Sadly, did not find this hilarious at all. Maybe because I come from the same ethnic background, so it was something more like PTSD and not new & exotic and thus fun and outrageous. This was not the novel I was expecting to read based on the blurb, which makes it seem Yousef meets Jess just as he's about to graduate and cue then the mishaps. They meet on Day 1 of university, so it sounded like he strung her along all this time, which wasn't endearing at all. Feroza, the mum, got on my nerves all the time (but that's possibly because I've lived with women like her all around me and it thus grated). However, it was the writing style which wasn't really my cup of tea. I wasn't expecting a saga going into everyone's POV, and the words themselves were cloggy and very telling...
Sadly, wasn't my idea of fun or a good time, though it might just be 'the' book for someone else.

This book made me feel very in touch with my own culture. I loved the plot and found it very easy to follow. I felt the story could be slightly shorter as the book took me a while to finish. I loved the ending and laughed lots whilst reading.

What a great introduction to Pakistani culture and the tradition of arranged marriages. It is a real insight into how traditions from the past have carried forward to modern times with varied results.

Beautifully written, rich and colourful descriptions bring the celebrations described to life.

Really enjoyed this book, I look forward to Dr. Khan's next offering.

Easy to read, great to read about other cultures.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

This book follows two siblings from a Pakistani family who's mother is keen to have them Married off. They however have diffent ideas, at first. It is funny and heart breaking at the same time. It show perception of how each family member feels about their role in the family and where they sit in the heirachy of attention. The old traditions that some can't let go in relation to marriage, take their toll on the siblings but in two completely different ways. I really enjoyed this book, it gave a good insight into another culture and its values.

I have shared this review on Amazon, but it has not appeared yet.

This book didn't disappoint, it was about different cultures and families are at the centre of it. I do love Dr Amir Khan so I knew this book would be good but I didn't realise how good, you don't want to miss it

I really enjoyed this book! The reader gets a glimpse into the life of many Asian families in the UK, where parents try to hold on to traditional values and preserve their culture but their children are unsure whether it still relates to them.

The storyline centres around the pros and cons of arranged marriages and considers whether love before marriage is important.

We meet Yousef, who falls in love with Jessica at University, but knows his parents won't approve. His mum is very proud of him and his Medicine studies and pushes him to become a surgeon and settle down with a nice Muslim girl, but are her intentions really for his own benefit?  His sister Rehana has also done well at uni with a 1st in English, but always seems to be second best to her brother. If only she could find someone to marry, she might finally have her parents'attention.

A fab book written by tv's Amir Khan. I look forward to reading more from him!

I really enjoyed being able to gain insight into the British Asian culture & their traditions & values.This book was easy to read and there was a good amount of humour in there to keep things light along the way. You gain many perspectives from well-developed characters on arranged marriages & how to find love. I definitely recommend this!

I love Dr Amir, he is so relateable and coming from Bradford its great to see a local lad doing well.

I read his first book which was his story of his medical career and I was interested to see how his fiction debut would go.

Well it was great, I have a feeling that a lot of it is based around his true life and there is a lot of Mama Khan in there!!

This is a really funny read which will appeal to all readers.

I have to admit, I’m not really into love romance novels but the synopsis and title had me interested and I was so happy to be able to read and review Amir Khan’s first novel.

The storyline follows a Muslim Pakistani doctor called Yousef who falls in love with a non Muslim Pakistani girl and his trials and tribulations of telling his very traditional Pakistani mother. Will he be brave enough to tell her and marry the girl of his dreams or will he continue to make his mothers dreams come true?

The story also follows Rehana, his younger sister and her journey on being second best in the family because she is the girl. As a Bangladeshi Muslim girl myself with an older brother, I could relate to Rehena in so many ways and I was constantly routing for her to find her happily ever after. It is amazing to see how similar the Pakistani and Bangladeshi cultures are and the mindset of the older generation.

Rohit, Yousef’s Hindu best friend from uni also tries to find love and comes to the conclusion that he will never be able to experience love and marriage after many failed attempts of speeding dating, online dating etc- can an arranged marriage help him or will he forever be the guy attending everyone else’s weddings.

The characters all worked so well throughout the book and I loved how Amir captured each character’s individual personality. A laugh out loud read!

A great book about love, family and traditions and how you feel like you have to live up to expectations set for you when you don't want to. Well written easy to read.

Fabulous read, easy to follow writing. I did love the various perspectives which ready did this book justice since it is centred around a culture that not only is steeped in tradition but one that has also been moulded into the diaspora so getting these differing povs of the various generations allowed for more interesting read and great character development.

I love Dr Amir - he is a great source of all things medical related and he explains them all in a very easy to understand way, even the complicated ones. He is also a very funny guy on social media, especially his interactions with Mama Khan, so... I was over the moon when I got my mitts on an early copy of this book... And I have to say I blooming loved it.
We start way back when in Pakistan with the arranged marriage of Yousef and Rehana's parents, specifically from his mother Feroza's point of view. Fast forward and we reconnect with Yousef as he, the dutiful Pakistani son, starts his medical degree. Free from the clutches of his parents, Yousef meanders off that path when he falls for fellow medical student Jess. They date all through their training. Yousef keeping her a secret from his parents but promising that he will tell them eventually.
This works reasonably well until just before he is due to graduate and Feroza starts to talk about arranged marriages for both him and his sister...
I absolutely loved this introduction (for me) into this way of life. I especially loved that Yousef's best friend was Indian so, between the three main characters we have a lot of interesting diversity. There is a glossary at the back for some of the vocabulary used but, as I was reading an eBook it wasn't very practical for me so I didn't use it. Turns out, it wasn't that bad of a thing as the context explained the words very well without.
As with Dr Amir's social media, there is an awful lot of humour in the book. This keeps the book balanced as, as you would expect, there is also quite a bit of emotion herein too. Feroza was an exceptionally well created character and I absolutely loved some of her scenes. I especially loved the way she "handled" her husband at times...!
The story is a wee bit predictable and, if it wasn't for the characters being so brilliant, it wouldn't be as good. Definitely more character driven than anything else, and I was also a little dubious about the timeline and what had and hadn't moved on since the jump. But, after all is said and done, the book was so entertaining (and that's the point) so I am not going to worry about a few niggles here and there...
All in all a cracking book that I have no hesitation in recommending. I know he is insanely busy with the day job and everything else he has on his plate but I do hope there is another book bubbling up inside of him... I'll definitely be up for that! My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This is the first novel from Dr Amir Khan and one I have been hotly anticipating. i find his personality vibrant and addictive and was hoping that would shine through in his writing, and it really does. The book is wonderfully warm, poignant and insightful. Arranged marriages aren't something I know a huge ammount about so a wonderfully honest exploration of the subject was a delight to read.

What a brilliant debut novel! How (Not) To Have An Arranged Marriage centers on Yousef who has met the love of his life, Jess, but is expected to marry a Pakistani girl. This book is a fascinating glimpse into modern arranged marriages told from several different perspectives. I found some of the characters frustrating in places and it was quite a predictable read but I couldn't put it down. It's an amusing and easy book that opened my eyes to a tradition that I didn't know much about.

https://eatwell2015.wordpress.com/2023/08/28/how-not-to-have-an-arranged-marriage-dr-amir-khan/

A fantastic first novel, not to be missed!

Yousef is adored by his mother , she favours her son over her daughter . She will stop at nothing to get her way ,her son will be a surgeon and he will marry a GP or a dermatologist ( even if he doesn’t want to!).
Feroza is Yousef’s mother and she has very traditional values and is slowly making her son very unhappy .
Whilst at university he had a relationship with Jess but could never bring himself to tell his family about her afraid of bringing shame to the family name . So instead he ends his relationship with Jess and his mother embarks on finding him a girl to marry with the help of a match maker .
The characters are amiable other than Feroza who is a force to be reckoned with , it’s her way or no way she is traditional and her family must be better than anyone else’s
The story is poignant , full of insight and also heartwarming and makes for an enjoyable read.
The writing is easy to read and I read page after page needing to know if Yousef would eventually be happy .
A different read for me and one I would highly recommend!
Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan.

I really liked the characters and their situations were interesting, but unfortunately I found the writing style to be quite difficult to connect with. It was brilliantly informative, but I just didn’t get an emotional connection. Which was a real shame, as I really enjoyed the concept.
I think this would probably translate really well into a tv show or film.

You will be totally invested in the characters and their issues. This is a very timely issue torn between following a path defined by his parents but Yousef has fallen in love with a white girl.
Does he break Jessica's heart or his parents?
Living your own life or for your parents.

I really enjoyed this!

How (not) to have an arranged marriage looked like a rom-com from the cover but it is nuanced take on the difficulties faced by the Indian and Pakistani diaspora in a post-brexit Britain. It follows a set of Muslim siblings post-university - one who happily engages in the matchmaking process and the other who has been having a secret relationship with a white girl during University. It also follows said girl and details how the secrecy around their relationship damages her and then it follows their friend, who is a Hindu graduate who struggles attracting women on his own and also enlists in his family to matchmake for him.

It’s quite witty and an interesting, easy but thought provoking read. I’m always interested in other cultures and particularly liked that it highlighted some of the similarities between cultures, with overprotective parents being a theme in all. It also showed that even whether cross-cultural relationships could be viewed as an issue, that friendships and relationships still sprung up between different cultures.

Overall, I would recommend and I hope the author writes more books in a similar vein.