Hana Khan works at her mother’s restaurant, Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, in Toronto. She also has an unpaid internship at a Toronto radio station. But what she wants to do is tell her story on the radio. She hosts an anonymous podcast, where she has made a friend out of one of her listeners. Her mother’s restaurant is failing. With her pregnant sister no longer able to work there and a competing restaurant opening on the same street, Hana has to figure out how to save their restaurant. On top of that Hana has to deal with racist attacks and potentially falling for the owner of the rival restaurant. Hana has to learn to use her voice and follow her dreams.

This was a fabulous story set in my hometown, Toronto. Hana was part of a tight knit community in the east end of the city. All of the businesses had a strong relationship with each other, and they felt threatened when the rival restaurant was opening. There were some shocking twists at the end of the story that I didn’t expect. Hana’s family had some secrets that were hinted at throughout the story, but one secret that was revealed close to the end really surprised me. I love it when a story has a shocking reveal that I didn’t predict.

This story addressed anti-Islamic racism. There were multiple attacks, one personally against Hana and another on her community. Hana also had to deal with discrimination at her internship. These racist moments were so upsetting to read because they are things that happen in real life. This is a reality for many people in their daily lives, even in a diverse city like Toronto. I hope that one day stories that have racist events like this will be part of the past and no longer be relevant.

I really enjoyed this story!

Thank you HarperCollins Canada and Berkley Romance for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dreaming of a career in radio broadcasting, Hana Kahn and a fellow intern compete for a permanent job at Radio Toronto while she devotes her creative energy to an anonymous podcast. At the same time, she works for her mother’s restaurant, Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the Golden Crescent neighborhood of Toronto.

When her pregnant sister, chef at the restaurant, is put on bed rest, Hana’s mother summons help from India, bringing her lively, well-meaning, but impetuous cousin, and her elegant and mysterious aunt to the neighborhood. The struggling restaurant needs assistance, especially since another halal restaurant, more modern, is opening nearby.

Unfortunately, Hana has a growing attraction to Aydin, the restaurant’s owner. Even worse, Hana is the target of a racially-motivated attack that goes viral. Not only does it bring unwanted attention to the neighborhood, Hana’s boss wants to exploit it for a story. Hana has to decide how to use her voice—to achieve her personal goals or to help the community—and if she can love the man who might put her mother’s restaurant out of business.

𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘒𝘢𝘩𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘯 by Uzma Jalaluddin is a great read. At first, I thought it was going to be a lighter romance but was pleased to see that it sensitively delved into topics of prejudice, both overt racism and microaggressions. I also loved the community and the relationships among the shopkeepers.

At times, Hana drove me crazy. To compete with the new restaurant, she did some things that were very unethical, and while she backed away a little, the damage was done. (I taught business ethics so am fairly humorless about her behavior.)

She also assumed she knew what was best for others without listening to them when they communicated clearly otherwise. I will give her credit for growing over the course of the novel!

Perfect for those wanting to read a romance that addresses social issues and that has a strong sense of place—and who love a serving of descriptive food in their novels!

As a POC living in in the suburbs around Toronto, I found this book extremely relatable. The romance is fairly minimal, and the true strength of this story are its characters, who are all well developed, unique and memorable. Even though I correctly predicted two of the big "twists" pretty early on, I didn't lose interest. Instead, I wanted to read faster to see how it would play out (and I wasn't disappointed). I'd recommend this book to anyone who may be curious -- it's not something I'd normally read, but I'm glad I did!

As a side-note, I'm slightly tempted to try biryani poutine...

Hana’s struggle between who she is as a young Muslim woman and who she wants to be a broadcaster who tells stories of her world from her own unique perspective is challenged by radio managers who are trying to tell her story for her. I loved how this part of the story was handled because it really told the struggle that she felt in a way that I a middle aged white woman could feel.

Hana’s love interest is the very handsome young owner of the competitive restaurant. I found it a little hard to identify with him at first but as his story moved forward I understood him more and grew to like him. However this book really revolves around Hana and this romance was not the most important part of the story. It did end up being kind of a sweet one though.

Hana was fascinating. She was the dutiful daughter, the strong independent woman, and a Muslim woman. With Aydin she showed a different character. First as antagonist, then as surly friend, then as young woman in love. There were so many aspects to this character I never got bored. In fact I sped through this novel. Her world was both beautiful and scary. How Hana reacted to all of these changes didn’t change the core person she was and that was the person I was most interested in reading about.

If you are trying to widen your world view pick up this novel. Also pick up this authors previous novel Ayesha at Last, which was also a very good story. Each separate story line in this novel could have stood on its own and together created a really well fleshed out character and novel. I enjoyed this one very much!

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publishers for my honest review and it was honest.

Wow! I loved this one! Hana captured me from the first page and I never wanted to stop reading.

I loved learning about Hana, her family, and their lives. I really enjoyed the snapshots of her podcast and especially her interactions between her and Stanley P. I'd heard it was a modern You've Got Mail so I knew who Stanley P was, but I still loved every moment of this story.

My heart broke for Hana, Rashid, and Aydin when they encountered such racist treatment in the city, in their neighborhood and at the festival. I appreciate authors sharing with us how much work we have to do even if it's hard to read.

I loved the relationship that Aydin and Hana developed. Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and this as extremely well done.

I really enjoyed Rashid and Hana's aunt. They were great supporting characters and I'd love to learn more about them.

I can't wait to read more books by Uzma Jalaluddin!

Hana is twenty-four years old, and she wants to bring her vision of Muslim experiences to life in her own radio show. For now, she interns at a local radio station, and stokes the fuel for her dreams by podcasting in her off time, developing a rapport with her podcast audience. Beyond that, she helps out at her family's Indian-Canadian fusion restaurant, Three Sisters Biryani Poutine. Even though it's the only halal restaurant in the area, business is slow, and unless it picks up, life could get complicated for Hana's family. To make matters worse, a fancy halal restaurant may soon open up nearby, which could spell death for the smaller, family-run restaurant. Despite the need to compete with this new threat, Hana finds herself drawn to Aydin, who is part of the competition. Mixed in with Hana's hopes, goals, and personal challenges are hateful attacks on the local Muslim community, and family secrets that threaten family cohesion at its most critical moments. Hana's choice is how and where to use her voice to help her family, her community, and herself, to carry on.

I knew I had to read this one, not only because of the interesting fusion restaurant idea, but also because I loved this author's previous book, Ayesha At Last. This book reminds me of one of my favorite movies, You've Got Mail! Hana is a busy young woman, juggling helping her family with interning for the real job she wants, and moonlighting for extra practice with her podcast. She's ambitious, and I like that about her. Her family that comes to help all the way from India are both fun and interesting characters. I especially liked Rashid, who works with Hana to combat the new upscale halal restaurant threat. Hana's podcasts were full of great humor and wonderful insightful moments, and I liked how they were also relevant to the events unfolding within the rest of the story. Hana Khan Carries On is the story of a young woman dealing with family trouble, trying to chase her dreams, and finding perhaps a little bit more along the way. Recommended for anybody who likes You've Got Mail (or other movies like it), wants to know more about Indian-Canadian fusion cuisine, or is interested in what it might be like to be a young Indian Muslim woman living in Canada. Carry on!

Hana Khan Carries On is a modern day “You’ve Got Mail” with a podcast, halal restaurants, and Indian culture. This story grabbed my attention from the first page. Hana runs an anonymous podcast. Her first follower has become her friend but they don’t know each other’s true identities. Hana’s family owns the only halal restaurant in town until another halal restaurant opens across the street. Hana will do anything to save her family’s restaurant even though her true passion is with her podcast and radio internship. Aydin is the new restaurant owner’s son who is pushing Aydin to be a ruthless business owner. Aydin develops a friendship with Hana’s cousin and tries to be friends with Hana. I loved the perspective of the Indian Canadian culture in the novel. Family secrets are revealed and Hana must find her voice and figure out what she wants to do. Some parts of the story were hard to read because of the hate toward Indians, but it is an important perspective to hear. Hana Khan Carries On is an interesting and impactful story of rival restaurant owners.

Thank you Berkley Romance for Hana Khan Carries On.

Oooo I loved this one so much! Will be including it in my April recommended reads newsletter. I loved that family played such a big part in the story. Also I got major 'You've Got Mail' vibes and loved it! I thought it was a solid effort to include a look at diversity and discrimination/racism in various ways and found it particularly interesting how different characters had different reactions, definitely realistic as we all don't respond in the same way. Overall, I loved this book and can't wait to read more from Uzma!

Thank you to Berkley Romance for a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

First of all, let's talk about a gorgeous cover! I loved the cover of Jalaluddin's last book Ayesha At Last and this one is even more beautiful! Besides an amazing cover, this book was so relatable to my own immigrant story. I don't often highlight/tab fiction novels but so many of this book's messages spoke to me so I had to mark them for future reference. There's romance in this novel but it wasn't the focus and that was totally okay by me. Instead, it focused on racism, microaggression, Islamaphobia, and hate crimes.

What I loved:
- The fun dialogue between Hana and her mysterious internet friend.
- The use of a podcast and transcript to ask the reader to dig deeper and consider the author's message. I thought that was clever
- Well developed side characters that contributed different perspectives. Cousin Rashid is hilarious!

What I didn't love:
- The way Hana handled her conflicts - it was a bit immature for my taste.

If you enjoyed Tweet Cute, I think you would like this one.

This was such a good read! I really enjoyed the storyline of this one. I loved Hana Khan's character and quickly fell in love with her. The supporting characters in this one were all great! There were characters to love and characters to hate, which always makes for a good read! I appreciated the family drama aspect of this one and absolutely loved learning new things about the culture and religion. This one definitely made me hungry while reading, so maybe have a snack close by while reading this one! Overall this was a solid, enjoyable read and gets 4 stars!

I think it's quite safe to say I will read anything Uzma Jalaluddin writes now because I adored Ayesha at Last and Hana Khan Carries On definitely did not disappoint. The romance is adorable, sure, and everything I wanted from the book, but as with Ayesha at Last, I really appreciated how this book was about racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and microaggressions while also balancing quality enemies-to-lovers banter and swoon-worthy content.

The characters were each so well-written and they were tangibly authentic and easy to relate to. Hana's persistence in fighting for what is right and flawed decision-making was something I personally identified with. I also loved Aydin and Kawkab Khala so much because the former is everything I want from a love interest and the latter is quite simply legendary!

Also, wow, this book not only made me feel all the feels, it also made me feel super hungry, and that is the best compliment I can give any food-related books because I am not very adventurous with food and I was basically ready to try everything that was described here.

Have you ever read a book that made you crave a particular cuisine so much?? That’s Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin for me!!! I spent days craving for Indian food after I finished reading it so I finally gave in, hence the picture!

Hana is a brown Muslim girl and a second-generation immigrant living in Toronto. She’s currently an intern at a radio station hoping to get hired full time while also working as part-time waitress at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, her family’s halal restaurant. Her dream is to tell her own stories, so while waiting for it to come true, she pours her throughts into her podcasts. She develops a relationship with one of her listeners, who became her no. 1 support system especially as a rival restaurant is set to open in their street, threatening to close down Three Sisters. It doesn’t help that the owner, Aydin, is a gorgeous hunk. Will Hana be able to save Three Sisters and fulfill her dreams of being heard?

What I love:
🧕🏽This book has my favorite romantic trope: enemies to lovers! I just love the angst and witty banters between Hana and Aydin!!!
🧕🏽I also love the DMs between Ana and StanlyP! Their sense of humor is so spot on!
🧕🏽Reading this made me crave Indian food! Biryani + Poutine? Bring it on!
🧕🏽There’s so much heart in the story. The family dynamics of the Khan family and the close knit community of Golden Crescent are so heartwarming. I really love how they rallied and supported one other, especially upon the threat of gentrification.
🧕🏽The issue of racial discrimination was written with sensitivity but also didn’t shy away from the truth. The author showed us the different ways people would handle the situation in real life.
🧕🏽The character development of Hana from somebody searching for her identity into a self-assured woman who isn’t afraid to stand up for her beliefs is interesting to witness.
🧕🏽Cousin Rashid’s so hilarious! He provided the comic relief in the book. His thought were actually very insightful.

What I didn’t love:
🧕🏽Honesly? Nothing.

Another 5/5 book!!!! Thanks to @berkleypub @netgalley and the author for providing me an eARC of this book. All opinions are mine.

Thank you, #NetGalley @BerkleyPub #BerkleyWritesStrongWomen #BerkleyBuddyReads for a complimentary e ARC of #HanaKhanCarriesOn upon my request. All opinions are my own.

Hana Khan is an energetic, hard-working, and loyal young adult living with her family in a suburb of Toronto, Canada. She has a big dream to make it in broadcasting. Hana takes on a lot of responsibility by working part-time in her family’s struggling halal restaurant, holds down an internship in a local radio station where she has conflicting views about cultural content with her boss, and produces her own podcast (anonymously). She strikes up a virtual friendship with one of her listeners and they both use fake names. This virtual friendship becomes one of her main sources of support. Meanwhile, her family’s small restaurant is struggling to survive financially. It doesn’t help when a new corporate halal restaurant is planning to open just down the street. Will her family’s restaurant be able to withstand the competition? Will Hana be able to come up with strategies to face the competition and help her family with everything else she has going on? Will Hana ever be on friendly terms with the restaurant’s new (and attractive) owner? How will Hana use her voice?

I love stories from other cultures and I appreciate this story from a perspective that’s not my own as it increases my awareness of cultural traditions, stereotypes, Islamaphobia, microaggressions, and hate crimes.

You will see this engaging book promoted as a rom-com inspired by You’ve Got Mail. I also think the story has definite Tweet Cute vibes. However, it’s so much more than a rom-com. There’s a lot going on in this story as the author addresses some serious, compelling, and relevant issues.

Our main character Hana is mostly likable, but she’s also impulsive and immature in the way she handles some of the conflicts. One of her actions could be considered mean and borders on revenge instead of healthy competition. The redeeming factor is that she changes and matures throughout the story. The supporting characters are engaging and unique personalities that add to the enjoyment and complexity of the story.

Thoughtful themes in Hana Khan include family loyalty and support, devotion, obligations, and expectations; finding your voice and direction in life; dealing with and speaking up against prejudice and microaggressions; handling hate crimes; as well as intolerance, the spirit of competition, accepting change, friendship, family secrets, betrayal, telling your story, and romance. Lots of substance packed into this story!

Recommended: Written with warmth and humor, Hana Khan Carries On is recommended for fans of retellings (You’ve Got Mail) and enemies to lovers romance, for readers looking for more diverse reads, for those who love complicated family drama and thoughtful themes, and for book clubs (great discussion possibilities).

3.5 Stars

Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin is a novel sure to incite a wide range of emotions in its readers. As a fan of any book about cooking and restaurants, this one’s rival halal restaurants won me over. The main character is also resolute, and I appreciated the commentary on different forms of racism in Canada throughout the book. Those looking for a read that is both upbeat and earnest will not want to miss this one.

As a part-time waitress at her family’s halal restaurant, Hana is furious when a higher-end, rival halal restaurant plans to open in the same neighbourhood. At the same time, she works as an intern for a local radio station, hoping to someday live her dream and get a job there. However, several hurdles complicate her goals, from surprise visitors to her home, to racism in her workplace, and to a growing connection with the rival restaurant’s infuriating owner. I did find that the story has a bit too much going on, but despite this, I enjoyed reading about the strength of the Golden Crescent community and the more serious themes the book mixes in alongside its rom-com elements.

❀ COMPLEX MAIN CHARACTER

Hana is a complex main character, and I was really rooting for her throughout the story. I admired her passion to protect her family’s restaurant and her refusal to allow the higher-ups at the radio station to control her ideas and use her show to perpetuate stereotypes. However, I also found Hana to be immature as she tries to sabotage the rival restaurant. She is coming from a very pure place, wanting to save her own restaurant, and I understand that this flaw is supposed to be a learning experience for her, but the ways she went about it seemed a little too childish to me.

❀ POWERFUL STORY

I especially enjoyed how this book is unapologetically Canadian. As a Canadian myself, I loved seeing the descriptions of places like the CN Tower and Ripley’s Aquarium. Most notably, however, is the way Jalaluddin brings light to racism in Canada. Many picture Canada as a country free from racism, and the way the author does not shy away from describing hate-motivated attacks and more subtle forms of oppression makes the book even more powerful.

❀ HEARTFELT CONTEMPORARY

Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin is a story about community and carrying on. I enjoyed the concept of the rival restaurants, the main character is dynamic, if a little immature. One of the book’s highlights is its commentary on racism in Canada, and I would definitely recommend it to those looking for a heartfelt contemporary with a twist.

I had high hopes for this book but ultimately, did not feel it was as strong as the author’s debut. I really liked the two main characters, Hana and Aydin and their competitive and combative dynamic.

The problems started however with the multiple plot lines that sort of bogged down this book. There were big family secrets, workplace issues, racism and specifically Islamophobia, the secret identity of Hana’s podcast follower/internet friend, and also the fact that Aydin was trying to put Hana’s mother’s restaurant out of business. It was a lot to handle and I think the book could have benefitted from trimming the plot lines a bit so that some of the other plot lines got more attention and time. I definitely think the racism and the workplace issues and the competing restaurants were key to the overall plot as well as the identity of Hana’s internet friend. However, the big reveal at the end regarding Aydin’s mother was, in my mind, kind of unnecessary and didn’t really add to the overall plot of the book.

And because there were so many plot lines vying for space, it also felt like the actual romance took a real backseat to everything else. This was another one of those books where when one character declares their feeling for the other character, I am left wondering when exactly they fell in love. They spent the whole book so busy dealing with all of the other stuff that I honestly didn’t know when they might’ve started developing feelings for each other.

Ultimately, this book had tremendous potential and I really do enjoy this author’s voice. I just think it was too many unnecessary plot lines.

I read this for a buddy read and I plowed through it, reading past the stopping point, reading in the middle of the night. It is a retelling of You’ve Got Mail but with so much more. There is so much to unpack in this thought-provoking book but the very short synopsis is that Hana is a Muslim 20-something year old woman living in Canada, trying to keep her family’s halal restaurant afloat as competition moves into the neighborhood all while juggling her true passion, broadcast journalism. This book has everything - the racism and prejudice endured by Hana and her community could not be more timely and real, the struggles of appeasing her family while following her dreams is stressful and the blurry line of how far she will go for your family is so poignant. This is all mixed in with humor, romance,
the strength of family and community and descriptions of the most yummy food ever. What I really love about this book is watching Hana grow and find herself. She is flawed and naive and makes mistakes but she learns from them and becomes a better person. Everything she endures makes her stronger and more resilient. Oh, this book stole my heart. I loved it so much and I absolutely loved our discussions and hearing how Hana touched all of us. Pub day is April 6 so get on this one and thank me afterwards.

Thank you to Berkley Pub for the arc of Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin.

One sentence review: If you are a romance reader who loves own voices stories, read this book now.

This is one of those stories I'm just not sure I can do justice to. It has a You've Got Mail feel to it except the protagonists are South Asian Muslims living in Toronto and facing challenges that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan couldn't even begin to contemplate.

I'll be honest, You've Got Mail has never been my favorite. As a result this one started out a little slow for me. But after I got about 20% in, I could not put this one down. This is a story of family, culture, and love but it also addressing racism and hate. The book also has an interesting dual focus on radio broadcasting and podcasts as well as on restaurants.

What I really enjoyed about this book is the breaking down of the South Asian monolith. In this case the family is from India but the novel explains about the various regions of India, the languages spoken, as well as a various religions practiced. It is by no means in depth but I think it the first romance I've read that tried to provide some explanation of the diversity that makes up India. The book immediately had me looking up regions and languages and just wanting to learn more.

While this book is a romance I feel the focus of this book is much more on Hana, her family and neighborhood, as well as her culture and food. The strength of this book lies in its celebration of South Asian culture and in the recognition of the adversity of immigrants and people of color in North America.

This book was phenomenal. Truly a gem. Saying it was a Muslim romcom doesn’t do it justice. This book was deep in ways I didn’t expect. It talked about racism, micro aggressions, hate crimes, gentrification, and Islamophobia. It talked about being children to immigrants and how that affects our journey. It was also educational. I loved the way the author taught us about her religion, culture and customs as things happened in the story. All the characters in this book were just so well developed, and ugh I loved them all. The romance of it all made me scream and gasp cause I just knew Aydin was figuring it all out. So angsty. So perfect

Hana is a 24-year-old intern at a radio station in Toronto who also helps at her family's halal restaurant. When a competing restaurant, with young owner Aydin, moves into the neighborhood the lives of both families are about to change.

This was a story that was part light romance and part a story of how to find your own path in life. I enjoy stories with close-knit families and especially liked Hana's cousin Rashid who brought another perspective to the story. One of my favorite parts of the book was the texting /DM banter.

The story showed some of the good and the bad of broadcast journalism and how Hana had to navigate that path. I do think Hana was rather naive about her family's restaurant though and I wasn't happy with her way of handling things with the other restaurant. This book touched on some serious issues including hate crimes but was ultimately hopeful.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the gifted e-copy of this book.

I loved this book and definitely recommend it! I went into this expecting a cute little romcom but it’s actually a much heavier read. It touches on racism, xenophobia, hate crimes, Islamaphobia, and microaggressions.

I had to keep reminding myself that Hana was young because she did some pretty immature things to try to bring down the competing soon-to-open halal restaurant on the block. I liked Aydin from the get-go. I could tell he had a heart of gold and actually really enjoyed his banter with Hana.

It was tough reading the parts where Hana was at work. Her boss was just awful and everything that came out of her mouth about Muslims was a microagression or blatant Islamaphobia.

I enjoyed this because it was a sweet story about family with a little romance but it also had substance and big topics that made me think. This would be a great book for fans of many genres!