This is a coming-of-age book that focuses on the romance and family drama of Soraya. I was expecting a romance novel, based on the summary, but definitely found it to be more of a family drama than a romance. I would have liked the romantic relationship between Soraya and Magnus to be better developed so that I really was invested. Instead, I found myself really focused on Neda’s story with her husband, Soraya’s dad. The first part of the book was pretty slow for me. Parts 2 and 3 I zoomed through. I love that this book tackles so many issues I haven’t seen represented as much and I liked the parallels the author drew with things that are happening now, like body positivity. The book really left me wanting more from Laleh and her journey, so hoping the author does a follow-up!

Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher through Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

This is a lovely story of two very different cultures, deep love and how dependencies tear families apart. A Muslim family from Iran move to England to start a better life, and run away from problems instead of confronting them.
Soraya and Magnus meet in college and as difficult as they may seem, they actually have a lot in common!

I read this in one sitting and yet I’m not sure how I feel now that I have finished. Overall, it’s a good story, definitely not one that’s just a romance. It’s more of a multicultural and multigenerational general fiction tale.

Soraya was a good character but she was so wishy-washy! I realize that she was only 21, but this girl really had no idea who she was or what she believed. One second she was confident and the next second she was a mouse. It drove me up the wall. Neda was also a contradiction, suddenly going strict Muslim because of one bad experience yet going about her own marriage in an odd way with someone she wasn’t even sure she loved.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I requested to read and review this book for free from Random House Publishing Company. When I first requested this book I thought this book light hearted romance comedy. It does have romance, a little comedy but a lot of realism. I feel this is a realistic view of how things do happen in other culture with romance and life. It was very eye opening. This story line also has drama, determination, and forgiveness. Characters Magnus, Oliver, Priya and the Nazari Family. Can you make a difference, can things from your past hold you'll prisoner to your future. Love can be many things, messy, fun, dramatic, end game, tiring and so many more. When things don't go our way what can we do. Religion for many make love easy or painful or both. Can two different people from very different cultures really find love or is it friendship only. Can you be happy with someone else if you are not happy with yourself. This book gives you pause and things to think about it! This book is for a mature reader and can be read by anyone.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

Mismatch by Sara Jafari is about a young British Iranian Muslim girl, Soraya, and her mother. Soraya is very sheltered and is trying to break away from her strict upbringing by partying with friends and meeting boys. In comes Magnus, who also hasn’t had the best family life and they form a close bond. I loved their relationship and how they loved each other. I didn’t feel like their relationship was flashy and it seemed very realistic for a young couple. My favorite part was that this book had 2 storylines going. It was Soraya’s story but also her mother’s. It told the story of her mother’s past, how she was raised, and how she met her husband so it gave a ton of sight to what Soraya was going through with her family in the present. I absolutely loved this book and it is a definite reread for me!

The Mismatch follows recent college grad Soraya who just wants to get her first kiss over with. Growing up in a strict Muslim family, she hasn’t ever dated. When she meets Magnus, all of that changes. I was expecting a contemporary romance, which this book was, but it was also so much more. Jafari dives into the complicated relationship Soraya has with her family and really showed how her interactions with her family shaped her life as an adult. In addition to following Soraya, we also get a look into her mother Neda’s past while living in Iran and then moving to England. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend picking it up in August.

Soraya and Magnus are two charming characters who meet and learn to develop a relationship. Magnus is the first white man that Soraya has dated. I received this novel as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of The Mismatch from NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

An unorthodox, underdog style, romance novel: I loved it! A low self-esteemed Iranian girl meets a womanizing white boy...truly a mismatch on nearly characteristic.. Soraya and Magnus are two of my new favorite characters! This book left me wanting more!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Mismatch is an inter generational tale of an Iranian mother, Ness and her British-Iranian daughter, Soraya. Soraya’s story revolves around her experience as a recent graduate and how she begins breaking some of the rules of her Muslin upbringing, including dating a young man who was at uni with her. Neda’s story involves meeting and marrying Soraya’s father and their life after moving to Great Britain.

I enjoyed this read, but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. Given that it was marketed more as a romance, I was expecting more from that. However, it definitely felt like more of a subplot. The real story here is the relationship between Soraya, her mother, and their family. I think that it is relatable, even to someone who is not Muslim and does not know much about those struggles, but it could be marketed better in my opinion.

Soraya is fairly likable, though at times I wanted to shake her. Neda is even more complicated, but I understood why she made the decisions she did. There are some very tough situations in this book and many moving parts to keep in mind.

Overall, I wanted to like it more than I did but unfortunately I think our union was, as the title suggests, a mismatch.

2.5/5 Stars

The Mismatch is a sweet and simple romance that tackles the struggles of an Iranian British young woman entering adulthood and her first relationship (with a non-Muslim man, no less). The book simultaneously follows the life of Soraya in Brighton in 2014 and her mother, Neda, in Tehran in the '70s, and it's through the main female characters and their generational differences and similarities that the book really shines. The mystery of what happened to Laleh was a compelling question while reading even though it ended up being rather predictable. The male characters in this book are absolutely infuriating, which is the intended effect for the abusive father, Hossein, and hypocritical misogynist brother, Amir, but decidedly not the intended effect for the main love interest, Magnus. I get the sense that Jafari was aiming to paint him as a charming rogue, but he comes off more arrogant than lovable.

For a book that takes such care with dismantling stereotypes and breaking down prejudices, particularly those against immigration, race, faith, mental illness, and addiction, it's disappointing that certain creepy actions that might've passed as romantic in a decades-old romcom are featured in this book, such as Magnus showing up physically at Soraya's flat after she didn't return him messages and Magnus showing up unannounced at Soraya's event even after she blocked him on all social platforms and made it clear she didn't want to see him. Such behavior was clearly intended to show how dedicated and passionate Magnus is in his feelings towards Soraya, but it's frustrating to see this kind of behavior from a man treated so lightly and romanticized.

The writing holds its own for the most part, though it does occasionally suffer from an abundance of cliches and tropes. Additionally, while none of the intimate scenes go into explicit detail, some of the writing comes off a bit forced (in one scene, panties are "ripp[ed] apart"). Overall, The Mismatch has a fair share of flaws but it still succeeds in its depiction of a Middle Eastern British woman coming into her own and gaining the confidence to explore new parts of herself in the face of guilt and shame.

First, thank you to the publishers at Random House Ballantine and Netgalley for the ARC of The Mismatch.

Soraya is a recent graduate living in London. At 21 years of age, she hasn’t had her first kiss, her first boyfriend, anything, mainly because she’s Muslim. She’s grown up hearing how her father will “kill her” if she sees a boy. Her sister, Laleh, the black sheep of the family, left with her boyfriend 15 years ago and was subsequently disowned by her family, so Soraya is afraid of disrupting what little peace is left in her home life.

Enter Magnus, a Rugby “lad,” quite handsome at that, who couldn’t be further from Soraya’s type (does she have that though)? She figures he’s the perfect person to experiment with so she can finally shed this never been kissed persona she can’t seem to get over. The relationship ends up blossoming into more, but Soraya is constantly telling herself that the expiry date is coming, any day now.

The Mismatch is so much more than a romance novel though. Written in 3 parts, the chapters switch between the present and the past, with viewpoints from both Soraya and her mother, Neda. We learn all about why Neda has become the woman she is today and why she has such disdain for her husband.

The Mismatch is full of heart, truth, and harsh realities. I’ve only read a few books with Muslim characters, but this book felt very accurate and akin to everything I’ve read or watched regarding the religion and culture. In some ways, the relationship between Hossein and Neda and Hossein and his children reminded me of the movie/book Not Without My Daughter. I felt Neda’s anger as if it were my own.

Like I said, The Mismatch is so much more than a romance novel; it’s about a family that loses itself but eventually manages to pull back together. As Neda says, secrets only drown us. It only took her this long to finally see it.

This felt like a book within a book. I really enjoyed the characters and I was happy with the ending. Although I am not from a Muslim family, I have many Muslim students and I know how strict their families are. I really felt for Neda thorough out the book, she was so strong!

The Mismatch by Sara Jafari is an interesting take on a new adult novel that follows an young Iranian-British Muslim woman as she finds herself attracted to a White rugby player just after college graduation. She fantasizes about finally having her first kiss and falling in love, yet regularly takes drugs and drinks alcohol to excess, while still following her family's "traditional" rules and roles. That hypocrisy didn't really work for me, but perhaps it speaks to the modern Muslim new adult experience, of which I am unaware.

I liked the premise and that it had the parallel stories. There is also a narrative of her mother's experience in Iran during the late 70's. However, I was never fully engaged with this book. I can't empathize with any of the characters and it was a struggle to want to keep reading. I'm sure this book will find the right audience, I just am not it.

I am a sucker for a good romance (rom-com) and the like. Though I enjoyed this book, it was less rom-com (or romance at all) and more of a coming-of-age book. As a white woman having grown up in the American South, my experience and background could not be more different from the main characters, and to be honest, it was part of the appeal of this book for me. I feel that I learned more about the Muslim culture. I am not generalizing that all Muslim women have the same experience as the women in this book, but I feel I learned a little more than I knew.
Now onto the book-I loved that the book told two stories (that were ultimately intertwined), one about a woman growing up in Tehran (Neda) in the ’70s and her story of first love. The second, Neda's daughter, Soraya, in London in the 2010s. A lot of the book focuses on Soraya's POV, but the insight gleaned from Neda's story and why she treats Soraya the way she does really helps round out her character.
Soraya, an Iranian Muslim raised in London, has just graduated college and is really floundering. On graduation day, she randomly overhears a conversation that leads her to meet Magnus. Magnus is an English young man and is hardly the type of boy Soraya knows she will end up with, but she just graduated college and hasn't even kissed a boy. She decided to use Magnus as her practice. She goes on to struggle with being the woman her family expects her to be and the woman she is will become.
Overall, I thought this book was entertaining and thought-provoking. I am glad I read it; I feel I ended up learning more about the Muslim traditions and culture, especially in the flashbacks from Neda. But to reiterate, if you are looking for a romantic comedy, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a coming of age set against a different culture, give this book a read!

I requested the galley on NetGalley under the Romance category, but The Mismatch is more of a coming of age novel with romantic themes. Soraya is sweet-21-and-never-been-kissed, just graduated university where she has had more freedom to experiment with fashion, ideas, art, and ecstasy (MD) that at home with her traditional Muslim family, but yearns to experience the things that she both fears and anticipates. Her story of a budding relationship with an fellow alum Magnus -- a player on the rugby field and off -- is interspersed with flashbacks of her own mother's adolescence and early married life.

Soraya wrestles with religion, identity, fitting in, growing up, family values and dynamics, feminism, and career in a deep and multilayered way, and grows over the course of the novel, taking risks, facing facts, and standing up for herself. And so, it turns out, does her mother.

#TheMismatch #Netgalley

5 stars! Lobed this book so much! Alternating timelines are always a win for me. Characters were relatable and well developed. I was invested in every single storyline. Thank you for the advanced copy!

While I don't like to leave a bad review when I was fortunate enough to have the privilege of reading the book free, honestly, I found this one to be disgusting! For one thing, it was an insult to the Muslim faith, and I am offended for them! The language was among the worst that I've ever encountered in a book, and having lived in the Middle East for many years, I never heard any follower of Islam use it! I admit that I never did live in or visit Iran, though.

Then there was the plot. The theme was a Muslim girl who wants to experience sex but is torn because of her religious beliefs. She plots and plans it and thinks about it all the time, ad nauseum. The only reason I plodded on and finished the book was that I wanted to see if she ended up with her "white" boyfriend. And the ending was not clear on that. After being so excited to read this, I was sorely disappointed and disillusioned.

This book is an excellent illustration of the damage done to women by misogynist, patriarchal religions--not just more conservative forms of Islam, but also various flavors of Judaism and Christianity-- in which women are owned like chattel. Jafari tells the stories of two Iranian-British women, those of Neda, married to an addict, and Soraya, her daughter, dating a typical white guy. Neda embraces conservative Islam in Iran to protect herself from the sexual harassment and assaults she experienced there; she marries a man she doesn't really know, and travels to the Uk to train as a doctor. There her husband falls into first opium and then methadone addiction and abuses Neda and their children. Soraya doesn't know who she is or what she wants out of life other than nice clothes. She's less conservative than her mother, and is torn between the ideals of modern feminism and her religious beliefs. She decides to data her classmate so that she can get over the anxiety of having her first kiss, but she's attracted to him and he to her, and their relationship becomes more serious, until Soraya learns that he was using her as well--at least at the start of their relationship. Ultimately, Neda stands up for herself and her children. Her younger children learn that she disowned their oldest sister for becoming pregnant at 17 and sent her away so that her father wouldn't literally kill her. Her husband returns to Iran. The family meets the older sister and her family. Soraya and her white guy make up and get together again. But for this seemingly happy ending, Soraya and her family suffer from serious trauma caused by the misogyny of religion, and Soraya grapples intensely with her desire to be a feminist and a Muslim. What I really wanted to see in the ending was everyone in therapy. This is not a rom-com, readers; it is an indictment of believing in a religion that tells you are mostly worthless.

To me, this novel was a lot more family and religion first, romance second.
The romance wasn’t fully fleshed out, and I never fully connected with it.
The most interesting portion were the parts about her mother Neda and the struggles she faced with her family and her religious expectations.