Welcome to Read This Book, a newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!
Recently I learned Waterstones—a major book retailer in the UK for those not in the know—announced their YA Book Prize winner (awarded to a great YA novel published in the UK the previous year), and when I saw the winner I was thrilled because it’s so deserving of this award! If you are in the mood for a very funny and sweet queer YA romance, this is it!
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Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
Hani and Ishu are the only two Bengali girls in their Irish (and Catholic to boot) girls’ school. As a result, everyone thinks they should be friends, but that’s not really the case. Hani hangs with a popular crowd and Ishu is bent on studying to succeed and please her parents. But when Hani comes out as bisexual to her friends, and they don’t believe her, she makes up a girlfriend to prove her identity is valid…and then assigns the girlfriend status to Ishu.
Luckily for Hani, Ishu has her sights set on being Head Girl, which is as much of a popularity contest as it about perfect grades. And Hani can help get Ishu in with her friends, so they launch a fake dating scheme, complete with real rules, and soon find that rules can’t keep their feelings safe when opposites attract.
There is so much to love about this book—a fun grumpy/sunshine dynamic, a fake dating scheme that feels plausible, and two really heartfelt characters who are also dealing with major things in their personal lives. One thing I really admire about Jaigirdar’s writing is she manages a really nice balance of funny, rom-com writing with exploration of deeper and much more serious topics, such as family estrangement, microaggressions, bigotry, Islamophobia, and homophobia. (Heads up for all those things, although I will say the book doesn’t feel super dark.) The balance makes the book feel very real, and it also shows readers that you can be facing these very hard things, but you still deserve a romance and a happily ever after. The dialogue is funny and smart, and I love that the author shows us different layers of the Irish Bengali community.
Bonus: The audiobook is really sweet and very well done! Another bonus: Read Jaigirdar’s debut novel The Henna Wars if you love this one, and keep an eye out for her new book out this winter, A Million to One, which is a Titanic heist story!
Happy reading!
Tirzah
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