Radha & Jai’s Recipe for Romance

Gr 7-10–As a full-time Kathak dancer, Radha never stops dancing. Dance is the source of her confidence, her joy, her every achievement. When she discovers that those achievements may not be because of her hard work but rather foul play, she decides to start over in a new town with new hobbies. She meets Jai, a fellow dancer, and commits to choreographing for his dance team, which sets her on a path of healing and recuperating. Putting dance, her mother’s passion, on the back burner, she bonds with her father via cooking and realizes that there is more to life than Kathak. This story has the trappings of a great tale about mental health, romance, and discovering who you are, but falls into several cliche wormholes. While this book explores the nuances of dance, Indian culture, and Indian cooking, some details portray the ethnicity exaggeratedly and inaccurately.