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maiakobabe 's review for:

3.0
lighthearted medium-paced

Hani and Ishu are fifth years at an all-girls school in Ireland. As the only two students of Bengali descent, people naturally tended to group them together, but they are extremely different people and have never been particularly friendly. But when Hani comes out to her white best friends as bisexual, and they don't believe her, she panics and lies, saying that she and Ishu are a couple. They regularly see each other at Bengali dawats, but Hani is still extremely hesitant to contact Ishu and ask if, maybe, she'd like to pretend to be girlfriends for a while... but Ishu surprises Hani by saying yes. Ishu has her own agenda: run for head girl at school, a position that will fill out her already accomplished resume for college applications, and she things Hani can help. I enjoyed many aspects of this cute teen romance, and think the leads had good chemistry, but overall the book was a little over-long for my taste. I wish the mean white friends had gotten less time on the page, because it was the family dynamics that interested me more. The audiobook narrators are very good, but I was listening at 1.5 speed by the end.