This Is How You Fall In Love

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The writing was wonderfully compelling and the characters well developed and full of depth. I particularly loved Zara, our adorable, rom-com loving bookworm and protagonist. She’s such a sweet, compassionate and loyal friend whose commitment to helping the people she cares about is beyond words. I mean she literally embodies the mates before dates mantra—even when doing so hinders her own plans or happiness. He inches closer to me, his forehead pressed against mine, the warmth of his breath beginning to thaw my heart. ‘I need to know, Zara, do you love him?'” – Yahya, This is How You Fall in Love There are lots of groups where authors and readers can connect, right? That's probably what you're thinking. And that's a valid argument. But I want this group to be different in a few ways: Only promote your work in the promotion categories, which will be clearly labeled by genre. Failing to follow this rule won't make you many friends. Sorry.

Have you ever enjoyed something so much that it felt like you were floating the whole time? Well, that’s how I felt throughout this whole book. The Desi culture described in this book was interesting to learn about and although I cannot comment on the authenticity of it, I will comment on the enjoyment I found in finding out more about their culture.

About Anika Hussain

Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. And she's desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. So when her best friend Adnan begs her to pretend to date him to cover up his new top-secret relationship, Zara is hesitant. This isn't the kind of thing she had in mind. But there's something in it for Zara too: making her parents, who love Adnan, happy might just stop them arguing for a while. She may not be getting her own love story, but she could save theirs. So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and real feelings... And when a new boy turns up in Zara's life, things get more confusing than ever. Zara and Adnan are justfriends. Always have been, always will be. Even if they have to pretend to be girlfriend and boyfriend... There’s a lot to like about this book, though written for a much younger reader than me (once again I find 17 year olds more fun to read about than millennials). I like the South Asian representation and the fact that neither set of parents is stereotyped – Zara’s parents are second generation British and had a hard time themselves and are trying not to do that. Yes, there is a South Asian diabetes thread but then that does educate. Terms for clothes and food and other cultural things are used and not explained, which I always like. The friendship group is mixed and multicultural, which is nice, too. Bestselling author Alexandra Christo, author of TikTok sensation To Kill a Kingdom, introduces her new book, The Night Hunt (Hot Key Books), a dark... However, the characters annoyed the HELL out of me. Every single one of them. Especially Adnan and Cami, who, despite asking Zara to do this massive favour for them so they could be together in secret, had the audacity to be mad at her for not doing that quite right. There were parts where I was pretty confused about - like, why couldn't they just hang out without Zara there, especially somewhere not in public? I didn't quite understand all of that. It felt like Cami and Zara were just being pitted against each other for drama's sake and I think it would've been a better message for that not to happen.

You're encouraged to create: threads, polls, friends, thoughtful discussions, memories, happiness. Have some fun. Adnan was also a sweetie who had so much love and care for all the people in his life as-well. he had a great sense of humour and he was the perfect friend that Zara needed in her life. i loved the dynamic between the two and how they could always count on each-other to be there when they needed them. Hats off for a book that didn’t turn out to be exactly what I thought it would be. No spoilers, here, but I liked how it surprised me a little bit here and there! I also really enjoyed exploring Zara’s family relationships, and loved that unlike most YA novels, her parents were just present enough in the narrative to know they existed (and there to support her if necessary) without being too involved to make their inclusion seem unrealistic. I also really liked their positive and rather candid approach to sex (and the ‘sex talk’). All of the characters had their flaws but as the book progressed, I watched as they grew as people and in their love for each other. The main love interest, Yahya, was so easy to fall in love with and was my main comfort character throughout the whole story.

Anika Hussain Press Reviews

While this book fell flat, I still enjoyed my time reading it and liked how the book ended. I'm definitely excited to see what the author comes out with next. In this story of hope and endurance, we follow a scientist and her team during their search for the elusive 'Giant Arctic Jellyfish'. While both Zara and Adnan insist that will never happen — they’re close friends, that’s it — the tide turns when Adnan needs to cover-up his real girlfriend and begs Zara to pretend they’re an item. How hard can it be? Very, as things turn out. First up, there’s a whole lot of practical issues around how they behave towards each other, and around Adnan’s actual girlfriend. Then there’s jealousy, and the problem of Zara falling for someone for real. With a fun meta-fiction vibe (a romcom about romcom with entertaining romcom twists), the besties-to-couple trope is thrust to the fore from the off: “that’s literally how every YA romcom starts. Boy and girl are besties, they get involved in a fake dating scheme and then BAM they get together for real.”