this book is messy, cliché, angsty, adorable, funny and chaotic. like, really chaotic. words cannot even begin to describe how giddy this read made me feel. i absolutely fell in love with the two main characters: maya mirza and sarfaraz porter. both were swoon-worthy.

throughout her entire life, maya has believed she’s cursed when it comes to love so much so that she’s come up with a list of laws to try and explain it, i.e. murphy’s law. the biggest one being, trying to accept that love will come after marriage.

maya is flying to pakistan (where she’s on the way to her own arranged wedding), and after she switches seats to reunite a separated family, her seat neighbor is none other than sarfaraz – or, The Jerk – she bumped into earlier pre-boarding the plane. so many mishaps and shenanigans occurs that keeps pulling maya and sarfaraz together (that she attributes to the curse) leading to them quickly leaning on each other as they’re both traveling alone.

this may sound bad, but even though she’s engaged to another, kind and respectable man – who she does not love! – the banter and the secret stolen glances maya and sarfaraz experience with each other, sold me very early on. i became their #1 cheerleader, waiting patiently for them to stand up for themselves (individually and together). they both grow so much throughout the book and both of their yellow and/or red flags become green in the end. they were made for each other, simple as that.

throughout the book, i had theories about the big plot twist and i was pleasantly surprised to discover i was sort of right about it, which i didn’t mind because it was written well. but even though i enjoyed the plot twist and maya and sarfaraz’s chemistry, i was still perplexed – stumped? – at how easily and quickly the conflict was resolved. but at the same time, it sort of made sense for maya and sarfaraz. they literally fell in love in less than two weeks! all that being said, even though i didn’t mind it, i still could’t give it a full 5 stars because the resolution and happily-ever-after felt rushed to me.

as someone who isn’t a part of the muslim culture and/or religion, or even desi or its diaspora, i found this book beautifully detailed and educational. there were numerous times where i would pause my read and look up specific terms and learn more about them and i even found myself looking up traditional desi wedding dresses and attire and admiring them because of how beautiful the grooms and brides looked in the photos.

overall, this is a very promising debut novel for alina and i cannot wait to see what she does next. i like reading books about people who were raised vastly different from me. this book was fun and had great banter, sweet characters, and angsty plot. i will definitely recommended it if that interests you.

note: i have faith that by the time of publication, all format and grammatical errors are corrected so i can overlook it in my review. this one is based solely on the plot and characters.

I love love loved this book! Maya and Sarfaraz were such lovable main characters and watching them fall in love with each other while enduring a series of unfortunate travel-related events was entertaining and sweet. I loved how they instinctively took care of each other at different times.
Maya’s character being torn between what her family wants, what she thinks her family wants, what she wants, and what she thinks she wants is a very relatable conflict. I loved seeing her grow to trust her instincts and put her heart out there as the book went on.
I also really appreciated learning about Pakistani/Desi/Islamic wedding traditions and culture and the chapters that Maya and Sarfaraz spend traveling in Pakistan were particularly special. I loved Khawaja’s descriptions of the small town they stayed in.
Wonderful book with delightful tension and a super sweet HEA!

This book was a fun, quick read. Maya felt a bit childish at times but I loved her character development and following her heart. I love the chapter titles! I love the cover and the dedication. I felt like their romance was really cute and appropriate to the culture/story. I enjoyed learning more about the culture and customs as well.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA for the arc!
Pub date: 3/26/24

This book was so sweet. A super-fast read with exactly what I want from romance: people figuring things out about themselves and each other. Maya is so funny and her anxieties are relatable, and she really made this book special.

i sadly did not finish this one. i don’t think it was necessarily poorly written, but i just don’t think the writing style was for me. i felt no connection to the characters, and couldn’t really feel their chemistry. once again, i want to reiterate that this might have just been a personal opinion, so im not saying to not give this book a chance. it just wasn’t my cup of tea!

3.5 ⭐️

What I loved: The incredibly fun and accurate desi representation (immaculate Jab We Met and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge vibes).

What didn't work for me: The MMC was sweet, thoughtful, and attentive, but had some glaring red flags. And the FMC was too naive and almost childish to the point that I couldn't tell how old she was (I kept thinking she was in her early twenties, but it turns out she's 25+). As the book went on, I found her "laws" annoying and felt like excuses for her lack of self-responsibility and accountability. And her constant proclamation about being cursed and citing literally mundane life experiences as evidence of the curse stopped being cute real fast.

Edit: I didn't know this was the author's debut! What a strong start!! Can't wait to read more from the author :)

This book was cute and fun, though the writing and characters felt a bit childish and not as fully developed as I had wanted. If you're looking for a quick, adventure-filled book with a meet-cute on a plan, this book is for you. I will say, that whenever I read romance books I don't typically think ahead to what could happen and the reveal towards the end did surprise me so I will give the author points for that. My favorite part of the book was when the MC goes to explore on her own somewhere that she's always wanted to travel. Again, this book was just okay for me, but I'm sure others may enjoy it more than me, especially a younger audience.

I loved this book! I felt like I was on an adventure with the main character Maya as she is on her way to Pakistan for her wedding. This book was funny, engaging, heartfelt, and addressed personal struggles that she had with her cultural identity (with her role in society and her culture's view on marriage) and her personal identity of being an independent woman (who grew up in North America).
I felt every sort of emotion in this book: I laughed, I swooned over the MMC, and I also cried (I think it was the FMC personal growth and her relationship with her Mom).

The last 20% of this book I had no idea how she was going to get out of the situation.

Again, I can't say enough about this book and I can't wait to get it when it releases.

This was such a sweet and delightful read!

Maya is about to enter an arranged marriage but fate has other plans and on the plane there she ends up sitting next to someone who might just be her love match….

I worried about the reaction of Maya’s family when she found herself and decided to follow her own path but all characters were understanding, kind and sympathetic making this the perfect uplifting romance.

Had to dnf- honestly the main characters voice was too grating and to start the novel with a therapy session was strange…

Some parts felt really cheesy and forced but some parts were really sweet. I had a hard time getting into Maya's Character, as it felt almost childish.

Thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for the ARC

“Sometimes you meet someone and you realize…you were living your whole life staggering around in the darkness and didn't even know it. Not until you met them."

We meet Maya the day before she’s set to fly to Pakistan for her wedding. It’s clear this marriage isn’t a love match but she’s too much of a people pleaser to put her interests first. At the airport she meets Sarfaraz who ends up being her traveling companion when problem (after problem, after problem, after problem) delays the trip.

I enjoyed this story! From the start I was wondering how it would all end up. The traveling and adventure aspect was a lot of fun, the romance was slow and sweet, and I was rooting for Maya throughout.

🛩️Slow burn
🛩️Only one bed
🛩️Pakistani culture and customs
🛩️Meet disaster
🛩️No spice-just kisses
🛩️Prickly MMC, people pleasing FMC

Thank you Netgalley and MIRA for an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book, which leans heavily into the fake relationship, roadtrip/travel mishaps, and forced proximity tropes, was so much fun!

After a long arranged engagement, Maya, who thinks she's cursed, is traveling to Pakistan for her wedding, and of course she gets stuck next to surly seatmate Sarfaraz for the long flight. Thank goodness she'll never see him again once they safely reach their destination. Except, you guessed it, mishaps and shenanigans subvert all of her expectations, but not nearly as much as Sarfaraz does.

I was briefly concerned that I would struggle with how the author planned to achieve the HEA that every reader knows is coming. And, even though the wrap up is a bit too tidy and convenient, it absolutely worked within the narrative.

If you're tired of reading the same old female protagonist falling for the same old male love interest, then Maya's Laws of Love will be a much needed breath of fresh air. Highly recommended!

I enjoyed this book and I especially liked that it featured a Muslim heroine, which we don't see very often in romance books. I appreciated learning about Pakistani Muslim culture and what their wedding celebrations look like.

I have mixed feelings on ending of the book. I really liked the big revelation. I wasn't expecting it and when it happened, I was really into it. I felt that the conflicts of the book resolved too quickly and easily in the end. I found it hard to believe that Maya found her confidence to stand her ground on a turn of a dime when she had been the obedient daughter all of her life.

With all of that said, I'm still looking forward to future books by this author because I enjoyed the writing.

Steam level: 🔥

Maya's Laws of Love is an incredible debut from Alina Khawaja! This Pakistani romance reminded me so much of my favorite Bollywood films, and I love the themes behind the story. I related to Maya so much, both as a skeptic about love and romance while being a hopeless romantic, as well as the trauma of being the eldest daughter in desi families. I definitely think romance readers--and romance readers alike--will love this debut novel! I would rate this book 4.25 stars rounded up.

This book was so adorable. I continuously continued to say that over and over while reading. I genuinely enjoyed both main characters and loved their romance. I was so happy reading this and it was everything that I wanted from a rom-com read. I would recommend this to any romance reader. Once I am able to form coherent thoughts I will come back to edit this more thoroughly! 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher  for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was cute and chaotic and everything I hoped it would be, save for a few minor imperfections that held me back from a 5 star rating. Maya, on her way to Pakistan for her arranged marriage, was so busy convincing everyone she WAS happy about it, that she forgot it actually mattered if this was true. Her journey of finally realizing she had a right to be happy with her own life was a very satisfying one that took a freaking long time to get to. Maya was conflicting to me because she wanted so badly to be treated as an independent adult, which she was, but she also seemed very immature at times and I kept having to remind myself how old she actually was.
Her “laws of love” at the top of each chapter were cute, but if you took them out of context and, like, put them on a list of laws that she was following or referring to on a daily basis, they would definitely not make much sense. So as a chapter title kind of gimmick, they were cute, but as a rational thing Maya was creating for herself it kind of felt strange to me.
I definitely appreciated that Sarfaraz was an actual super rude grump at the beginning of the book, enough that I thought wow, this guy’s got some work to do to convince me he’s not The Jerk, as Maya dubs him at their first meeting. Luckily he does, and he won me over pretty easily if I’m honest. Faster than he won Maya, that’s for sure. He was grumpy and wanted to be alone, but still put himself out there to help her when needed (even though she’s completely independent and doesn’t need help from ANYONE! EVER! Except that oh yeah I forgot to call my bank now my card’s declined thx so much for paying for my stuff) and he was ready to say yes whenever she coaxed him into something (he was smitten from the get to, let’s be honest).
The climax/3rd act conflict, while it felt a little too easily reconciled, was satisfying, and the whole last third or so of the book I was thinking about how I wish I could watch this as a movie. It definitely has feel-good third act rom-com vibes (think While You Were Sleeping) and I was so down for it.
Overall, this was a really fun and cute romcom and I would recommend it!

This book was so cute! I loved Maya. I loved how her relationship with Sarfaraz bloomed. From him being The Jerk who she got stuck next to on the plane, to him taking care of her when she was sick, and then putting his life on the line to keep her safe. He also took everything that happened to them in stride, but I suppose it helped having someone to watch over, to make him feel less alone.

The curse was fun. I’ve read travel tropes before, where everything that can go wrong does. This one was so much more unique. All the bad things that happened to Maya were really just bringing her right where she needed to be. I loved getting a glimpse of Switzerland, and how Sarfaraz cared enough about what Maya said to look into her favorite show and watch it without her knowing. He was a sweet man who’d gotten the short end of the stick and had his own tragedies.

It was fitting how they came together, and I loved watching it happen. The clean romance aspect made sense in light of their culture and I didn’t feel the need for more steam—the story was well written.

This was a great story that I’m glad I picked up!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Maya believes she's cursed in love so she has decided to enter into an arranged marriage to a handsome doctor, the only problem is on the way to her wedding she gets stranded in Switzerland with a cynical lawyer who is going to have her questioning her marriage choice. Maya has been unlucky in love and thinks she's cursed, and to get her mom to take her seriously she decided to enter into an arranged marriage with a old colleague who is a handsome doctor. On the way to her wedding she is seated next to a cynical lawyer who she can't leave alone and when a storm leaves them stranded in Switzerland, Maya and Safaraz become unlikely travel companions. The more time they spend together the more the chemistry between them grows and the more Maya is questioning who the right guy for her is. Unfortunately this was a miss for me, I really wanted to like this but I just did not like Maya at all. I did not feel the chemistry or romance between her and Safaraz and wasn't all that invested in their relationship. I wish I could like this book but it fell flat for me and the romance wasn't there. If you are interested in an arranged marriage/fall for a different guy romance, give this a go, maybe you'll have a better time with it than I did.

*Thanks Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Forced proximity travelling + grumpy/sunshine, the tropes were done so perfectly in this book 😭 there's a twist thrown in at some point which I absolutely should have guessed BUT I DIDN'T it really came out of nowhere, Alina you're a genius 😂

++ there's a rain scene where the main ship holds a sweater over the MC's head, the way I swooned 😭

I loved how everything was resolved at the end, the pacing of this book + the emotional setup and resolution was so satisfying! There's also a good amount of philosophy/psychology thrown in at the end, it was very well rounded 🥲

TWs - child abandoned by parent (the MC), extended fight between parent and son which leads to them not talking for years, mugging (a gun is used to threaten the characters although no one is physically hurt at the end)

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!