In this book, all of the characters have Pakistani origin and are Muslims. As a Pakistani, when I heard about this book I got so excited that finally, someone is going to represent us. The problem is when an author mentions religion or culture, things can be sensitive if you miss-represent something. But here the scene was  SUPER AWKWARD.

Danyal Jilani, our protagonist, is not the smartest person but he is humorous and of course pretty as the title mentioned. He can be pretty smart when he wants, but no he kept saying offensive things, trying to manipulate religion and justifying it. He isn't even a good friend. He is ignorant and self-centred, his views regarding life are pretty problematic. Did I mention he wants to be a chief in future?

Kaval is Danyal's crush, she is pretty smart and from a sound background. Danyal is smitten with her but isn't able to see that she is way out of her league.

Bisma, another problematic character who one day got angry with her parents. So in the result, she went to a party, got drunk, slept with a guy who recorded everything and posted it online (Why not? we all Muslims do this when we get angry, who cares if drinking and other things are prohibited, right?). She doesn't want to lie to someone, so she tells this story to every potential guy. I got the point that if you made a mistake and wants to overcome, people don't let you do it. But here, she never said that she is guilty or something. Her father is angry on all this scenario so he is the bad guy in the story...Pretty Cool.

Sohrab, Kaval's brother, the only character who was religious but with the story his character became one dimensional and plan. He turned into an annoying guy who doesn't have a life except preaching. Dude, I've seen a lot of practical Muslims around me who prays but also do fun and other stuff in the limit. It's not the first book where a religious person is shown to be a judgemental character, Why even they do that? It is not the right rep.

If I'll talk about the story, it had some serious potential that's why I am more annoyed than ever. I liked the school part, I liked the Danyal being enthusiastic about being the chef part, I liked the way a few situations were handled. This book got so much potential but it just vanished with the story.

I am so so angry about this kind of Muslim representation. Even this book even don't know what to do, characters were saying something doing something. Beliefs and religion are not a joke, but characters were joking around by using them. No this is not cool. Did I mention how some dialogues were so problematic?. At many places, the writing style made me bang my head in the wall.

PRE-MARTIAL SEX IS PROHIBITED IN ISLAM AND YOU CAN'T JUSTIFY IT. It seems to me that the whole book was trying to justify it which made me so angry.

I don't have any problem with any of this thing if this book just doesn't claim to be a Muslim rep...BECAUSE IT ISN'T A MUSLIM REPRESENTATION and it hurts to see books like this.

Mini review:

DNF

I received an E-ARC as apart of the Hear Our Voices blog tour via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to read this book! Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it.

There wasn't anything that I liked about this book. I didn't care for the characters or the plot. However I am happy to see more Muslim books being published.

I still recommend as I'm sure there are others who will enjoy this.

I really enjoyed this book and the look at customs of the Muslim culture that are not often talked about. It was also a very cute love story, that is not a typical love story.

I really enjoyed this book. I was looking for a sweet rom com and this satisfied that inkling. It actually did more than satisfy because I went in thinking I'd know what to expect with the premise, but it was surprisingly nuanced with the historical context and cultural overtones. I can't speak to the Muslim representation, but from what little I know about Muslim culture I can see why some other commentators have found issue with aspects of this book.

I did like the characters though, even if they at times seemed one dimensional, it was perfect for a fluffy read.

This was so good and fun! The characters are diverse and I loved learning about different cultures and religions.

This was spectacular! I absolutely had such a great time reading this book! The way it dealt with the realistic pressure of not only finding yourself but finding your place in your culture was so well handled. I really enjoyed the the slow friends to love romance in this book. I absolutely fell in love with Bisma and how strong she was dealing with the harsh and cruel predicament she found herself in due to a situation she had no control over. Our protabonist, Danyal, was a relatable character and a very sweet dude. He was a great protagonist, and his struggle with trying to be more than just a pretty face while dealing with arranged marriages and academic contest was such an interesting journey. This book has so much to offer and I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much this book covered and made me feel.

A sweet, own voices, YA rom-com!

This was a super cute & fast read that follows the MC Danyal and his struggles with trying to balance doing what he loves and pleasing his traditional Muslim family.

I enjoyed this but there are some things that threw me off. One of those things is Danyal constantly being put down or putting himself down about being "not very bright". This is brought up on every page which I thought was cruel and repetitive.

I loved the love interest Bisma. She is such a cool and interesting character but I wish we got a deeper look into her personality.

This book touched on a lot of important topics such as racism, politics and religion.

Overall I really enjoyed this diverse rom-com

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC of this cute YA book in exchange for my honest review.

In More than Just a Pretty Face, Danyal is seen as not the brightest crayon in the box and"just a pretty face, His parents are disappointed with his lack of academic ambition, and see his goals of becoming a chef not worthwhile. I especially liked the descriptions of the food and his ability to express his love through the food,

I must say that some other reviewers have pointed out that there are some cases of misrepresentation and not everything is fully accurate.

I recommend tyhis to anyone who wants a diverse read.





I have never read a YA Romance book from entirely a male POV. It is a refreshing change from the usual female POV.

Not Just a Pretty Face is NOT your average teen romance story! It is a conversation in race, colonialism, religion , family expectations, and knowing your self. All wrapped up in a approachable romance. What also makes this story different is that it is a romance told from a male perspective by a male author. . This is a must read and a must buy for all library collections.

The dialogue alone made this book. The best part though is the rest of it is really good as well. I will definitely be purchasing this book for the library!

The most satisfying aspect of this book was the ending, in which every plot point was wrapped up nicely. I enjoyed the romance novel perspective of a young man, and I was glad to see Muslim teenager representation in a Young Adult book. I think this book is much more appropriate for a high school age audience than middle school. However. the pacing of this novel is very inconsistent. While the ending is fast and attention grabbing, the beginning and middle are slow to engage with.

E-Arc provided by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

More Than Just a Pretty Face[ is Syed M. Masood’s debut novel. The story revolves around Danyal Jilani, a barely passing school, but gorgeous young Muslim man. Danyal’s family is attempting to find a good Muslim bride for their son, despite Danyal’s only real attribute is that he is handsome. One of his potentials is Bisma, a brilliant young woman, who is considered by most respectable Muslim families a non-option due to her past. Danyal and Bisma are not really interested in each other, so they say, but we all know where this is headed. To top it all off, Danyal has been selected for the school’s annual Renaissance Man competition. This competition is generally reserved for the best and the brightest students in the school, and Danyal is clearly not among them. So Danyal’s got a lot on his plate.

I did not enjoy this book at all. The biggest issue for me were the characters. They felt like caricatures of people and not people themselves. It kind of feels like someone was checking boxes when making these characters. Super dumb, but loveable protagonist? Check. Love interest that is non-traditional but still into Danyal, despite him bringing almost nothing to the relationship? Check. Super conservative friend continuously quoting scripture? Check. Since none of these characters have any real depth, their traits have been exaggerated to the point of parody. Are we really supposed to believe that in 18 years of life, Danyal has never heard the saying “break a leg”? C’mon man…. And the Renaissance Man competition. It makes absolutely no sense why Danyal was chosen for this, outside of plot convenience. No teacher is going to deprive another student of an opportunity to spite another student.

The one year I will praise this book in is the clear and concise writing style. I knew what was going on and it was an easy read. I would be willing to check out this author again in the future, but I might not finish if the characters aren’t strong enough.

*Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book
MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE was a fun and realistic contemporary story about a boy's first love. Danyal was a hilarious main character--he had the best wit and made excellent jokes throughout the book, which I absolutely loved. I also admired Danyal's passion for cooking. The food discussions were perfectly done, and I enjoyed seeing him have a constant love of cooking that kept showing up in different ways throughout the book. His relationships with his friends, family, and love interest were excellently done, too. Bisma was a great love interest, and her dynamic with Danyal flew off the page. I loved seeing their interactions and banter, and the way the relationship escalated was perfect. It took just the right amount of time to develop, which seems so rare for many contemporaries. The family dynamic was also incredible and representative of so many familial relationships. Danyal's relationship with his parents wasn't perfect, but it was so realistic and I loved that it made its way into the story. I liked the discussion of Churchill that was present throughout the story, and the way Danyal interpreted the events that Churchill caused and related it to the present in his speech at the end of the book. This theme was not one I expected, but loved nonetheless. This was such a fun contemporary that I think everyone should read! It was so quick to finish and left me with hope and happiness.

This book was a cute coming of age story about Danyal who is trying to navigate his 19-year-old world just striving to get passing grades in high school so he can pursue his passion in cooking. This story provides readers with a hilarious twist and perspective on the world most first-generation Americans feel trying to balance the expectations of two different cultures. Although there were cultural references throughout the book that I didn’t understand, it didn’t detract from the overall story. Also, the descriptions of food within the novel left my mouth watering as the protagonist whipped up meals and the passion behind his cooking was truly authentic. Overall, a nice read for young adults.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this advance copy.

I give this book 5 stars. I loved it so much! Danyal is such a well-written character. You can see his flaws, his growth, etc. The push and pull with his two best friends is something I think a lot of teens in organized religions face. Even though this is a fiction book, I learned a lot about colonialism and the Bengal famine through Danyal's research for his speech. This quote really drove home the main point with so many of the current racism issues we are tackling.

"So where's the conversion table?"
"What?"
"In history. Like... you know, in math,we convert from feet to inches and centimeters and stuff. So, for historians, how many brown people are equal to one white person? Is there like a formula somewhere no one told me about?"

I think that I genuinely would have like this book a little more, but it really read like a YA book. To be transparent that’s not at all a bad thing. I do enjoy YA, even if I’m no longer an adult. But sometimes i do find that I can’t get behind a book or even enjoy it if I don’t really connect with the characters or story. I think that it just wasn’t for me.

I don't necessarily think that this is a bad book, I just don't think it was the book for me. I got through 40% until I gave up and DNF.

The good:
- In theory, it's an interesting concept! I'm all about characters proving that they are more than what people perceive them to be. I especially love spite as the motor for change. Give me the angst! The self doubt!
- The potential for angst and romance! At least to the place that I got to, there's a building love-triangle of sorts, and I'll always appreciate a good push/pull of angst between the characters. Triangles are a great way to consolidate character development and to make it clear to the reader where characters stand in relation to one another.

The not-s0-good:
- This is obviously a contemporary romance, so we aren't expecting any fighting or war or crazy world-building. That said, I don't think it's too much to ask for some action. The exposition of a story needs to build understanding in the readers, to introduce the characters, relationships, to paint the picture of context. SO much of this book was laying the "foundation," that I found myself unable to pick the book up again. There weren't many stakes, even 40% into the book, and that made it hard for me, as a reader, to stay invested in the characters and their struggles.

Overall:
This book is really bland for me. I don't really love it because of how...ordinary it is. The writing isn't standout beautiful and the concept is interesting, though in my opinion the execution sort of ruined it.

Would I recommend this book?:
No, I wouldn't recommend this book. I feel so bad saying so, but it's the truth. There are a lot of better romances out there *in my opinion*, ones that have better stakes or better and more three-dimensional characters. I don't think you're missing out on much if you decide to pass on this one.

A romantic comedy with a serious side and a male lead? Here for all of it. Sign me up for book two or anything else Masood is going to do.

Denyal loves cooking and cracking jokes. School is a bore but he’s got good looks. He’s mildly in love with his best friend’s twin sister, but she’s a richer breed of Desi and he’s not sure she likes him anyway. She’s the first side of the triangle. Then there’s Bisma whose parents need to find her a suitable husband but for them it seems nearly impossible because there is a sex tape of Bisma with a white boy from school and the family is shamed. But Danyal and Bisma get along well and Danyal finds her father’s treatment of her deplorable. Both girls want to help Danyal in this Renaissance Man competition he was selected to be in but with varied results- who will he align with and fall for?

Character is strong, so is the writing. And what’s not to love about the cover too? Multiple copies will be purchased! There's a sweetness that makes it feel like the most precious summer beach read but potent conversation about generational conflict and heritage that makes it an every season read. One that gives me warm and fuzzies for multiple reasons whenever I'll think about it.

I have had such a hard time rating this. I noticed many flaws while reading but I won't lie and say I didn't enjoy it. I think it came down to I loved many of the ideas that the author was going for but wasn't completely sold on the execution.

A big portion of this novel deals with Danyal learning about the dark side of Winston Churchill's history (namely the Bengal Famine) and deciding whether he should paint Churchill in a positive light and appease his history teacher, or discuss the truth and risk his grade and thus upset his family. I thought this was a really interesting conflict and I loved how it related to what was going on in Danyal's personal life.

The romance in this book is so sweet, albeit it does a back seat to the other conflicts going on. I didn't mind this, and I liked how slow and subtle it developed. Bisma and Danyal were so supportive of each other and brought out the best in the other. I also liked how Danyal's long-time crush, Kaval, who is very pretty and comes from a rich family, fit into the story. I love when books deconstruct the fantasies and idealizations that come with infatuation, and I thought the story had a really good message about how compromises can only go so far until a relationship becomes toxic.

I also surprisingly liked the messiness of Danyal's friend group and the struggle that comes with trying to maintain friendships when people have grown and changed. It was very realistic but not discouraging, which I appreciated.

The flaws I have with the book mainly stem from the writing style, which I thought was pretty hit or miss. It was funny a lot of times and there were definitely scenes where I found myself smiling. However, sometimes things that were supposed to be jovial just came across as weirdly cruel, and some of the explanations for Islamic/cultural practices were trying to be funny but just didn't land for me. Perhaps this is a me problem but the dialogue also often lacked notes on intonation which made what could have been fun encounters monotonous or awkward.

I was annoyed at some of the seemingly random philosophical moments we would get from side characters that we barely knew, like the head chef of the restaurant Danyal works at. Even some moments between the main characters felt out of place, and those took me out of the story.

For the most part I liked Danyal's characterization but sometimes I think the author went a little heavy-handed with trying to show how not smart he was. I was under the impression that he was just not book smart but could excel at things he was passionate about like cooking, but he wouldn't know common words or phrases like "progress" or "break a leg" which felt a little inconsistent. (I also didn't like how many times people called him stupid in one way or another, it felt so unnecessarily cruel at times).

I was a little annoyed with the characterization of Sohrab, Danyal's friend, because it fell into this stereotype of practicing Muslims not being able to have fun and judging others. For example, at one point he questions why anyone would read for fun instead reading to learn and educate, but I mean,
you can choose to read religious texts in your free time but still understand why some people don't? The story does actually give him a little more depth later on into understanding why he acts the way he does, but it was still a little upsetting to see this stereotype.

A fun and sweet romantic comedy that hits the spot! Danyal is a delight to read and I loved that we got to see a diverse love story. More books like this, please!