A review by bibliobrandie
The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

2.0

This started out strong for me, especially with the f/f relationship. But the writing did not hold me, so much dialog, and the story takes some very dark and twisted turns that I wasn't prepared for. The parents are very against their daughter dating a girl and basically kidnap her to Bangladesh and force her into an arranged marriage and then they completely come around a few weeks later and are all loving and welcoming to her girlfriend and the ending is tied up with a nice bow. I didn't buy it. Other heavy themes include rape, incest, physical abuse, sexism, homophobia, murder of a gay man *by machetes.* It was just a lot to squeeze into one novel and all the elements didn't really work for me.