emmareadstoomuch 's review for:

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

3.0

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I’m not going to lie: If you had not told me this was a Pride & Prejudice retelling and instead I was operating under the dreamy assumption that this was an enemies-to-lovers literary fiction-y romance set in a largely Muslim neighborhood in Canada, this review might be a different story.

But only slightly. Three stars is still, by definition, a positive rating.

But this didn’t feel very Pride & Prejudice-y at all.

There was fun stuff in spite of that heartbreaking fact, like how I really like both our main characters (even though I, uh, didn’t love their romance), and the fact that this made me realize I really, really, reallyreallyreally need to read more books with Muslim representation.

But then there’s also The Villains Are So Flat (shoutout to Sheila and Tarek) and Character Arcs Don’t Exist So Our Lydia-Type Annoying Cousin Character Simply Does Two Spur-Of-The-Moment-180s And We Call It A Day.

Which I guess means that even the few parts that did line up with the Pride & Prejudice storyline didn’t #do it for me.

I am a bitter shell of a person.

Bottom line: In spite of this review’s moroseness, this book isn’t bad! Just not what I was told it would be.

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give me pride and prejudice retellings or give me death

(thanks to the publisher for the arc) (sorry it's been a year and a half)