Reviews

The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim

sania06's review against another edition

5.0

This is one of my favorite books now. I’m obviously biased towards it because of the cultural similarities. The author writes about Bangladeshi cultural in a beautiful and elegant way.

At first, I was not digging Harun and Zayna ending up together because there was no chemistry and they both didn’t want to be in a relationship. I liked Zayna and Nayim together more. They both could freely talk to each other about their dreams. But Nayim kinda had to screw it up by lying to her about her parents and making

A culturally rich book!!

sunrae_booknook's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

loves_to_read411's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

tia_davies08's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

shaelinsans's review against another edition

4.0

3.5*

another one that i’m not sure what to rate but even though i definitely had some thoughts about it, i enjoyed this one so much that i read it in only 2 sittings (and one in the middle of night) so it falls more on the 4 star rating.

i loved zahra as a character! maybe it’s because she’s the eldest daughter (like me) but it’s easy to emphatize and root for her, putting aside the messy ass romances. another one i appreciate was her strong love for her family and how her friends have her back.

my thoughts are mostly on the romances. we did get a lot of scenes of harun and zahra, but i feel like a lot of the focus was instead on nayim, even until the ending, where we get closure on nayim and suddenly it’s the last chapter and bam we suddenly discover that zahra and harun are back together, only because they told us how. i honestly just wish we could’ve gotten a real ending for them and i was just left feeling dissatisfied.

jkneebone's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Love Match follows Zahra, a recent high school graduate who finds herself postponing college so she can work full-time and support her family, who have struggled since her father's death two years earlier. Zahra longs to study writing someday, but worries about sharing her dreams with her practical Bangladeshi mother. When her mother ambushes her with an arranged meeting with Harun, the son of a wealthy family, Zahra is incensed. But Harun is equally uninterested in their courtship, so he and Zahra concoct a plan to fake date and keep their parents off their back. This allows Zahra to pursue the guy she's actually interested in, a coworker named Nayim who's a poor aspiring musician (aka not a good marriage prospect).  Although at first everything seems to be working out great, Zahra soon becomes conflicted as she gets to know Harun better during their fake dates, and finds out how little she really knows about Nayim.

Although I overall enjoyed The Love Match, I think being an adult rather than a teenager, and also coming from a Western background, kept me from fully buying into the premise/embracing the plot. I understand that early engagements/marriages are not uncommon for Bangladeshi young people, but I struggled with how seriously all of the characters (Zahra, her love interests, and side couple Dani and Ximena) took their relationships given that they were all only eighteen years old.

Spoiler

Zahra and Harun exchanging "I love you's" after a month of knowing each other, some of that spent disliking each other, felt very fast. I also didn't buy that a) Dani and Ximena had been together since middle school, and b) neither would see an issue with Ximena trying to get Dani to come to Haiti with her instead of starting college. I was fully on Mr. Tahir's side there, it seemed irresponsible on both of their parts, especially given that, again, they are eighteen.

I fully acknowledge that there is probably some cultural context that I am missing, and I am coming to this from a Western viewpoint, but I think that the book might have worked better for me if the characters had just graduated from college, rather than high school. A lot of the plot points could have been the same or similar - Zahra could have had to go part-time, and not be graduating on time, or she could be delaying entry into a MFA program - but I would have bought the characters being ready to make such serious commitments more if they were twenty-two.

(My other gripe is a more personal one - how does Zahra find a college professor who is willing to read her amateur novel? My college creative writing professors were dismissive of anything we'd written in high school and wanted us to start with short stories at least until grad school, but I digress.)

Despite my struggles to suspend my disbelief re: the age of the characters, it was a fun read that I'm sure lots of YA romance fans would enjoy. Zahra's friends and family were great side characters, and I really liked how the author explored the interpersonal dynamics and Zahra's sense of obligation to her family. As an outsider, I enjoyed the representation of Bangladeshi culture, and as a crafter I loved that her mother had a tailoring/sewing business :) A very clean read as well, if that is something you are concerned about. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

mistermipsy's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Cute loose retelling of pride and prejudice but I have the same problem with this as I do with many retellings, and that is that the source material is just so much stronger, especially in terms of characters and humor, so this felt like a weak echo, albeit with some fun setting and culture updates. That said, it's a perfectly fine ya romcom, that's just not my genre!

almostlikequake's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

sellnow_hannah's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was a sweet and feel good story! My favorite part about this book was incorporating Bangladeshi culture. I’ve not had the opportunity to read many books by Bangladeshi authors so it gave this classic love triangle story a fresh viewpoint. It did feel somewhat predictable (aside from the big twist near the end, but that felt a bit out of place in the storyline to me. I had a hard time finding that plot point believable). Overall a fun and easy read. 

chellecypress's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.5

I loved the authors writing style, the overall plot and the love interests. Though I’m not typically a love triangle fan I thought this was done very well. My biggest reason for giving it a 4.5 instead of a 5 was the big plot twist at the end. I struggled to suspend my disbelief with such an over the top character reveal. I look forward to reading other books by this author. Her prose were lovely, her world building was intricate and the characters were likable. 

Spice free 
4.5 out of 5