This is How You Fall in Love is a YA contemporary romance novel that follows Zara who has been best friends with Adnan for as long as she can remember. Zara loves romcoms and to experience her own fantastic love story one day but when Adnan asks her if she can fake date him to cover up his relationship, it isn’t what she wants but she’ll do it for Adnan. Fake dating isn’t as easy as it seems though especially when another mysterious boy comes into the picture.

This book was close to a five star read and I had some high hopes because it features some of my favourite things in YA contemporaries but ultimately there were some things that let this book down for me.

This book is mainly set around Zara and Adnan, but you do spend quite a bit of time around their friendship group, Cami and Yahya throughout the story too.
I really liked Zara as a character, her feelings towards what was happening all made sense though she did make some interesting decisions over the course of the story you could see why. I also really liked her love of romance books and romcoms, and then the way she then compared them to what she was doing and what was happening to her.
Adnan was a really nice character and I liked him but I didn’t like how he, or Cami, treated Zara. Even with that part of the story, I did still like his character.
I did also enjoy reading about Zara and Adnan’s friend group but again there were a couple of characters who did treat other characters in ways that I wasn’t so keen on, while some characters were really lovely, some were quite mean and their reactions weren’t completely justified. I wasn’t a big fan of Cami very much at any point in the story but I quite liked Yahya and possibly would have enjoyed seeing more of him throughout the story.

I liked a lot of this book and am glad that I read it, something I liked that I haven’t already mentioned is the representation in this book and how it was really good rep but still different enough from other similar books to keep you wanting to know more about their lives and families. What I did dislike though was how some of the characters treated each other, it wasn’t something I wanted to see or enjoyed reading about, and it’s not something I’d want to see in my day to day life either.

There are no books that immediately spring to mind when I try to think of similar books if you enjoyed this one, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating also has some great representation and the fake dating trope executed well but that’s only one of many books out there.

Overall I enjoyed this book and it was a well deserved four stars. I recommend it for YA contemporary fans or anyone who enjoys the fake dating trope.

Thank you Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK for the e-arc in exchange for a fair review

I don’t usually read young adult books however, I this read. I thought it was really cute. A nice quick and easy read. Thank you for an advanced copy!

Zara is a romantic, loves rom coms,but has never found love herself.. Her best friend since childhood, Adnan asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend which throws their families in to ecstasy, but does little for her own love life. An enthralling plot showing all different types of love.

Not for me unfortunately. I didn’t get on with it and couldn’t settle to it therefor I unfortunately didn’t finish it

This was a fun romcom story that kept me on my toes with guessing who was going to end up with who. I liked the characters a lot and loved that there was reference to Angus, thongs and perfect snogging because like Zara that is also one of my favourite films!
It was a quick and enjoyable read!

this was my first arc that i’ve ever read and it did not disappoint. the best friends-fake dating trope is always something that will grab my attention, but then it turned out to be so much more than that! the desi representation was so enlightening and inspiring too. definitely more of a ya feel to the book than i normally read though.

This was a cute romcom, based on friends Adnan and Zara. It follows as they navigate friendships with relationships.

I enjoyed Zara's relationship with her parents and friendships with Sara and Adnan.

I feel this is suited to younger adult readers due to the references to Pokemon, social media and the language used.

It was fast paced and the chapters were quite short making it easier to read.

4.5/5 stars! First of all, this cover is stunning! I thought I knew exactly what I was getting into with this book but it managed to surprise me over and over again. The author managed to make the fake dating and friends-to-lover tropes new and exciting. I was pulled in by Adnan and Zara's stories and loved watching their story develop. Will definitely read more by this author in the future.

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

This book was really cute and I thought the characters were really well established. I really liked Zara and loved her relationship with her parents. Also was pleasantly surprised that it was set in the UK!
I thought the plot got a little bit overcrowded around the halfway point and I really didn’t like the ending because it felt like there was little to no payoff, but overall it was a book I enjoyed reading.

Thank you for the ARC, unfortunately, I couldn’t get into this and didn’t finish it. Thank to the publisher for the opportunity to read.

A contemporary romance that centres around fake dating.

Although I love the cover and the concept, this book had rep that I did not appreciate nor relate to. It was a miss for me. The writing was simple and easy to read, but the romance felt juvenile. Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for an e-arc!

This is How You Fall in Love is a well written, heartfelt subversion of the rom-com genre but, unfortunately, a lot of it fell flat for me.

Zara, as a main character, was extremely likeable and I think a lot of people will be able to relate to her. She's in love with love, using romance novels and rom-com films to escape from her fairly romanceless life. So when Zara's best friend, Adnan, asks her to become his fake girlfriend to help him protect his actual girlfriend from the scrutiny of her parents, of course Zara agrees! She'll be killing two birds with one stone: helping her best friend with his love life and smoothing over the cracks in her parents relationship by "dating" the boy they've always wanted her to. There's no way Zara's story will end up like the usual fake dating stories go, with her and Adnan riding off into the sunset together. Because they're just friends. Right?

Now, I started this book off hopeful. I immediately enjoyed the author's writing and the fact that it was set in the UK was a pleasant surprise for me as well. I knew straight away that I was going to love the family dynamics and friendships and was really excited to see girls supporting girls when it turned out that Cami (Adnan's girlfriend) was going to be in on the ruse. However, at about the 50% point I was quickly becoming disappointed. The plot had become drama-filled and convoluted with the author introducing another love interest to the mix. So not only do we have Zara developing confusing feelings about Adnan while also trying to navigate the changes to their friendship now that he has a girlfriend, Adnan and Cami have their own relationship drama going on AND Zara has now met Yahya who she also has feelings for! If that sounds confusing, it was! All this is a lot to fit into a relatively short book and I think I personally would've enjoyed it if the love triangle (or square?) had been left out entirely. The transition from Cami and Zara being friends and laughing together about the situation to Cami being quite unkind to Zara out of jealousy was so quick it made my head spin and I'd always rather not see women (or in this case, teenage girls) pitted against each other over a man.

Even though the romance storyline didn't do it for me, every other relationship in this book was a joy to read about! Zara's relationship with her parents (and her parents' relationship with each other) was absolutely beautiful and I loved seeing her mum open up to her more at various points in the book. I also found myself looking forward to every time Sadie popped up on the page and I think the falling out her and Zara had hit me harder than Zara's fall out with Adnan. I also think the author did a great job of discussing the pressure of external expectations, not only from your family but from society as a whole, especially as a person of colour. The way that Zara navigated those expectations, eventually coming to the realisation that her love story with herself is the most important one there is, had me cheering her on every step of the way!

I think this book, despite it's flaws, is a fun ya contemporary with an extremely likeable main character. This is How You Fall in Love will keep you on your toes with unique plot twists and maybe even make you rethink some of your favourite romance tropes!

Zara is in love with love, romcoms and all the trimmings, waiting for her big romance to commence. She and her best friend Adnan begin to fake date to help him hide his secret girlfriend. She agrees thinking it will help her parents' relationship. Things get complicated as feelings emerge and a new boy that Zara ends up liking comes into play.

The inviting narrative jumps right into Adnan & Zara's friendship and makes you instantly feel comfortable in their lives. The POV is insightful, humorous, sassy with a healthy dose of what it entails to be a teenager and of South Asian descent in England. So honest and relatable, you find yourself often smiling and nodding along. The dialogue is great, exquisitely representative of each character, that are instantly likeable (especially Yahya). There is a tone of whimsical that is prominent in the figurative speech.

I really like the message exchanges being an integral part of the narrative, a great tool to give information and have attention-worthy convos that further the story. I especially like the crossed-out ones.

The sudden awkwardness and embarrassment of fake-dating your best friend are depicted admirably. As is the messiness of real feelings. This is not just surface-dwelling froth, it actually delves into the nature of adolescence and also relationships: romantic, friend-oriented and familial. All through Zara's grounded and realistic outlook on life. Some themes in this book I found meaning full were: The improbability of fixing everything and you cannot live your life for others.

This far from typical romcom is laugh-out-loud funny, surprising, charming and quietly powerful, dedicated to all forms of love.

“In reality one or two stories about South Asian people is not nearly enough. There are so many stories out there to tell, but the chances to do so are few and far between”

This book follows main characters Zara and Adnan who have grown up together and become firm best friends, with their families spending many occasions together, and weekly dinners, there is a lot of pressure on them from their friends and family to give a relationship a try, but they both agree they are better as friends, you can tell that Zara is not interested in the pressure, especially with her quote “I honestly hate the narrative that just because we’re South Asian, we must date each other. White people never have to go through this crap. They can date whoever they want!”

However, moving onto the plot of the book Adnan finds someone he wants a relationship with (Camilla) but their relationship must be kept secret, enter a fake dating trope that Zara finds herself duped into but accepting as she wants to support her best friend, through this they experience a number of situations that pushes their idea of friendship and leaves each other questioning their intentions and feelings.

I love the inclusiveness that this book brings, from the fact that both fathers have common diagnosed conditions that are not often talked about in books (lactose intolerance and diabetes) I found this book to be lacking in nothing. I really like the fact that there are numerous “nerdy” inclusions such as Pokemon Go, and Discord chats, I felt like I could completely relate to this side of Zara, the world building was fantastic, it was rich and wonderful, and the inclusion of the Desi culture really added to the book.

On to the characters I felt they were all written so brilliantly, and each played their own vital role to the story development and their individual and group character development.

Zara
Zara is easily my favourite character in the book, I adore her, her sass and wit are brilliant, they completely shine throughout the book, and there are so many things she says that are hilarious. I feel like Zara is based on a real-life person as she feels so realistic and is such a lovely well written character; I would love to be her friend!

Adnan
Adnan is like a loveable rogue, you really want him to have a happy ever after but his treatment of Zara in some places is questionable, but I loved the relationship that him and Zara hold and found that the really did work well together. He is another character that also had such a humorous streak about him, and I loved the banter that him and Zara had throughout the book.

Sadie
Sadie is Zara’s best friend and I adore the common interest of romantic comedy’s that they both hold between them, constantly breaking the fourth wall by mentioning as many varieties as possible of romantic tropes that they can think of, their own disagreement in the book really broke my heart and I was willing for them to experience their own “second chance fromance” towards the end of the book, they have absolute squad goals, and it’s a squad I want to be in!

Camilla
Camilla was my least favourite character, there were times that I really could not stand her; her behaviour and jealousy were awful. Even the ending trying to make her more relatable and trying to get the readers to forgive her behaviour did not help, me personally I didn’t find it a forgivable trait, and her character still bothered me

Yahya
Although there is some grey area surrounding his role in this book and the storyline, I did like Yahya as a character, and I did find myself routing for him and his love interest, especially more so towards the ending, I feel like there wasn’t much time spent on his character development, so we don’t get as much of a feel surrounding his character as we do with the others.

Overall, this is a fantastic romantic comedy with various tropes, and plot twists that are unexpected, the ending is a little bit of a cliff-hanger, and I do feel like maybe more could have been done to explain why Cami wanted a secret relationship. But all in all, it is a “nerdy” feel good heart-warming read, that I would highly recommend

So enjoyed this. I actually didn’t know where it was going to go in terms of an endgame, and found myself pleasantly surprised by the turn in events! I loved the depiction of Desi culture and the family dynamic in this as well, really heartwarming. Wish there had been an epilogue or more to the ending, but I understand the tone it was trying to end on didn’t really fit in with that!

It’s good to know I can give this to pupils knowing it’s not too spicy, it’s perfectly pitched and age appropriate.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hot Key Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Zara and Adnan are just friends. Always have been, always will be. Even if they have to pretend to be girlfriend and boyfriend... Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. And she's desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. So when her best friend Adnan begs her to pretend to date him to cover up his new top-secret relationship, Zara is hesitant. This isn't the kind of thing she had in mind. But there's something in it for Zara too: making her parents, who love Adnan, happy might just stop them arguing for a while. She may not be getting her own love story, but she could save theirs. So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and real feelings... And when a new boy turns up in Zara's life, things get more confusing than ever. The course of true love never did run smooth, but Zara's love story is messier than most...

Zara is a bookworm through and through - a girl after my own heart. Whilst I’m not an audiobook listener and she is, I could see a lot of myself in her which was perfect because it meant she was relatable and I was totally invested in what would happen to her, what she would do when situations arose. She feels very mature - perhaps from all the romcoms she reads! - and very real. She isn’t perfect by any means. She’s awkward and gets sweaty palms when she’s nervous and she certainly makes mistakes but those quirks made me like her even more.
Adnan seems like such a sweetheart. I would not mind having him as my best friend. Well, as long as he isn’t such a lovesick puppy with someone since he seems to have a bit of a one-track mind when he acts in such a way. His awful one liners surprisingly made me laugh and his self-appreciating approach to life felt very real for a young man his age. I really liked the attention to detail with him, wanting his best friend to be happy. I think he is a great companion for Zara through life - even better that they’re family friends and stick with each other through thick and thin.

This was a pretty good book. The flow was great, the plot was stable and the characters were relatable. I plowed through this easily and with great joy, getting to see this story unfold. I’m a bit of a sucker for the fake dating trope and I definitely liked the twist that the author brought in for it. I wouldn’t say I have any negatives about this story other than one thing. This is a story that is set in Britain but there were quite a few American-isms - parking lot and vacation instead of car park and holiday. Whilst this was more toward the beginning of the book, it left me with a little frustration because it took me out of the little bubble this story created for me and had me feeling like I had to be alert for more of these moments. Thankfully, I wasn’t so worried about this come the end but it did ruin my enjoyment slightly. The ending itself was not what I had expected and I loved every moment of it. So many emotions fitted into a few pages - absolutely brilliant!

Overall, This Is How You Fall In Love is a fab story with a fabulous fake dating twist!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you again to NetGalley and Hot Key Books for an advanced copy of this book. Review will be live on my blog on release day.

I liked the premise of this book and I also really liked the story arc following Zara and Adnan - two friends who feel the pressure to be in a relationship so bad they risk their friendship to make it work. I went through a similar thing when I was younger and having this would have been a great help.

Having said that, for a relatively short book I felt like it tried to fit too much in, with the fake relationship, then the rushed actual relationship and the breakup almost immediately after. If it was longer or if some of it was cut then it could have been better developed and felt a lot more natural for the reader.

Also, it just made it confusing and complicated to have Zara and Adnan repeatedly state they were like siblings, then to have them be in a relationship and then to go back and say they feel like brother and sister? Just keep it at best friends, a whole incest dynamic has been added here which made it really hard to concentrate on what was happening as I kept having to remind myself they weren't actually related (which was also clarified way too late for me - first few pages would have been good as this made me form a very quick judgement which I struggled to shake).

A wholesome story with quite a few kinks but otherwise it was a very quick read which ends on a nice message.

This is quite a slight book which is however likely to appeal to a younger YA audience. It is refreshing to see wider representation of Desi culture especially within YA romcoms. The characters are appealing and the story zips along quite well.

Best friends to lovers, fake dating - two fantastic tropes absolutely smashed! Lovely story and wonderful character development. I especially enjoyed reading the family interactions.

Charming YA rom com with a fresh twist on the friends to lovers trope. Warm and entertaining, with relatable characters, a believable plot and a gorgeous setting in Bath. I particularly loved the South Asian family dynamics - Zara's adorable parents almost stole the show with their fabulous one liners which kept me laughing out loud as the story romped to an unpredictable and hopeful ending.