Scan barcode
A review by lindentea
Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin
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? It's complicated
4.0
Cute, if a bit predictable but that's not a crime in the romance genre. The You've Got Mail thing is a little less believable when one of the characters is actively podcasting about her life (is Aydin stupid? Because if I listened to a podcaster for years and met someone who sounded exactly like them, matched up with the demographic info i knew about them, and worked in radio, I think i would figure out pretty quick), but WHO CARES they were cute !!! Hana is the real star here tho (obviously, the book is named after her), she felt like a friend probably because we're so close in age and both in kind of transitional limbo periods of our life, and even though I was worried for her I was so happy things turned out well for her :D
One thing I really really like about the way Jalaluddin writes romance is that she doesn't rely on spice to develop her romantic relationships... don't get me wrong I love a good sex scene and like the sex kissing horniness etc are obvi a part of romance but I've recently been feeling like a lot of romance writers are using those things as crutches or stand-ins for relationship development. Like me personally I don't think it's compelling when the two main characters meet and whoever's pov we're in immediately wants the other person like they're a man dying of thirst running into a glass of water, and then has to fight the attraction for arbitrary reasons like "oh but I don't like him"... whereas imo the enemies to lovers dynamic Hana and Aydin had going on was a lot stronger because they DID genuinely dislike each other at one point, and then they became FRIENDS, and THEN it got romantic, but there were complications when they REACHED there.
Also, if I had a nickel for every book I read back-to-back with a reveal that the main male character, a diasporic Muslim whose last name starts with Sha-, thought his mom was dead but she died at an age where he was too young to remember and truly mourn her, BUT his mom was alive this whole time, also she had post-partum when he was born ... i'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, and in a row, right?
Overall had a good time with this :D
One thing I really really like about the way Jalaluddin writes romance is that she doesn't rely on spice to develop her romantic relationships... don't get me wrong I love a good sex scene and like the sex kissing horniness etc are obvi a part of romance but I've recently been feeling like a lot of romance writers are using those things as crutches or stand-ins for relationship development. Like me personally I don't think it's compelling when the two main characters meet and whoever's pov we're in immediately wants the other person like they're a man dying of thirst running into a glass of water, and then has to fight the attraction for arbitrary reasons like "oh but I don't like him"... whereas imo the enemies to lovers dynamic Hana and Aydin had going on was a lot stronger because they DID genuinely dislike each other at one point, and then they became FRIENDS, and THEN it got romantic, but there were complications when they REACHED there.
Also, if I had a nickel for every book I read back-to-back with a
Overall had a good time with this :D