Busted In Bollywood Blog Tour

I’m thrilled to kick of my BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD blog tour with Shelley.

We met on Twitter and were soon chatting about books, writing, agents, kids and life in general. Shelley took part in this book’s cover reveal and she has invited me back to chat about the book.

BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD is a contemporary romance/romantic comedy/chicklit/women’s fiction novel. Think ‘Sex and the City’ meets ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’ With food. Loads of food!

I’m a foodie fanatic. Love my food.  So it stood to reason when I wrote a book featuring India I’d include loads of food.

And that’s what I want to share during this blog tour, my love of Indian food.

Over the next 3 weeks, I’ll be regularly posting Indian recipes for dishes taken from the book in my BOLLY-BITES.

I’m hoping you’ll stock up on spices and cook up a storm alongside me!

The first BOLLY-BITE recipe is an Indian standard, dahl.  A nutritious lentil dish, it can be eaten with rice or flatbreads (rotis, parathas, chappathis, puris).  There are so many variations on this dish but I’ve gone with the basic I love.

DAHL

Ingredients

½ cup masoor dal (red lentils)

1 tomato roughly chopped (I use diced tinned tomatoes for speed and convenience)

1 onion, roughly chopped

¼ tspn tumeric

½ tspn ground cumin

½ tspn ground coriander

2 garlic cloves

3 tbspns oil

1 tspn cumin seeds

½ tspn mustard seeds

15 curry leaves

Salt to taste

1 onion finely diced (optional)

1-2 red or green chillies (optional)

Method:

Place the lentils, roughly chopped onion, tomato, tumeric, ground cumin & coriander with 2 cups water in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Simmer, stir occasionally, until lentils are cooked to a soft mushy consistency, should take about 20 minutes. (if water evaporates before lentils cooked, add ½ cup boiling water.)

Once this is done, time to add the ‘tarka’ (or final seasoning.)

-Heat oil in small saucepan on low heat.

-Add cumin and mustard seeds, cover, the seeds need to pop.

-Add the garlic, finely diced onion and curry leaves and fry until onion browned.

Add the tarka to the cooked lentils, season with salt and cook for another few minutes.

(if you like it spicier, add the optional chillies to the boiling lentil mixture at the start.  I also like adding fresh ginger, about an inch cube grated finely.)

Garnish with fresh coriander to serve.

Now that you’re all suitably hungry, I hope you’ll join me for more tasty Indian BOLLY-BITES coming up.

To be in the running to win an E-book of BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD, leave a comment about food, Bollywood or books!

USA TODAY bestseller Nicola Marsh has published 30 books with Harlequin Romance and Presents series, and BUSTED IN BOLLYWOOD is her first mainstream contemporary romance with Entangled Publishing.

She loves chatting with readers and you can find her:

Website: http://www.nicolamarsh.com

Blog: http://nicolamarsh.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/NicolaMarshAuthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/NicolaMarsh

Book Review: Busted In Bollywood by Nicola Marsh

Title: Busted In Bollywood
Author: Nicola Marsh
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Release Date: December 6, 2011
Shelley's Star Rating: 4 1/2 stars
Buy it here.

Goodreads Blurb: 

Shari Jones needs to get a life. Preferably someone else’s.

Single, homeless and jobless, Indo-American Shari agrees to her best friend’s whacky scheme: travel to Mumbai, pose as Amrita, and ditch the fiancé her traditional Indian parents have chosen. Simple. Until she’s mistaken for a famous Bollywood actress, stalked by a Lone Ranger wannabe, courted by an English lord, and busted by the blackmailing fiancé.

Life is less complicated in New York.

Or so she thinks, until the entourage of crazies follows her to the Big Apple and that’s when the fun really begins. Shari deals with a blossoming romance, an addiction to Indian food and her first movie role, while secretly craving another trip to the mystical land responsible for sparking her new lease on life. Returning to her Indian birthplace, she has an epiphany. Maybe the happily-ever-after of her dreams isn’t so far away?

Review:

If you know me, I'm not a huge fan of mainstream contemporary stories. It has to be REALLY special in order for me to like it. So, by giving Nicola Marsh's upcoming release 4 1/2 stars, that is huge. I really, really enjoyed this book. Busted In Bollywood is, in my opinion, an exciting and welcome combination of Sex and the City and Bollywood.

I have one word for my reaction to this book: hungry.

I know that seems a little weird, but Nicola did such a great job with painting the Indian culture & food that I seriously craved Indian food during/after reading Busted. Now I desperately want to try all of the un-pronounceable foods that Shari loved in the book.

But besides the food, I loved the relationship between Shari and her hero (who will remain nameless to avoid spoilers). Their relationship was hot, sexy and completely believable. My only complaint was that the sex scenes were more "fade to black" than I would have liked. You know me. I like the steamy. So the sex scenes were a bit too tame for me. :)

I'm thankful I was given the opportunity to read Nicola Marsh's first mainstream contemporary romance. She is a fantastic writer and I can't wait to read her next book!

So, on December 6th, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Busted In Bollywood by Nicola Marsh.

Busted In Bollywood Blog Tour!

Hello readers!

Do I have a treat for you! I'm the first stop on Nicola Marsh's blog tour to promote her upcoming release of Busted In Bollywood (Available on December 6th from Entangled Publishing).

You might remember that was the gorgeous cover I got to reveal last month, where you guys got the first sneak peak! I was lucky enough to get my (electronic) hands on an ARC of Busted In Bollywood, and I have to tell you guys, it is AWESOME! I can't wait for you all to get to read it!

On November 29th, Nicola will be dropping by the blog to kick off her blog tour and she's got a surprise for you!

So stay tuned...