"This is how you fall in love" is a romantic comedy about a South Asian girl who lives and breathes romantic comedies. Set in and around Bath, England, the story follows two Desi best friends in pursuit of their own romantic relationships. I found the cultural repositioning away from the young white girl perspective refreshing, and appreciated the not-so-subtle explanation of the lack of South Asian main characters in romcom media. However, I did struggle with the cultural references at the beginning, I had to google some things - I would have liked to see some explanations, but it wasn't anything that put me off personally. An immediate example of this is the repeated but undefined mention of a 'dawat'. This aside, I liked the story, it was not entirely predictable, and had me grinning and then cringing at all the right moments. In retrospect I also very much appreciate the fact that the story focused on the emotional development of a relationship and working through disagreements, both with family, friends and romantic interests. The physicality of a romantic relationship wasn't missed and I think that enriches and commends Hussain's writing even more. The wrap-up chapters emulated most great romcoms and chick flicks with its stepped-back reflective-narrator overview tone, which may hit the nail on the head for some and may disappoint others. Overall a good story for a teen romcom-loving audience, that didn't at all on the physical side of a relationship, but the emotional development.

This is the first book by Anika Hussain that I’ve read so far. I love that it has been based around Desi culture and in UK. Being originally from South East Asian, I can relate to most of the parenting quirks and tradition and rules. Being in UK, I have only been reading books in English (as opposed to in a variety of languages such as Mandarin and Malay), thus refreshing to read a book where the main characters are from background other than mainstream western. It is also based around 6 Forms, reading this brings back the memories of being young again and mostly carefree. The surprising climax in the beginning did very well to carry the reader through part of the book, and there are small moments of suspense that further carry the reader through to the end of the book. I think this book is suitable for slightly above middle grade or very young adult as I think some bit of the plot was a little slow for me as a 35 year old mother of 2 very young children - there are a bit of mild romantic scenes too.

Overall love this book and think it adds such diversity to the literature in UK.

Thank you Anika Hussain and Bonnier Books UK for the advance review copy via NetGalley in exchange for honest feedback.

Zara has always wanted her own love story. A real kind of love. But when her best friend Adnan accidentally tells everyone they're dating to hide his actual girlfriend, Zara doesn't know what to do. The news of her relationship appears to lessen the arguments between her parents, so maybe this isn't all that bad. But how long can they pretend to be in a relationship without straining Adnan's real one, and can they keep up pretences in front of their friends without ruining everything?

Yeah, this wasn't very pleasant. I should've known I would feel this way after Adnan became an absolute prick towards Zara. By the time we reached the end of this story, it felt like nothing had been added to the overall plot and characters. Even as best friends or fake lovers, Zara and Adnan held no chemistry whatsoever.

The bulk of the story hinges on Zara and Adnan's relationship; they constantly remind each other that they are the best of friends and nothing else matters because the strength of their friendship should trump all. Adnan insists that despite his new relationship, his friendship with Zara will not falter, but then he continues treating Zara terribly for the entire story. He fails to consider her feelings while he gets the best of both worlds; he gets the girl and gains the adoration of his family for finally "dating" Zara. And what does Zara get? Despite convincing herself that this fake dating would distract her parents from arguing, nothing substantial actually happens. They still fight, upsetting Zara, which defeats the purpose of what she is supposed to be benefiting from this relationship. Adnan doesn't even do much to keep his end of the bargain; he continues to publicly flirt with his girlfriend in situations where their plans would definitely get them caught; Zara will then have to swoop in to correct the issue, causing arguments between the three of them.

This book would have done well to undergo some further brainstorming. A lot is going on, but nothing really sticks out. Zara and Adnan don't respect each other, their "plan" lacks any action, and there is just so much going on in the background that the story falters because it doesn't know where to focus its plot. On top of their fake plan and familial issues, there is also a side plot of Zara's friend who wants to make a documentary of her new relationship and an anonymous Instagram gossip account that is strangely forgotten for most of the novel.

Poor Zara. She deserves a lot better.

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to.

Yes, the writing and story was a bit cringey at times, with Tiktok and Instagram mentions cropping up like cardamom in biryani (and at times almost spiralled out of control)– but I knew what I was getting into by reading a contemporary romance, and, internet references aside, the story was cute.

I also quite liked the Desi rep. Coming from a more traditional Muslim family, the whole my-parents-want-me-to-date isn't quite what I'm familiar with, but I like that the author's idea is to give a different view of Desi stereotypes and dating culture.

This is How You Fall In Love is a lighthearted and quick read that works wonders at getting you out of a reading slump.

I love a rom-com, so I was really hopefully when I got approved for this to review. However, I felt the storyline did fall a bit flat at times and easily could have been a bit confusing with how many relationships were real or not were forming. 

I loved the desi representation and found it really intriguing and quite comical at times that I actually could picture them sitting around that table with all that food having some serious noisy banter. I also really enjoyed the family dynamics between the two families. 

Character wise, they were quite likeable. However, i didn't like how Adnan and Cami treated Zara. I did feel it got a little bit overwhelming at times, but I managed to soldier on through to the end. 

But a massive yes from me was the ending.. I was sitting minding my own business reading away, not even noticing the percentage on my Kindle at 100, and I ended up reading the last page three times.. the 2nd time I was like eh so read it again to be sure only to realise I was on the last page." The author was very clever with that! It definitely makes you want to know what happens next, that's for sure!

Zara and Adnan are best friends and have been since babies. Their families are great friends and, along with their other friends, would love for the pair to be a couple. In their culture relationships are celebrated and Zara and Adnan’s Mums constantly say they were meant to be together. But Adnan is chasing another girl who wants to keep their relationship a secret and the best way to do that is to pretend to be with Zara. Zara reluctantly goes along with this. But this opens up more complications than it solves when Zara finds someone else with whom she connects. Should she come clean and disappoint their families, or maintain the deception?

Let's start with what I did enjoy. I like that the overall message of the book is that the love of friends, family and yourself is equally as important as romantic love. That it's alright to not feel a connection with someone even when everyone thinks you should. I also enjoyed the glimpses we got of our main character and relationship with her parents. Especially in terms of showing that they can respect their culture and still be open about things like sex and relationships.

Zara is amazing, I'd read an entire book that's just her living her best life. The thing I like best about her is that she stands her ground and even if it takes her a little while she is brave enough to say this doesn't feel right. She's also just unapologetically herself. She likes romance books and pokemon go, who cares who knows. I think she makes a great role model for teens to read about.

Friends to lovers is a tried and tested trope as is fake dating. This is something our main character actually talks a lot about in the book. The problem is it typically hinges on a lot of cuteness and the best friend not behaving like this one does. The crux of my issue is I didn't like the way adnan treated zara. She's doing him a huge favour and he just steamrolls over her for most of the book. I feel like maybe if we had been told why his relationship with Cami had to be a secret earlier I may have understood him a bit better.

Also I won't lie I'm a little pissed because while I understand ending the book the way the author chose to it's not the most satisfying romantic ending and I was really rooting for a certain couple.

I'm giving this book 3 stars because while I like the overall message the execution of the romance didn't quite do it for me. I would check out the author again though, I'm convinced they would write a great enemies to lovers story.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to netgalley, bonnier books and Anika Hussain for the opportunity to read this book

This is How You Fall in Love by Anika Hussain is a YA romance novel that I absolutely fell in love with. The South Asian Desi culture is beautifully woven throughout the story and I enjoyed learning more about this wonderful culture while reading.

The novel follows rom-com loving Zara, who has been best friends with Adnan for most of their lives. All Zara wants in life is for her family and friends to be happy. And to be kissed in the pouring rain, because that’s what happens in the movies, but when Adnan asks for her help to cover up his relationship, of course she helps him. Fake dating is complicated, especially when she meets a mysterious boy who ticks every box on her rom-com checklist.

The characters are well-written and I really felt for Zara who finds herself in a frustrating fake dating situation, not entirely through her own fault. Her reactions and decision making were on point and I fully agreed with them all. She is the flawed protagonist you both want and expect in a romance book. Zara’s family unit are precious and I enjoyed the relationship she has with them all.

One thing I didn’t enjoy, but understood the reason and context for the novel, is the way Cami and Sadie treated Zara throughout.

I really loved this novel and Hussain’s unique approach to the classic fake-dating trope. My main takeaway from this book is that love comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes and we’re lucky to have love in our lives.
Thank you Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK for the e-arc in exchange for a fair review

It only took me the first chapter to realise this isn't my type of book. But I don't like giving up on my reads so I continued, until I was convinced that I gave it all my best and decided to just leave it unfinished. While the writing is really great, the plot seems really interesting, the characters just didn't convinced me.

This is YA contemporary romance with an interesting twist on the ‘fake dating’ trope. Zara’s best friend Adnan wants her help: he’s got a new girlfriend, Cami, but Cami’s parents are overprotective and she doesn’t want them to know she’d dating. Adnan solution is for Zara and Adnan to pretend they’re dating. But even though everyone around her is so happy about her new fake relationship, Zara is unprepared for the toll of lying.

The prose was light and simplistic, making it a quick and easy read. Unfortunately the dialogue sometimes fell into a particular dislike of mine, which is using a ‘realistic’ composition that makes bits of it feel mundane or shallow. In general, this is not a layered story: everything important to the story is plainly given in text (no deeper understanding required) and the characterisation is straightforward. For that reason I suspect it may be better suited to the lower end of the YA bracket (15-16 year olds), although I think it’s a fun read for anyone!

I really loved the way you’re immersed in British Desi culture from the get go - from the first chapter everything from the food to the familial relationships are informed by the characters’ culture. And in the end the book is not just about romantic love but also friendship and family, since all of Zara’s relationships are impacted by the lies she tells to maintain their cover.

Potential spoilers: because it’s a new take on fake dating, the structure doesn’t follow some of the things you’d expect from genre Romance. For example, the love interest she ends up with doesn’t appear until the 30% mark, and she doesn’t end up with him so much as it’s suggested that they’ll start meeting up again, after they stopped talking earlier in the book. So the big emotional resolution is Zara figuring some stuff out about herself, not a HEA/HFN moment for a romantic relationship.

(as a side note, for anyone who saw that cover with those colours and figured there might be an element of bisexuality, there is not.)

An incredibly unique spin on a fake dating romance novel that I absolutely loved. Hussain’s approach to this classic trope gave it a much more realistic edge and made it unpredictable as well as heartwarming. Beyond the romance, this novel is about all kinds of love and the relationships that Zara has in her life, whether it's her relationships with other people or their relationships with each other. There was such a beautiful message given about love in this novel in its many different forms and I came away from it feeling warm and appreciative of all the people in my life.

Without giving too much away, it was so easy to feel empathy for Zara’s character, with so much going wrong in her life and not knowing how to get everything back on track. She’s lonely and confused and in a difficult situation, not entirely of her own making, that she entered into with good intentions. She wants to help those she loves and she wants them to be happy but she definitely doesn’t go about it the right way, though I felt I understood her character and her motivations. Ultimately, this is an unconventional story packed full of love and I enjoyed Hussain’s creative approach to the classic tropes.

This was a lovely, sweet read that I devoured in one sitting. This was a well-written story with fantastic characters and an intriguing plot. I love the fake dating trope and thought this was well done, additionally including a twist I didn't see coming.

Zara was a great protagonist but I didn't feel she had much personality other than enjoying books and romance so I didn't connect with her character. However, she was a flawed protagonist and cared deeply for her friends and family.

A great read for young adults and adults alike!

This book was a super cute quick read.
The characters were really enjoyable and relatable. I loved the family dynamics, and the friendship between Adnan and Zara.
The fake dating trope is always one of my favourites, but I really like the direction this one took, a little twist on the usual.
There was just something about it that fell a little flat for me, almost like everything moved to quickly, we could have got a lot more from the 'dating scheme'. And the ending lost a star for me, felt like I was left hanging in the cold.

I really enjoyed this book, it was so well written and is a great book for both the young adult and adult market, I didn’t feel like this had to be exclusively marketed at young adults. The writing was great and I really liked the setting and the story idea.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This was my first pick on Netgalley as South Asian representation is on the top of my tbr lists! I absolutely LOVED how the culture, including food and familial relationships were portrayed, especially through Zara’s parents. I absolutely swooned over both Adnan and Yahya, everything about them made me fall in love with them. The characters aren’t wholly perfect, they have outbursts and they can be selfish. But they also realise all of this. Well rounded characterisation. The book is also laced with social commentary which is very delicately mentioned at relevant points in the narrative, thus not forced or in the face. I zoomed through the book and was absolutely addicted to it!

The only reason I took a star away was because of how in my culture (Pakistani), physical touch is not as common, or not considered as decent so parents openly talking about making out and sex threw me off a little bit as it didn’t seem 100% authentic. However, I do accept that at the same time everyone has a different perspective on life so I wouldn’t be judgemental with it.

I wanted a lovely rom com, I got a lovely rom com!!!

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. I have not read any work from this author prior to reading this, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. but I had already seen only positive reviews from other people, so I had high hopes when reading; I was certainly not disappointed. This book was everything I wanted it to be and more, and I enjoyed every second of it. Due to this, I am going to give this 5/5 stars, and would recommend it to absolutely anyone.

Give me the fake dating trope any day of the week! I really enjoyed this one. I found it easy to read and I got through ir pretty quickly.

Clean teen bang-on trend for lovers of fake-dating YA romance with the added bonus of activity exploring the 'controlling brown family' trope. Lots of fun and an engaging mc who only has everyone's best interests at heart, but gets herself into horribly complex situations when she agrees to fake-date her best (male) friend. Lovely to see own-voice desi representation on the shelf.

I wanted to love this book so much. I really hoped it was going to be another When Dimple Met Rishi, but sadly, like Zara's love for Adnan, I just wasn't feeling it. There's the bones of a great story here, I just felt like it didn't quite ring true for me. Yahya was too good to be true - he sounded like the idea of a perfect teenage boy rather than an actual teenage boy, and some of the conversations between him and Zara just did not sound like any teenagers I've ever met. Something about the whole book just felt a bit clunky to me, which was a shame because this is the sort of thing which is right up my alley!

wow! okay i really enjoyed this book. it had such a great flow between the plot and the characters and everything in between.

Zara is such a sweetheart. she’s an avid bookworm and romcom enjoyer (like myself) who wants to have her own experience with the type of love she reads about and sees everyday. she’s very real and is in no way perfect but i think that is what i like the most about her. she cares so much about the people in her life and would do anything to make them happy (even if it puts her own happiness at risk) her relationship with her parents was so beautiful and i loved reading about them and watching their relationship grow together.

Adnan was also a sweetie who had so much love and care for all the people in his life as-well. he had a great sense of humour and he was the perfect friend that Zara needed in her life. i loved the dynamic between the two and how they could always count on each-other to be there when they needed them.


this book was trope centre. everything you could want in a book and more was in this story, but it mainly revolves around fake dating! (i mean who isn’t a sucker when it comes to this!?!?) i loved all of the characters, especially Sadie who wasn’t afraid to hold the people in her life accountable! it discusses how pressure from friends and family and even people you don’t know can affect people deeply, and the way that Zara navigated this to ultimately fall in love with herself was just so worth the read.

i thought i would of been able to predict the way the book was going but the plot twist threw me for a loop and i really enjoyed how that made this book differentiate from others. the desi representation was so enlightening and inspiring too.

overall, i feel this book is a really fun contemporary YA novel that has really relatable and enjoyable/ likeable characters. it’s a great story and i would definitely recommend!

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.