Zahra is one of those main characters which, like Lara Jean, are utterly endearing from the beginning. Someone you root for and will stand by no matter what! The Love Match is a delight and perfect for fans of To All the Boys I Loved Before. Find my full thoughts in this book review!
Summary
Zahra Khan is basically Bangladeshi royalty, but being a princess doesn’t pay the bills in Paterson, New Jersey. While Zahra’s plans for financial security this summer involve working long hours at Chai Ho and saving up for college writing courses, Amma is convinced that all Zahra needs is a “good match,” Jane Austen style.
Enter Harun Emon, who’s wealthy, devastatingly handsome, and…aloof. As soon as Zahra meets him, she knows it’s a bad match. It’s nothing like the connection she has with Nayim Aktar, the new dishwasher at the tea shop, who just gets Zahra in a way no one has before. So, when Zahra finds out that Harun is just as uninterested in this match as she is, they decide to slowly sabotage their parents’ plans. And for once in Zahra’s life, she can have her rossomalai and eat it too: “dating” Harun and keeping Amma happy while catching real feelings for Nayim.
But life—and boys—can be more complicated than Zahra realizes. With her feelings all mixed up, Zahra discovers that sometimes being a good Bengali kid can be a royal pain.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
From the very beginning I adored The Love Match. At its core, this debut is about Zahra. About not only her romantic journey, but her own ideas about the world. While dating can often be about a relationship, it also exposes pieces of ourselves, biases and vulnerabilities. For Zahra, besides her mother’s wishes for a match, she also is struggling with the weight of her responsibility versus her passions. How she needs her job to help her future siblings, this idea of ‘living for herself’ and how it doesn’t apply to everyone.
As our responsibilities change, as what we envision for ourselves morphs in front of our eyes, we can realize that our family’s vision of our life isn’t the same as ours. The sacrifices we have to make for the ones we love. For Zahra we realize through her eyes that we can have dreams of what we think love is. How we think love will feel. Until we find that love is the most surprising. With true dating fashion, The Love Match examines first impressions. All the ways we can misread someone.
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It can be the most difficult to believe in ourselves. To see our own potential and value. But The Love Match leans into this self-discovery. Taslim’s debut conveys themes of self-confidence and exploring the nature of love, while also being rooted in Zahra’s character development. As we grow older, we can realize we never truly knew what love is. What the true purpose of love is or what kind of love we should accept. And Zahra’s just beginning her own journey.
Find The Love Match on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.