Review: First Comes Like

First Comes Like was my first read from Alisha Rai, even though it's technically third in her Modern Love series. I've seen the others but just never managed to cram them into my reading schedule. I made sure to make the time for Jia's story, though, and I'm really glad I did. I had SO much fun reading it!

Here's the book's description:

Beauty expert and influencer Jia Ahmed has her eye on the prize: conquering the internet today, the entire makeup industry tomorrow, and finally, finally proving herself to her big opinionated family. She has little time for love, and even less time for the men in her private messages—until the day a certain international superstar slides into her DMs, and she falls hard and fast.
There’s just one wrinkle: he has no idea who she is.
The son of a powerful Bollywood family, soap opera star Dev Dixit is used to drama, but a strange woman who accuses him of wooing her online, well, that’s a new one. As much as he’d like to focus on his Hollywood fresh start, he can’t get Jia out of his head. Especially once he starts to suspect who might have used his famous name to catfish her…
When paparazzi blast their private business into the public eye, Dev is happy to engage in some friendly fake dating to calm the gossips and to dazzle her family. But as the whole world swoons over their relationship, Jia can’t help but wonder: Can an online romance-turned-offline-fauxmance ever become love in real life?

One weird thing that drove me bananas was that Jia mentioned several times at the start of the novel (when she's trying to figure out what happened with Dev and why he doesn't know her) that she was very ill recently and still kind of recovering. Her sister, who lives on the other side of the country, was ill with the same thing and still needs to use oxygen. The problem? I have absolutely no idea what illness it was. And it seemed to be such a big part of the reason why the story even had a story (she got back to talking with "Dev" when she was sick) that it was bizarre that it was mentioned so much and then just...left alone. Was it mentioned in the previous stories and that's why I was missing information? Was it supposed to be COVID? If it was, can we please fast forward to the world they're in where everyone can hang out together and fake date? Because it didn't seem like anyone else in the entire world had gotten sick and her illness wasn't that long ago. 

I also wondered if Jia had ever mentioned to her roommates (who are the heroines in the first two novels) that she had been messaging with Dev. That part of the story was...convoluted. And heartbreaking and also infuriating. I kind of found myself waiting for the pair to get past that situation so I could enjoy the rest of the story. 

I went down the rabbit hole of Goodreads reviews because I needed to see how Muslim readers felt about the story. From what I can gather, Rai is not Muslim herself and a lot of readers were worried about how Jia's faith would be portrayed (as they should be). Some readers took issue with it seeming like this was just a check off the Diverse Rom Com List: girl wears hijab - check! girl prays - check! girl does not drink or have premarital sex - check and check! Other readers appreciated those mentions. I'm not going to comment one way or the other but I do think I'll try to find some more reviews from Muslim readers (while understanding that it's not a monolith and one person's experience does not speak for everyone of that faith).

Jia is such an interesting character. She is so warm and engaging but also kind of an introvert, I think. She's wicked smart and so funny. Some of the conversations with Dev and her roommates were too hilarious - I was giggling out loud when she and Dev went to an art show together as they poked fun at the abstract art. She's also such a kind person. You can see that when she interacts with, well, just about anyone, but especially her roommates. There's a really enviable bond there and made me miss my friends and former university roommates. 

First Comes Like isn't a story that lends itself to a picked apart review, to be completely honest. It's not a perfect story but it was perfect for me at the time I was reading it. I loved Jia and had a lot of fun reading her story and hoping for a Happily Ever After for her. It was fun and smart and I look forward to reading Alisha Rai's backlist and whatever she writes next.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Avon, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*