Ayesha at Last

A nice, updated version of Pride and Prejudice set in the Muslim world. The plot in this one has way more action than the original.There are a few points where the characters are a little too political for my taste, but that seems ever present in newer books.I enjoyed learning about the culture and religious aspects. Mostly, I liked the revamped lines from the original Pride and Prejudice.

"Because while it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Muslim man must be in want of a wife, there's an even greater truth: To his Indian mother, his own inclinations are of secondary importance."I really enjoyed this one. It is a modern take on Pride and Prejudice, but centered around a Toronto mosque.I was impressed with how well this translated to the original story. And I really enjoyed learning about the Indian Muslim community. The thing I love about books is that I get to experience things I wouldn't otherwise experience in real life, and this was definitely one of those books.Khalid (Mr. Darcy) is a fundamentalist Muslim. He keeps his beard long, wears long robes, and doesn't spend time with women outside of his family without a chaperone. He prays 5 times a day and feels like the only way to honor Allah is in the traditional way.Ayesha (Elizabeth Bennett) thinks Khalid is a fundy snob. She wears her hijab and prays as well. But she also works outside of the house and can't cook like a good woman who wants to be married should.It helps because I have close friends who are Muslim and I was able to ask them questions and have conversations about the things I was reading. They are not Indian though, so there were some things that I wasn't able to get as much personal perspective on (like the idea of rishta rituals where resumes are basically traded in order to find a suitable spouse). But I found it all so interesting.The more I read about different religions and different cultures, the more I see how alike we all are in the end. Indian Aunties and Jewish Mothers (and Chinese moms too) are all very involved and always know what is right for their children. I think that if more people spent the time to get to know people who seem "different", they'd realize the same thing.I liked this book a lot. I liked learning about other cultures, but I also just enjoyed the story. The characters were great and the writing was fun. You should check it out!

#Ownvoices chaste, sweet romance between desi "fundy" esque man and hijab-wearing but more modern woman: both active in their Islamic faith.The blurb says its a modern Pride & Prejudice, but only insofar as Khalid stubbornly inhabits a traditional orientation towards dress and arranged marriages inside his faith and Ayesha does have some prejudice to overcome both towards Khalid and her more flyaway, younger cousin.The main problem besides pride on both sides, is that Ayesha pretends to be her younger, richer cousin (who coincidentally is meeting a series of young men before committing to an arranged marriage) Hafsa at a Mosque meeting to plan a modern conference for young folks where she meets Khalid. This mistaken identity causes confusion and hurt feelings later on, as it tends to do.From a romance perspective, the attraction between the two main characters never sparked for me, but from a sociological perspective, it was super fascinating for Christian background me to read the thoughts of Khalid as he becomes more and more attracted to Ayesha despite her outspokenness, and to see standards of beauty when hair, for instance, is concealed under hijab.The text is sprinkled with words like "rishta" (or arranged proposal process) that were always quite understandable within context, but due to the multi-lingual/ethnic background of the Islamic community in Toronto depicted here I didn't know if that was a Arabic term or India-language term.There was also (for a food obsessed person like me) a pleasing amount of reference to food culture such as Aunties grilling both Hafsa and Ayesha about their ability to fry samosa or Khalid indicating he thought Butter Chicken was boring and not suitable for a wedding banquet.While not my preferred level of steam or sparky romance, this was such a sweet little romance with insight into a minority culture I think the USA desperately needs right now for perspective. I would read more by this author.

This short novel seems to me as if it would be enjoyed by a young Muslim adult living in the USA or Canada. It is important to interest young people in reading for pleasure or they will be lost to reading forever. This novel is short and simple although it deals with some very deep subjects. I did not feel as if the book made light of abortion or pornography as a few reviewers felt was the case. These are extremely complex topics and this was a simple book. The book MENTIONED both abortion and pornography, but didn't really discuss them at all. The situations mentioned in the book were ones that young people from families with a recent immigration background actually must navigate their way through. They are real life situations that will resonate with young people who are struggling to find their way with one foot in each world. There were some real insights, little one line tidbits of wisdom, that would be useful for young people to ponder as they find their way. That said, I felt the writing to be choppy and simplistic with characters that probably had depth, but the reader wasn't given much in the way of hints to indicate so one way or another. I can't imagine many non Muslim adults would find this interesting. Conservative Muslim adults would likewise not enjoy the book because these readers would likely feel that the book wasn't a good read because it doesn't uphold a monolithic scripted viewpoint of their faith as practiced in "the Old Country" where things had already been perfected. The book isn't my cup of tea, but it occupies an important niche that needs more books like this one.

I really enjoyed this book especially Ayesha, Khalid and Ayesha's grandfather.Looking forward to reading more novels by Uzma.

This is one of my favourite books! Love the Muslim rep, and was delivered super fast and in perfect condition. I’ve heard some bad reviews about Amazon’s book deliveries but I’m quite happy :)

Loosely inspired by P+P, this story has lots of other literature influences too (Shakespeare) which keeps things fresh and interesting. I really liked how the author kept some elements of P+P but really made the story her own - exact translits to new situations can be boring but this one did really well. The novel's not afraid to address contemporary topics while at the same time being a great read. Recommended!

I am not Asian, I am not a Muslim and I did not think of Pride and Prejudice when reading this book.I enjoyed most of this story and I thought all the characters contributed greatly to the story. I especially liked Ayesha and Khalid. I thought the author did an excellent job in portraying how a group of people can be so different from each other even though they may have similar beliefs. It was very realistic in showing how there are good, bad and misguided people in all walks of life.This story also represents the difficulties people face when living in a different country to the one they were born and brought up in (as in my case) and how they adapt (not always in a positive way) to their new environment. It also showed the stress it causes on individuals and their families if they reject any change in order to assimilate into their new surroundings. I am not referring to Khalid - I know he was born in Toronto.I loved how Khalid changed his appearance and also how he changed back. It shows flexibility and strength of character. I loved how he didn't make a big deal of Ayesha stopping work after they get married and how he liked her writing poetry. Their chemistry was perfect and it was so sweet how open and honest about his feelings Khalid was near the end of the book. It was refreshing to read about how Ayesha was conflicted about what she wanted to do with her career as it represented real life problems that many people have and also that she had choices and was not constrained by her family.Now for what I didn't like about the book. I felt that a large part of the latter section of the story concentrated on Hafsa which didn't contribute much to the story and there was less about the two main characters who to me were more important. There was very little about them at the end of the story. Although the extreme prejudice that Sheila (Khalid's boss) exhibited was very representative of underhand practices that can occur in a workplace, I felt that she got away with it and I would have liked to see her dealt with appropriately. Hafsa was very mean and nasty towards Ayesha and it was accepted too easily by Ayesha. I felt it was a bit unrealistic especially as Hafsa knew her cousin liked Khalid and she still got engaged to him. I would have liked more about Khalid's sister - maybe her interaction with Ayesha or their mother. Or, Khalid or his mother meeting her new baby.There were a few urdhu words I didn't understand which distracted a bit from the story but I have learnt a lot from reading this book so that is a positive thing. I also had to keep reminding myself that nana was the grandfather and not grandmother (as it is where I live) but that is not a criticism of the book or author.This is one of the few books I have paid to buy since the start of the pandemic and I am glad I did so. Highly recommended!

Perfect book for holiday reading