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A review by unrulyheart
Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
4.0
I'm such a sucker for fake dating books, and this was no exception!
I loved Adiba Jaigirdar's debut novel, The Henna Wars, so I was so excited to pick up her next book asap-- and it did not disappoint. Hani and Ishu were both so sweet, and I loved watching them go from being casual not-even-aquaintances to fake girlfriends to real girlfriends. It was really cute, and I thought they worked well together.
I liked the different family dynamics Hani and Ishu had, and how those different dynamics affected them and how they interacted. Hani couldn't believe that Ishu's family wouldn't be nice and supportive because she got so lucky in the family department. It was an interesting element to add and helped the girls and their families stand apart from each other.
My only real complaints were regarding Hani's friends and Ishu's sister.
For the first, I really could not understand why Hani was ever friends with Aisling and Dee. They literally never do or say anything nice to her throughout the entire book, and honestly it just made me question Hani's judgement every time she claimed they were good friends and nice people. I get that there are people out there who have friends like this, but it was frustrating to see her stick up for and side with her friends when they never gave her a crumb of kindness. Like, literally one scene of them good friends could have given a solid reason as to why she liked them.
And I also didn't get Ishu's insistence throughout the novel that Nik was, like, out to get her. She was so convinced time and time again that Nik was going to blackmail her, or didn't mean it when she wanted to help, or whatever, but again-- we never got to see Nik being anything less than a nice, supportive big sister.
I think both of these points just really relied on a past that we, as the reader, never got to see. Aisling, apparently, used to be a good friend and has since changed-- but we never get to see that. Nik, apparently, used to be really competitive and awful to Ishu-- but we never get to see that. It just made a lot of the girls' reactions feel inauthentic and overdramatic, in the end, because we didn't get to see any of it for ourselves. It was a classic example of telling instead of showing.
Overall, though, this book was fantastic! It was a joy to read and I flew right through it. Adiba Jaigirdar is an excellent writer. I can't wait to see what she comes out with next!
I loved Adiba Jaigirdar's debut novel, The Henna Wars, so I was so excited to pick up her next book asap-- and it did not disappoint. Hani and Ishu were both so sweet, and I loved watching them go from being casual not-even-aquaintances to fake girlfriends to real girlfriends. It was really cute, and I thought they worked well together.
I liked the different family dynamics Hani and Ishu had, and how those different dynamics affected them and how they interacted. Hani couldn't believe that Ishu's family wouldn't be nice and supportive because she got so lucky in the family department. It was an interesting element to add and helped the girls and their families stand apart from each other.
My only real complaints were regarding Hani's friends and Ishu's sister.
For the first, I really could not understand why Hani was ever friends with Aisling and Dee. They literally never do or say anything nice to her throughout the entire book, and honestly it just made me question Hani's judgement every time she claimed they were good friends and nice people. I get that there are people out there who have friends like this, but it was frustrating to see her stick up for and side with her friends when they never gave her a crumb of kindness. Like, literally one scene of them good friends could have given a solid reason as to why she liked them.
And I also didn't get Ishu's insistence throughout the novel that Nik was, like, out to get her. She was so convinced time and time again that Nik was going to blackmail her, or didn't mean it when she wanted to help, or whatever, but again-- we never got to see Nik being anything less than a nice, supportive big sister.
I think both of these points just really relied on a past that we, as the reader, never got to see. Aisling, apparently, used to be a good friend and has since changed-- but we never get to see that. Nik, apparently, used to be really competitive and awful to Ishu-- but we never get to see that. It just made a lot of the girls' reactions feel inauthentic and overdramatic, in the end, because we didn't get to see any of it for ourselves. It was a classic example of telling instead of showing.
Overall, though, this book was fantastic! It was a joy to read and I flew right through it. Adiba Jaigirdar is an excellent writer. I can't wait to see what she comes out with next!