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jessicakusisto 's review for:
Maya's Laws of Love
by Alina Khawaja
Spoiler-free synopsis: This book follows our main character Maya, who is unlucky in love. So unlucky, in fact, that she's come up with rules around it. One of those rules is "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." But, things are looking up. She has an arranged marriage to a man named Imtiaz, who is a surgeon and checks all of her boxes. They both live in Canada, but decide to get married in Pakistan because that's where all of Maya's family is. Maya ends up traveling to Pakistan by herself, and hits some snags along the way. When her plane is grounded in Switzerland, she becomes unlikely travel companions with a man who makes her feel the love she never thought she would.
My thoughts (no spoilers): I really liked this book, especially the back half. I loved how the main male character — Sarfaraz — was grumpy but also did super sweet things for her. (Like taking care of her after she threw up all over him. And holding his sweater over her in the rain.) I also liked learning about different aspects of desi culture, as I've never read a book that's gone this in-depth into it. Hearing about the different clothes, foods, and customs was awesome! There were also some really cute moments of banter between our two main characters, which I enjoyed.
The reason why this isn't higher than a three-star (and three stars means I enjoyed it and would recommend it) is one and a half reasons, lol. Especially at the beginning, there were a lot of info-dumpy moments. It felt like the author was telling us things rather than showing them to us. So, there were a lot of moments like "this thing is like this because of x." But I also know it's really hard to give the reader the background they need without explicitly saying it sometimes.
The other thing is that I really didn't like the main female character at the beginning. She really believes she's "cursed" and kind of has a victim mindset about it. She always believes the worst is going to happen to her because of this curse. I really didn't like that at the beginning, BUT there was HUGE character development in that department by the end of the book. So I ended up actually liking that aspect, but in the beginning she was a little annoying. (But that's good character development for ya, baby.)
Overall, I really liked this and I think you should read it!
My thoughts (no spoilers): I really liked this book, especially the back half. I loved how the main male character — Sarfaraz — was grumpy but also did super sweet things for her. (Like taking care of her after she threw up all over him. And holding his sweater over her in the rain.) I also liked learning about different aspects of desi culture, as I've never read a book that's gone this in-depth into it. Hearing about the different clothes, foods, and customs was awesome! There were also some really cute moments of banter between our two main characters, which I enjoyed.
The reason why this isn't higher than a three-star (and three stars means I enjoyed it and would recommend it) is one and a half reasons, lol. Especially at the beginning, there were a lot of info-dumpy moments. It felt like the author was telling us things rather than showing them to us. So, there were a lot of moments like "this thing is like this because of x." But I also know it's really hard to give the reader the background they need without explicitly saying it sometimes.
The other thing is that I really didn't like the main female character at the beginning. She really believes she's "cursed" and kind of has a victim mindset about it. She always believes the worst is going to happen to her because of this curse. I really didn't like that at the beginning, BUT there was HUGE character development in that department by the end of the book. So I ended up actually liking that aspect, but in the beginning she was a little annoying. (But that's good character development for ya, baby.)
Overall, I really liked this and I think you should read it!