rjleamon11 's review for:

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

2.0

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Interesting in theory with definite overtones of Pride and Prejudice and even lifted lines from it that were never credited, tho the quoted Shakespeare ones were. Could have been shorter: I nearly gave up in the laborious middle but then the end picked up a bit. It read like a first draft or a first effort: with careful editing, it could've been a four or five star novel. As it is, an interesting suggestion of a world that's unfamiliar to me as a WASPy American, but it's peopled with fuzzy (and often unlikeable or poorly developed) characters. Why did Ayesha want to be a teacher? Why does Khalid decide to dress so conservatively? We never really know, and it's hard to get deeply engaged in their story.