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cielosiluminado 's review for:
Maya's Laws of Love
by Alina Khawaja
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
special thanks to NetGalley and MIRA / Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
this book is messy, cliché, angsty, adorable, funny and chaotic. like, really chaotic. words cannot even begin to describe how giddy this read made me feel. i absolutely fell in love with the two main characters: maya mirza and sarfaraz porter. both were swoon-worthy.
throughout her entire life, maya has believed she’s cursed when it comes to love so much so that she’s come up with a list of laws to try and explain it, i.e. murphy’s law. the biggest one being, trying to accept that love will come after marriage.
maya is flying to pakistan (where she’s on the way to her own arranged wedding), and after she switches seats to reunite a separated family, her seat neighbor is none other than sarfaraz – or, The Jerk – she bumped into earlier pre-boarding the plane. so many mishaps and shenanigans occurs that keeps pulling maya and sarfaraz together (that she attributes to the curse) leading to them quickly leaning on each other as they’re both traveling alone.
this may sound bad, but even though she’s engaged to another, kind and respectable man – who she does not love! – the banter and the secret stolen glances maya and sarfaraz experience with each other, sold me very early on. i became their #1 cheerleader, waiting patiently for them to stand up for themselves (individually and together). they both grow so much throughout the book and both of their yellow and/or red flags become green in the end. they were made for each other, simple as that.
throughout the book, i had theories about the big plot twist and i was pleasantly surprised to discover i was sort of right about it, which i didn’t mind because it was written well. but even though i enjoyed the plot twist and maya and sarfaraz’s chemistry, i was still perplexed – stumped? – at how easily and quickly the conflict was resolved. but at the same time, it sort of made sense for maya and sarfaraz. they literally fell in love in less than two weeks! all that being said, even though i didn’t mind it, i still could’t give it a full 5 stars because the resolution and happily-ever-after felt rushed to me.
as someone who isn’t a part of the muslim culture and/or religion, or even desi or its diaspora, i found this book beautifully detailed and educational. there were numerous times where i would pause my read and look up specific terms and learn more about them and i even found myself looking up traditional desi wedding dresses and attire and admiring them because of how beautiful the grooms and brides looked in the photos.
overall, this is a very promising debut novel for alina and i cannot wait to see what she does next. i like reading books about people who were raised vastly different from me. this book was fun and had great banter, sweet characters, and angsty plot. i will definitely recommended it if that interests you.
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note: i have faith that by the time of publication, all format and grammatical errors are corrected so i can overlook it in my review. this one is based solely on the plot and characters.
---
updated 28 july 2024
this book is messy, cliché, angsty, adorable, funny and chaotic. like, really chaotic. words cannot even begin to describe how giddy this read made me feel. i absolutely fell in love with the two main characters: maya mirza and sarfaraz porter. both were swoon-worthy.
throughout her entire life, maya has believed she’s cursed when it comes to love so much so that she’s come up with a list of laws to try and explain it, i.e. murphy’s law. the biggest one being, trying to accept that love will come after marriage.
maya is flying to pakistan (where she’s on the way to her own arranged wedding), and after she switches seats to reunite a separated family, her seat neighbor is none other than sarfaraz – or, The Jerk – she bumped into earlier pre-boarding the plane. so many mishaps and shenanigans occurs that keeps pulling maya and sarfaraz together (that she attributes to the curse) leading to them quickly leaning on each other as they’re both traveling alone.
this may sound bad, but even though she’s engaged to another, kind and respectable man – who she does not love! – the banter and the secret stolen glances maya and sarfaraz experience with each other, sold me very early on. i became their #1 cheerleader, waiting patiently for them to stand up for themselves (individually and together). they both grow so much throughout the book and both of their yellow and/or red flags become green in the end. they were made for each other, simple as that.
throughout the book, i had theories about the big plot twist and i was pleasantly surprised to discover i was sort of right about it, which i didn’t mind because it was written well. but even though i enjoyed the plot twist and maya and sarfaraz’s chemistry, i was still perplexed – stumped? – at how easily and quickly the conflict was resolved. but at the same time, it sort of made sense for maya and sarfaraz. they literally fell in love in less than two weeks! all that being said, even though i didn’t mind it, i still could’t give it a full 5 stars because the resolution and happily-ever-after felt rushed to me.
as someone who isn’t a part of the muslim culture and/or religion, or even desi or its diaspora, i found this book beautifully detailed and educational. there were numerous times where i would pause my read and look up specific terms and learn more about them and i even found myself looking up traditional desi wedding dresses and attire and admiring them because of how beautiful the grooms and brides looked in the photos.
overall, this is a very promising debut novel for alina and i cannot wait to see what she does next. i like reading books about people who were raised vastly different from me. this book was fun and had great banter, sweet characters, and angsty plot. i will definitely recommended it if that interests you.
---
note: i have faith that by the time of publication, all format and grammatical errors are corrected so i can overlook it in my review. this one is based solely on the plot and characters.
---
updated 28 july 2024