Fun enough, but in the end tried too hard.
A shame, I liked it rather well until quite far along. I think I might take a look at anything else this author wrote, but not exactly top of my TBR. ( )

A fun, funny and sometimes snarky read.
Read my review here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RA1V59BYZBOCE ( )

Indian Maidens Bust Loose is a chick-lit story told Indian style. It is a hilarious romp through Indian culture as a young, twenty-something woman gradually finds the courage to break free from her parents' old-school ways and live her own life. I learned a great deal about India and the culture there, and many of the things I discovered made me extremely grateful to live in America. This book is riotously funny, but woven throughout the humorous moments, the author managed to showcase the stark reality of the inequality which Indian women face on a daily basis. I can scarce imagine what it must be like to be pressured or even forced into an arranged marriage with someone you don't like much less love. Not to mention, not being allowed to take the job you want in spite of being highly educated and well qualified for it. And it's not just the women who face inequality, but the lower classes and orphans on the street. It was very inspiring to see the female characters in the story banding together to build a better life for themselves, but it's all done in a fun, light-hearted way.

Nisha is the first-person narrator of the story. She's a college graduate who wants to become a journalist. Her father won't allow it though, because the job might entail her working late hours, and a woman being out after a certain time of night is considered a big no-no. She and her sister, Vinita, also have to endure an endless parade of suitors, and their father seems to keep picking all the worst ones he can find. Nisha is a romantic at heart. She loves to read, mostly romance novels. There is a part of her that desperately wants to experience the kind of love and romance she reads about, but the other part of her is a realist, knowing the best she can probably hope for is finding a man who isn't from the bottom of the barrel where her father seems to be looking. Mostly, Nisha is the normal one in a family of wacky people, and is just trying to navigate through all the waves they've set in motion to find a place for herself in the world where she can feel comfortable and have a sense of belonging.

Indian Maidens Bust Loose had tons of uproarious moments. It could have been subtitled “Misadventures in Arranged Marriages” or “How Many Ways Can My American Cousins Ruin My Reputation.” The suitor meeting with the two brothers that ended in a family feud was hysterical. The things that happen to their poor little car were utterly zany. Nisha's father is a penny-pinching miser, so much so that he tried to haggle with the police like he would a street vendor over the cost of his daughters' bail. But I think the most priceless thing of all was the “magical” cow that her fathered turned into a money-making operation when he became convinced that it was the reincarnation of an Indian deity. This story would certainly make a riotous romantic comedy movie that I'd eagerly pay to see. I spent the majority of the time reading this book with a grin on my face, if not outright laughing, sometimes hard enough to produce tears of mirth.

Vidya Samson is a talented author who drew me in right from the start and kept me coming back with moments like those I mentioned above, as well as plenty of family drama. She masterfully combines heart-warming moments with hilarity and deftly weaves multiple plot points and characters together, bringing all of them full-circle by the end, with a few unexpected twists thrown in for good measure. Not a single event in the book is mere filler or wasted space. Everything has a purpose that is eventually revealed. I have no idea if Ms. Samson intends to write any more for Nisha or not. It seems like there could be the potential for more story, and if she did write it, I'd gladly read it. In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to checking out her other works.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This was a fabulous and witty look into the lives of modern-day 20-something Indian women. I absolutely adored every word! The first person narration comes from Nisha (a girl obsessed with romance novels) who lives with her parents and grandmother, along with her sister Vinita (a girl who registers on the genius scale). (...) Their parents, especially the father, have made it a mission to match them with a husband. But this isn't even the funniest part, their cousins and aunt (mom's sister) come to visit from the US and most of the ridiculous and lol occurrences are due to Nisha's efforts to entertain her kin and the hijinks that the cousins somehow always manage to be a part of. It's difficult to completely capture all that occurs in this novel without rewriting the whole thing, as it's a never ending roller coaster ride of crazy happenings, blunt honesty, and melt-your-heart romance (this last one is more towards the end of the book - but it's wonderful). The ending is 100% perfect and I couldn't have asked for more in a fun, out-of-my-usual read.
The only thing I had any problems with was the broken English used by the older people in the story, but the reasoning was deftly explained and the whole notion of broken English just became a necessary part of this tale. (...)

Check out my full review at http://knittylove.blogspot.com/2012/07/yay-for-books-some-long-overdue-reviews.h...

Note: I received this in a member giveaway on LibraryThing. All of the above is 100% honest. ( )

Chick lit, Indian-style! This self-published ebook actually made me laugh out loud quite a few times. When the story starts, naive Nisha and her irritable sister Vinita are being put on view for a steady stream of visiting suitors and their families when the book starts, making themselves as unattractive as possible to fend off any potential interest from the poor specimens of manhood on offer.
Nisha – a respectable, middle-class daughter of an Indian family whose only vice is her addiction to romance novels – pins all her hopes of a college education and a handsome husband on her estranged American aunt and two female cousins, who visit the family for the first time. The more Nisha tries to overcome her family’s inhospitable nature and make a good impression on the well-to-do American members of the family, the worse things go for Nisha and her reputation as an obedient Indian daughter. In good romantic comedy tradition, Nisha is too busy dealing with one disaster after another to notice the interest that the guy next door is taking in her.
Set in the city of Ahmedabad in the state of Gujerat, Indian Maidens Bust Loose pokes fun at just about every sacred cow (literal and figurative) in Indian society, and many American ones, for good measure, in this romantic comedy that verges on slapstick in places. The writing could be tighter, especially in the middle of the book, but the exotic setting, humor, and Nisha’s innocently incisive thoughts and observations carry the reader along. ( )