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shabbycoatlibrarian 's review for:
Ayesha at Last
by Uzma Jalaluddin
⭐️📚
3-stars. I’d rate this as a “mostly-okay fun read” but not anything amazing or special. Hearing it classified as a modern-day Pride and Prejudice set in the Muslim community of Toronto, Canada made the premise somewhat interesting. But I thought that the author left little to our imaginations in that regard. She wasn’t subtle in any of her tie-ins - even referencing the actual story of Pride and Prejudice along with other Shakespearean stories that she was alluding to. It’s like she figured we just weren’t smart enough to figure out the literary allusions so needed it explained and all laid out. I prefer the traditional type of literary allusion that insists a reader be both knowledgeable and well-read in order to see the them and understand their implication. That was the standard of Quality literature for a long time. So maybe that’s just me, but that was one aspect I didn’t care for.
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And as with most types of romantic comedy reads, the ending was beyond predictable. And not just the ending for the two main characters. But every single possible couple in this entire book was wrapped up into such a nice tidy package. That’s honestly not very Jane Austen if you ask me. It might seem like it but she tends to go beyond the predictable with her side characters.
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I appreciated the perspective into religious Muslim life; but it’s hard to know how accurately even that was portrayed since the rest of the story was a fairly romantic perspective on life. I suppose I didn’t have my expectations too high to begin with, so I wasn’t that disappointed with this book. But it certainly didn’t knock my socks off. And I think I would much rather just go re-read Pride and Prejudice for the 200th time. 🤷🏻♀️
3-stars. I’d rate this as a “mostly-okay fun read” but not anything amazing or special. Hearing it classified as a modern-day Pride and Prejudice set in the Muslim community of Toronto, Canada made the premise somewhat interesting. But I thought that the author left little to our imaginations in that regard. She wasn’t subtle in any of her tie-ins - even referencing the actual story of Pride and Prejudice along with other Shakespearean stories that she was alluding to. It’s like she figured we just weren’t smart enough to figure out the literary allusions so needed it explained and all laid out. I prefer the traditional type of literary allusion that insists a reader be both knowledgeable and well-read in order to see the them and understand their implication. That was the standard of Quality literature for a long time. So maybe that’s just me, but that was one aspect I didn’t care for.
•
And as with most types of romantic comedy reads, the ending was beyond predictable. And not just the ending for the two main characters. But every single possible couple in this entire book was wrapped up into such a nice tidy package. That’s honestly not very Jane Austen if you ask me. It might seem like it but she tends to go beyond the predictable with her side characters.
•
I appreciated the perspective into religious Muslim life; but it’s hard to know how accurately even that was portrayed since the rest of the story was a fairly romantic perspective on life. I suppose I didn’t have my expectations too high to begin with, so I wasn’t that disappointed with this book. But it certainly didn’t knock my socks off. And I think I would much rather just go re-read Pride and Prejudice for the 200th time. 🤷🏻♀️