Che-Michelle Tales

Book: The Goddess Effect

Author: Shelia Yasmin Marikar

Published:  September 25, 2022/ October 2022

Wine Choice:  2020 BerryCream Rose Wine or Mi Familia Flores Cristalino

Stand Alone, Series, or Other: Stand-Alone

Type of book: Novel

Genre: Coming of age Story/Fiction

How long did it take me to read this book:   A  Week

Overall rating: 🍹🍹🍹😵‍💫🙃  

In this corner, we have Venus, the Roman goddess of beauty, love, sex, fertility, and prosperity, and victory vs. Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility, and prosperity. Which goddess will end up on top?

I finally read a book on the May Amazon Wish list since last year, either September 2022 or October 2022. So, I am finally reading the book a year and a month later. I fell in love with the description of a woman tired of her life in New York who moves to L.A. to find her purpose; I am paraphrasing this statement. When we are introduced to Anita, I, as a reader, connected with her; she just went through the traumatic event of losing her Father, and having a moment at work with tone-deaf coworkers, she throws caution to the wind and says F*** it, I am out and goes on a whim and positive interaction at a networking event.  Once she arrives in L.A., she realizes that L.A. is a much different Beast than New York and finds the well-known “Call Me, if you’re ever in LA.” ( Call Me is a generic term used to feign interest in you when it is a fake pleasantry.)    As I read the book, I connected with Anita; I understood the feeling of being lost in the corporate world, having catty friends, and not appreciating her parents.  As we read, Anita navigates L.A., new people, and her insecurities, it becomes clear she is a part of the problem.

“The Goddess Effect” is a boutique fitness salon with a vibrant instructor Venus. She buys into the idea of finding your better self. She dedicates herself to the workouts and makes new friends. Around the end of the first act, Anita becomes insufferable; she is annoying and makes the worst life choices; it gets to the point where I start asking myself, do I identify with Anita? Is L.A. the best place for her? Is the Goddess Effect working? Cause if it is, then Goddesses are Assholes. I realize the author is breaking Anita down to her lowest point, in what I hope will reveal a better, more confident woman.  We also start to see the Goddess effect is not what we think, and the author does an excellent job planting the seeds. There is more than meets the eye.

I overall enjoyed the book. However, there was one moment where the protagonist had a heart-to-heart conversation with a cis-white male character, and the idea of reverse racism came up. A conversation that most people would like to have but do not have the nuance to have. The character Max brings up Anita’s privilege, and the world favors brown people now. I yelled to the fictional Max, “F*** You!”  Max missed the mark by expressing his experience in the world and that he was excluded, while the main character mentally acknowledged her privilege. Here, even if the main character had the right, she has experienced the underlying prejudice of American society, leading her to look for a reset and several life events that collide simultaneously.   Many times in the book, you see moments of self-hate because her hair is not straight enough or she feels out of place with a group of friends. I think the out-of-place scene was more due to Anita being in her head and trying too hard rather than going with the flow and reading the scene.

As you read, the goddess effect makes you ask questions about yourself. Are you willing to spend your life to find your authentic self? Can you go with the flow to find your path in life?  My only small plea is don’t go into credit card debt to find purpose in your life, but ask yourself how to find your purpose and peace.

Heads up, I think I will do a Spoiled review of this book, which will be paid content for $2.  Because the end of this book!!!!  MY WORD!!!!

Now, while reading this book, you have three options of beverages to sip while reading.

If you love tequila, not Patron or Don Julio, you should invest in Mi Familia Flores Cristalino. It tastes like a birthday cake with notes of vanilla and caramel, and it will be great to take shots every time Anita does something questionable; there will be a lot of shots from chapters 1 to 35.  You may get drunk with every chapter, so no, Anita drinking games. I believe Anita would love Mi Familia Flores Cristalino; it tastes like a birthday cake, and now I want to make a cocktail with this delicious tequila. If I make a cocktail, I will post it on my other blog and call it the Anita!

I enjoyed the 2020 BerryCream Rose wine from California; it helped ease my moments of WHAT THE HELL, Anita. It matched the cover of the book, along with realizing that it does not matter if you are 25, 35, or damn near 40; we all can make questionable life decisions, but we all deserve to reset and find our purpose and path again. The Rose’ has a light strawberry essence, and it made me feel like I was sticking it to Venus’s comment in the book: “Women who guzzled rose needed to take a hard look at what that buzz drowns out.” I drank the Rose’ to drown out you, Venus; your manipulative ways are what the Rose’ I sipped on drowned out.   If you are not a drinker, try Mocktail Club, Manhattan Berry beverage. It gave me the vibe this would be if Anita, sweet with a bite to it, and a very sunset vibe as I sipped the drink, trying to figure out what Anita’s next step would be.

There are so many memorable moments within the book, from her calling out her friend for being the question asshole. To rectify a relationship with a person she loves, or just general What is happening moments, you do see the world through an Indian American as she navigates both her culture and what people think is her culture. Along with issues with being the model minority and people who discredit her success because she is Indian American, I still identify with Anita. I would suggest this book to anyone who feels lost and needs a reset. Be bold, move to L.A., Dallas, and take a trip somewhere you have never been.

Rating: Two Tequila Sunrise, a confused smiley, and an upside-down smiley.

Until Next Time,

Che Michelle