Before I begin my review, it is interesting to note that although Aisha herself was fortunate enough to find love in her arranged marriage, she chose to reveal the other side to it: penning a tale about the horror and trauma of forced marriage, some of which are brought about through coercion, pressure, threats and sometimes outright violence. Even if a young person’s parents lets them, you get side-glances and weird looks from people in even the most modern of areas, because that’s just what the culture is. People who are free to do whatever they please, but cannot dream of falling in love and marrying who they are in love with. Super easy read with a few scenes that made me blush and loads of meet-cute moments that made me smile. I feel like I don't have the right to state my opinion on it so I won't in this review, but I did think about the whole thing a great deal.

As you can see in the synopsis there are some astrology elements incorporated in the story (Elle is very into it).

Her parents decide to spend a whole month of summer visiting their homeland and their relatives after 17 long years (Naila’s exact age), until things cool down back home in Florida. I picked up this book and pledged that I would read it all today (or in 24 hours) no matter what happened. Elle agrees to go along with the whole fake dating scheme because now she can bring her as her date to her family's Thanksgiving dinner. For me, this story was important because it taught me about another culture I knew very little about and it opened up my eyes to a situation and various events that I will never, ever experience in my life. Love is about the good moments, but it's about holding on to each other during the difficult ones too.

It’s not that anything was inherently bad with anything written but some passages were a little too corny for my taste. I am not super intro astrology (though I do love my Birthdate candles) but I still enjoyed it and some parts were funny. Darcy is an actuary firm in her desire to never let any relationship get serious and get her heart broken again. But Naila's vacation soon takes a horrifying turn when she finds out her parents' ulterior motives, and she is quickly caught in a vicious, inescapable nightmare without any hope of escape.Aisha Saeed’s Written in the Stars follows the story of Naila, a Pakistani-American teenager whose parents have always told her that she is free to be who she wants to be; she can choose what she wants to study, her profession in the future, what she wears and how she does her hair. Keep in mind that this is but one story about arranged marriage and a lot of them are no where near this traumatic. The reason why I didn’t rate this book higher was because towards the end one of the characters was really annoying and there were some things that were not as believable. Today I have another romance recommendation, here is my review of Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur. The better term is, it tricks the heart to feel good as it establishes the characters and the main conflict.

But Naila does, deep down, she keeps trying to break the barrier of this mind-set, struggling to create cracks in this one rule that governs her life since she was ten years of age. Aisha Saeed, a Pakistan-American herself, steers clear from stereotypes while also refusing to cover up the darker parts of the culture.It’s a shame, but I’ve never read a YA novel revolving around Pakistani characters, and the familiarity was refreshing. In many ‘conservative’ societies – places in the Middle East and South Asia – men and women don’t mingle as freely. It reminds me of how I felt while reading Little Peach, except I knew going into that one was going to be hard.

her growth is phenomenal; her deep loneliness and desire to be seen and wanted, and her gradual realization that she deserves better than the bare minimum.Lastly, I also found the writing to be simple, and the plot to overall be wrapped up a little too quickly and easily.