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Reviews

""With its narrative duo's endearingly energetic voices and complex rivalry, workplace drama, and cultural/personal loss, Sakthika Vijay's Jasmine Flowers and Pounds of Sugar is too well-grounded to just be breezy and too delightful to be heavy. A richly layered love story of ambition, regret, and community, Vijay's novel drew me in swiftly and kept me reading eagerly!""- Douglas Kearney, 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize winner and National Book Award finalist for Sho ""Jasmine Flowers and Pounds of Sugar is as sweet a story as its title suggests. High school debate rivals Everett and Jahnvi have sparred for as long as they can remember-but when orphaned Everett takes on a wedding order to save his family's restaurant, he needs Jahnvi's help to pull it off. Their time together uncovers conflict, sparks, and long-held secrets, but the greatest revelation is the bittersweet beauty of first love."" -Carol Van Den Hende, award-winning author of the Goodbye, Orchid series ""Sakthika Vijay beautifully explores the confusing and sometimes awkward journey of enemies evolving into lovers. Her storytelling is both genuine and humorous, capturing the authentic emotions of butterflies that come with a first kiss and young love.""-Katrina Mackrides, author of The Salty Swan trilogy ""Author Sakthika Vijay is the first to admit that she relishes the feeling of nostalgia, and this is evident in her wonderful new novel, Jasmine Flowers and Pounds of Sugar. It is a delightful stroll back to the tentative and trepidation-filled dance of first love. Indian teenagers Everett and Jahnvi have probably loved each other since they were toddlers, but said emotions have been disguised as antipathy thanks to the vagaries of adolescence and circumstances that serve to pit them against each other in extracurricular activities as well as family businesses. Vijay skillfully endears both characters to us through back-and-forth first-person accounts of their growing appreciation for one another, complicated by classic teenage awkwardness and stilted communication. She avoids many of the common adolescent literature overly complicated cheap tricks and tropes. This makes Everett and Jahnvi's romantic journey feel organic, uncontrived, and relatable. On top of that, they are great kids. Sweet kids. You can't help but root for them. And Vijay allows you to do so, unabashedly, all the while immersing you in a world of sensory splendor, of exotic spices, tastes, and smells, of delicate and brilliant floral arrangements. Are there bittersweet moments? Of course. The story is nostalgic but it's not a fantasy. Which only makes it more enchanting.""- Gary R. Simonds, author of One Happy Accident, Death's Pale Flag, and The Thriving Physician ""Jasmine Flowers and Pounds of Sugar is such a cute high school YA romance with a little bit of banter, enemies-to-lovers, and a mix of culture. The story that follows these two teens who own Indian restaurants, go to school together, and have the biggest rivalry is something that definitely brought me back to high school. These characters are so relatable and so easy to connect with. The way these characters grow from beginning to end, and how each of their stories of their dreams after high school, family, and everyday lives is just easy to understand. I loved this book and the title is so fitting. Lastly, I love the Indian culture that this book stands for.""- Tasha L. Harwick, book reviewer

Author Information

Sakthika Vijay loves the feeling of nostalgia and thinks it should be represented more in literature. Her debut novel, Outcast, explores the universally nostalgic experiences of high school, and Jasmine Flowers and Pounds of Sugar also explores that theme. She graduated from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and now lives in Philadelphia.

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