Stevie‘s review of Grown-Up Pose by Sonya Lalli
Women’s Fiction published by Berkley 24 Mar 20
I greatly enjoyed Sonya Lalli’s first book, although I felt that the resolution was a little too predictable as romance tropes go. This time around she gives us a heroine at a slightly different stage in her life, when it comes to relationships, although of a similar age to some of the main characters in the first book and from a similar South Asian-Canadian background. Anusha (Anu) Desai married her first serious boyfriend, Neil, when they were both not long out of their teens. Now, seven years later, they’ve been separated for almost a year: nearly long enough to divorce, while sharing custody of their five-year-old daughter. And Anu is dating a white guy she met through work – something she accidentally discloses to Neil after she sneaks into his mother’s house to retrieve their daughter from a family party.
Although she was the one to initiate the separation, Anu still cares a lot about Neil and misses being close to his mother, but is generally dissatisfied with how their relationship panned out, as well as by how little she felt he contributed to it after their marriage while she gave up many of her dreams to support his career instead. Anu experiences further upheaval when her mother announces that she is to return to academia and finally complete the postgraduate studies she put on hold following Anu’s birth – and she’ll be doing so in London. All this upheaval adds to Anu’s dissatisfaction with her current life choices, and she seeks out ways to make changes of her own, revisiting her old love of yoga by taking classes at a struggling studio, where she receives a warm welcome from the owner and from one instructor in particular.
Anu sets out on a series of adventures, not all of which work out as planned. Alternately cheering her on and commiserating with her over failures are her two best friends, Monica and Jenny, as well as her new friend, Imogen, from the yoga studio. With Imogen’s help, Anu takes on the ownership and management of the studio and cautiously sets about revitalising the business. Her caution may be a little misplaced however, when everyone around her is in need of a grand gesture from her to demonstrate that she really is certain about her future, no matter how unsure she feels inside.
I really enjoyed this book. All the characters had their own flaws and made mistakes, but most – with the exception of the obvious villains of the piece – were well-intentioned, even as they messed up. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted Anu to end up in a relationship with one of the characters she had obvious chemistry with or whether I wanted her to find herself fully within singledom-for-now. The outcome, when it came, was suitably satisfying in my opinion.
This was a very fun book, and I’m looking forward to the author’s next one with even more excitement than I felt when I spotted this book had come up for review.
Grade: A
Summary:
A delightfully modern look at what happens for a young woman when tradition, dating, and independence collide, from acclaimed author Sonya Lalli.
Adulting shouldn’t be this hard. Especially in your thirties. Having been pressured by her tight-knit community to get married at a young age to her first serious boyfriend, Anu Desai is now on her own again and feels like she is starting from the beginning.
But Anu doesn’t have time to start over. Telling her parents that she was separating from her husband was the hardest thing she’s ever done—and she’s still dealing with the fallout. She has her young daughter to support and when she invests all of her savings into running her own yoga studio, the feelings of irresponsibility send Anu reeling. She’ll be forced to look inside herself to learn what she truly wants.
Read an excerpt.
