Structured like a Bollywood film (entertaining intermission included!) Arya Khanna’s Bollywood Moment will make you swoon, laugh, cry, think, nod your head in agreement, and quite possibly: make you get up and dance.

ARYA KHANNA’S BOLLYWOOD MOMENT
by Arushi Avachat
Wednesday Books, January 2024

Shaadi preparations are in full swing, which means lehenga shopping, taste testing, dance rehearsals, and best of all, Arya’s sister, Alina, is home. The Khannas are together again, finally, and Arya wants to enjoy it. So, she stifles her lingering resentment towards Alina, plays mediator during her sister’s fights with their mother, and welcomes her sister’s fiancé with open arms. (Okay, maybe enjoy it is the wrong word.)

Meanwhile, at school, Arya’s senior year dreams are unraveling. In between class and her part-time gig as a bookshop assistant, Arya struggles to navigate the aftermath of a bad breakup between her two best friends and a tense student council partnership with her rival, the obnoxiously attractive Dean Merriweather.

Arya is determined to keep the peace at home and at school, but this shaadi season teaches Arya new realities: Alina won’t always be in the bedroom down the hall, Mamma’s sadness isn’t mendable, friendships must evolve, and life doesn’t always work out like the Bollywood movies Arya loves so dearly. But sometimes, the person you least expect will give you a glimpse of your dream sequence just when you need it most.

Arushi Avachat is a writer from the Bay Area, California. She currently studies English and Political Science at UCLA, where she can be found sipping caramel lattes and pretending to be productive at Kerckhoff Coffee House. She is a contributor to the Young Adult anthology Study Break (Feiwel & Friends, March 2023). Arushi loves dark chocolate, Bollywood dramas, and Jane Austen novels.