The Taste of Ginger | Mani Shah | Book Review & Giveaway

The Taste of Ginger by Manshi Shah

Hi all!

Welcome to my tour stop on the book tour for The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah

Thank you MTMC Tours and Mansi Shah for the chance to be a part of the book tour for The Taste of Ginger! I also have to thank @mtmctours for being the first place that actually shipped a book over to Pakistan; I had no idea that anyone would go through all that effort, but they did!

The Taste of Ginger is a debut novel that came out earlier this year on the 1st of January. It was published by Lake Union Publishing, is 317 pages long, and is available for free to those of us on Kindle Unlimited!

Book Review:

The Taste of Ginger is one of the few books I’ve read where the caste system is talked about and acknowledged to be a thing. I don’t read a lot of desi writers, but when I do I haven’t seen it actually play a part. Of course, it could be because the writers I’m reading are part of a certain group and this doesn’t affect them. But it was interesting to see this book take that on, and for that to have an actual impact on someone.

I also thought about how I view people around me, Mansi Shah acknowledges skin colour to be a very prominent sign, but I also thought about how over on this side of the border, even with rules not so explicitly spelled out, skin colour and even features can be indicative of where you belong.

I think that Preeti’s character dealt with some really interesting situations, from how her aunt and uncle felt compelled to explain the rules to her, and how her uncle basically ordered her while her mother was sitting right there, and how Tarun asked for her even when they haven’t ever dated. Her mom’s story was also pretty interesting, especially the engagement; men are still turds like that. It was good to watch her play a more active role in her family, rather than write these relationships off, and how her friend finally told her that the dude you were into was an ass. I loved Dipti; from how she managed to toe the line with everything, and then finally did what she needed to at the end.

I know that we’re supposed to love the main the most, but Dipti was my favourite. I’d probably love a short story from her POV.