e-Audio, 08:23:20
Narrated by: Farah Kidwai, Sandra Okuboyejo, & Shahjehan Khan
Release Date: June 4, 2024
Published by: Feiwel & Friends
Read from: June 6-8, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley App (I received a copy of this e-audio from the publisher’s audio app in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Racism, Child death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Death, Car accident, Gaslighting, Islamophobia
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Religious Diversity, Dual POV, Family Diversity (Loss of a child), Holidaze (Eid), YAEx-best friends, Tiwa and Said, must work together to save their Islamic Center from demolition, in this romantic story of rekindling and rebuilding by award-winning authors Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar!
Let’s get one thing straight: this is a love story.
These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away at boarding school. But when his favorite hometown librarian Ms. Barnes dies, he must return home to New Crosshaven for her funeral and for the summer. Too bad being home makes it a lot harder to avoid facing his ex-best friend, Tiwa Olatunji, or facing the daunting task of telling his Bangladeshi parents that he would rather be an artist than a doctor.
Tiwa doesn’t understand what made Said start ignoring her, but it’s probably that fancy boarding school of his. Though he’s unexpectedly staying through the summer, she’s determined to take a page from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Besides, she has more than enough going on, between grieving her broken family and helping her mother throw the upcoming Eid celebration at the Islamic Center—a place that means so much to Tiwa.
But when the Islamic Center accidentally catches fire, it turns out the mayor plans to demolish the center entirely. Things are still tense between the ex-friends but Tiwa needs Said’s help if there’s any hope of changing the mayor’s mind, and Said needs a project to submit to art school (unbeknownst to anyone). Will all their efforts be enough to save the Islamic Center, save Eid, and maybe save their relationship?
*MY THOUGHTS*
At this point it doesn’t matter what Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé has her name on, I’m going to read it. And with no qualms. And although this was so much different than her others, (I’m guessing because it was co-written) I still really enjoyed this.
Starting with the romance, I thought it was very cute. I knew it was going to be a miscommunication plot, but I let them make it because they were both teens. Those jokers can hold grudges like no one’s business, so at least for teens the trope is still believable. Other than that it also had some enemies to lovers. And again, this is believable, but that didn’t mean I liked it lol I am just not a fan of enemies to lovers, but I know that’s a me thing. There was nothing wrong with how they wrote it.
What I didn’t care for about this? That they didn’t go in-depth into anything about the plot. It was very character oriented. So much so it was like a mosque was burned down and instead of them telling them what a mosque is and why it hurt so much, etc, they just glossed over it. I just wanted more. Not saying they had to teach the kids, but it would have been nice to show them the importance of what they were doing and why they were so hurt. They can of course use the context clues, but just using those didn’t actually seem to give enough feeling behind it. (And no I’m not saying it had to teach us about racism for it to be good. But one of the main plot points is trying to save the mosque after its been burned down. Why wouldn’t they talk more about this?)
Because this is character oriented, I figured I should talk about them. I LOVED the main characters. The sister, I knew she was annoying from the beginning. And the way she like basically kept throwing them together, I knew something was sus. But Tiwa was a very special character. She reminded me of myself actually. She was very into saving something she cared about and believed in and she was the only one that wasn’t giving up. Said was also a bit like me, with his quiet, artistic nature. I guess that’s why I loved them so much. They were forced together when their beloved librarian passes away. (Of COURSE I was emotional about this lmao) She leaves them behind some things, one of which they have to take care of together. I have to say, I REALLY think she did this on purpose and I loved her for it lol Even she knew they had some things to work out and I’m glad she had a part in them finding their way back to each other.
The writing style was bomb tho lol As a fan of both of these authors, I knew I was going to enjoy this going in to it. I had a good time reading this. They worked very well together. If I didn’t see that there were two different names on the cover, Idk that I would have known that there were two different authors. Their words flowed very seamless together.
This book had a lot going on, but it still completely delivered on most of those things. The romance was so sweet, but I was kind of left wanting more. All in all it was an easy read. I hope y’all try it out!
Overall, I give this
