Rating: 3 stars
This was an ARC from Union Lake Publishing and NetGalley. My opinions are my own. This book is on sale now.
Dina Haq is the eldest sister and, as such, has always felt like she has to be the perfect one. She is a successful lawyer in her parents' law firm, and she married the right man (on paper). Dina has not told her family that she is, in fact, divorced and has not been living with her ex, Arshad, for more than a year. She's very worried they will be disappointed in her, and she also doesn't want anything to overshadow her younger sister Hania's spectacular wedding celebration.
Hania is an online influencer, which means that every aspect of the wedding celebrations is being streamed online, including the arrival of the groom and his family in Toronto. Dina is shocked to discover that the man she actually had a crush on back in law school, Lucky, is the best man. Not realising that her scheming narcissist ex-husband manipulated the situation so that Dina and Lucky both believed the other to be indifferent, so that he could swoop in and woo Dina instead (because her wealthy background and her dad's law firm fit perfectly into his plans for the future), they are still feeling that perceived betrayal, but keep being forced to work together, because Hania has a long list of absolutely ridiculous demands, and as the maid of honour and best man, Dina and Lucky are the ones sent to sort things out.
Dina and Lucky are clearly incredibly attracted to one another, but Lucky believes Dina to still be married to his former best friend, so he's not exactly going to make any romantic overtures towards her. Dina's best friend keeps telling her to just tell everyone the truth, so she and Lucky can reunite and make sweet, sweet love, but instead, there are all manner of misunderstandings and thwarted yearning, while Dina's ex is allowed to be an absolute asshat, who keeps threatening to spill the truth and make a scene.
Dina and Lucky have been kept apart, and Dina has spent years unhappily married to an emotionally abusive narcissist, because both of them were foolish enough to trust Arshad to act as a go-between instead of being direct with each other about their feelings. Now they keep flirting and having pants feelings during the various wedding events, but Lucky doesn't think he's worthy of Dina (even if she were single), since he works in construction rather than as someone with a career worthy of her. Dina, on the other hand, is continuing to let her skeevy ex-husband have power over her, because she is too scared to tell her family the truth about her divorce (which I gather took place long enough ago that she could have come clean before the wedding stuff kicked off). To be fair, from the descriptions of her father and mother throughout the book, they are both status-obsessed snobs, so they probably would be appalled that their perfect eldest daughter got divorced, but still, it's annoying. As is the fact that in all of the various encounters, Dina and Lucky keep hinting at the hurt they feel the other caused them, without ever going so far as to talk about what actually happened. As a result, it takes far too long for them to figure out that they could have been happy all along.
Another frustrating aspect of this book was Hania, who seems like an absolute brat. I have no idea what Lucky's best friend sees in her, or why he would ever marry her, let alone agree to have every aspect of their wedding celebrations be carefully choreographed, directed and live-streamed for other people's entertainment. Lucky seems like a perfectly nice guy, but he's also not shy about flirting with and lusting after a woman he believes to be married. Samir, Hania's husband-to-be, and his parents are the only truly sympathetic people in this book.
This is probably my least favourite of Jalaluddin's books that I've read so far. I have heard really good things about her new cosy mystery series, though, so I might give that a try instead.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read.
No comments:
Post a Comment