending too quickly wrapped up in an nice little bow. i honestly think that this story would benefit from being even 50 pages longer. there were a few cringey line throughout this (no fair!), but i think it just added to the charm.

i loved 95% of this book, so i’m still giving it a 4 stars. this book has just been published with a new name and cover, sari, not sari. goodreads said that the new edition is around thirty pages longer than my current copy, so i’m hoping that the ending has been fleshed out more. i’d stil recommend this to romance lovers !!

[Jack Bates · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This is quite jolly, (mostly) nicely structured, loads of good stuff about food. I enjoyed the plot, which is very rom com I guess (Manny's parents passed on none of their culture, so she's a Desi girl with no knowledge of what that actually means. She runs a business helping people break up with their partners in a postive and healing fashion. When Sammy asks her to help him break up with his g/f 'temporarily' while he deals with a big family wedding she reluctantly agrees as long as he'll help her learn about what makes an Indian wedding/family) and has some interesting things to say about immigrant life without, you know, going in to them on a very deep level (which is totally fair for a book like this). The dialogue's not great though - it felt a bit stiff - and although I was convinced by the growing relationship between Sammy and Manny, the ending felt a bit rushed. Also there's a coincidence that's a bit obvious and in my opinion, unnecessary.

[Ritu | Bohemian Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

The CEO of a highly successful “break-up” start-up wants to learn how to be more Indian. A lot of things can go wrong with this and unfortunately, some do.

The core of a romance read is the couple, and that is where the book disappoints. It felt like too much of insta-love without a proper buildup.

Also going by the name Sari, Not Sari (I hate it when the not just the cover but the title changes based on the geo-location), it is a decent one-time read.

[Neena P · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read although with a stronger start than finish. The last third of the book felt rushed which made the romance less believable and less investment from myself. Still, I enjoyed the concept of "Breakup" and Manny getting in touch with her Indian side.

[Kitty Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
The story is like a Bollywood movie. I think this was also the premise for it - slow start with fast moving action later.
I didn't like all of the 2024 references - tiktok, that movie on netflix. In the beginning all of those felt out of place.

[Rmsooon]

It was ok

[Jan]

Dnf

[Anya (An Awful Lot of Reading) · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF'd at page 112 - didn't gel with the writing style or care enough about the characters to keep going

[sonalidalal · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading rave reviews I expected much more. Disappointed.

[Vicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
This book just felt too jumpy for me.

[Hannah Smart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feel good book!! Took me a few chapters to get into but I did enjoy the ending!

[Dhanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book since it challenged many ideas etc in society, it was a fun read.

[Evangeline Obianozie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun book to read. It didn't get me hooked at first but it did later on. I learnt a lot about the Indian culture. I read the book not the kindle edition.