Book info

• Title The Arctic Curry Club
• Author Dani Redd
• Year 2021
• Genre Romance

Soon after upending her life to accompany her boyfriend Ryan to the Arctic, Maya realises it’s not all Northern Lights and husky sleigh rides. Instead, she’s facing sub-zero temperatures, 24-hour darkness, crippling anxiety – and a distant boyfriend as a result. In her loneliest moment, Maya opens her late mother’s recipe book and cooks Indian food for the first time. Through this, her confidence unexpectedly grows – she makes friends, secures a job as a chef, and life in the Arctic no longer freezes her with fear. But there’s a cost: the aromatic cuisine rekindles memories of her enigmatic mother and her childhood in Bangalore. Can Maya face the past and forge a future for herself in this new town? After all, there’s now high demand for a Curry Club in the Arctic, and just one person with the know-how to run it…

Thoughts

I really liked this. I started reading it over Christmas before realising it wasn’t a festive read, it was just a very, very cold one. So when snow hit the UK, that seemed like a great time to pick it up again. The story follows Maya, who suffers with anxiety and panic attacks, going with her boyfriend to the Arctic, where things unravel quickly but also manage to wind round towards a level of healing. Throw in the Indian element, and a lot of family drama and revisiting the past, plus the support of great friends with their own problems, then you’ve got all the ingredients for a great read.

Rating: 4 / 5