Uzma Jalaluddin

All Hana wants is to pursue her dream of a career in radio and make her podcast on the side. But her pregnant sister has been put on bedrest, her family's restaurant is in financial trouble, and some distant family has recently arrived for a visit from India, making her life far more complicated. Even worse, a new arrival on the Golden Crescent where her family's restaurant presents a new threat to the business. Hana only wants to protect her family and she can't afford to find the owner of the new business, Aydin Shah, as intriguing and infuriating as she does.

The blurbs on the book compare the novel to You've Got Mail and it definitely has elements of that plot, but I wouldn't label this as a romcom. Jalaluddin tackles some pretty heavy themes in the book including microagressions as well as racist harassment and attacks. There's also a pretty heavy focus on Hana pursuing her career in radio and a lot of family drama. It's largely well-written, although there are some rocky bits of exposition early in the novel and some of the dialogue feels a bit stilted. That said, the book does a great job of capturing the diversity of one of Toronto's suburbs and I was invested enough in the characters to be pleased with the ending that Jalaluddin crafted for them.… (more)

I read this in one sitting, so I should give it at least four stars for being riveting. The super twisty plot was great! The characters were mostly great! The parallels to Pride & Prejudice were great! I'd never read a South Asian Muslim romance novel before so that's cool, too. I for sure saw the Elizabeth Bennet in Ayesah, but she was distinctly herself, not just Lizzy in a hijab. Same thing for Khalid -- Darcy vibes without sacrificing the authenticity of a devoutly religious man who lives to please his mother (very un-Darcy attributes). And I loved Nani the detective grandma and Nana the Shakespeare-quoting grandpa (it was funny to me that Nana means Grandpa in Urdu because that's what my daughter calls my mom).

There are a few things holding me back from loving this book as a whole. The writing was uneven. Sometimes nuanced and lovely and exciting. Sometimes it was clunky and really dragged, weighed down by some heavy-handed messaging. Sheila was such an over-the-top grotesque villain (which can work in a silly, bawdy romance novel -- but she felt out of place in this book). Also, I'm sorry, but Ayesha's poetry was terrible IMHO.

Despite any shortcomings, if you're an Austen fan or just looking to diversify your romance reading, this is totally worth a go.… (more)