🌰 three holidays and a wedding - a book review

On the one hand: I was up until 3am devouring this book. I wanted to feel the feels that a romance book is designed to make you feel. And the setup felt delectable. But in the end, the execution was…okay?

Having two romances in one book made it hard to get swept away in any one story. The feels didn’t have time to build up because you were swapping between the two.
I assume the two authors traded off on writing each chapter? The writing felt cohesive across, which was great. The voice felt consistent. The one thing that didn’t work for me was how much telling-not-showing happened in Maryam’s chapter. I think I just wasn’t the target audience. The target audience is folks who don’t know anything about Desi culture or the Muslim faith. And so the author felt the need to explain almost everything, which took me out of the story. I’m sure it was helpful for another audience.
- But I do think it speaks to the confidence each author has as well as the confidence each had in their audiences: Maryam’s chapters explained a LOT. Anna’s chapters had less religious stuff in it to explain. But when there was a Yiddish word, or a Jewish holiday mentioned, there was no explanation. No italics, no definition followed up right after. I want to see Muslim authors have that confidence too.
There was a lot of suspension of disbelief that the book hung a lantern on but to poor effect. Maryam wants to know how this small town can support three hakka restaurants. Me too! The answer? People moving from out of town because they like how inclusive the town is? It didn’t make enough sense compared to how often people remarked on the surprising diversity.

Every post on this blog is a work in progress. Phrasing may be less than ideal, ideas may not yet be fully thought through. Thank you for watching me grow.