Get ready to beat the quarantine blues with this laugh-out-loud novel! The Marriage Game is here to hit all the right marks and help you escape the now.


The Marriage Game 
by Sara Desai

A high stakes wager pits an aspiring entrepreneur against a ruthless CEO in this sexy romantic comedy.

After her life falls apart, recruitment consultant Layla Patel returns home to her family in San Francisco. But in the eyes of her father, who runs a Michelin starred restaurant, she can do no wrong. He would do anything to see her smile again. With the best intentions in mind, he offers her the office upstairs to start her new business and creates a profile on an online dating site to find her a man. She doesn’t know he’s arranged a series of blind dates until the first one comes knocking on her door…

As CEO of a corporate downsizing company Sam Mehta is more used to conflict than calm. In search of a quiet new office, he finds the perfect space above a cozy Indian restaurant that smells like home. But when communication goes awry, he's forced to share his space with the owner's beautiful yet infuriating daughter Layla, her crazy family, and a parade of hopeful suitors, all of whom threaten to disrupt his carefully ordered life.

As they face off in close quarters, the sarcasm and sparks fly. But when the battle for the office becomes a battle of the heart, Sam and Layla have to decide if this is love or just a game.

Buckle up, folks. Get ready for some good old fashioned fun and romance. No, really. You're in for a bumpy, entertaining, charismatic and sarcastic ride with The Marriage Game. From its central love story, and the games they play, to the witty banter and hefty supply of sarcasm, you really can't go wrong with this delightfully engaging rom-com.

It is nearly perfect.

And I haven't stopped smiling since finishing it.

The Marriage Game is truly a standout in this year's contenders for best romantic comedy. Sara Desai combines hilarious traits, sarcastic dialogue, fascinating and fun characters, steamy romance, a bit of angst and family connections in a way that feels breezy and vivid. The balance is impeccable and the story becomes all the more entertaining because of it.

Truly, it is all too easy to see these characters and their stories play out in our heads--and I'm begging Netflix, or someone, anyone, to adapt it already. Seriously! Someone make it happen. I know the book isn't out yet but, like, hello? The world needs more stories like The Marriage Game. We all need reasons to smile and this is one of the best chances we've gotten this year.

That being said: holy crap, this book made me smile. And cringe on occasion. And fan myself on other occasions. And it energized me to the point where I finished it and needed to do something, anything, to burn off all the extra buzzed feeling it gave me. The Marriage Game was truly a delight from start to finish and not at all what I was expecting--but absolutely everything I didn't know I needed.