I Wish We Weren't Related — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Radhika Sanghani
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 400

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): After a shocking phone call from her mother, Reeva Mehta’s life starts to sound like the plot of a Bollywood drama. From the outlandishly funny author of 30 Things I Love About Myself comes a hilarious, heartwarming novel about love, family, and new beginnings.

Thirty-four-year-old Reeva thought her life couldn’t possibly get more complicated, until her semi-famous Bollywood mother calls to tell her that she’s been lying to her daughters for decades—the father they thought died thirty years ago has been alive this whole time. Only now he actually is dead. Worse? His dying wish was for Reeva and her sisters Sita and Jaya to attend his funeral prayers—which means spending a fortnight together at his house, surrounded by relatives they never knew existed.

Reeva already has more than enough going on in her life. She’s an overworked London lawyer, her hair is falling out due to stress-induced alopecia, she can’t decide if her new boyfriend, Nick, is really as wonderful as he appears to be, and her brand-new cat is playing hard to get (even for a cat). And now she has to spend two weeks with the sisters she hasn’t spoken to since Jaya stole her boyfriend and Sita took her side.

But as Reeva slowly learns more about their father and his life—with the help of his sister, aka her new, wise Satya Auntie—she starts to uncover the complicated truth of their past…and realizes she needs Jaya and Sita more than she ever could have imagined.

First Impressions

This book sounded interesting. I had never read a book about a Hindu funeral before let alone one with a twist. The summary was what won me over more than the cover, though the cover isn’t bad.

What I thought

I enjoyed the first 75% of the book but then the last 25% kinda dropped it a little bit.

Reeva is the eldest of 3 daughters. She lives in London and is a divorce attorney. She hasn’t spoken to her sister in about 4 years, since her youngest sister cheated with Reeva’s boyfriend at the time and her middle sister stood by the youngest. Their father has been dead for 30 years, or so they thought. When he actually dies their mother informs them that he’s been alive for their whole lives and in order to get their inheritance they have to participate in the 14 day Hindu funeral prayers.

There is so much that goes on in this book that I don’t even know where to start. I enjoyed the story about sisters who haven’t talked getting back together. I thought it was interesting to see how they worked through their issues and see their relationship grow. The whole dad being alive and not really dead and the trauma behind that didn’t really end up being my thing.

Without spoilers, I found the reason that this mom faked his death for 30 years to be a bit extreme. Which I guess was kind of the point. But then Reeva reacts as thought the reason makes sense? She gets super mad at her dead dad for something that happened 30 years ago that she repressed.

Reeva did honestly get on my nerves by the end of the book. I think the fallout of so many of her relationships showed that she wasn’t a very good or likable person. I also got irritated by the self-help vibe towards the end of the book. She had one conversation with her aunt and one hypnotherapy and all of a sudden was like “I know exactly how to be a better person now!” I mean, she still admitted she had a lot of work to do but she was immediately making big changes. Also, her supposed best friend was terrible.