This heart-wrenching novel explores what it is like to be thrust into an unwanted marriage. Has Naila’s fate been written in the stars? Or can she still make her own destiny? Such a lovely romance that was sweet and sizzling in equal measure. I absolutely loved both of the main characters. Elle, who believes in star signs and destiny, and Darcy, who seems emotionally closed off and cynical about love. Probably my only gripe is that the miscommunication went on for one or two too many rounds for my liking. Still a gorgeous romantic read. stars. Review to come once I've collected my thoughts - all I can say is that this has officially been deemed one of my personal favorites in a long time.

I have gone on quite the tangent here and for that I do not apologize because that whole excessive paragraph shows you how much this book impacted me and how much it just made me think about real things in the world. I hate to say this, because I am such an advocate for Young Adult literature and I believe that it's all worth the same as general "adult" literature but.....It's really nice to find a YA book that was able to provoke so much deep thinking, especially about the actual, real world around me. There are a lot of very good YA books out there that are fun and have great writing and have such rich and alive characters, but rarely do I find a YA book that makes me think about our world. I don't think there is an abundance of YA books that are commentary on things that go on in our country, in different countries and cultures. A lot of YA is fluff. And you know what? I love fluff. But I love books that make me think too. A cute romance with a couple of hot sexy scenes. I admire Darcy for learning about Elle’s profession and realizing it’s importance to Elle even though Darcy doesn’t believe in it herself.I vividly remember a time when one of my friends told me that when her mother discovered she had a boyfriend, she slapped her. For my friends and me, corporal punishment was a distant reality. Our parents had never raised their hands on us, and we always believed they never would. But for my friend’s mother, the real life existence of her young daughter’s boyfriend had been a turning point. Moments like those are representative, because they teach you that some issues are bigger than your imagination could conceive. Even though for years and years we are told to sit properly and not laugh loudly and stay away from boys because boys will be boys and it is on girls to protect themselves, the misogyny of Pakistani society is still hard to digest in all its extremes. To conclude, I'm so happy I read Written in the Stars because it's helped me understand so much more about arranged marriages and forced marriages. It's books like this that make me incredibly grateful for the We Need Diverse Books campaign to help put more books like this on the market. I'm really excited for what Saeed writes about next. What happened to Naila was wrong and extremely heartbreaking to read about. I definitely recommend you read this because people should be educated about this topic of forced marriages and respect the culture of Pakistan, of course, especially with what's happening in the world today. I'm so glad I read this.

We follow our protagonist Naila as she forced to go on a holiday to Pakistan to reconnect with her roots, after her incredibly strict parents find out that she has a secret boyfriend. Little does she know, this trip isn't merely a holiday and her life is about to change completely. From there develops a, quite frankly, terrifying tale about the reality for some women living in South Asian countries and the culture pressures and norms around marriage. Life hasn’t been easy, but it gets less painful every day, and as I look at Saif, I know that love—in its essence, at its core—is the most bittersweet thing there is.

As a desi, I think it’s so important for us to see representation, and as a desi from an upper middle class family, I can tell it’s important to talk about the kind of horrors that some arranged marriages can cause in small villages in Pakistan. But as a reader of international fiction, I worry about what the non-Pakistani reader takes away about our country from this novel: do they believe all Pakistanis are intolerant of love marriages and willing to drug girls into saying yes? And in continuing this conversation, isn’t it upon the reader to not expect a book to represent everything about a country, in all of its complexities and contradictions? Is the author to blame if our country is not publishing enough fiction to represent all the different ways of living in Pakistan there are? With nods to Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice, a charming #ownvoices queer rom-com debut about a free-spirited social media astrologer who agrees to fake a relationship with an uptight actuary until New Year’s Eve—with results not even the stars could predict! With the craziness of this year, I have found myself seeking out cute and charming stories more than usual. This book provided a pleasant, escape from reality type of reading experience. The two female characters had good chemistry and it was fun rooting for them to find happiness. I really liked the characters and identified with both in certain ways. This is an enemies to lovers/fake dating trope type of romance book (I’m not an expert on the genre but I know tropes are a thing!) which I thought was well executed and written. While it has a predictable ending you can’t help to root for them.