I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book thanks to 8th Note Press and NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Azaan hasn’t been back to his northern California hometown for many years. Not since he was caught kissing Madison, a white girl, by his father, the local imam. Azaan’s family believes he’s spent the years studying to be a preacher and is now also an imam. Instead, Azaan ditched religion and has been trying to make it as an actor in London. He might be on the cusp of a big break but he is called reluctantly back to America to visit his dying grandfather. Returning home after so many years – and so many lies – proves even more complicated than he could have imagined. Least of all when he runs into Madison again.
Azaan’s problems are largely of his own making. He’s been keeping up a large and complicate lie for nearly a decade. I definitely found myself rolling my eyes at him when he showed up in Redding, California in a what basically amounted to an imam costume, with no thought of how he was going to wear a fake beard for weeks at a time. At the same time, Masood has created a pretty likeable character. Azaan’s parents are deeply flawed and they have their own secrets. At the same time, all three of them are trying their best not to hurt each other, even if they’re going about that in silly ways.
Like so many children of immigrants, Azaan is caught between the pressure of his parents’ expectations and his own desires. There’s the added picture of a small religious community and his father’s role as its spiritual guide. At the same time, there is Azaan’s relationship with Madison, a woman he has long cared for but with whom there are real life obstacles keeping them apart. Their banter and scenes together are charming and largely believable. They communicate well and there’s none of the false tension that these types of romantic stories often rely on.
I can’t speak to how this as a story represents the Muslim community but I thought it represented that inter-generational struggle well, if not a bit exaggerated. Azaan himself isn’t a religious person so his actions seemed believable as someone who didn’t have faith but wanted to respect the faith of his community. I felt like this was a representation I haven’t seen much of in these types of romantic genre stories.
Karissa Reads Books 
Your review of this plot reminds me of a man I used to work with. He had come from another country and got engaged to an Australian woman but when they broke up, he wouldn’t tell his mother because he said she would have started trying to arrange a marriage for him. He used to laugh about it, but trying to straddle two cultures looked hard!
Gaaaah, I just don’t like books that hinge on a secret. Oddly, I’m very pleased with characters who are those “none of your business” types of people. There’s a huge difference to me between “secrets” and “nunya.”
Perhaps I’m misinterpreting what you’ve written, but is his costume and beard, and the whole rigamarole, presented as comedy? Or is it serious?
I totally get that difference and I agree with you. A secret in a book can work for me but it really depends on the narrative perspective.
He’s been telling his family that he is an imam so he shows up in California in robes and with a traditional, full beard. But the beard is fake and he’s staying with family so how do you plan to maintain a beard glued to your face 24/7? I couldn’t really tell if it was supposed to be funny or not. It made him seem kind of dumb, to me.
Is this a rom com? I feel like if you had included a picture of the book I would have known instantly by just seeing the cover hahah
I read it as an e-book but looking the cover up I think you would assume it’s a rom-com. And parts of it definitely fit that. But then there are some weirdly heavy parts that don’t. Plus the romance is not necessarily the main focus of the book. And it has some funny parts but it’s not really a funny book.