This book is heartwarming and made me emotional! The two main characters had a good connection and I enjoyed getting to know them throughout the book. It was a refreshing book.

I love the cover of this book. It really draws the eye and gets people interested. I thought that the story was good and had an enjoyable time reading it. The sentence structures were a bit awkward so at times it felt choppy when reading. I thought the idea was good, but would have like a little bit better execution. Overall, it was a fine book.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Wow this book was a rollercoaster.

I think serious topics were attempted to be discussed in a ridiculous, overly dramatic way. The characters and plot overall felt underdeveloped and rushed. There desperately needed to be more development between the main couple as well as with main character Shy individually. Any sort of character development was mostly glossed over and was told to the reader rather than shown, leading to a rushed feel of every conflict.

There were many rushed parts throughout the novel, often at key points such as big games or big relationship moments, which definitely attributed to the underdeveloped feel of the entire book.

Even still, the book was a somewhat quick read and still had some parts that were cute and inspiring.

TWs: homophobia, racism, suicide, revenge porn, hate crimes, domestic violence

I really really wanted to get into this book, but the writing was just too unpolished for me. The necessary plot set up and character development was underdeveloped for my tastes. This was a fast read, however

I loved this story as there's not a lot of book featuring a LGBTQ+ Indian character. i found it thought provoking and poignant.
Good plot and character development, a compelling story.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I received an ARC through Netgalley for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this story. It not only shines a light on queer culture, but growing up in a culture where being queer is not acceptable. Although the story focuses on both Saaransh and Brenden, it is Saaransh’s story that is the main focus. And with many stories that feature multiple pov’s there is a struggle to give each character their own voice. But with this story, I do feel like Brendon and Saaransh had their own voices in their chapters.
Although I did enjoy it I feel like it needed to be fleshed out more. It feels like we are jumping from 1 plot point to the other with little to no in between or set up for the next point and what set up is there is rushed.

This is not a positive or negative, but it was also a lot more spicy than I thought it was ganna be (it is all mostly the first half of the book, and I say this because I was expecting some of something but I was not expecting as much as there was).

Thank you, Nine Star Press, for allowing me to read Shy early.

Shy is a refreshing MM romance that stands out in this category because of its distinctive writing and an Indian author. I don't come across these kinds of books very often and if you want to read more about Indian gay men who struggle with their identity, you should definitely pick up this book.

Even though I liked the story, it should have been edited a bit more to make an impression. Still. Shy is a likable story.

I feel really awkward having to DNF this as I always want to support queer books, especially if I have been given an arc, but I just cannot seem to get into this story.

I hope my DNF doesn’t discourage anyone from trying this book.

Thank you, Ashish Rastogi, Nine Star Press and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Shy is already out and ready to read.

Shy is heartwarming story about a closeted badminton player from India and an out and proud rugby player from Australia. Saaransh is an Olympic badminton player from India who during his two weeks in London during the Olympics decides he is going to find a man to find out what he has been missing. He meets Brendon is a rugby player who has been out for years, and even though it has been tough he still has had the support of family and most of his fans. During their time together they experience some lows but a lot of highs, but after an incident where Saaransh is outed to the world the two are split apart. Will they be able to overcome the obstacles thrown in their path and have the bright future they were meant to have.

I thought this story was really sweet and, in the end, very heart warming. I felt like their romance was very hard won, like they kept getting their butts kicked by their different worlds. I thought it was very interesting to see the different LGBTQ experiences other people can have. I do have to say that the writing is a little choppy including some of their conversations. I also felt like the ending was rushed, I would have loved to see a little bit more sweet moments after everything the two went through. Even with all of that I couldn't put the book down and was rooting for the two.

DNF @ 8%

I really struggled with the writing style (I found it to be somewhat choppy) and while I was trying to overlook that, I felt like their conversations were very awkward/forced. As a result, I decided to DNF this one.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This story was super unique and I loved the insight it provided into being a member of the LGBTQ+ community in a culture that is not as accepting and as foreword thinking as others. While the story was a fairly quick read, and while I really loved Sarransh and Brendon’s relationship, I found the writing to be a bit clunky and hard to follow. I did generally enjoy the story, but thought that the execution, especially the dialogue between characters, could use a little work.

I was given an ARC by NetGalley and Nine Star Press. All opinions are my own