Sujata Das has a good job, great friends, and fulfilling hobbies. She is slowly but surely recovering from a cruel betrayal by her ex-fiancé. Enter Vivek Achari, a handsome, gallant coworker she is very drawn to. Vivek is ready to commit, but Sujata cannot work up the energy for another leap of faith. Time is running out as Vivek’s visa troubles force him to accept a job in another city, and his family back home in India pushes him to accept an arranged match. Their chemistry is undeniable, but can attraction alone make this relationship work?
Kat Vinson’s A QUALITY MAN features a strong female lead in the tech industry and a softly earnest, emotionally supportive love interest who isn’t threatened by her intelligence, ambition, and success. Sujata and Vivek’s story is miles ahead of most other romantic pairings while staying true to well-loved romance tropes. The two are thrown together by friends, work, and circumstance—and, despite Sujata’s reluctance, their electric chemistry keeps the story moving. Vivek’s respectful deference to her refusal is refreshing, and the will-they-won’t-they plotline jogs along well until bigger interests can replace it. The romance does not try to substitute the main characters’ lives, with there being plenty of exploration of other topics: chauvinism in the tech industry, job precarity, and the crippling pressure of family expectations for young immigrants.
One of A QUALITY MAN’s biggest highlights is how the author nails her desi characters. Second-generation Sujata and her family embody many cultural aspects of her Bengali heritage while staying in step with modern American life. Vivek has a more fresh-off-the-boat persona. It is adorable the way his accent comes through the text, especially when he’s speaking with other desi friends and coworkers. For example, calling sunglasses “goggles” and a movie a “picture.” Kat Vinson does a skillful job of grounding him firmly in his Indian identity while making sure to avoid festooning him with any of the red flags that can be so common with conservative Desi men.
Unfortunately, this careful study of Indian Americans backfires in the closing chapters. A QUALITY MAN confronts, at best, only half of the very obvious challenges in the couple’s path before rushing them into the ending. The reader may feel cheated out of the drama of meeting families and convincing them to bless a cross-cultural wedding. Being left wanting more is not a feeling romance fans appreciate.
A smart and ambitious heroine meets an emotionally mature hunk who’s ready to put in the work in Kat Vinson’s A QUALITY MAN. It’s rare to find a romantic heroine who doesn’t need to be rescued, and even rarer to see Desi characters done this well.
~Sakina Hassan for IndieReader
