Kismat Connection is such a sweet, confidently-told, well-paced book, and you could be forgiven for not realising it is Anaya Devarajan’s début novel. It’s a fun fake-dating romance in which two teenagers try to escape the karma that threatens to haunt their futures for all eternity.

Madhuri Iyer is doubly-doomed. Her mother informs her that she’s astrologically done for, and her senior year will be a disaster. She’s also living under the burden of a family ‘curse’ which dooms her to fall into true love with her first boyfriend. Madhuri thinks this is ridiculous, and she’s determined to have a good time during her last year of high school. To escape the family’s curse, she decides to date someone she has no actual romantic interest in, so she can head to college a free person in control of her own destiny.

She enlists Arjun Mehta, her childhood best friend who she would never (not ever!) have feelings for, to pretend to be her boyfriend. The goal is to get that ‘first boyfriend’ label out of the way and break up at the end of senior year, leaving her free to determine her adult dating destiny. Arjun agrees (mostly because he’s had a huge crush on Madhuri for years), and the twosome proceed to enter their senior year together, swearing they’re dating and all the while insisting romance will never happen. Unfortunately, fake relationships beget real feelings, but can Madhuri overcome her stubbornness and admit she really has found true love?

Kismat Connection is very tropey and very cute. Arjun is a kind prince charming, smart and kind, and Madhuri is self-possessed and driven. That means she’s hard-headed when it comes to the arrival of true love, but her behavior is understandable. Madhuri’s attempt to figure herself out as a young Indian-American woman is touching and sweet. Madhuri’s mom is astrology-mad, which results in Madhuri feeling like every inch of her life has been destined by the stars and there’s no room for her to make choices of her own. Who wouldn’t rebel against such circumstances? But her family are also wonderful, quirky people whose adventures are fun as heck to track. I loved Raina, Madhuri’s sister, in particular.

The book is a sweet, simple story about first love that definitely leaves the reader happy and yearning for more. Devarajan’s prose is supple and easy to sink into. Kismat Connection will make any teen happy, and it will please adult readers as well.