Ratings10
Average rating3.5
From the author of Ayesha at Last comes a sparkling new rom-com for fans of “You’ve Got Mail,” set in two competing halal restaurants Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighbourhood. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio. If she can just outshine her fellow intern at the city radio station, she may have a chance at landing a job. In the meantime, Hana pours her thoughts and dreams into a podcast, where she forms a lively relationship with one of her listeners. But soon she’ll need all the support she can get: a new competing restaurant, a more upscale halal place, is about to open in the Golden Crescent, threatening Three Sisters. When her mysterious aunt and her teenage cousin arrive from India for a surprise visit, they draw Hana into a long-buried family secret. A hate-motivated attack on their neighbourhood complicates the situation further, as does Hana’s growing attraction for Aydin, the young owner of the rival restaurant—who might not be a complete stranger after all. As life on the Golden Crescent unravels, Hana must learn to use her voice, draw on the strength of her community and decide what her future should be.
Reviews with the most likes.
DNF. This book is really annoying me. I might just be in a mood but it all seems so formulaic and the characters are very stock, so when the protagonist is made a bad driver, I have to nope out. It's such a horrible cliché that women can't drive and makes the character unlikable, when I wasn't endeared by the narrative voice in the first place.
I've rounded down for the review, but tempted to raise rating to a 4. Definitely would recommend.
I devoured this one and it was just a delight from start to finish! Rom-com is overused (and often misused) in describing books, but even though this touches on some heavy topics, it manages to have a fun, lighthearted tone throughout. Rashid in particular cracked me up. Not a lot to say here - for some reason it's much easier to write reviews of things I dislike or things that didn't work for me, which means when I love a book as much as I did this one, the review is short.
(2022 Summer Romance Bingo: work rivals. Would also work for mistaken identity, loosely for property inheritance.)