More Than Just a Pretty Face was a sweet tale of first love, managing parental expectations and navigating the complexities of arranged marriages. I quite enjoyed reading from a male POV, as so often YA books have a female voice. It was also nice that the POV was respectful, as so often young males are portrayed in a negative light.

I enjoyed learning about Danyal's family and his different views of the world around him, although there weren't always particularly PC. His passion for cooking was also a joy to read, and I was hungry on more than one occasion whilst reading about his culinary pursuits. It was really sad that the people around him weren't supportive of his dream when he was clearly so good at it.

I was pretty surprised to get a history lesson throughout the pages. I didn't know much about the topic at hand, so it was great to learn about a new aspect that isn't always mentioned in the history books. It did occasionally get a little boring, as the same points were repeated a couple of times, but it was good to understand none the less.

The romance on offer was adorable, and comes about in a completely different way to a typical YA book, it added an interesting dynamic to the tale. It's not quite a love triangle, but it was lovely to see Danyal realise what he actually wanted from his relationships, and to perhaps learn not to be quite so shallow.

This was certainly a decent read, although it didn't capture my interest as much as I hoped it would. A solid three stars for me.

A cute Own voices read and I enjoyed romance elements with Danyal as well as his renaissance man speech.

But I knew from the words “it’s impossible to make a hijab sexy” I was going to find issue with the writing style. Just didn’t grab me as much as I expected

Want a book that makes you laugh out loud on one page and nearly cry with frustration the next? Then More Than Just A Pretty Face is the book for you.

An engaging read which questions social norms while exploring loyalty to our family and friends.

It's well written with strong characters who you empathise with and root for as the story unfolds.

So this book was a bit of a disaster, I'm honestly shocked at how bad the Muslim rep is in this book. I've read reviews from OV reviewers which explain in detail what's wrong with the rep so as a non-muslim I won't go into it that much but everyone was so stereotypical?!
When i read at the very beginning that 'its impossible to make a hijab sexy' I knew we were in for a rough ride but the more and more stereotypical characters just really sent this novel downhill.
The love story might have been cute but it just wasn't for me.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into romance stories and girlie books therefore am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

I enjoyed this very much. 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

4.5 Stars

Who doesn't love a slow-burn romance with a good lashing of humour mixed in? Not to mention mouth-watering descriptions of food and a much needed call-out of Winston Churchill. All the ingredients of a great story!

More Than Just a Pretty Face is the story of Danyal, who considers his looks and cooking abilities to be his best attributes. He's not the best at school, which is having a negative impact on his marriage prospects. Things start to change when he is introduced to Bisma by his parents, and when his history teacher chooses him to take part in the Renaissance Man competition despite his poor grades.

This was a really sweet story, though it doesn't shy away from the brutal truths about Winston Churchill and his responsibility for the Bengal Famine which took three million lives, nor how to this day people will overlook that part of history, not to mention other similar moments in history as well as awful events happening right now. The question is asked: if it were three million white Europeans Churchill starved, would such a loss be remembered differently? The answer is, of course, almost certainly. I only found out about the Bengal Famine in uni myself, and was shocked it had never come up in my history lessons before then. The way this topic is covered in More Than Just a Pretty Face is brilliantly done; the narrative is never dumbed down for younger audiences, literally delving into psychological critical theory at one point, and through the eyes of Danyal is made entirely accessible. It's also packed with emotion, and the parallels with Danyal's own life are intricately woven in a way that's really compelling.

My review so far makes this sound like a heavy story, when it's really not! Another thing it does really well is balance out its deeper themes with teenage drama and humour (and food, of course). Danyal as a main character just wants to have a good time for the most part, and to make people happy, and this comes across in his narrative voice. His relationship with Bisma is really cute and down-to-earth and not rushed at all, and plenty familial and platonic relationships are explored in this too, so the story as a whole isn't too romance-heavy.

So yeah, if you like books that are light but also tackle heavy topics, which feature cute slow-burn romances and plenty of respect for all the wonderful food of the world, this one's worth checking out!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. We're in uncertain times right now and it's hard to get stuck into anything knowing the world is crumbling but WOW. This was a feel-good and an enlightening novel at the same time.

It's not often I see a book about a Muslim person written from a boy's perspective and for that I am grateful. We need more representation - not of Muslim girls but also of Muslim boys.

Bisma's story is an interesting one and I wish we got to see more of it but I appreciate it that this wasn't her story - it was Danyal's. His character development was immense and it was incredible to see how he changed in the face of difficult circumstances.

I LOVED the writing. It was effortless and funny in times it probably shouldn't have been - but it worked. I loved how the narrator referred to the parents by their full names rather than the traditional Mum and Dad and I loved how authentic Danyal's thoughts were. YA gets a lot of flack for being too 'old' in its writing but this book balances the thoughts of an older person and a younger one seamlessly.

This is a great feel-good book that you don't want to finish because then it means you don't get to spend time with Danyal.

This book was just WAY TOO CUTE! These are 4 stars completely well deserved now that my heart is filled with love and joy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

More Than Just a Pretty Face follows Danyal Jilani, a high school senior with a dream of becoming a chef. Danyal comes from a very traditional family who are constantly trying to find the right woman for him to marry, and constantly trying to get him to go to college. But Danyal is happy with his choice of going to culinary school and trying to achieve his dream of becoming a chef, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Unexpectedly, Danyal is chosen to represent his History class in the Renaissance Man - a school wide academic competition. And with the pressure of trying to not completely fail his essay and presentation, Danyal accepts the help of Bisma Akram - a microbiology student with a love for comic books and libraries.

Danyal and Bisma's story was just so heartwarming and incredibly cute that I can't help being giddy about them. This book covers teenage romance in a way that will just fill your heart with love and hope that teenage romance can be so much more than what you might be used to.

Not only is Danyal and Bisma's story a love story, it is also a story of family, tradition, heartbreak, and societal expectations. More Than Just a Pretty Face ropes in very serious societal and political issues into the story that give it much more depth and all the more reason to love these characters.

I must admit I found it pretty difficult to get past the first half of this book, but after that the story was sailing and interesting and page gripping.

If you are looking for a fun light hearted young romance which also involves some pretty serious world issues, this is the book for you!

Thank you to Hodder Books and Netgalley for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was really disappointed when I read this book. I was hoping to see nuanced Muslim rep in this book however that is not what was in this book.

I was really excited about this book, it sounded so cute and while the story between Danyal and Bisma was kinda cute I had some serious issues with the Muslim rep. The story between Danyal and Bisma was nice and there were some good parts especially the discussion on colonialism and whitewashing of history I found that culture and Islamic practices are often confused and mixed together and presented as one and the same which I had issues with as the cultural practices often contradict the Islamic practices. The Islamic practices were also really twisted to suit whatever point the author was making which I found really irritating as it would create more misconceptions about Islam.

How the explanations of aspects of Islam were explained seemed a bit weird at times too. I didn’t understand why some things were written in the way that they were. For example, the way the reasoning for arranged marriages were explained, essentially a halal way to have sex had me doing a double take and that wasn’t the only time I was at a loss for words as to why certain things were worded the way they were.

This was one of many occasions where Islamic practices were twisted and used to make a point rather than actually show what they are. I was pretty angry by the end of the book.

I am also tired of seeing “religious” characters shown as judgemental and just boring one dimensional characters. Danyal’s friend did nothing but haram police the other characters and was shown as judgemental towards his friends choices and that he was the only one that needed to “change” I just wish we could get more complex characters when it comes to someone practicing their faith instead of leaning into stereotypes. In fact basically all side characters were one dimensional stereotypes and I was rolling my eyes constantly.

There was also a scene where Danyal and Bisma kiss on stage in front of family friends and teachers and then Danyal’s mum throws her shoe at him and proceeds to hit him with said shoe. It was written in a light hearted joking way and then later his mum says sorry that she had to do that and it was to keep up appearances. I just could not believe that something that is actual ABUSE and an issue that many children deal with was used as a joke like this. It’s completely unacceptable.

There a couple things I did like seeing in the book. How the legacy of Churchill was discussed in the book and how he may not have been the amazing hero that everyone believes him to be. We get to see that there is more to history than what is written or learnt about. It just depends where you are in the world and what books you read.

There was also some relatable parts of the story, how Danyal was seen as a failure because he wasn’t a studious student and excelled in a parent approved field. The double stands in society that Bisma has to deal with too was so heartbreaking yet so realistic. Girls are always held to a much higher standard in Asian society than boys and girls are always blamed when they are less than perfect. So I really felt for Bisma especially how her dad treated her.

However the small positives were not enough for me to overlook the glaring issues in the book. From the awful stereotypical Muslim rep to the one dimensional characters and a story where trying to show that Danyal is “not like other Muslims” meaning he is “progressive” made me incredibly angry.

I was so disappointed with the Muslim rep in this book especially as it’s ownvoices. I did like some aspects of the story but I just wished the characters had been more complex and had actual nuanced rep rather than stereotypes.

Thank you again Netgalley for this arc !

I'm so glad that I have the chance to read this beautiful books. That give me a lot of vibe of becky albertalli's books. I totally fell in love with the character mainly the transformation of Danyal. I love his sarcastic and funny side and I laugh sooo much while reading the books. I also really love Bisma, she's probably one of those character that I can fell in love with easily.

It was funny, charming, cute - a perfect rom-com for this one. I totally can picture it as a netflix movie in the future along with TATBILB !

Please go read this beautiful book guys ! a pure gem.

I loved this book you guys. I loved it so much. I felt so SEEN in this book and honestly this doesn’t happen a whole lot but this was such an experience™. Syed M. Masood has written a funny, sweet and relatable contemporary novel with a sarcastic, earnest protagonist aka Danyal, well developed secondary characters and an utterly cute and believable romance. I genuinely couldn’t stop reading and smiling the whole time, this book is such a brilliant addition to the Y/A genre AND it’s own voices for Pakistani, Muslim rep.

It’s not often that I read books with a desi male protagonist and I was a tiny bit concerned about if I would be able to connect with the character or the story but my worries couldn’t have been more unfounded. I related to Danyal and resonated with the wider story on so many levels. Danyal’s sarcasm and irreverent wit made him a fun leading character and I loved his journey through the course of the novel and how he really comes into his own.

When we first meet him the only thing he really knows for sure is that he wants to cook, is a failure in the eyes of his parents and has a crush on Kaval, his best friends twin sister. However as the novel progresses and he meets Bisma, he starts to reevaluate who he is and his capability. I also really liked the fact that he grew to understand his dad a lot more too through his research into the Bengal famine and how this generational trauma continued. I think this will serve to educate readers who may not have heard of this moment in history before and the part Churchill had to play in it specifically.

Growing up in an Indian Muslim household, there were a lot of cultural references and other elements I understood and loved to see included. Down to the food references – keema, biryani, khichdi, achar to name just a few, it was just so nice to read. I also appreciated that the not so great sides of the desi community were touched upon and explored. This all felt realistic and was honest without being stereotypical or overly critical, it just felt true, at least in my experience. Stories like Bisma's are not uncommon and there needs to be change within communities to disable the cycle of shame so I'm glad Masood chose to include this storyline.

As well as Danyal being an engaging protagonist, I liked the secondary characters just as much. I think this is because all of the characters felt like people I’ve known or met myself, so they felt familiar and I understood them. Danyal’s lifelong best friends; Intezar and Sohrab were each interesting and provided two different but important perspectives. While Sohrab chooses to adhere to Islam more faithfully, Intezar is less so which causes a bit of friction between the two. Danyal is sort of stuck in the middle but I appreciated that Islam wasn’t vilified and each of the these characters paths and choices were respected, each persons relationship with faith is complex and deeply personal and I feel like the story reflected this. I also loved Suri aka Soraiya, Bisma’s younger sister who provides some relatable younger sibling banter as well as being the ultimate matchmaker and just wants to see her big sister happy.

One of the best things and a central part of the novel is the romance element, and I for one, loved the way this was done. When Danyal and Bisma first meet, it’s under pretty unique circumstances aka an arranged marriage meeting and they don’t expect to see each other again but they end up staying in contact. Bisma is bookish and into superheroes and reads comic books, wears quirky tshirts and wants to be a microbiologist. She’s the exact opposite of Danyal’s long time crush Kaval who he always dreamed he’d end up with but as he comes to some key realisations, he realises he may have been wrong all along. True love might be a girl in a Captain America t-shirt, who knew? Not Danyal! Their relationship and the build up of them falling for each other was so perfect and felt so natural. It never once felt forced or contrived and it had the right balance of humour and sweetness. There were so many lines I highlighted because they were just too cute for words. Seriously guys, go read this book!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I'll definitely be looking out for whatever Syed M. Masood writes next. If More Than Just a Pretty Face is anything to go by, I'm sure it will be brilliant.