Actual rating 3.5⭐️

Give me a love story to read and I’m in book heaven. I have a penchant for characters who fall in love at first sight, for star crossed lovers, and for those who fail to see their soulmate has been right in front of them all along…you get the picture! It’s fair to say the kind of romantic storylines I gravitate towards are generally of the movie style variety, the ones that take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions but where you’re ultimately left feeling love can and does conquer all. Unrealistic quite possibly but who cares? It’s only fiction! So if that’s what you’re in the mood for maybe Good Intentions isn’t for you.

Good Intentions is not your typical love story. Far from being written in a sentimental, hearts and flowers style it’s tone is serious, honest, thoughtful, measured and reflective which is hardly surprising given the issues that affect the small cast of characters. Self harm, anxiety and depression, sexuality, racism, micro aggression, defying family and cultural expectations and traditions in the name of love are all dealt with meaning this piece of fiction is no barrel of laughs. But you can’t help who you fall in love with, right? So when Nur, a young man from a Pakistani family meets fellow student Yasmina, a black Sudanese girl, at Bradford university, and falls hopelessly head over heels in love, he’s caught between pursuing his own version of happiness whilst trying to remain the good, dutiful son. That’s one hell of a dilemma to find himself stuck in but it is the manner in which he handles his conflicting emotions, balancing family life with his personal one that takes precedence, driving the narrative forward.

As a white middle aged woman I can’t pretend to fully comprehend the complexities of the situation Nur and Yasmina find themselves in but I do vaguely remember what it’s like to fall in love with someone from a very different background having been (briefly) married to a Muslim Algerian many years ago. I would probably have been of a similar age to Nur and Yasmina when I married in secret, only informing my very conservative parents after the event, knowing full well they wouldn’t approve so I had every sympathy for Nur as he mentally prepares himself to drop this bombshell on his family. This is the point in Nur and Yasmina’s love story, four years after they first meet that the novel begins. The storyline then weaves back and forth in time, charting the development and progress of their relationship and is set within the context of friends Rahul and Imran’s individual experiences of navigating their own paths to love. All coming from a Pakistani background they face similar difficulties but their approach to managing them widely differ.

I liked the start of this novel. Nur and Yasmina are just like any other lovestruck couple with their flirty banter and I had every reason to believe I’d enjoy following their progress from tentative first steps through to their well established romance despite the assumed opposition to their relationship. The author allows the reader to take up temporary residence inside Nur’s head, privy to his innermost thoughts as he continues to lead two separate lives. In truth I found it an unhappy, uncomfortable and painful place to be knowing only too well that in trying to please everyone he’s bound to end up achieving the exact opposite. Consumed by his love for Yasmina, his guilt at keeping his relationship a secret and his overwhelming fear at coming clean to his parents transforms this conflicted young man with good intentions into someone who as time goes by you lose respect for and even struggle to like. He’s so self absorbed and short sighted that he fails to see that all his relationships are suffering, from his friendships with Rahul and Imran to those with his siblings as well as with his girlfriend, not to mention breaking his parents trust. At times he’s a poor sorry excuse for a friend, boyfriend and son and I rapidly lost patience with him. In Nur’s defence he is young, naive and at a stage in life where he’s finding his feet as an adult and I had to keep reminding myself of that fact but my goodness he does makes life hard going!

From my perspective, there are two major problems with this novel. I didn’t like the fact that very little happens which results in the narrative becoming repetitive and dare I say dull. It requires effort to keep turning the pages mainly because it’s all so incredibly serious and intense. There’s no light and shade whatsoever; it’s bleakly grey all the way through! I can appreciate this novel isn’t intended to be a laugh a minute given the subject matter but with hardly any respite from Nur’s stress, guilt and indecision I found it depressing rather than heart wrenching. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to handle this more realistic portrayal of romance and I think that’s partly down to being unable to gel with the main character who I feel is developed almost to the exclusion of everyone else. Nur’s voice drowns out the likes of Yasmina and friends Rahul and Imran who have to jostle for attention along with the couple’s respective siblings. In my opinion this is a shame as I enjoyed the insight into Yasmina’s background especially her complex relationship with her younger sister Hawa. I never felt I got the chance to get to grips with Yasmina’s character, having only been afforded a glimpse of one side of her which is another reason why I failed to feel emotionally invested in the couple’s future. I wish Rahul, Nur’s closest friend featured more as he appears to be a far less complicated individual and easier to like. His laid back demeanour is a welcome contrast to Nur’s constant overthinking which if I’m honest drove me insane at times. Both he and Imran prove to be loyal, forgiving supportive friends even though Nur’s behaviour tests the strength of their friendship.

There’s no denying that this is well written but overall this is a novel I didn’t enjoy as much as I’d hoped to. Good Intentions isn’t a book you can pick up wishing to escape from reality for a few hours. Instead the author opens your eyes to the very real challenges some couples face when they fall in love with someone outside their own racial/cultural background. It’s worth reading for this insight alone, encouraging you to think about how other cultures/religions view love and all its complexities. Love can be complicated at the best of times so to realise others face the added pressure of possibly being forced to choose between family and the one they love is saddening and sobering. Ultimately this is a love story without any sugar coating and as you finish reading it you’re left with a bitter aftertaste.

My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this. The author is a fantastic story teller and I liked the character build ups. A great debut and I’m looking forward to watching out for more from Kasim.

I really enjoyed this novel and read it over the course of an evening. Brilliantly conceived, a small tight cast of characters and few locations meant that the characters words, deeds, good intentions and prejudices were front and centre at all times. At some points it felt almost voyeuristic spending page after page with our noses pressed up against the glass of Nur and Yasmina’s flat windows.
I’m not sure why but I identified more with Nur rather than Yasmin’s as most other reviewers seemed to do. I am autistic and I wonder if Nur is also on the spectrum. Certainly his anxiety and ability to compartmentalise is very familiar to me. I can see why he kept putting tell his parents off and off for so long. I’m not sure I’d have done it for four years mind you. Then ending when it came was shocking for me and I had to really make myself open my eyes and see it from someone, anyone’s point of view than Nur’s.
Ali is skilled in character building and the supporting cast, most notably Imran and Rahat were instantly likeable and also good vehicles to help the author and Nur explore the issues of race in Britain today and also within Muslim communities. The weight of familial responsibility in Pakistani families is to this white British girl utterly unfamiliar and overwhelming. When I left for university my parents phoned me on the first evening to tell me they were drinking champagne in their newly emptied ‘nest’!! My family held similar prejudices towards LGBT+ and people of different races but it was never overtly expressed and certainly wouldn’t have lost me my relationship with them.
There is a great deal to mull over since finishing this novel and to me that is one of the hallmarks of a good book.

I really enjoyed this book, especially the unexpected but just (and relieving) ending!
Also, it was incredibly refreshing to have a book covering these themes which is not set in London. More of this please!

A very compelling read. Read it all in one sitting, however, the story was let down by the ending. It feels like the author was trying to make an impact with the ending, but the story didn't support it. Going back to the story, I couldn't find threads that connected to the ending making sense. Would have been a top read of 2022 if the ending was woven more through the book.

I wanted to love this book so much but it was a real struggle to get through until the end.
Nur, a Pakistani Muslim falls in love with Yasmina, a Sudanese Muslim and the story flicks between the present and the past couple of years from when they first met.
Feeling the family pressures on choosing the right woman and keeping up family traditions of letting his parents be involved in who he chooses to marry, Nur keeps Yasmina a secret for 4 years, not even telling his parents they are living together. This ultimately has its repercussions on both Yasmina and his family. I was really interested to see how this would unfold.
I appreciate this is a story based on the two main characters, their backgrounds and their relationship but their wasn't much depth to their characters and I found I wasnt hugely invested in either of them. I wanted to shake Nur on so many occasions!
It contained lots of pages of very little happening, just general chit chat whilst eating a meal for example and I found myself losing interest far too often. I had hoped their would be more depth, more insight into their family cultures and in amongst the seriousness a splatter of hope or happiness.
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to try this though!

Thank you, Netgalley for approving this. I was very angry at the main male character in this book and I think that's a testament bro the character development in the novel. I appreciate this novel for the way it handled the issues in it, it's very layered. Also, thank you for the ending because if it had gone any other way, I would have pulled my hair out.

Good Intentions explores the idea of a relationship between Nur, who is Pakistani and Yasmina, who is Sudanese. Nur is reluctant to broach the subject of his relationship with Yasmina to his parents, unsure about how they'll react.

This book had a strong premise and dealt with some very prevalent issues but I found myself losing interest in parts where the narrative slowed down. The story was told in different timelines and moves between them throughout. There were also times when it was difficult to empathise with Nur and I just wanted to shake him. I was however keen to find out how he would resolve things and how it would all work out in the end.

Good Intentions is a story about Nur, a British Pakistani boy and Yasmina, who is of a Sudanese origin. They meet whilst they are at university, fall in love and move in together. Fast forward to four years later where Nur having kept his relationship a secret from his family, he finally musters up the courage to tell them about Yasmina.

Nur lives a guilt-ridden life. Firstly because he moved away from home when decided to go to Bradford University instead of staying in Birmingham; and secondly because of Yasmina. He constantly feels the guilt of living independently having a life away from his parents.

I'm not going to lie. Nur's character infuriated me to no end. I found him selfish, hypocritical and paranoid. He seemed to need validation for his actions from those around him. At many points in the book, I wondered what Yasmina actually saw in Nur to put up with him for so long. Through most of the book, I thought that Yasmina lacked character development until the end, where she became the voice of reason. The varying timelines also became unnecessary and confusing in parts.

However, the story is relevant and needs to be told. Nur's family is the conservative, "What will people say?" type. Kasim Ali rightly highlights the racism within South Asian society. Yasmina may have been a Muslim, but the issue was that she was black. The author has also cleverly woven in storylines from secondary characters like Nur's friend Imran, whose story also needed to be told.

2* Did the author really mean to paint so many people as racists? And knock Nicholas Sparks, too? This will be offensive to many.

As a fellow British Asian who brought a white guy home back in 1989, I was interested to read this book. As a British Asian born and brought up in the UK, now aged 53, I have to ask myself which UK this author has grown up in to tar, no pun intended, everyone with the racism brush?

The book is well written and the title is apt, but goodness, most of his 'Asian' posse - and I use the term loosely here - have massive chips on their shoulder and come across as woke in the worst of ways. And, they're hypocrites - eating halal when it suits, skipping when it doesn't, going to the mosque and observing customs and yet having (thankfully off-page) sex with other Muslims and in the same breath, admitting that this is wrong in their religion, and more. The only half honest one was the gay muslim guy.

And do not get me started on Nur's parents - if I said what I really feel and think at this point, it'd Spoiler the tale. It feels like there's racism, prejudice and lies in this tale, and it paints Asians as a whole, as an utterly racist bunch. And to knock Nicholas Sparks in a casually racist way, for not having brown characters in his tales, was an unnecessary low blow. As was mention of a brown Stephen King. And for Yasmina to knock 'this racing f****** country' that's been home to her and her family? That's likely given them more chances and more safety than her parents' home country? And stuff like 'that recipe was probably written by a white person'? And how apparently white people move backwards in lifts when they see Asians enter? There's more, but I forget in my anger and irritation.

What was the author thinking? What was his publisher? Were there no sensitivity readers? Yes, Asians of my (81yo) mum's generation do tend to keep to their traditions and have Asian friends, but even as far back as 30 years ago, things were different, more open, more liberal. Maybe it's where the author was brought up that's at fault. Maybe I'm lucky I'm a Londoner. I wish I hadn't wasted time on this book.

An easy read. Lovely characters and good story which hinges on important aspects of today's society, race, religion and sexuality. It was interesting to read from a different perspective of immigrants. Enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers Random House for an Arc in exchange for an honest opinion

This book was really hard to read to the point where I felt it was dragging a bit. I'm also not too sure why the book ended in a cliffhanger like that, it was a little bit dissatisfying for me. However, the story touched upon very important topics.

Nur and Yasmina have been in a relationship for a number of years. Nur has hesitated to tell his family about Yasmina’s heritage. The longer he waits, the harder it becomes. Moving between the past and present this novel addresses the tensions that arise from Nur not acknowledging his relationship to his family.
The ruminations and discussions were interesting to start but eventually became very tedious.

I

What a debut. Wow.

This is one beautiful, heartbreaking and compelling love story and I didn’t want to put it down. All I can say is, “Chapeau!”, Kasim Ali (who is only 25!!!).

Nur and Yasmina meet at university, fall in love and four years later they’re living together. A simple love story, right?

Well, not quite. Although both of them are Muslim, Nur’s parents are Pakistani immigrants, while Yasmina’s parents came to the UK from Sudan. And because Nur, as the eldest, — always wanting to prove himself to be a good son — is so worried about upsetting his parents by bringing home a black girlfriend (read: not one of their own), he still hasn’t told them or even his siblings about Yasmina.

What follows is a careful and tender examination not only of filial obligations in immigrant families, but also of how the intersections of race, religion and sexuality complicate these modern relationships.

I was so moved by this book, so heartbroken, and yet I could feel for all the characters, the ones who were honest and brave enough to stay true to themselves but also the ones who, with the best of intentions, didn’t — for the sake of family and tradition. There are no right or wrong choices, no easy answers, and this book carefully explores these grey areas where someone will inevitably lose out.

Good Intentions publishes on 3 March 2022 here in the UK and I predict it’s going to do really, really well. So go and pre-order yourself a copy, you won't regret it.

With many thanks to 4thEstate and NetGalley for letting me read this stunning debut ahead of publication.

This was a great read with some thought provoking concepts at its heart.
It deals with the ties of family and our assumptions about what is expected of us from our loved ones and from the world around us. We see the contrast of two very different family dynamics and how individuals operate within them.
We meet Nur who is living with the love of his life, Yasmina, but is reluctant to be open about that relationship and feels the weight of the role that he plays with his parents. This novel makes you question what love really is and how we can make it a treasure to cherish or a stick to beat yourself with. There are some interesting supporting characters who provide a bit of perspective and also some humour. The key characters of Nur and Yasmina were portrayed with both their charms and flaws although Nur infuriated and frustrated me at times and I found myself remonstrating with him and willing him to take the advise that he couldn't hear me giving!

Brilliant. A powerful voice for today.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

This was so lovely, charming, sweet and sad. It feels like the book I've been waiting for. You so rarely hear stories about racism between racialised communities, and anti-black racism in particular, and especially how it affects the interpersonal relationships of young people growing up in the shadow of those prejudices. It was a gorgeous, affecting love story, with poignant themes of mental health and rarely spoken about prejudices.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't know what to write, I am blown away by this book. It has totally given me a new perspective.
A very powerful book.
Can't say anything more without giving the premise away.

While this book flits back and forwards in time, laying the groundwork for the story, this book is loosely about acceptance.

The need for Nur to have his parents accept his relationship of 4 years with Yasmina, the girl he never told them about.

We learn how the relationship between Nur and Yasmina developed. How they found themselves in each other. Their hopes for a future tigether6.

There is one main sticking point in their relationship. They have been together for 4 years, living together for 2 years. Nur has still to tell his parents about Yasmina.

Nur always says his parents wouldn't accept their relationship as Yasmina is not like them, while she is a Muslim, she is a black Muslim from Sudan.

Eventually, it happens. Nur, Yasmina and her family make the journey to Nur's family home to meet his parents and siblings. While there, Yasmina comes to a realisation, the problem was never with Nur's parents being unable to accept her. The problem lay with Nur.

Emotions are high throughout this book, and it culminates in a bittersweet ending. Definitely a book you should read.