Sonali Dev’s newest is pitched as a rom-com, but the heart of There’s Something About Mira is bigger and braver than that label suggests. It is a contemporary novel about a lost ring, a viral search, and a woman who finally stops curating her life and starts claiming it. Expect tenderness, tough conversations, and zero gratuitous spice. This one is about healing, not heat.
The setup
Mira Salvi arrives in New York for what should have been an engagement trip, only without her fiancé. Playing tourist to fill the silence, she finds a ring and posts about it online. The story catches fire, and soon she is sorting through fakes and long shots with the help of Krish Hale, a determined journalist who sees both the headline and the human being. Their hunt stretches from city streets to family archives and eventually across the ocean, turning into a quest that rewrites what Mira thinks she owes her parents, her partner, and herself.
What the book is really about
Do not let the meet-cute fool you. Dev threads the ring mystery through deeper themes that hit with quiet force: the push and pull of immigrant family expectations, the guilt of outgrowing the rules you were raised with, the cost of staying small to keep the peace. Mira is a deeply empathetic pain specialist who can read what people are hiding, yet she has learned to minimize her own hurt. As the search unfolds, she reconciles with her twin brother Rumi and sees, up close, what an honest life looks like with his partner Saket. Interwoven letters reveal a decades-spanning queer love story that mirrors the book’s central question about who gets to choose a happy ending. These pages are luminous and carry the novel’s most emotional charge.
Mira and Krish
Mira’s arc is the engine. She is kind, capable, and conflict averse until she is not. Krish arrives with his own scars and a reporter’s skepticism. Together they share good, grounded chemistry built on recognition rather than banter for banter’s sake. The book resists easy tropes. There is no contrived third act blowup, no magical fix delivered by romance. The connection grows as Mira grows, which makes their later choices feel earned.
Craft notes
Dev’s prose is clean and unshowy, with well timed reveals and a few chapters that land like a punch to the sternum. Chapter Twenty Four in particular confronts women’s health and reproductive autonomy with clarity and care. The New York to India itinerary gives the story scope without losing intimacy, and the viral search conceit stays plausible enough to keep the plot moving.
Content to be aware of
This is a gentle book in tone, but it does not shy away from pain. Themes include sexual assault, parental control, homophobia within families, addiction, and the long tail of shame. Dev handles these with compassion and restraint, keeping the focus on recovery and agency.
What works
- A heroine whose healing is self driven rather than romance dependent
- A moving parallel queer love story that refuses erasure
- Nuanced look at immigrant family dynamics and the right to make mistakes
- Zero gratuitous drama, zero cheap twists, and a satisfying emotional payoff
What may not work for you
- If you want a fizzy rom-com, this is closer to contemporary fiction with romantic elements
- The epilogue is brief, and some readers may want more time with the couple after the dust settles
- A secondary character or two feel underused compared to the core cast
Verdict
There’s Something About Mira is tender, clear eyed, and quietly triumphant. It is about finding your voice, honoring love in its many forms, and returning a ring that was never really lost so much as waiting to be claimed. Recommended for readers of Jasmine Guillory’s more reflective work, Nita Prose’s compassionate mysteries, and anyone who wants a story that chooses courage over spectacle.
Buy There’s Something About Mira here: https://amzn.to/4o4OQIE
