I read Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed without really knowing that it was about. I'd read a previous book by the same author and figured I'd request it on a whim and take my chances. I'm so glad that I did as Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know was really fascinating and unravelling this mystery of Leila and also navigating Khayyam's love life really kept me on the edge of my seat.

I loved that this book was set in Paris, I loved the descriptions of different foods and pastries, the swoony flirting with a cute French boy gave me heart palpitations, and it was just really interesting to discover this link between Byron, Alexandre Dumas and the artist Delacroix. Extra points for all the points made about POC and about finding a way to give a voice to a woman who history had silenced.

17-year-old Khayyam Maquet -American, French, Indian, Muslim- should be having an amazing summer in Paris but instead has to deal with academic and personal issues. After submitting an innovative, yet controversial essay to a scholarship, Khayyam received a scathing rebuke from a judge and worries that she won't get into her dream school, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her maybe ex-boyfriend is also posting photos with other girls, and Khayyam would rather be in Chicago instead of Paris.
When visiting her favorite painting in Paris, Khayyam meets a descendant of Alexandre Dumas and he has a connection to her essay. The pair team up to unravel the mysteries of the painting and its true history. Khayyam's investigation of The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan by Eugène Delacroix intersects with the life of Leila, an odalisque in the imperial Ottoman harem at Topkapı Sarayı. Dealing with romantic complications, friendships, figuring out college, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know writes herstory in an expertly crafted contemporary YA meets history epic!
As a history nerd, teenage me would have been OBSESSED with MBADTK. Adult me is equally enamored of this book. Ahmed does an excellent job of exploring identity, ways of belonging, and Othering in a compelling and important history mystery. Khayyam is incredibly relatable; she makes mistakes, but isn't afraid to learn from them. Life is messy - especially when you're in the moment between the end of high school and starting college. Ahmed's writing is beautiful and empathetic

I was provided the e-ARC for this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who loves reading about art history, Khayyam hooked me in with her failed paper about a missing Delacroix. A possible connection to Alexandre Dumas and Lord Byron was the topping on the cake. But when taking a bite, I found the cake not as delicious as I had expected.
As an avid reader of YA stories, I am no stranger to characters acting a bit childish and immature in ways that teenagers often do. Khayyam is such a teenager and you can chalk up her actions, emotions and antics to her being that; but for me, it does not erase the fact she seems oddly two-dimensional. The only facets her character being her failed paper that she wants to redo and achieve appropriate reward for, and her relationship with her ‘ex-boyfriend’ and new love interest. In contrast to her, there is Leila; whose POV we only get to see for maybe 20% of the book and find about through speculative theories from the present. Leila seems so much more real and believable than Khayyam.
The flow of the narrative was succinct and adequate, even perfect; but the caricature-ness of the characters bugged me throughout the book. It feels like the book tries to build a complex structure without having a firm foundation, which leaves it wobbly at best and toppling at worst. The ‘feminist’ streak of Khayyam seems to appear and disappear at random. Although I enjoyed and agreed with her views on colonialism and orientalism, there seem to be massive gaps in her information about events she brings up often*. The connection that she feels with Leila is self-explanatory, but its strength confuses me and is never fully explicated.
Overall, I did enjoy the premise of this book but a lot of times, it feels like it is trying to be something it’s not ready for. I do believe padding the length of the book with small instances here and there would have given more credibility and originality to the characters. But it is a well-written book with a mysterious plot and a satisfying conclusion.



* One such event is the partition of India and Pakistan which she seemed to have only a surface knowledge about. As an Indian, I grew up learning about the freedom struggle we had with colonialist Britain and I have a lot of information on it which led me to being annoyed by Khayyam’s views on the topic.

I could not stop smiling while reading this. It was so well crafted and I loved the cast. I felt like I was in Paris, even as I'm in isolation.

Ahmed. It was so good. I really admire Khayyam, the setting, and the message of writing your own story.
Ahmed is one of my favorite authors of all time. I will definitely be re reading this book again because I could not put it down.
I also highly recommend Internment and Love, Hate and Other Filters. .
.

Samira Ahmed takes readers on an epic quest in this book; filled with mystery, romance, and art (visual and literary). There are two stories told in Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know. One is of a modern day, aspiring art historian named Khayyam whose research into a missing painting by Eugene Delacroix has caused nothing but laughter in the world of professional art historians. Khayyam believes that this painting was given to the French author Alexandre Dumas, but she can't prove it. Well, not until she meets the great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of the original Alexandre Dumas on a trip to Paris with her parents for the summer. They set off searching for the real answers to this artistic mystery. Khayyam's story is told in the first person perspective, but mixed in with her story is the story of Leila, a concubine to a violent Pasha over two hundred years ago.

Leila and Khayyam are both confident women who want to make their own choices in life. They want to be successful on their own terms. They are also both in love with young men who often interrupt their journeys to success. Sometimes these interruptions are desired and appreciated. At other times, they are unwelcome and patriarchal. Leila and Khayyam's stories are connected in multiple intriguing ways throughout the book.

Ahmed does a remarkable job of setting up the mystery involved in this story. She gives only enough information to keep readers on the edge of their seats and slowly shows how the two stories are connected. She creates multiple parallels in the stories of Leila and Khayyam, showing how the world has improved for women and also how much is still unequal in society today.

Khayyam is a very modern young woman and her voice is humorous, intelligent, and sometimes naive, all qualities that will be recognizable to young readers. Leila becomes the focus of Khayyam's research and the reader wants her to be acknowledged as much as Khayyam by the time they are wrapped up in her story. This is a story that will engage readers and spark an interest in history as well.

Brown Nancy Drew meets Paris. Great to read a book not set in America. Loved the dreamy atmosphere, sprinkled French throughout, and imagined history. The romance and love triangle was surprisingly well done and that along with the mystery kept me interested. This intrigued me enough to dive into Samira Ahmed’s backlist. I liked the book so much I purchased my own Kindle and Audible editions.

Classic literature takes center stage in Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, the story of one girl’s search for the woman who inspired several of Lord Byron’s epic poems.

Khayyam Macquet believes she has just tanked her university career – and in typical teenage hyperbole can’t help wondering if that means she has tanked her whole life. She had been convinced French artist Eugène Delacroix had gifted the famous writer Alexandre Dumas a painting from his The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan series inspired by Lord Byron’s 1813 poem The Giaour. She’d submitted a “mind blowing essay” to the Young Scholar Prize at the School of Art Institute of Chicago based on that theory, which was soundly rebuffed. This puts a black mark on her application to attend that illustrious school, which just happens to be her dream college. When her family takes their annual summer trip to Paris – her professor father is French – she is bereft. Not only does this deny her the chance to fix the mess she created (if such a thing were even possible), it pulls her away from her best friend and love of her life Zaid. Forced to take a long, hot walk along the quais of the Seine River in order to reach the Courtyard Café of the Petit Palais, her favorite Parisian refuge, she finds herself stepping in dog poo. Her crappy summer has reached its shitty zenith.

Fortunately, it’s about to get a lot better. In a stroke of unbelievable luck the young man who stops to sympathize over her unfortunate doggy-doo issue is a descendant of Dumas, who is himself doing research regarding the history of his illustrious family. What are the odds? Also named Alexandre Dumas, because that isn’t in the least confusing in a book about a painting given to the writer of that name, he and Khayam quickly join forces to solve a puzzle invoked by a single sentence in one of Monsieur Dumas’ letters: Seek the woman, find the treasure. Khayyam hopes, given the province of the letter, the treasure will be a painting and her original thesis will be justified.

The story revolves around four main elements. The first is the character of Leila, the woman who inspired Byron’s epic fantasy The Giaour. She is the haseki (favorite) of a mighty Pasha and the friend of a Jinn (fairy). She has risen to a top position in the harem but she has a powerful enemy in Valide, head of the women’s court. She also has a dangerous secret – a lover who sneaks into the palace to meet her in an enchanted garden. If she is caught, she will die. Fearing every moment might be her last, Leila spots a slim chance for freedom when a handsome young Englishman comes to the court.

Leila’s tale is a retelling of Byron’s poem and is steeped in the history of the ancient middle east and magic. I loved it.

Another narrative within the novel is the chronicle of Le Club des Hachichins, of which Dumas and Delacroix were both members. This group met to take hashish, have their fortunes told and explore the spiritual realm through their enlightened senses. Their guide through these enchanted sessions is a mysterious beauty with raven tresses whom Alexandre and Khayyam believe to be the woman spoken of in the Dumas letter. Their search for her leads them through Parisian libraries, abandoned buildings, secret rooms and finally, to the Château de Monte-Cristo, the gorgeous home built by the author himself. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Leila juxtaposed with the search for her hundreds of years later and I liked how the author used the investigation to explore her primary idea of how, “In the end, we all become stories.”

Khayyam’s tangled love life is another important feature within the novel. Because the story is told in first person, we see the relationships with Zaid and Alexandre only through her eyes, which works because the author’s primary focus isn’t the romances themselves but what Khayyam discovers about herself, men and what she wants from life and love through them. Khayyam’s relationships also serve as a soft echo of Leila’s own complicated affairs and how those alliances changed her as a person. The author does a nice job with these entanglements, showing how we grow and change through our interactions with others.

The final element driving the story was one I didn’t much enjoy. Khayyam’s personality is primarily expressed through near endless virtue signalling. It’s so blatant and prevalent that it seems as though she has no conversations where her political opinions on the subjugation of women or racism or the superiority of liberal politics don’t play some role. I would have loved it had these elements been included as a thread spun throughout the tale but the author seems to feel subtlety would be wasted on her audience and treats us to statements like,

“Zaid knows his privilege is different than mine. I’m a kid of academics who inherited an apartment in Paris that they never could have afforded. But he has uber privilege. Finance money privilege. The kind of money that may not be able to pay for a brand-new building at the school but definitely a classroom or wing. To be fair, Zaid’s parents are good about not being showy, and their politics lean left – far left – and they donate to all the right causes.”

In the same paragraph, explaining why it’s okay for her and Zaid to live in a fancy neighborhood she says, “if you’re an ostentatious, conservative prick, people call you out on it.”

Apparently her family and Zaid’s are acceptable because they are what her dad calls “gauche cavier. In the American vernacular, Limousine Liberals. “ Khayyam, who enjoys summer trips to France, attends an excellent school, and jaunts about Paris without a care to the expense of such a thing or with any idea how many families would never be able to afford the tickets, much less the taxes on the apartment that make all that possible, seems self-aware only when she is self-labeling. She lives “in the world between spaces. The borders between nations, the invisible hyphen between words, the wide chasm between “one of us” and me alone. French American. Indian American. Muslim American. Biracial. Interfaith. Child of immigrants.”

All of this makes Khayyam a sometimes uncomfortable, often preachy guide for our adventure but fortunately, the adventure is one well worth having. Fans who enjoy the dual timeline stories of authors such as Susanna Kearsley and Lauren Willig and who don’t mind having an occasionally obnoxious teen narrator accompany them on their journey through history will find a lot to love in Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know. I would also recommend it as a good introduction to some classic literature for teens who haven’t yet had the chance to be exposed to Byron or Dumas and to fans of those two writers who might enjoy this simply for the glimpses it gives us into their lives.

The title of this book had me from the beginning. I loved the book. I have enjoyed the other books by Samira Ahmed. Both of her previous books confronts real issues with two completely different storylines. This follows the same path. In this story she confronts the idea that women are not always heard even now in today's society and must fight for others to hear them. In Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know she also takes us on a trip back into time when women really were not heard and thought of as property. I loved the alternating stories of Leila and Khayyham and how it was mixed with real artists in history. I really enjoyed Khayyham's sarcastic personality and spiritual side of Leila's personality.
The setting of Paris was beautiful and romantic. I loved the walks through the streets and into the little hidden nooks in the city. There were some parts in the French language and some references to French culture that may get lost on some readers. These are little parts that are hard to pick up in textbooks unless you have lived or visited a French country. I really wanted to drink an Orangina several times in this book!
I enjoyed the relationship between Alexandre and Khayyham but the love triangle with Zaid was not really my cup of tea. I zoned out a bit with her inner dialogue about Zaid. Overall another great read from Samira Ahmed. Thank you NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Zut alors! Très magnifique!
This book takes you around the world. So many cultures, so much history.
Khayyam spends her summer vacation in Paris, France. Meets Alexandre Dumas great grand son and has hopes of rectifying her epic fail of an essay for The Art Institute. It all started with a theory that the famous artist Delacroix gave Alexandre Dumas a painting. A missing Delacroix painting no one has seen. Khayyam hopes to win the scholars prize from the Art Institute and Alexandre (Dumas great grand son) hopes to save his family’s legacy, they go a quest to solve a 150 year old mystery.
Along the way they discover a woman, ‘La belle dames des cheveux raven”, and with more digging and sleuthing we learn her name is Leila.
Middle eastern cultures, French culture, and American culture all come together in this novel. We get Khayyam’s and Leila’s POVs throughout. How these women from two different eras are connected. Of course with it being set in Paris, there is also romance and heartbreak, connections and betrayal.
I absolutely loved this novel, the only downside was Khayyam’s love life. You knew where it was going but the mystery and sleuthing kept me interested. Ultimately how the novel ended made Khayyam’s love life relevant to the overall story.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've never read a book quite like this. On the one hand, Ahmed delivered a contemporary meet-cute romance set in the European city of love, but on the other she has delivered a feminist tale full of surprises and enriched in cultural and historical value. I love learning more about art history, and specially about all the women that history completely erased and forgot. This was fascinating, fun and insightful, and even though it ticked all the boxes for me, I just wish it the love triangle was a bit less prevalent in the story and in Khayyam's life.

What a perfect way to kick off my April reading and celebrate #NationalPoetryMonth.

Mad, Bad, & Dangerous to Know is told from alternating narratives from the perspective of two young women centuries apart. First, it’s current-day August in Paris, and 17-year old Khayyam (named after the Persian poet Omar Khayyam) is on vacation with her parents. We find that Khayyam is distracted by a disheartening critique of her scholarship essay for her dream college, and her maybe-ex-boyfriend is ghosting her, making her re-evaluate their entire relationship in the most romantic city in the world. (Not fun)

We then hear from Leila, who is given the favored status in the Pasha’s harem, and must survive while also keeping her true love a secret. With the help of a descendant of Alexandre Dumas, Khayyam takes it upon herself to learn more about a 19th century Muslim women who may have crossed paths with Alexandre Dumas, Lord Byron, and Eugène Delacroix.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot, but I will say that this book is a dream come true for art history and literature lovers alike. I absolutely love art history mysteries, and enjoyed Samira Ahmed’s way of reframing the unnamed woman figure found in so many artworks, letters, and novels. This story is especially important because it is ultimately about women reclaiming and telling their stories, as well as a greater discussion as to who is entitled to share these stories. I enjoyed that Khayyam was not afraid to engage with the more difficult aspects of museum studies and art history, like colonialism, the erasure of women and POC voices, and the way women’s stories are often exploited in art and literature without receiving credit.

On a totally personal note, I also loved how she was the daughter of professors and was genuinely interested in scholarship and research. I felt she was also relatable because I think people who pursue graduate studies are always hoping they’ll make a great discovery worthy of publication and research grants. But I think books like this really make you reassess who are the true victors in the pursuit of academic fame and discovery.

The setting of Paris and the plot are perfect if you want to read something to escape into for a bit. It’s got romance, mystery, French pastries (!!!), art history, and strong, smart female characters. I highly recommend checking it out!

This one had me a little perplexed. It started off seeming very much like a love-triangle romance between Khayyam, her (ex-)boyfriend and Alexandre Dumas, the hot Parisian descendant of the writer Alexandre Dumas. But at a certain point it switches to a Dan Brown/National Treasure-esque hunt for clues and documents about a women from the 1800s that inspired art by a variety of well-known people, incorporating some (valid) points about women historically taking the backseat to men in the collective memory of society.

If that sounds like a confusing mish-mash, that was pretty much how I was feeling while reading the book. The writing is excellent, but Khayyam's character was very inconsistent and the plot was just too outrageous at times. An interesting attempt, but not one that paid off.

Classic literature takes center stage in Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, the story of one girl’s search for the woman who inspired several of Lord Byron’s epic poems.

Khayyam Macquet believes she has just tanked her university career - and in typical teenage hyperbole can’t help wondering if that means she has tanked her whole life.  She had been convinced French artist Eugène Delacroix had gifted the famous writer Alexandre Dumas a painting from his The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan series inspired by Lord Byron's 1813 poem The Giaour. She’d submitted a “mind blowing essay” to the Young Scholar Prize at the School of Art Institute of Chicago based on that theory, which was soundly rebuffed. This puts a black mark on her application to attend that illustrious school, which just happens to be her dream college. When her family takes their annual summer trip to Paris - her professor father is French - she is bereft. Not only does this deny her the chance to fix the mess she created (if such a thing were even possible), it pulls her away from her best friend and love of her life Zaid. Forced to take a long, hot walk along the quais of the Seine River in order to reach the Courtyard Café of the Petit Palais, her favorite Parisian refuge, she finds herself stepping in dog poo. Her crappy summer has reached its shitty zenith.

Fortunately, it’s about to get a lot better. In a stroke of unbelievable luck the young man who stops to sympathize over her unfortunate doggy-doo issue is a descendant of Dumas, who is himself doing research regarding the history of his illustrious family. What are the odds? Also named Alexandre Dumas, because that isn’t in the least confusing in a book about a painting given to the writer of that name, he and Khayam quickly join forces to solve a puzzle invoked by a single sentence in one of Monsieur Dumas’ letters: Seek the woman, find the treasure. Khayyam hopes, given the province of the letter, the treasure will be a painting and her original thesis will be justified.

The story revolves around four main elements. The first is the character of Leila, the woman who inspired Byron’s epic fantasy The Giaour. She is the haseki (favorite) of a mighty Pasha and the friend of a Jinn (fairy). She has risen to a top position in the harem but she has a powerful enemy in Valide, head of the women’s court. She also has a dangerous secret - a lover who sneaks into the palace to meet her in an enchanted garden. If she is caught, she will die. Fearing every moment might be her last, Leila spots a slim chance for freedom when a handsome young Englishman comes to the court.

Leila’s tale is a retelling of Byron’s poem and is steeped in the history of the ancient middle east and magic. I loved it.

Another narrative within the novel is the chronicle of Le Club des Hachichins, of which Dumas and Delacroix were both members. This group met to take hashish, have their fortunes told and explore the spiritual realm through their enlightened senses. Their guide through these enchanted sessions is a mysterious beauty with raven tresses whom Alexandre and Khayyam believe to be the woman spoken of in the Dumas letter. Their search for her leads them through Parisian libraries, abandoned buildings, secret rooms and finally, to the Château de Monte-Cristo, the gorgeous home built by the author himself. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Leila juxtaposed with the search for her hundreds of years later and I liked  how the author used the investigation to explore her primary idea of how, “In the end, we all become stories.”

Khayyam’s tangled love life is another important feature within the novel. Because the story is told in first person, we see the relationships with Zaid and Alexandre only through her eyes, which works because the author’s primary focus isn’t the romances themselves but what Khayyam discovers about herself, men and what she wants from life and love through them. Khayyam’s relationships also serve as a soft echo of Leila’s own complicated affairs and how those alliances changed her as a person. The author does a nice job with these entanglements, showing how we grow and change through our interactions with others.

The final element driving the story was one I didn’t much enjoy. Khayyam’s personality is primarily expressed through near endless virtue signalling. It’s so blatant and prevalent that it seems as though she has no conversations where her political opinions on the subjugation of women or racism or the superiority of liberal politics don’t play some role. I would have loved it had these elements been included as a thread spun throughout the tale but the author seems to feel subtlety would be wasted on her audience and treats us to statements like,

“Zaid knows his privilege is different than mine. I’m a kid of academics who inherited an apartment in Paris that they never could have afforded. But he has uber privilege. Finance money privilege. The kind of money that may not be able to pay for a brand-new building at the school but definitely a classroom or wing. To be fair, Zaid’s parents are good about not being showy, and their politics lean left - far left - and they donate to all the right causes.”

In the same paragraph, explaining why it’s okay for her and Zaid to live in a fancy neighborhood she says, “if you’re an ostentatious, conservative prick, people call you out on it.”

Apparently her family and Zaid’s are acceptable because they are what her dad calls “gauche cavier. In the American vernacular, Limousine Liberals. “ Khayyam, who enjoys summer trips to France, attends an excellent school, and jaunts about Paris without a care to the expense of such a thing or with any idea how many families would never be able to afford the tickets, much less the taxes on the apartment that make all that possible, seems self-aware only when she is self-labeling. She lives “in the world between spaces. The borders between nations, the invisible hyphen between words, the wide chasm between “one of us” and me alone. French American. Indian American. Muslim American. Biracial. Interfaith. Child of immigrants.”

All of this makes Khayyam a sometimes uncomfortable, often preachy guide for our adventure but fortunately, the adventure is one well worth having. Fans who enjoy the dual timeline stories of authors such as Susanna Kearsley and Lauren Willig and who don’t mind having an occasionally obnoxious teen narrator accompany them on their journey through history will find a lot to love in Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know. I would also recommend it as a good introduction to some classic literature for teens who haven’t yet had the chance to be exposed to Byron or Dumas and to fans of those two writers who might enjoy this simply for the glimpses it gives us into their lives.

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I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know conjured an image in my mind immediately as a lifelong history and literature lover, given it’s often how Lord Byron was described. And I was not disappointed in the fact that this story connects the works of Byron with those of Dumas and Delacroix to create a rich novel steeped in art, literature, and romance.

There are two timelines, one historical and one contemporary, and I enjoyed both for different reasons. Khayyam is awesome. And given I had previously read Ahmed’s previous book, Internment, that was rooted in the anger and fear about the treatment of Muslims in America, I enjoyed seeing the same fire for justice in Khayyam in terms of pushing for women’s rights and trying to find the obscured voices of women throughout history.

I enjoyed her budding romance with Alexandre as they bond over their common scholar’y interests, and come to blows over their contrasting ideas over what to do with certain revelations. I wasn’t as much of a fan of the love triangle (of sorts) with her flaky ex, and was thankful it was only a small plot point that didn’t impact the narrative to a massive degree.

And Leila’s chapters…those are truly beautiful. I was moved by the way she tried to take the reins of her fate, and upset when circumstances prevented her from doing so. And the way her story connected with Khayyam’s, both in the more subtle ways and the more overt ones, is wonderful.

I really enjoyed this book and its celebration of intersectional feminism. I would recommend this to anyone who loves stories about strong women, both teens and adults alike.

Okay, let me preface this review with a disclaimer: I LOVE Samira Ahmed. I think she’s a brilliant YA author who writes spectacular fiction that just happens to be diverse, representative, a beautiful balance of teen + big issues. And this was ABSOLUTELY one of my most anticipated reads of the spring.

That said. I don’t know if it’s just that my brain is distracted by pandemic things and I’m just having a hard time focusing on anything or what, but I struggled with this one. I never really got attached to the characters, I feel like it was a lot of “dive right in without anything to anchor the story” and that made it hard for me to get invested in what was happening or who it was happening to. I’m super willing to revisit this one when my brain is in a better place, because it’s entirely possible that it’s not you, book, it’s me. I’ll still anticipate whatever Ahmed writes. But at first pass, my hopes were higher than this book could deliver on. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an early copy!

Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know was one of my anticipated releases so I was very excited to get the ARC. This book surprised me in the best ways. It was fierce, beautiful and so well-written that I knew from the first few pages that I would love this book.

A Story for and about Literary lovers
This story is a mix of art and history and is set in Paris and all this makes a truly interesting storyline. The Story follows a budding art historian Khayyam who has come to Paris for the summer and has a fate encounter with a guy through whom she falls into a literary mystery. This literary mystery which seems improbable at first becomes a series of revelations and surprises with discovery of Leila, a 19th century Muslim woman whose paths and life may have crossed with Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron. The story takes you through Paris and its history and museums while alternating between the POVs of the two women. It takes you on a journey with them and it leaves you happy at the end.

The literary mystery which unfurls in the story is super interesting and it makes you want to be there with Khayyam and Alexandre exploring and sleuthing in Paris and finding out centuries old literary clues. Honestly, I absolutely adored the whole literary vibe of the book and the mentions of Byron, Dumas and all while also learning about Leila and her life.

Fierce Women Protagonists
The one thing I really loved about this book were the fierce women protagonists. Khayyam is an American Indian, American French, Muslim and from a family of immigrants. She is a budding art historian and has recently suffered a setback in one of her college essays. The one thing I really liked about Khayyam is her passion for the subject. You could feel her passion for art and history. Her talks about feminism, colonialism and racism were well written and realistic and you could feel that it’s not just written for the sake of it. Her actions sometimes were annoying but then when you realise the why and how, it’s better to understand her.

Leila was the 19th century Muslim woman who was in the harem under the care of Pasha and wanted to escape with her true lover. Leila’s story was beautiful and heartbreaking. Her life journey was filled with lots of difficulties and downs and her story was hidden from all. As the story moves forward and her life is uncovered, it is really awesome to read it. The way Leila and Khayyam’s stories are intertwined was amazing and I loved reading about them.

There were other characters like Alexandre, Zaid and Khayyam’s parents and they all had a good part to play and were well fleshed out and interesting. But this was at the core Leila and Khayyam’s story till the end.

Narrative about Women and their stories getting erased
The one main narrative of this book was how the history and stories of women, especially women of color, are erased and it’s always the men who come forward and are shown as the real heroes. There are so many such women and in various fields who are either killed, suppressed, oppressed or their stories never make the frontline and this is only because they’re women. The deep seated patriarchy which has existed since long is explored and it is mentioned at various parts in the book. I really liked reading about it and it was explored in a very unique way in this book!

Romance and Love Triangle
The story had a romance in Paris and it did get really swoony at times. There was a love triangle too which wasn’t my favourite because this is generally not a trope I enjoy but it didn’t affect my reading much. Some of the dialogues were really cute and fun and mixed with the whole literary vibe and Paris setting, it definitely sets the whole vibe well.

Overall, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know is a truly amazing book about two women telling and discovering their stories and themselves. This book has romance, friendship, literary vibes and a literary mystery in Paris. It is really well-written and I would definitely recommend this book for all especially to all the literary and contemporary lovers.

Thank you to the publisher from sending me an eARC through Netgalley. All opinions about the book are my own.

Samira Ahmed’s new novel has it all...mystery, romance, famous English poets, famous French writers, art history! Ahmed has done it again with another exciting and engrossing young adult novel.

As a big fan of Samira's work, I went into this expecting to fall in love with it.
I was not disappointed.
Leila and Khayyam's stories are perfectly intertwined. I'm normally a hard sell on most things historical fiction unless it's historical inspired fantasy. I knew this one might be a little bit more difficult for me, and anyone else like me who thinks that way, because of this. I"m beyond happy to report that this was nowhere near the case. Leila's story fed into Khayyam's in a way that was nearly seamless. I loved it.
Truthfully I could talk about how great this book was all day. I could list how detailed and dynamic the characters were, how the Paris setting was so vivid I felt like I was there, how much care and attention Samira obviously put into the research for the smallest details. I could go on. For a long time. But I think the best thing I could say right now is read it for yourself. You will not regret it.

This was a really enjoyable novel with smart use of dual POV, fascinating historical and cultural details, and a sweet romance. It's perfect for fans of feminism, historical fiction, and a heavy dose of armchair travel. Looking forward to more from Ahmed in the future!