This novel is absolutely adorable! A fun, light-hearted read that is certainly what everyone needs right about now.

I finished this book in one day because it was so fun and easy to read, and I had a fun time reading a book from the POV of a funny character like Daniyal.
As a Pakistani Muslim, I was excited to read this book because we don't have a lot of Muslim rep, especially Pakistani rep. However, I didn't relate to some questionable aspects of the book and most of them I found quite offending. As Muslims, we aren't allowed to date or have extramarital relationships and it was quite normalised especially in Daniyal's head. I was quite astonished how he justified every sin that Islam had decreed. As a practicing Muslim, I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that this is Muslim rep when it very clearly isn't as good as it should be. I agree there are non practicing Muslims out there but honestly we can't expect them to be the face of Islam. I also had a problem with the only slightly religious character being turned into a paranoid nagging Islamic preacher. Religious people aren't like that and they shouldn't be shown as people who don't have fun. So, I'd like to sum it up by saying that the normalisation of certain behaviour was deviating from Islamic morals and laws. It wasn't the best portrayal out there. An aspect I DID like was how Daniyal raised his voice against the atrocities committed by Winston Churchill who is glorified in the West. That kind of information was really appreciative. I also related to how Muslim parents don't really agree with their children about careers that deviate from their norms. Daniyal's passion for cooking was so sweet and incredible to read about. His character arc was really interesting and that was the redeeming factor for me. I also really liked Daniyal's and Bisma's friendship, and the ending was really nice. Again, I don't think this book was good Muslim rep, I couldn't tell if Daniyal was a Muslim except when he tried to justify going against Islam.
Another thing I liked was Bisma's character and her chemistry with Daniyal. The relationship was well done and I didn't think it was too fast. I was also glad that Intezar and Sohrab became friends again, I think it's important for Muslims to be seen as friendly amongst each other.
Overall, I didn't like this book as own voices because Muslims don't really behave like how the characters except Sohrab do and I know there are Muslims who don't practice but they shouldn't be the face of Islam or be representatives for all Muslims out there because most non Muslims will encounter Muslims as slightly more religious with some of them wearing hijab.
I'd recommend this if you're looking for a light funny read to take you out of your slump though

I liked how promising this book is. It touched on a lot of important topics and I would recommend it, but at some points it was boring and I felt dragged behind. Overall the ending won me over!

Nineteen year old senior Danyal knows he is; a very handsome guy who loves to cook and plans on a career as a chef. Yes, he was held back a year in middle school and he cheerfully admits to being a zero academically. That makes him a bit of a drag on the Muslim Indian marriage market though he has his heart set on Kaval, the smart, glamorous twin sister of his increasingly religiously observant friend Sorab.

Anxious to tie Danyal to a good marriage prospect before it becomes obvious that college is not in his future, Mom and Dad introduce Danyal to Bisma and her family. Surprised when Bisma’s father sends the two of them out for coffee on their first meeting, Danyal learns that Bisma’s family recently moved to escape a scandal involving a tape showing Bisma drinking and having sex. Danyal isn’t that captivated by Bisma, but he’s dismayed by her sorrow and assumption that he will have nothing to do with her.

When a gruff history teacher chooses Danyal to present a paper on Winston Churchill at a competition, Bisma offers to help him research so that he can do well enough to pass the class. In the process, Danyal gets to know how studious and thoughtful Bisma is, and how she hates being defined by one very bad choice. As he researches, Danyal learns in detail about the damage colonialism did to India, including his own family, so he decides to pursue a thesis connecting the British Raj to contemporary colonialism.

Interesting subplots include Sohrab’s brush with a more legalistic version of Islam, Kaval’s desire for a more traditional, more economically secure future, and Danyal’s commitment to repairing Sohrab’s friendship with Zar, who is moving away from Islam. What could just have been a fun, light romance gains depth as Danyal learns to use his voice for justice in an authentic, age appropriate way as he transitions from self-deprecation to a sense that he can make the world a better place. EARC from NetGalley.

I loved this sweet, fun and charming story about finding the best thing for you in life, when you least expect it. Danyal has always been known more for his looks than his intelligence and has dreams of being a chef one day. Most of his family and classmates see him as the class clown with an over-inflated ego until he is chosen to represent the subject of history for his school’s Renaissance Man competition. Determined to show everyone that he is more than just a pretty face, he joins forces with Bisma, a intelligent young woman with a troubled past, for the competition and learns that fate puts us on a path that we never could have imagined.

I can’t tell you how much I loved this wonderful romantic comedy and how I felt for what Danyal was going through. His great love was cooking and he desperately wanted to be a chef even though his family had greater aspirations for him. They were so concerned about his future that they tried to originally arrange marriage between him and Bisma, but her torrid past put her in the friend zone. Danyal believed that he was in love with Kaval, the prettiest girl in school, and had dreams that they were destined to be together. But for Danyal, things didn’t go the way he planned and I enjoyed following him on his hilarious journey to win the Renaissance Man competition.

The other thing I enjoyed about this story was learning a little bit about the Desi culture and the familial expectations that were expected of Danyal. His family expected him to have the best grades to become a doctor or lawyer and they felt that he was lazy because he dreamed of being a chef. It was all he ever wanted and I loved that he had a special smile when he was cooking his culinary creations. The descriptions of the amazing food that Danyal created in this book made me hungry at times and I wanted desperately for Danyal to open his own restaurant so we as readers could come visit him.

More Than Just A Pretty Face was a winner for me and I loved spending time with Danyal and Bisma. This is definitely a book that everyone should pick up this week and I can’t wait to see what Mr. Masood puts out next.

Overview: Danyal just wants to cook. He feels at home and at peace in the kitchen. He dreams of owning his own restaurant one day. Luckily, he has the talent to back up his passion. Unfortunately, his father doesn't approve of his chosen profession and neither does his crush's parents. As his parents try to match him with other prospects for marriage, Danyal enters the Renaissance Man competition at school to try to prove to everyone that he's smarter than they think. One of his matches, Bisma, ends up helping him prepare. Even though they didn't click at first, the more time he spends with Bisma, the clearer his future becomes. Overall: 5

Characters: 5 All the characters in this book pop and have distinct voices of their own. From teachers and mentors to his parents and friends, Danyal's world is full and creatively built. He has a complete network to compliment his character growth.
Danyal has been told he's stupid enough times to start to kind of believe it. He doesn't think he's an idiot, but he's used to the put-downs and is well aware that school is not his forte. I loved seeing a YA character who didn't excel in school but thrived outside of it. His brain just wasn't a fit for the traditional eduction system, and I think we need to be more accepting that that's the reality for a lot of people. Instead of punishing those who don't thrive in that box, we should be encouraging students to discover what their strength or passion is. I love how Danyal illustrated the importance of that throughout the book. Everyone being so harsh on him made his blatant overconfidence more endearing.
Kaval, on the other hand, is harder to find redeeming value in. She's Danyal's first crush, and it's hard to tell whether she likes him back or not. Either way, if she's accepting him, she wants to change the vast majority of his personality. Kaval comes off as really mean and shallow, so my only critique of the book really would be how the love triangle isn't balanced at all. There's a clearly better option.
Bisma is Kaval's opposite. She has scars from her past, so she's much more open to Danyal's imperfections. She's always reminding him to stop putting himself down. She's also incredibly intelligent and funny. I really connected to Bisma and enjoyed learning more about her through the book.
Like I mentioned earlier, I also love the roll mentors play in the book. His parents aren't the most supportive people, so I'm glad he's able to find guidance outside of the house, particularly from the head chef at the restaurant he works at.

Plot: 5 The storyline kept me engaged the entire time. Danyal is a really engaging character to follow. I also loved the arch he went on with Renaissance Man leading him to think more critically about history, who gets to write it, and the parts that are conveniently left out by the people who would rather not be remembered for the atrocities they committed. It feels so topical for the current moment where we're really starting to re-examine what we learned and what we're taught. I found it super compelling and Masood snuck in a ton of fascinating research points.
Then, of course, there's the love triangle-romance thing. I really liked the second half of the narrative after he starts to realize that Kaval really is just trying to play off of people's damage to his self esteem. When he really focuses on Bisma, they have some swoony, sweet scenes that made me fall for them fast. In this part, they have to fight to have their love recognized by their parents. This brings up some interesting dialogues about the purpose of religion, the complexities of how sinning is approached, and where people get to draw the line of making their own judgements.
The book touched on a number of deep topics in a super thoughtful way, all while keeping the plot flowing.

Writing: 5 What I loved most about the book was the voice. Voice always makes a book for me, and this one jumped off the page with so much personality that carried through Danyal's inner monologues into the unique speech patterns of all the secondary characters. For as serious as a lot of the discussions were, the book was consistently laugh out loud funny, striking the perfect balance.

I really wanted to like this one, but I just had issue with it. I thought it was a bit boring, I couldn't get into it., and I had a problem with the fact that they portrayed the very religious character as someone who was boring and not cool and just a regular killjoy. Annoying. This one was not as good as it could have been.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for a review.
Would recommend for high schoolers and up!
I really enjoyed this one - our main character is dealing with wanting his family to encourage him with being smart and chosen for a prestigious school event, but they don't really have faith in him, as he's always been known for just good looks. Usually the situations like this are from a female perspective, so it was a good read!

I absolutely loved this book. I will say, I am not a huge fan of Ya books. Actually this was my first ever. But, it kept me super engaged. The author did a great job, there was a good message about judgement, living up to our parents expectations, and finding your place in the world. I may not have agreed with the way that the parents treated their children but the author did a good job explaining the culture and how things are done. I’d highly recommend this book. I was able to read this from NetGalley and received an advance reader copy.

Until I started writing this review, I wasn't sure if this book was a 3 star or 4 star book for me. I enjoyed reading it, but I definitely found some flaws in it. I liked Danyal as a narrator; he was charming and funny. He definitely grew as a person during the book, starting to learn more about who he was and what he stood for. However, some of the other characters in the story felt a little stereotypical and not as dynamic.

This book was touted as an #ownvoices representation of a Muslim American teenager. I can't speak to the representation from the perspective as a member of this community; I have seen both positive and negative reactions. Reading as someone from a different religious tradition, I don't think this book represents someone extremely devoted to their religion but someone trying to balance their personal beliefs with their desire to honor their traditions, so I would keep that in mind as that may not be apparent from the description.

I think my favorite part of this book was the commentary Danyal provided about race and oppression. For someone who is made fun of and picked on for most of the book for not being very book smart, he is quite wise at times and speaks very eloquently on the topic. I also liked all the descriptions of Danyal's cooking. I didn't necessarily like, however, the treatment of the character of Sohrab, who was more religious than his friends. I get that the characters thought he was overbearing but instead of identifying that as the problem, most of the characters seemed to identify his flaw as being religious, which disappointed me.

I would also like to address the character of Bisma. I liked her a lot; I liked how she was kind of 'nerdy' but still seen as attractive and fun. I do think, though, that those who have specific content warnings make sure they are aware that Bisma's past involves a crime committed against her as a minor (other reviewers have gone into more detail on this). I liked how the book tried to focus on the fact that this did not affect who she was now, even though some people thought so. I know the book was trying to condemn the people who thought she was a bad person for being a victim, but sometimes the terms used by these characters spilled over into the speech of other characters, which I didn't like as it seemed a little insensitive.

Amazing. Astounding. Exceptional. This is fantastic! When I first started reading, I lumped Danyal into the class clown/somewhat-slacker category, but when he defended Bisma - essentially a stranger - in a fraught, awkward situation where he pretty much stood against his culture and tradition - EVERYTHING changed for me. I had to read that section a second time because I was captivated by Danyal and he defied the box I was trying to put him in. It challenged me to notice his moral compass, his intuition about people, and his comfort in his own skin (in most cases). I was sold in that moment on this book, and more importantly on this character.

Danyal is bright, but not in traditional ways. He's thoughtful, taking time to process, to put pieces together. And the things he works through for the Renaissance Man contest - and the conclusions he comes to - are timely and thought-provoking and awesome. I can't stop gushing about this book. I was ready to read it again the minute I turned the last page. Do NOT miss this one!
(Language, TW: Shaming over sexual behavior)

I thought this book was really cute and I really liked the characters in it but I didn’t like the way that the students were bullying Him. I that I felt like it was a little excessive. I started this book thinking it was going to be a run YA romance, boy did it surprise me! It was so much deeper than I expected. Syed Masood really focused on the Indian culture and how arranged marriages are still prevalent today. Not only that but he used the main character's nomination in a school competition to speak of colonialism, how the Indians were treated by the British, and how many of those principles are still alive today

I hovered of 3 or 4 stars. I liked so many things about this book. I enjoyed reading about a culture I am not a part of, I liked learning about parts of history I do not know about. I love Danyal and Bisma. the romance was great and I liked the conversations about applying nuance to topics that tend to have a black and white talking points.
The romance itself comes off as a light fluff romance but in some points it seams to serious to be considered light.
I did not like how every other character but one called the MC stupid. I really did not like Kaval, she seemed like an over simplified character in a book that is trying to say there is more than face value.

Would recommend if you are looking for a romance that deals with some heavier topics, or if you are interested in why Winston Churchill was not such a cool dude.
Would not recommend if you are looking for a fluffy romance.

3.5 stars
This one is a bit tricky for me to rate because I really enjoyed the story but also had a few issues with it. I would recommend checking out an own voices review because I cannot speak on the representation of this book. The one problem I had was the constant mention of how dumb/shallow/not smart our MC is. I mean it got the point across but I wish it could have done it without having every character (including himself) call him out. I loved seeing a character who wanted to be a chef. It gave me Emoni vibes from With the Fire on High especially the cooking scenes. I like how we were able to see how other characters react to a career as a chef and how if that’s your passion you should go for it. Another interesting aspect I enjoyed was reading about an arranged marriage. I haven’t read a book with that type of plot before so it was fun to see how that played a part. I also learned quite a bit from this book in the sense of Winston Churchill and India. Overall, I think it was an enjoyable story about the handsome class clown if you can look past him being called dumb all of the time. And if you did enjoy this one I think you’d like Never Have I Ever on Netflix.

I devoured this book in the space of a couple of hours.

There's something about #ownvoices books that feels like coming home. When a book is so steeped in the person that you, it feels like a comfort blanket, and that's just what this book was.

"Hotter than my grandmother's homemade, weapons-grade, unripe mango achar"

As soon as this description popped in the book, barely a page in, I was in love.

Masood creates sweet characters that you can't help but love.

Danyal Jilani is the main POV character, hopelessly in love with Kaval, his best friend's twin and far beyond his reach when it comes to an arranged marriage. He's awful at school, cares only about becoming a chef much to his parents' chagrin, and finds himself nominated to take part in a prestigious, school-wide academic contest called the Renaissance Man.

Bisma Akram is one of the girls his parents are trying to arrange his marriage to. As far as they're concerned, she's far too good for him. There's no logical reason that her parents are encouraging the match, but as long as they are, Danyal's parents push him to jump on the opportunity. Instead, he finds in her a heartbreaking and infuriating personal history, an understanding friend, and perhaps the only person he knows who has faith in his ability to perform well in the Renaissance Man contest - including himself.

Bisma is smart and witty, a nerdy, bookish microbiology student who finds in Danyal one of the only people she knows who isn't cruel when he finds out her history, the one person willing to stand up against the abuse she faces on a daily basis. What starts as an unwilling meeting for a potential arranged marriage becomes a developing friendship between two opposites who shouldn't work.

At the same time, the minor characters are just as compelling. Intezar, Sohrab, Suri, Kaval, Danyal's parents - even Bisma's father. Not all of them are likable - I challenge you not to want to strangle Bsma's father or roll your eyes at Kaval - but all of them are a developed character in Masood's mind, with their own motivations and ambitions, and it shows.

This book is steeped in Desi culture in a way that is stunning. The small touches are everywhere - the one that stands out to me is when Danyal tells a teacher he's Pakistani-American, not Indian-American, and she waves it aside as 'being the same thing.'

The food is the food of my childhood and present life - Pakistani and Indian foods are, in many ways, woven together tight. Masood describes each dish lovingly, lavishly, in a way that transports a reader right to the smell and taste of each food item.

At the same time, the attitudes of many of the characters - from the parents concerned over arranged marriages, the younger generation either rebelling or finding links to their past, the interactions between parents and children - all are familiar. While making it familiar, however, Masood also makes it different - Bisma's storyline is the perfect example. There's so many ways that it could have gone wrong, but it's dealt with in a respectful way that focuses on her present far more than her past.

Side notes:
• Absolutely loved Bisma's relationship with her younger sister, Suri. It toes the line of concern for each other and general sibling banter very well
• The friendship between Danyal, Intezar, and Sohrab is well crafted and a great reflection of male friendships
• The relationship between Danyal and his father is amusingly and convincingly confusing

Then there's the Churchill storyline.

There's so much I could say, but honestly the book does most of it for me. That said, there's something gratifying about seeing a book lay bare the real facts of history, not just the sanitised ones. The Bengal Famine is still part of the living memories of many Desi people - my grandparents were born around the time, and have told me stories of what their parents and grandparents went through. The sanitisation of Churchill's role in it is deeply unsettling and offensive, and it was great to see Masood jab at it.

The links between Churchill's actions and today's treatment of of brown people in brown countries - especially Pakistan and Afghanistan - by Western countries is well linked in the book as well. Masood doesn't shy away from making the political point that in many ways, Chruchill's views are alive and well today, and it makes the book more effective. Most realistic is Mr. Jilani's immediate reaction to Churchill's name and Sohrab's view of current American drone strikes and direct military action in Pakistan and Afghanistan, because of how they ring true. at the same time, Masood weaves in what could have been heavy theory seamlessly into the story.

Where this book fails is in a couple of places:
• I'm not too keen on how the book portrays Kaval as self-obsessed. it was especially disquieting when the first critique of her personality from Danyal's mom is essentially 'she likes expensive things so she's not for you.' It only got worse as the book went on - as a character, she's meant to be someone you roll your eyes at and dislike, but there's an uncomfortable link drawn between her being conventionally gorgeous and her being far too self-obsessed and stuck up. I just think there's room for a character to be the wrong love interest for someone without being a caricature of gold-digger who tries to change the man she is with to suit her desires.
• The ending is very rushed. There's a lot that's kind of skipped? Like we somehow went from Bisma's past being revealed to Danyal's parents and her not being a suitable option any more to them being engaged and his dad accepting it easily? There's no development - it's like we're missing 50-100 pages of story at the ending.
• I'm an #OwnVoices Desi reviewer, not a Muslim reviewer. However, many Muslim reviewers have had issues with the depiction of religion in the book and I encourage you to check their opinions out for more.

Overall, 3.5/5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars - would eat the daavat again and again and again.

*I received a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and Hear Out Voices Blog Tours for the copy.

First of all, I cannot say anything about the representation in this book! The characters in this book are Muslim.

I really feel mediocre about this book.. There was nothing really wrong with it, but there was also no part that really grabbed me?!
We read the book from Danyal’s perspective, which I really liked, since we don’t often get YA contemporaries from a male perspective! But I was not a huge fan of Danyal, he was just really stupid about this one girl in the beginning of the book. Also he kept saying that he was stupid or not very bright, on the one I guess this it is realistic that people say this, but it also was a bit annoying..<br>I don’t think there was any character in this book that I really loved?! None that I hated either, they were all just okay!? Well, actually, I did like Bisma’s younger sister, but she only had a very small role to play haha!<br>The romance was really cute and develops relatively slowly, which I enjoyed!

Once again I want to mention that I’m not Muslim, so I can’t say anything about the representation. But in this book the ‘rules’ that they have to follow were mentioned so often. I mean it is good that they are mentioned once or twice, since of course not everyone is aware of them (me included), but they reminded us so often, that it was a bit overdone. And I feel like they were not always following the rules they were supposed to follow, and I’m not really sure how realistic that is?!

In this book Danyal gets chosen to represent his history class at the Renaissance Man, which is an academic competition, I really liked this aspect of the book! He has to write some kind of thesis for this, and often when this happens in books, it happens in the background and is not mentioned often. But in this book we really saw the process of him researching and learning, and I actually felt like I learned from this as well!
I guess I recommend this one if you want a quick romcom novel!

Near the end of this novel, the main character, Danyal, says something that really resonates with my beliefs: “ . . . by punishing people for what we judge to be sins, by hurting them, we all become sinners. The only thing we have to do with other people is to be careful with their hearts. That’s all.”

A whole lot of judging happens in the story. Danyal has been judged by almost everyone around him to be an idiot because he doesn’t do well at school. His best friends, Sohrab and Zar, judge each other because one is a more observant Muslim and the other is more secular. Bisma, the girl Danyal befriends and eventually falls for, slept with a boy who videotaped it, and she is judged as no longer pure because she isn’t a virgin. Most of the book consists of Danyal refusing to judge others for their choices, except when those choices cause harm.

Then judgment may be necessary, especially when people in positions of power use it to harm others. Danyal is selected by his eccentric history teacher to participate his school’s Renaissance Man contest, which involves writing a paper and making a presentation in front of the entire school. It comes with a $5,000 prize, which is great, but a) Danyal isn’t a good student, and b) he must write about his teacher’s hero, Winston Churchill. Danyal’s passion is food, and his goal is to be a chef, so it’s not surprising that his imagination is captured by the fact that Churchill’s decisions led to the deaths of millions from famine in Bengal during World War II. The speech he gives about Churchill, assumptions about cultural and racial superiority, and inequality is one of the highlights of the novel.

The book has other pluses, including amusing descriptions of desi culture (Danyal’s family is from Pakistan) and lots of references to food that left me feeling very hungry. Most of all, I appreciated the story’s message about the value of a pure heart. Book smarts aren’t everything, which Danyal amply demonstrates.

That said, I do think the author overplays Danyal’s lack of knowledge. For example, Danyal didn’t know what a Hufflepuff was. He might never have read a book in his life, but a kid his age has never seen a Harry Potter film? Really? Also, sometimes the characters are stereotypical, particularly Danyal’s observant Muslim friend, who could have been a lot more nuanced. Some of the scenes and dialogue are awkward, which is probably to be expected from a debut novel.

Overall, I enjoyed this, though, and I’ll be interested to see what the author writes next.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.

This was a great read. I’ve been looking forward to this book for over a year and while it wasn’t mind blowing it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

This romcom features an American-Pakistani Muslim boy(a rarity in upper ya and lower na) who isn’t perfect but for the most part a practicing Muslim. He’s in love with one of his best friends twin sister but his crush and everyone around him have a very different life for him.

What I liked about him was he didn’t fit the stereotype of the model minority. He wasn’t the smartest kid and according to his dad, a constant disappointment. He just seemed like a prime example of a gen z; wanting to reach for a passion than practicality. I actually liked that about him because it made him seem flawed and human. Overachievers exist but they’re hard to relate to. I liked that he wasn’t perfect. He was also charming and a good cook. Who doesn’t love that combination?

His “official” love interest(not his crush) was also not perfect. Her family dynamic was frustrating and sad but not uncommon(in any culture to be honest) and she’d made mistakes that made it hard for her to be married. As much as I kept hoping she’d consider a life outside of arranged marriage (not because it’s wrong, but because she was constantly being judged for her mistakes and that’s not good for her mental health)I know how important marriage is to religion, especially Islam. I felt sorry for her so many times because she was young and couldn’t take back her choices.

I liked how their friendship wasn’t intense. The hero kept looking for someone who made him feel head over heels but started to realize love was more than liking someone’s physical appearance.

Because they’re very true to their values, they’re very good at not being in situations that would cause people to talk(a girl and guy being alone together). I’m not Muslim so I hope this makes someone feel seen, but I would’ve liked to hear more about the hero’s less conservative friend.

I think the only thing I didn’t love about the book was how his two best friends were. I wasn’t sure why his conservative friend had to be so...intense. It made it seem like to be devout and conservative, that there wasn’t more to life. I just don’t want people to think all devout religious teens aren’t fun too. It came to the point where both his homeboys didn’t get along to the point they weren’t friends because he was so judgmental. His conservative friend made amazing points on how the media shapes the perception of Muslims. I just wish he could have those opinions and like video games, sports, or comic books too.

There was so much focus on him, it overshadowed his less conservative friend. This friend did a lot of things considered haram in Islam, so I would’ve liked to know him better to understand what lead him to all these things, especially since both his friends were pretty much on the straight path.
It also has some interesting history on the Indian countries that evolved from colonialism. It showed a different side to Churchill(someone I know next to nothing about) and how it hurt millions of South Asians.
It has some hilarious moments and some good incite on Pakistani culture. It couldn't have been anything less than a five for me.

The book focuses on the main character Danyal Jilani, a “slacker” of sorts (not really though, we’re all good at different things and some people are good at things that aren’t school and there’s nothing wrong with that) that repeated a year of school and is thereby still stuck in high school.

Danyal doesn’t care though, as long as Kaval Sabswari aka his crush aka his best friend Sohrab’s twin sister still likes him.

Unfortunately for Danyal, his efforts to woo her don’t get very far before his mom and dad set him up with Bisma Akram, a suitable girl for him that’s his age. Bisma is nice and all, but to Danyal, she’s a little “plain” compared to his ever growing crush on Kaval.

However, when Kaval says she wants Danyal to actually try harder in everything, he decides to catch her attention in another way – Bisma.

Danyal
Honestly, he’s a really loveable character and what I would call a self-aware “loveable idiot”.

Bisma
Bisma’s suffered so much!! Her dad is a piece of shit!! Despite everything, she’s a generally sweet and happy person and also extremely smart (she goes to Berkeley!) She even helps Danyal with his school project extensively.

SPOILERS BELOW
Basically, she had sex with a white guy who recorded the whole thing and uploaded it online with a title along the lines of “Muslim girls like dick too” or something similar. The video spread to the point where her family found out and they were forced to move. Her dad is a dick and hates her for it and even tries to dissuade Danyal from being with Bisma by giving him the drive with the video. He’s shit.
END OF SPOILERS

religion

I don’t want to discuss this too much and get a bunch of hate but I saw some reviews on Goodreads followed with one star ratings that criticized how culture and religion are intertwined and would sometimes contract each other.

I disagree. The author is South Asian and for many of us, culture and religion are one and the same. Where culture ends and where religion begins is not a clearly defined line. It especially upset me to see these reviews because while the reviewers were Muslim, Middle-Eastern Islamic practices and traditions are really different from South Asian Islam.

I also saw another review saying how the religious characters are always shown as the annoying ones in books and I do agree to an extent but the religious character in question in the novel is Sohrab, Danyal’s best friend. Danyal’s just upset because Sohrab has completely changed and it’s impossible to talk about anything with him anymore. Imagine being friends with me and one day I decide to steer every single conversation back to like, Elmo or something idk.

other general things i liked and more reasons for you to read this book

Suraiya – Bisma’s little sister! She’s adorable and gives Danyal really great advice and is honestly a better friend to him than most people would be to someone they just met. She wants Bisma to be happy with him and wants him to be good to Bisma, but she also really seems to care about him as a friend.

The sideplot of the story is Danyal competing in something called Renaissance Man where they have to write about Churchill, who is constantly being praised by Tipett, Danyal’s teacher. But Churchill was not a good person and so he’s stuck between wanting to impress his teacher and wanting to stop the whitewashing of history in any possible way he can.

a last disclaimer i need to add because some of y’all are way too quick to criticize ownvoices readers
While I am aware some of the themes in this book are similar to the same things I’ve criticized in the novel When Dimple Met Rishi, this is written differently.

My main criticism of WDMR was Dimple and her entire personality, always wearing grey kurti tops and being incredibly toxic as a person. I’m aware that I brought up my grievances with the fact that Dimple and Rishi were “set up” together as TEENAGERS but the primary reason I didn’t like it there is because Dimple literally had no idea about it. In Menon’s other book, There’s Something About Sweetie, this concept of getting arranged with a life partner is brought up again but I had no qualms about it in that book because both characters were consenting to it beforehand. Here’s the link to that post if you want to read more about it.

Overall, really great read. 5/5.

DNF @ 20%

While I love the cooking aspects, the characters are not realistic at all. Also, there are some weird attempts at humour that are fairly offensive and the writing is quite juvenile.