I’ll admit that for the first few chapters, I wasn’t particularly taken with this book. I actually considered DNFing quite early on, but I stuck with it and it more than redeemed itself!

The book is split into two parts, one set in the USA and one in Iran. While the latter was much more compelling, the set-up of the first half was necessary to get there. In the first half we meet the main character and her mother (my personal favourite character), and we’re introduced to their complex relationship. The tone is fairly light-hearted, with witty observations about class, money, academia, and romance.

The tone is very different in the second half. Much like in real life, when something terrible happens, everything changes. It was very jarring but I think it was to good effect, and took the story on a sharp turn from the trajectory it had been on.

The final few chapters were the crowning glory, as the main character deals with grief, the fallout of her bereavement and inheritance, and starts to rebuild her life. The way Mariam Rahmani managed to bring all of the themes from the first half into those final chapters for the perfect full circle was masterful, and turned this from a good book into a great book.

I went into this book not really knowing what to expect, and I’m so glad I stuck with it. What started as a romcom-style story became a brilliantly observational slice-of-life story, and I absolutely loved it.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

Liquid tells the story of a young Muslim scholar, who decides to give up her failing career in academia and marry rich, planning to go on 100 dates in one summer. It’s told through meandering prose, reflecting on the problematic parts of academia, alongside growing up as a Muslim in the US. There was a lot of insightful commentary which I found really interesting and I enjoyed how this explored themes such as family and relationships.

However, this was definitely more vibes than plot, which I sometimes love, but it didn’t really work for me this time. I wanted something with a bit more bite and unfortunately the narrator wasn’t enough to keep me engaged. If you’re looking for something very literary and introspective this might be for you though!

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy 😊

I'm really on the fence about how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the first 50 pages or so but then found it to be quite dull after that. It's not really what it is marketed as and I don't know if it had been marketed correctly that would change my rating, but I just feel quite let down and underwhelmed. Honestly, the writing is really good but the execution of the plot falls flat.

I can't quite make my mind up if this is a super-clever novel, or one that is a bit confused. I'd like to think for former. In two distinct parts, the first is funny, contemporary, modern: girl wants love, goes looking, type of thing. It's funny, wry, has promise. The second is an entirely different style, doused in grief and an entirely different reading experience. I'm taking the title as a clue to the 'liquidity' of the narrative, and 'a love story' as a sardonic comment on relationships today. I might be wrong. My thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers for the ARC.

This was quite an interesting book with the protagonist searching for love and meaning in her life post PhD and trying to find it mainly through a series of blind dates. However, I found the author's writing style quite annoying and pretentious at times.
Thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book

I picked this up on a whim and am not sorry, even though it's a romance (it's in the title so I can't say I wasn't warned).

I feel like I was being pandered to with all the lit crit references, and I'm not even mad about it - I loved that. Theory with a capital T, indeed.

The comps are all too easy - if you like Elif Shafak, you'll like this, I think. I do, and I did.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy.

*Liquid* is a hybrid of two distinct narratives—one exploring romantic love and the other grief and connection. The first half reminded me of novels like Nicola Dinan’s 'Bellies', while the second evoked 'Enter Ghost' by Isabella Hammad. However, the book often feels disjointed, and the main character comes across as pretentious and unlikeable which can be an interesting perspective in this kind of story. She navigates a transitional period in her life, using dating as an anchor to reality and others.

While the novel touches on compelling themes—diaspora, identity, religion, family, and love—it struggles to shape them into a cohesive story with a consistent tone and structure. Though I enjoyed parts of the reading experience, I found the protagonist’s pervasive disdain for others unnecessary and off-putting.

It was fun and interesting at times, I loved some of the more reflective parts and the way in which translation and language is used through the book. I think this one will work for those who love romantic comedies with a LGTBQ twist. The section in Tehran is quite compelling as well.

Well written, witty and sharp, I didn't really relate to the main character but I loved the parts in Teheran which were more mellow.

I would challenge that this book is a romantic comedy, as honestly I am struggling to comprehend that from the initial synopsis after finishing the story. Yes there are some moments that could be considered witty but really it just came across pretentious and a heavy eye roll from me followed!

There is no love story or romance here, our main character is the narrator they decide to go on 100 dates to be able to find the person to marry, ideally rich. There are two parts to the story the first part is around the journey for some of the said dates, including a snap shot of an excellent spreadsheet which was eye opening! Part two is a change of pace which is welcomed but much more focused on the developing story of her very unwell father back in Tehran. This is quite a drastic change but I generally felt most of the characters were quite unlikable, shallow and to say it again pretentious.

The ending was rather predictable and I generally struggled with the story and the characters. If you enjoy some general rhetoric LA literacy that really is for you a literacy critic dream perhaps! Thank for the opportunity to read and I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author. It is well written but unfortunately I cannot say I enjoyed. I would advise make your own opinion when the book is released on the 1st May.

Liquid is a novel about a recently graduated woman with a PhD deciding to marry for money, only for life to take her in a different direction. The unnamed narrator is getting nowhere in the academic job market so when her best friend Adam suggests she marry for money, she takes it as a plan, trying to date a range of people in L.A. in the hope of finding a more financially viable life than writing a course outline for a course on romcoms she'll be rejected from teaching. When unexpected news takes her to Tehran to deal with a family emergency, her plan goes on hold, but maybe the stability she was looking for was something else entirely.

This book is something of a literary fiction romcom, with disjointed parts that come together to make it that overall hybrid. The first half sets up a romcom of academia, with the desperation of an out of work PhD graduate trying to find someone to marry, and then the second half is more of a literary style exploration of someone looking for self in a country they feel a complicated connection to, whilst dealing with family tragedy. One of the most potentially divisive things about the book is that the ending returns to the romcom, without really dealing with much the narrator has faced or avoided.

The main unifying factor across the parts, other than the narrator herself and her position as a Muslim American in the US and Iran, is an ongoing thread around the concept of inheriting houses, which could've been delved into even further alongside bits of commentary around independent wealth being needed for art (and, by extension though its not as explicit discussed in the narrative, academia). There's a lot around class and race and gender in the book, sometimes with space to be explored and sometimes not so much. For example, due to the fast-paced, at times confusing tone of the first half, there's not much depth to the narrator as a queer Muslim woman dating a wide range of people in L.A. so it feels more like half-thought out bits of a montage in a romcom film than something with more depth. The second half is slower and has more space for introspection, and I found it more enjoyable to read, but it also very predictably set up where the book was going in a way that wasn't subverted at all.

This is the sort of book that plays with a lot of ideas and two distinct styles of novel, and in doing so probably makes a book that isn't entirely satisfying to either people looking for the romcom or the literary fiction search for purpose. At times it feels written entirely for people who've got humanities PhDs from the US, but then I guess many campus novels do, and at times this feels like a campus novel without a campus and the tragedy of not having one and having to find something else to do. On reflection, the book is clever, but sometimes at the expense of it being enjoyable to read, and I wish the romcom ending had enough space to be interesting and not just predictable.

A sharp, witty and thought-provoking exploration of love, identity and the contradictions of modern life.

In Liquid, A Love Story, the unnamed Iranian-Indian American narrator is a PhD graduate who prides herself on being the smartest person in the room. After earning her degree from UCLA, she feels no closer to the middle-class comfort she expected from her education or the successes of her immigrant parents. Instead, she’s stuck in a place between expectations and reality. When her best friend, Adam, jokingly suggests that she marry rich, the narrator takes the idea to heart, creating a spreadsheet to track 100 dates with potential suitors and aiming for a marriage proposal by the start of the fall semester.

The summer that follows is a whirlwind of quirky dates with a variety of potential partners, each more bizarre than the last. From martinis with the heir to a construction empire to board games with a wealthy producer, the narrator navigates the absurdities of dating in a way that is both humourous and deeply revealing. Yet, as she embarks on her quest, doubts begin to surface, and the real work of introspection begins.

The first half of the book is filled with vibrant descriptions and cultural analysis as the narrator reflects on her upbringing, her friendships, and the media that shaped her understanding of love. Living in Los Angeles as a half-Iranian woman, the city becomes a character in its own right, with recognisable streets and landmarks that anyone familiar with the area will appreciate.

However, the tone shifts dramatically when a tragedy in Tehran forces the narrator to return home to care for her father. This section of the book is poignant and beautifully written, as the narrator reevaluates her relationship with love, money, family, and her own identity.

Liquid is a compelling mix of humour, cultural insight, and emotional depth. Rahmani's portrayal of academia, the search for love, and the complexities of immigrant life are both relatable and poignant. This is a book about contradictions—the contradictions of modern relationships, personal expectations, and the journey to understanding oneself. It’s an engaging read for anyone interested in exploring the intersection of love, identity, and the pressures of modern life.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

This is quite fun but it feels a bit messy and could do with a more purposeful edit. It's a bit like chic lit-plus as it deals with issues around race in America merged with the problems of the education system as a recent PhD graduate is left workless and aimless after graduating.

At times the writing feels way too try-hard: 'as light as the foam on that first sour, which through the sparkly tulle of my intoxication now seemed ...' -a simile and a metaphor crammed into one sentence is way too much. Also, 'with a pop the chef-owner decanted the creamy sap of a true capital-C Champagne into our coupe's gaping mouths' - just dreadful, unnecessary and distracting for drinks being poured!

It feels like Rahmani has something to say but all the diversions of films she's watching and other distractions get in the way. Nevertheless, there's something warm here that made me want to persevere.

Liquid is a sharp and entertaining novel that balances a sitcom-esque presence with some deep and interesting character development. I felt the author absolutely nailed the sense of empathy and connection to the unnamed protagonist; the revelations she experiences through the plot are similar to my experience reading the book, as the deeper meaning of the narrative slowly sinks in. There’s a lot more going on in the story than I first thought!

Life isn’t meeting the expectations of the lead character in Liquid, at the end of a PhD and with no further work lined up after the summer break. She decides to take her friend’s tongue-in-cheek advice seriously and just ‘marry rich’, so tries to go on 100 dates before the end of summer. I really enjoyed the meta-commentary on rom-com films throughout the story, as this story could absolutely be turned into such a film! An entertaining premise with opportunities abound for absurd capers and misadventures, but with a sneaky focus on what’s led the lead character to these life choices. The story is unpredictable and absolutely didn’t go the way I was expecting - it forces our protagonist to evaluate what she’s really after in life, by providing for her everything she needs in a way she didn't expect.

This is an easy recommendation for romance readers and romcom fans, though I’d encourage those who occasionally visit the genre to try it too. The commentary on dating and relationships is razor-sharp, and the character development is extensive enough to give the book a bit of weight and depth.

I'll start by saying I picked this book up because it's out of my comfort zone and I wanted to expand my horizons and challenge myself, gain new perspectives and understanding.

I wouldn't say it was an enjoyable read for me but I can appreciate that there is some lovely prose, important representation and a solid set of characters and plot. It was in truth, a little too academic for taste, as well as overall being a much a sadder, more dense and raw read than what I'd been expecting - particularly the second half. It felt like a book of two halves to me and think it felt disjointed at times. That being said, I think I learned quite a bit reading this, and reckon it's an important read for challenging some pre-existing biases around race, gender, sexuality and religion.

I found some of the descriptions around the main character's father's illness and death quite distressing, and wouldn't recommend to anyone that is sensitive to depictions of a hospital death.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Liquid follows a Muslim woman who has finished her PhD but is single, broke and stuck in a dead end job. She decides marrying rich is her only option so decides to date over the summer. Some tragic news hits her family and she has to go to Tehran. This will force her to question her purpose in life and love.

I appreciate this book in a lot of ways and I liked seeing the Muslim and LGBTQ+ representation. This felt quite clever at times and there was casual critique of colonialism. The first half of this book is about being disillusioned with academia in the way that a capitalist society doesn’t value academic pursuits monetarily. I appreciated all the commentary on this and I would recommend this for fans of Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou.