Oh boy, this book is way too much sweeter than I expected. I adored those characters and their slow building, cutest romance story, the witty dialogues, heartbreaks, finding the love of your life and the power of chasing your dreams premise.

Don’t get me wrong this is not only YA sweet, soft romance/ fiction novel. There are so many political, social, class, racial, religion issues are perfectly blended into this moving, emotional story. It softly brushes your soul and warms your heart.

You deeply care for the characters and their struggles, their fights for realizing their own dreams, their self-discovery journey against the society and their family’s traditional beliefs!

Let’s know more about the characters starting with Danyal Jilani, chasing his unrequited love to Kaval. He wants to show her and her family he can be an ideal husband candidate. But how? He has his own secret dreams to be a chef which will never be accepted or approved by her own traditional family. He knows that he is not the smartest guy. He’s cute but not stunningly handsome. But he is still funny, witty, likable and friendly. There are more about him but you gotta dig deeper and spend more time with him.

Oh, did I mention that he is just chosen to represent his history class at Renaissance Man- a highly respected academic competition- which gives him more panic attacks! This should be a special opportunity but he doesn’t like to be under spotlights! Thankfully our nerdy, book-worm, cute heroine Bisma Akran, a microbiology student spending most of her time at the libraries and devouring the comic books appears when he needs urgent help!

First they became teammates and when they start to know each other they become friends and share secrets. Danyal cooks for her and likes to see her smile. He starts to like more other things about her! And he realizes… yes, two of them are so adorable and they complete each other perfectly. But as I said before this is not only entertaining, feel-good, friends to lovers story! There are so much angst, cultural, traditional barriers and heart wrenching family problems.

Overall: I had a great time and I enjoyed to read multicultural, diversity YA romance/Fiction story. It’s definitely a winner! I think I should request the other thought-provoking good of the author ASAP!

Special Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for sharing this incredibly lovely ARC with me in exchange my honest review.

Oof. I hate to DNF a book based on my dislike of the writing style, but I think I’m going to have to DNF. It won’t be fair to the book if I force myself to continue. YMMV.

There are a lot of reasons for you to pick up More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed M. Massood. I would like to introduce you to the most important one, which above all else will make you fall head over heels in love with this book: Danyal Jilani.

Our main character, Danyal, is everything we love. He is a confident, handsome 19-year-old high school student who works part time as a chef in a French restaurant. His Muslim parents try to set him up with various marriage prospects, but Danyal only has one girl on his mind: the beautiful Kaval.

When his parents introduce him to the superhero-shirt wearing book-nerd Bisma, who has a secret of her own, he befriends her and even asks her for advice regarding Kaval. He accidentally gets nominated for the Renaissance Man, a competition in his high school, which usually only features the best and brightest. Danyal knows that he is neither, at least not in the GPA, grades, and books kind of way. He is supposed to write and present a historical topic about Winston Churchill and is torn between what his teacher, his father and Kaval expect of him; which is praising the man, and, telling the truth about some of his actions while colonialising India. He asks Bisma for help and somewhere in between trips to restaurants, library meetings and early morning runs, Danyal realises that maybe Kaval isn’t the only beautiful girl in his life.

First of all, the representation! I was so happy to read a novel in which I could dive into a culture, beliefs, and a point of view, which I had not previously been exposed to (and I am asking myself: Why not?). I think this is an important story, especially in our current day and age. While we get a swoon-worthy, self-confident desi chef (who secretly isn’t as confident as he makes himself out to be) and who makes fantastic croissants, we also get to see the world of a Pakistani-American teenager, trying to navigate his life between ‘the American dream’ and religion. The novel explores a young man trying to understand the world as it is, while still believing in humanity, even though he discovers historic events contrary to that belief and realises that racism is devastatingly still a thing. Danyal also tries to please his parents and make himself happy and, above all, we see Danyal trying to choose between right and wrong and questioning, who even decides what is acceptable and what isn’t?

Besides the themes that will undoubtedly make you think about the world we live in and our own parts in it, this is a story about love, first love, and true love. It is a story about friendship, about fighting for one another, about family, and about being unapologetically yourself.

If you, like me, love a story with relatable characters, a fierce main character who indeed is more than just a pretty face, and a romance to absolutely die for, this is the book for you. Furthermore, if you enjoy good character development and superb pacing, I will promise you, that you will adore this novel.

In short: I laughed, I cried, and from now on, I consider “you have a beautiful face pond” to be the compliments of all compliments. It is my absolute pleasure to give More Than Just A Pretty Face a score from 10/10, accompanied by an invisible 100 emoji.

I'm so glad I got to read this. It's a new favorite! This was such a great story: smart, sweet, funny, charming - I highly recommend it!