There’s nothing I love better than a good Pride and Prejudice remake. That’s probably how this book ended up on my TBR. Thankfully, I was finally able to make time to get around to it. Then I caught a ridiculous not-COVID-but-miserable ick and lolled around drinking tea and catching up on Bridgerton for a while. Fortunately, that’s actually pretty good preparation to review a P&P remake.
“Indian Muslim Marriage Rituals -South Asian Islamic wedding – 6688416795” by wedstories.studio is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 
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Set in Toronto, the story revolves around a community of Muslims of Indian descent. Ayesha is a substitute teacher who really wants to be a poet, but feels obliged to stay teaching because her uncle paid for her education. Khalid is a young web designer who would very much like to get married, and is glad his mom is finally starting to get around to it. They don’t make the best impression on each other at their first meeting in a cafe, which makes things awkward when they end up on the same event-planning committee at their mosque.
Ayesha thinks Khalid is a stick in the mud, and Khalid thinks Ayesha isn’t a good Muslimah. He also thinks Ayesha is actually her cousin Hafsa, a mistake Ayesha feels it’s prudent to NOT correct for the moment. This makes things SUPER awkward down the line when Khalid’s mother finally gets around to wife-hunting for her darling boy, but highly entertaining for the reader watching Ayesha and Khalid navigate the various incidents, accidents, and misunderstandings that are keeping them from each other.
This was a lot of fun to read. It’s not a point for point map to P&P, but it’s close enough that it qualifies as a contemporary retelling. There’s also quite a bit of Shakespeare in it, and a scoop of Bollywood-style drama as well. Some of the characters were a little cartoonish, particularly the evil HR rep who has it in for Khalid, but I appreciated how dealing with both racism and religious intolerance featured heavily in Khalid’s journey. Ayesha, for her part, is so independent that she sometimes forgets she’s part of a community, and has to be gently reeled back into relationship with the people who love her best.
I also appreciated learning more about Islam and how it’s practiced in different communities. Like most people, I know the basics, but I really enjoyed watching people navigate their faith in a way one only usually sees in Christian fiction. If you don’t know a lot about Islam, this is a great way to learn. And if you are Muslim and would like to see a well-rounded portrait of the many different ways your community exists in the world, this covers a wide range of positions. It’s educational without being didactic, which is difficult to do, and which a lot of Christian fiction somehow never manages to get right.
Knowing Khalid and Ayesha will get their HEA makes it easier to hang on during some of the wilder plot twists. I could’ve done without the Claire/Rob subplot – I honestly just didn’t care, especially since Claire kind of goofed up with Khalid’s work difficulties – a good HR rep would’ve known better. But that’s a minor blip in an otherwise charming story that I can happily recommend to folks looking for a clean romance.
