A cute rom-com and an incredible debut from the author.

Read this if you like:

💞 Forced proximity
🛏 One bed tropes
✨️ Forbidden romances

I've seen many conflicting opinions about this book, so let me start by saying I am not Muslim and my opinion is not based on cultural accuracy.

That said, Maya's Laws of Love was, for me, an incredible read. The story is sweet, funny at times, full of clichés and chaotic but so adorable and relatable.

Maya is a hot mess, ready to settle into an arranged marriage only to gain more independence from her Pakistani mum. Sarfaraz comes off as grumpy at first but it doesn't take much for him to fall for Maya... who is his brother's fiancée.

The banter and adventures between the protagonists can keep you turning pages, and overall, this is an amazing debut perfect for those who don't want higher heat levels than kissing only.

Thank you, Alina Khawaja, Harlequin Books, and NetGalley for early access to a copy.

This review was originally published on Instagram on March 25, 2024.

This had the makings of a very cute rom-com. Maya's life is Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong, especially with her love life. On the way to her arranged marriage, she almost misses her flight and ends up next to a grumpy seatmate. Then, to make matters worse, the plane gets grounded due to bad weather. While Maya tries to make the best of things, everything gets worse, from getting sick from her lunch to being robbed.

This story takes some whacky and sometimes unbelievable turns. While it was exciting and gripping in the beginning, it lost me in the middle, particularly when she and Sarfaraz get into a fight, and he says some pretty hurtful things. In fact, even as their storyline progresses, he continues to say some crass things that tend to get overlooked. I almost felt like the author wanted us to feel like he could be brutally honest with her by Maya gets that from literally everyone else in her life, I would have loved for him to be more tender and attuned to her needs.

Ultimately, it was cute, but the romance didn't seem to hold up for me the way I would have liked. I think the characters could have been more developed, and the plot could have been a little less absurd at times.

i don't even know where to begin with this book ... it was so good and i loved every moment of it. the drama and plot twists were so unexpected. i seriously ate every bit of this book up.

maya's laws of love was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and it did not let me down!! i LOVE love, and i am so so happy that maya and safaraz got their happy ending. i was rooting for them the whole story!!!

thank you to much to HTP and netgalley for the arc. reading and reviewing this book was a dream come true.

Maya Mirza's father walked out when she was a young girl. She comes from a Muslim family, so her mother gets shamed for her failed marriage. Maya's view on love and relationships in general are skewed, so she makes up her own laws about love and believes that she's been cursed with bad luck. On a trip to Pakistan, where her arranged marriage takes place, she gets taken on a journey that she never expected.

It took me a while to get through this. As someone who's not Muslim, I didn't understand a large chunk of what was going on in the first couple of chapters. And I don't feel like it was explained at all for those who don't know much about the religion/culture. Because of that, I couldn't connect with this book or the characters at all. I also noticed a few instances in the book that, even with my little knowledge, I'm fairly certain goes against their beliefs.

Towards the middle of the book, I started to really enjoy it and seeing the relationship develop between Maya and Sarfaraz. That's where it started to pick up for me.

Obviously, I already knew what was going to happen at the end. It's fairly obvious. But I felt like it was a little too corny.

This novel started off very weak. The writing was choppy, and the author forgets that some readers may not be familiar with desi culture (although the representation is wonderful). As you approach the climax, the writing becomes more fluid and the overall plot strengthens. However, the denouement returns to the same weakness as before. I would’ve liked if we could’ve gotten to know Maya and Sarfaraz better too. Their personalities felt very surface level besides understanding their main motives.

I loved this book!!l

I thought the development of the relationship between the two characters was believable and sweet. Their families were wonderfully developed as well! I also loved the references to the Korean drama Crash Landing on You. :)

I loved learning more about Pakistani/Muslim culture and relationships through the book, while recognizing this is just one story and isn’t representative of all Muslim relationships, it is a sweet story! I recommend reading the author’s note to make sure this is the right book for you.

4.5 stars rounded up. In Maya's Laws of Love, we meet Maya Mirza, a 28-year-old teacher who is engaged and is traveling to Pakistan for her wedding. She's been engaged for a couple of years, because the only way her mom would agree to let her go to South Korea to teach for a couple of years was if she was engaged, so she agreed to an arranged marriage. Maya is also pretty sure she's cursed -- how else would she be able to explain all of the bad luck she's experienced in her life? And how else would she explain the fact that while she's traveling to Pakistan -- alone, so she could finish the end of the school year -- she not only ends up sitting next to the jerk who knocked her stuff over in the airport, but their plane has to make an emergency landing in Switzerland? And she ends up running into the jerk again and again?

I love a good meet-disaster, and I love a roadtrip book. I also really liked Maya as a narrator. She's trying to make sense of the world with her rules, and she's trying to live within the bounds that she's always been expected to stay in, but she also wants to be her own person, and that's really hard.

I also really loved the Muslim representation in this book. I think it's really important to read Alina Khawaja's author's note, which she's also put on Goodreads, because she says that the book isn't 100% halal, and that she wrote this book so she could see herself represented in Muslim women in books, but that she knows that there isn't a universal Muslim experience. I'm not Muslim, but her author's note really resonated with me as another religious minority. There's no one way to be "religious," and to only define someone as "religious" by how "observant" they are or whether they follow a specific set of rules can be really limiting. As someone Jewish, it's frustrating when the majority of Jewish characters I read about are so religious that they seem like caricatures or they're so secular and their Jewishness is not a salient characteristic. I know that I probably won't read about a Jewish character who is Jewish in exactly the same ways that I am, but it's still really meaningful to read about characters who are Jewish in similar ways, or who are observant in many ways but maybe not all the ways. So I can understand why Alina Khawaja wrote Maya's Muslimness in the way that she did. Having religious representation look as varied as the way we practice religion is super important. If you read the author's note, and you can tell that the book won't be for you, obviously you should put yourself and your needs first. But I am glad to have been able to read a character like Maya.

Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA for providing me with an eARC of Maya's Laws of Love in exchange for my honest review.

This cover is so dang cute and the story is too! If you are looking for a clean romance with diversity in the characters I would recommend checking this one out as it checks both of those boxes!

I truly love all the tropes utilized in this story and I couldn’t have asked for more from this debut!

Thanks so much Mira for my ARC in exchange for my review!

Maya's Laws of Love, by Alina Khawaja
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pub Date: 3/26

I really enjoyed this one! It had such a fun mix of all the best tropes: grumpy/sunshine, one bed, forced proximity, fake dating/marriage, forbidden love, and slowww burn. I liked the format of the book, with each chapter beginning with one of Maya's laws that explain why she's had such bad luck when it comes to love. The romance was sooo sweet- I was swooning with these two characters as they fell for each other! I loved reading about Maya's misadventures and all the chaos that led up to her trying to travel and arrive in time for her own destination wedding (I would have been absolutely losing my mind- I definitely felt some second-hand stress at some of her setbacks, but she managed to squeeze in some sightseeing adventures so good for her!) Reading about Maya's culture was so interesting, and I definitely felt for her as she struggled with trying to meet her family's expectations while also trying to stay true to herself and find her own happiness.

Thank you @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Truly sensational!
I think I gravitated towards Maya in an instant!
She was sick of trying to find love until it found her in the most unlikeliest ways. This kind of magical happenstance is SUPERB. I mostly saw this play out so beautifully in Rom Com movies, but this book truly made it magical.
I love the equal attention to her placement in her own story also in societal terms with her culture.
This was just lovely. So So good!

I want to start this review out with a note (and what is essentially a trigger warning) from the author that is included on GoodReads. I do not feel as if I can personally comment on the accuracy of the religious representation because it's not my place but if religion is important to you I recommend reading the full authors note:

"now, to answer a question that a lot of people have asked: this book isn't 100% halal. There are kissing scenes and other physical touch such as hand holding, hugs, etc, but nothing that goes further than that. i don't believe in misleading people, and i don't want people to come into my book thinking they're going to get one thing and then end up disappointed because they got something else. if you're not comfortable with the level of physical touch in the book, then i completely understand! please feel free to skip this book, and i'd be so so happy to recommend you other books by authors that feature more halal stories (zoulfa katouh, sk ali, ream shukairy, aamna qureshi, and uzma jalaluddin come to mind). but just because there is physical touch in this book does not negate the Muslim-ness of the characters, because being halal isn't all that it takes to be Muslim. it is the love of and devotion to Allah (SWT) that makes you Muslim, and then the decision of if you're good/bad is only up to God. if you can read with an open mind, then that'd be wonderful. if you'd prefer to skip this, then i completely understand. and in the spirit of authors respecting readers, i ask that you please respect me in return. all i wish to do with my books is reflect the diversity that exists in the real world, and help open doors for other Pakistani Muslims to share their own stories, because there truly is such diverse experiences within our culture that all deserve to be seen."

My review:

Overall: 2.5 stars

"Maya's Laws of Love" took me on a whirlwind journey through love, culture, and self-discovery. Maya, convinced she's cursed in romance, is en route to Pakistan for an arranged marriage when fate throws her a curveball - a chance encounter with Sarfaraz, a cynical lawyer, leads to an unexpected detour through Switzerland. As Maya grapples with cultural expectations, personal desires, and a growing attraction to Sarfaraz, she must confront the possibility of finding love where she least expects it.

While I wanted to root for Maya and her quest for love, I couldn't shake the feeling that the story fell short. The clunky opening and unrealistic scenarios left me struggling to connect with the characters, particularly Maya herself. Her series of self-made problems and immature behavior often left me frustrated, making it difficult to fully immerse myself in her journey. However, I appreciated the exploration of cultural identity and the complexities of navigating tradition and personal freedom.

Despite its flaws, "Maya's Laws of Love" shows promise as a debut novel. Alina Khawaja's storytelling shines in moments of introspection and cultural insight, offering glimpses of the author's potential. While the pacing and character development could use refinement, there's a raw honesty to the narrative that hints at greater things to come. I look forward to seeing how Khawaja's writing evolves in future works, and I'm hopeful for more nuanced storytelling and compelling characters in her next endeavors.

Big thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and freely given.

I think this book was a solid attempt but I was just not vibing with it. The opening was very clunky and awkward. It’s much more effective to SHOW what’s going on rather than TELL and girlie did a whole lot of telling and info dumped the whole first chapter in a very unrealistic therapy session (why are we only now discussing these concerns?). I am not Muslim and do not have any issue with reading intimacy in any way but my ex was so I’m aware of the rules and it seems Maya has broken A LOT of them. I can see why so many feel cheated by the “representation”. Overall I wasn’t a huge fan of the main character and that’s what held me back from really enjoying this book.

I really enjoyed reading this debut adult romance, and I look forward to what Ms. Khawaja writes next!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

Thank you so much to the author Alina Khawaja and Harlequin Trade Publishing for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

***This review contains some spoilers. It will also be part of an upcoming blog post.***

Overall, this is a strong debut!

I'm not sure if it can be categorized as an entirely Halal romance, but that aside, I had lots of fun reading it.

I found certain cultural aspects relatable, especially the general pressure put on women in desi cultures. I felt for Maya when she said that she buckled to the pressure of marriage because that was the only way to legitimize her as an adult in her mother's eyes.

I certainly found myself thinking, "Please just TRY talking to your mom or sister before the wedding begins." Though I'm probably too close to this and too biased — as someone whose mother also did not have the best marriage, it was hard for me to believe that her mom wouldn't listen at all (and she does end up understanding, thankfully!)

The pacing felt off at times, but I certainly felt the tension during certain moments between Maya and Safaraz. It was hard not to feel bad for Imtiaz though, because it was emotional cheating even if he and Maya weren't super close.

My main criticism is that Safaraz's initial behaviour (though understandable given the context but still not okay) made it hard for me to properly root for him in any way until much later in the book. I'm fully on board with the grumpy/sunshine trope, but the grumpy veered straight into "wow, this guy is kind of terrible" for longer than I liked, though that could just be personal preference. I tried my best to empathize with him but mostly I just related to Maya's initial frustration. I grew to like his character but I felt blindsided by the fact that he knew Maya was his brother's fianceé and still behaved the way he did. I dunno, I don't think I'd be too happy if it were my sibling who did that

The incorporation of Murphy's Law was witty and quite relatable (I've definitely been there). I think that's an aspect that will resonate with loads of people! I also appreciated how it was brought back in relation to Maya's trauma related to her father.

On a different note, it was very interesting to read about Maya's religiousness. As someone who used to have a complicated relationship with their god(s), I understand the tug of war between faith and the aspects of faith that feel restrictive to us on an individual level.

I can't speak to the accuracy of the religious representation because it's not my place, so I'll just point reviewers to this part of the author's note on Goodreads:

"...But just because there is physical touch in this book does not negate the Muslim-ness of the characters, because being halal isn't all that it takes to be Muslim. it is the love of and devotion to Allah (SWT) that makes you Muslim, and then the decision of if you're good/bad is only up to God. if you can read with an open mind, then that'd be wonderful."

Thanks again!

Thank you Alina Khawaja and Harlequin Trade Publishing for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.5/5 ⭐️

Maya is trying to find herself while being caught in a world between cultural expectations and her own wants.

The Murphy’s law theme was quite amusing. In the beginning I found the Maya was a little hard to root for, I found her plain, vanilla, and not very interesting. But as the story progressed, I was on her side being Maya’s biggest cheerleader. The sweet romance of this book was very endearing and natural. Two people just trying to figure out life and willing to trust each other. There really is nothing like finding someone who knows you when you feel like you’ve been trying to mold yourself into something you’re not for so long.

I absolutely love seeing a love story told with Pakistani Muslim culture at the forefront. And I really liked that we saw how central it was to Maya as a person and to her story.

That said, I wanted to love this book so much, but it really didn’t work for me. The writing didn’t feel polished enough, and it could have used more editing. While I loved the desi rep, it sometimes felt like the book was preoccupied with over-explaining details. At first, I thought maybe this was to make sure details are clear for anyone unfamiliar, but it does that for everything like walking the reader through what Maya has to pack and her getting dressed. There were so many times I wondered why something was left in when it didn’t add anything to the scene or the story. I finally lost it when the book explained what a rest stop was.

Beyond that, I hated the main character. I never found her charming, she just seemed so annoying to me. I don’t know why she keeps talking to strangers who are just going about their day because she’s bored and lonely. She also seems so rude ignoring her family and fiancé, crossing people’s boundaries, and taking up Sarfaraz’s armrest when he’s in the middle seat and is entitled to it! I know these are small pet peeves I would likely overlook if I could actually connect with her, but she just got under my skin the whole time. She felt very immature and not in her late 20s to the point it was concerning.
The story itself was fine. I liked the mini journey Maya and Sarfaraz take, but the whole thing spirals out of proportion. I don’t think either main character seems sympathetic in how the love story unfolds, too. But I might have gotten past some of that if the writing wasn’t so bad. It needed about 100 pages chopped and I think that would have worked better.

I would love to see what’s next for Alina Khawaja and how her writing grows from here. Even though Maya’s Laws of Love didn’t work for me, this is only her debut so I’m excited to see more from her.

#MayasLawsOfLove #NetGalley

This was absolutely amazing! Especially the references to Pakistani culture and media, it felt like a nostalgic trip back home. The angst and banter between the love interests was perfect and the grumpy x sunshine trope was executed beautifully! I flew through this and it will easily be one of my absolute top romance reads of all time! My only reservation was the physical element of premarital relationships as it felt out of place since the characters were Muslim.

First and foremost thanks to Netgallery and Harlequin for the ARC of Maya's Laws of Love, in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying that I understand the work it goes to writing and publishing a story. It doesn't go unnoticed. While I had high hopes for the story, it sadly was not the book for me. I didn't enjoy the main characters (especially the FMC). Although I also understand some of the technicalities behind some of her decisions, I just don't like cheating in any way shape or form in books!

With that being said, I will check out future works by this author, and maybe the next one will be of my liking.

Again, thanks Negallery and Harlequin for the ARC.

Maya’s Laws of Love is a sweet romcom with a grumpy sunshine element. It’s a charming story of finding oneself amidst all of the beliefs and traditions held within families.

Maya is on her way to her wedding in Karachi to marry a college friend turned fiance for their arranged marriage when she meets Sarfaraz. Due to plans being derailed by a series of events, we learn about Maya’s laws and how she incorporates them into her life. They can’t seem to catch a break!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Alina Khawaja, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I can’t wait for everyone else to read this on March 26th!

I have posted my review on Goodreads, in my Facebook book club, and will post a Tiktok review within the week before it releases.

I SAID to myself, before the main characters even met that this is the beginning of the best Meet-Cute ever, and I was so RIGHT!!!! UGH I wanted to cry with happiness the way this book ended, and I am not exaggerating. We meet Maya who swears she has bad luck with connecting with people, she calls it a curse. Anyway, she is a Pakistani woman who wants to follow traditions in the hopes of being happy in the long run, like getting married. Now Maya has HUGE abandonment issues, and shes off to get married, but on the way to the airport she meets Sarfaraz. This is the biggest coincidence because they are both going to Pakistan for a wedding, one is getting married, and the other is attending one. Well Maya’s curse takes a toll on them, or so Maya thinks.

These two are so different but yet so alike in so many ways, but she’s about to marry someone else, and she’s building this connection with this Grump of a man, and I was ALL FOR IT! Even though that’s taboo. The events that they go through was so much fun, I loved seeing their attraction grow, I loved how they both called each other out on the things that really matter, and how Maya didn’t let her culture/religion dictate her future, and that her family stood by her side as well.