Kirkus Review
British Bangladeshi teens Zara and Adnan are besties, but can these friends stay just friends? Adnan loves to flirt with girls IRL; Zara is happy in the world of romance novels. Their families are closely intertwined, and the two Bengali Muslim 16-year-olds share a friendship circle, which means everyone is constantly shipping them. Things get complicated when Adnan starts dating new classmate Camilla, who's white and has an overly protective father who won't let her have a boyfriend. To cover for them, Zara agrees to pretend to date Adnan, delighting their friends and leaving their families with starry-eyed dreams, but the trio soon discovers that this scheme is going to snowball out of control…especially when a new boy turns up, awakening some latent feelings in Zara. Zara mulls over questions around stereotypical depictions of South Asians that overshadow "the reality of who we are." She checks out online gossip about her classmates and follows their lives through their posts, raising questions about social media pressures on teens as they relate to cultural norms and representation in popular media. Although the novel starts off slowly, it picks up the pace when the love triangle becomes a solid love square and family expectations take center stage in ways that readers will relate to. A combination of pop-culture references, classic rom-com elements, and fun banter makes for an engaging read. (Fiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Featuring the beloved friends-to-lovers and fake-dating tropes, this rom-com is sure to delight. Best friends Zara and Adnan have always been close, sharing secrets and the cultural connection of being of British and Bangladeshi descent. They exist firmly and contentedly in the buddy zone until Zara finds herself fake-dating Adnan, who is trying desperately to hide a current relationship. What follows is a book that is partly a romantic comedy and at times a character study. Readers will be invested in their stories and will enjoy the many pop-culture references. Zara's character as a hopeless romantic complements Adnan's obvious care for and trust in her, which leads to confusion between the teens and charmingly warmhearted scenes. Hand this book to fans of popular teen movies from the late '90s, such as Can't Hardly Wait and She's All That. Debut author Hussain winningly fills her book with strong characters and fun so infectious it will have readers dancing in their seats.
