First Comes Like – Alisha Rai

Finished this one up the end of February!

Thanks to Avon Books for the free early copy in exchange for my honest review

FIRST COMES LIKE – Alisha Rai (Released February 16th, 2021)

Book Description:

The author of The Right Swipe and Girl Gone Viral returns with a story about finding love in all the wrong inboxes…

Beauty expert and influencer Jia Ahmed has her eye on the prize: conquering the internet today, the entire makeup industry tomorrow, and finally, finally proving herself to her big opinionated family. She has little time for love, and even less time for the men in her private messages—until the day a certain international superstar slides into her DMs, and she falls hard and fast.

There’s just one wrinkle: he has no idea who she is.

The son of a powerful Bollywood family, soap opera star Dev Dixit is used to drama, but a strange woman who accuses him of wooing her online, well, that’s a new one. As much as he’d like to focus on his Hollywood fresh start, he can’t get Jia out of his head. Especially once he starts to suspect who might have used his famous name to catfish her…

When paparazzi blast their private business into the public eye, Dev is happy to engage in some friendly fake dating to calm the gossips and to dazzle her family. But as the whole world swoons over their relationship, Jia can’t help but wonder: Can an online romance-turned-offline-fauxmance ever become love in real life?

My Thoughts: 4/5 stars

I’m not normally the biggest fan of romance novels but I decided to give FIRST COMES LIKE a shot – never hurts to branch out on occasion, right? This is the third installment in the Modern Love series by Alisha Rai and I really enjoyed it! I liked that this wasn’t heavy on the steam as it instead dealt with the topics of virginity and marriage as opposed to the physical aspects of a relationship. I loved seeing our heroine, Jia, sticking to her religious beliefs and staying true to herself. It seems like there are so many romance novels out there where caution is thrown to the wind and characters will just abandon their beliefs for a new relationship. I would love to see what Own Voice reviewers think of this novel and the depiction of Muslim culture, as I feel like I got a good glimpse into it. If you’re wanting a sweet romance novel that’s light on the steam, then I highly recommend this one!