Review by Booklist Review
Win the science exhibition, get revenge: Meghna Rahman is a smart 17-year-old and ready to multitask. Rani Choudhury is also a smart 17-year-old and misses the time when she and Meghna were friends. The other thing the two have in common? They're dating Zak. When the girls find out about each other, they team up to get revenge on their mutual love interest by winning the Europe-wide science exhibition--and happen to fall for each other along the way. Although there are times when adhering to the John Tucker Must Die plotline weakens the narrative, Meghna and Rani's journey overall is a surprisingly believable one that teens will easily identify with. The characters themselves are multifaceted and unquestionably Bengali, and the narrative does not shy away from portraying challenges the girls face that are specific to their community, although there is a relative lack of external cultural conflict. Refreshingly, Bangla words and phrases are included frequently and without translation. Jaigirdar has once more delivered a fast-paced, sweet romance that both genre fans and newcomers will enjoy.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
When two Bangladeshi Irish teens realize they're dating the same boy, they team up to expose him at a regional STEM competition in this hijinks-filled romance by Jaigirdar (The Dos and Donuts of Love). Now that Meghna Rahman's project has been accepted into the regional Young Scientist Exhibition (for the first time ever), she's determined to beat perpetual attendee Rani Choudhury. Meghna has always had a rivalry with her childhood friend: her own parents constantly sing Rani's praises, particularly for Rani's language-learning app that centers Bangla, which is a big draw at the exhibition. After Meghna spots Rani canoodling with her boyfriend and fellow young scientist Zak, she confronts Rani. Upon learning that Zak has been cheating on them both, the girls collaborate on a new app for the upcoming European exhibition in Amsterdam that exposes cheaters. But brainstorming and coding in proximity forces them to realize that their relationship might go deeper than simple cordial rivalry. Meghna and Rani's thinly developed backstory sometimes raises questions about their established relationship. Still, their humorous banter buoys the STEM-heavy plot, which deftly explores issues of race and gender in science. Ages 14--up. Agent: Uwe Stender, Triada US. (Nov.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up--Meghna and Rani, both 17, used to be friends. What are they now? Well, according to Meghna they are bitter archnemeses. Especially now that she's found out that they are dating the same guy. That's the last straw. Rani Choudhury must be taken down. But things aren't really that simple. And after a few difficult conversations, the girls make the decision to work together to expose their awful ex, using the power of science and an international competition to do it. In this coming-of-age romance, Rani and Meghna navigate life, familial expectations, a bad break-up, and the competition as not just women in STEM, but Bangladeshi women in STEM. Jaigirdar's writing gives distinctive voice to each character in this dual-POV book, and readers will be sucked into the resentment and inadequacy these two feel from the constant comparisons to each other and to the men in their lives, and how that affects their approach to their project submission. Through it all, Rani and Meghna can't help but support one another, and their blossoming reconnection and solidarity make their romance one that readers just can't help but be hooked by. VERDICT Highly recommended and appropriate for all YA collections, especially where diverse romance stories featuring women of color are popular.--Jolie Hanlon
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Two Bangladeshi Irish teens reluctantly team up to enact justice on the boy who's cheating on both of them. It's bad enough that Meghna Rahman's boyfriend, Zak Sardar, has been seeing another girl, but why did it have to be her former best friend, Rani Choudhury? As if Rani doesn't already have it all: She's pretty, rich, smart, and accomplished, as Meghna's parents constantly remind her. Once Meghna and Rani realize that Zak has played them both for fools, however, the two STEM-minded teens devise a revenge plot--they'll develop an app to "revolutionize relationships" by tracking a suspected cheater's digital footprint. Zak will be their case study when they present it at the upcoming European Young Scientist Exhibition. Since team members can be given individual awards, Meghna also secretly hopes to impress the judges enough to finally do better than Rani. But working together isn't easy; their closeness brings repressed vulnerabilities in their relationship to the forefront. Is there something more to the long-standing tension between them? Will teaming up only drive them even further apart--or will exposing their backstabbing boyfriend bring them much, much closer together? The science fair setting provides a platform for the author to thoughtfully examine issues surrounding women of color in science and technology. The shared Bangladeshi background of Meghna, Rani, and Zak also offers room for frank and insightful discussions of cultural familial expectations and generational conflict. An unconventional and original revenge story with a sweet Sapphic romance. (content note)(Fiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
