The Chai Factor by Farah Heron

This is the first book in, well, not officially a series, but Farah’s newest book Accidentally Engaged (see Sky’s review from earlier in the year) follows the best friend of The Chai Factor’s MC, Amira.

The Chai Factor lived up to it’s title and now I’m craving chai, but I’m one of those heathens who doesn’t like masala chai, but rather that liquid chai flavoring from the coffee shops. But let me tell you a secret: latte that shit with some lavender simple syrup- it’s the best!

The Chai Factor finds Amira back home to finish her final project for grad school, but her hopes of having the basement apartment all to herself is dashed when she learns her grandma has rented it out to a barbershop quartet. One of the quartet is a young Indian man from their community who is in the closet and also in a relationship with another of the quartet. The bass in the quartet is engaged and has phone sex with his fiancee forcing the last and only single member, the baritone Duncan, out into the apartment. Duncan is a red-headed lumberjack of a hipster and if Amira hadn’t already hated him from his patronizing chivalry on the train, his being a part of her disrupted peace adds to the mix.

The concept of a barbershop quartet is just the softest thing and it made me smirk constantly. Amira is a powerhouse character and I felt a lot of the author’s own voiced frustrations and anger when Amira would go off on someone for being patriarchal, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, and/or homophobic. You will find yourself screaming, YES! TELL THEM! Amira is a heroine! I would just like to yell at early in the book Amira, “trust yourself, don’t compromise on your instinctual feelings. You are right.”

There are no sex scenes in this book. They are all closed-door/cut to post-coital cuddling. You get the implication of raunch but no explicitness.

This was a quick, enjoyable, diverse romance. Please excuse me, my heathen chai is ready. -Ford

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Xenophobia, Islamaphobia, Homophobia, Gaslighting