"If I Loved You Less" is a romance written by Aamna Qureshi, a modern retelling of "Emma," the famous novel by Jane Austen. A light, bubbly and funny book that made me chuckle and smile repeatedly. I admit that in some moments I perceived too many descriptions that slowed down the pace, but overall I found it really cute!

The story follows Humaira Mirza, a 23-year-old native of Long Island, civil engineer by profession and an expert matchmaker by passion. After successfully finding "the one" for both her aunt and sister, Humaira is ready to claim some romance for herself. The perfect candidate? The gorgeous and mysterious Rizwan Ali. But while Humaira uses her skills to obtain the perfect match, she is forced to endure the disapproval of the family friend, Fawad Sheikh who she's known all her life. Fawad and Humaira have long exchanged barbs, but when her romantic meddling leads to unintentional misadventures, Humaira realizes something shocking: she is beginning to care what Fawad thinks of her.

Humaira, the protagonist with her only first person pov, convinced me! Humaira is a sunshine, sarcastic, spoiled, and proud woman who has the hobby of matchmaking. A passion that pushes her to meddle in people's lives, subtly manipulating them to achieve her goals. Outwardly superficial and petty, in reality Humaira acts driven by the best intentions, eager to make others happy and feel useful. Beneath her confident and smiling appearance, Humaira contains a deep loneliness and numerous insecurities, which she hides for fear of being pushed away by others. I found her to be a well-portrayed protagonist, although my heart goes to Fawad, a man seemingly grumpy but with a big heart! The relationship that develops between them is sizzling but at the same time delicate, made up of funny banter, fleeting glances and touches, and many very sweet scenes!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you love Jane Austen's Emma, and the film Clueless, then this is the perfect book for you!
Humaira is a really unique FMC, she is saving herself for the perfect guy. She's wealthy and beautiful and very certain about the type of man she wants to marry.

She spends her time caring for others, and indulging in her favourite hobby - matchmaking!

She's got her heart set on a handsome, smart family friend, but the thorn in her side is her neighbour, and sister's brother in law, Fawad, who knows just how to get under her skin!

When trying to find a match for her shy, naive co worker goes awry, slowly everything starts to unravel...

I really enjoyed this book. I've never read an FMC like Humaira before. She knows her own mind and she stands up for what she believes in (while sporting a range of beautiful designer outfits)

I'm looking forward to reading more of Aamna's books.

Thank you @onemorechaoterhc and @netgalley for the eARC of If I Loved You Less by aamna_qureshi
in exchange for an honest review!

📖📖 Book Review 📖📖 If I Loved You Less is a culturally diverse, delightful rom-com that will steal your heart. Our main gal, Humaira is a lover of love with no luck in her own love department. And yet, her unwavering hope that she will find love is beyond inspiring and just beautiful. What really stands out for me in this book is that real love is being surrounded by family and friends who provide unconditional love and support, lifting you up. Patience turns out to be a virtue as love strikes Humaira when she least expects it! A wonderfully lighthearted and uplifting read!

Found myself laughing out loud and smiling throughout this book… If you love cozy stories, some cute romance… this book is for you!

Oh, how I love a good retelling of Emma! And we’re throwing in a Pakistani twist? Yes please.

Our heroine Humaira is your typical Emma: mischievous, beautiful, and stubborn. Fawad makes a terrific Knightley, and I liked how the author kinda combined Harriet and Miss Bates into one character.

Humaira was very fun to follow along with, and I loved getting to know more of the Pakistani culture. I would definitely recommend this to fellow Austen enthusiasts.

Humaira is wealthy and a little bit spoiled. After finding a love match for her family, she is ready to find one for herself. Headstrong, and sure of what she wants, she looks at everyone, but the one who is right under her nose.

The chemistry MCs have is addicting, I couldn't put the book down. :) It's a swoony, slow burn, and full of emotions and sparks...

It's a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma, one of my all-time favorite books. and it didn't disappoint. The author took a well-known story and put her spin on it while keeping it true to the original.

It's so good!

As soon as I discovered there was an ARC opportunity of a book named “If I loved you less”, a retelling of “Emma” by Jane Austen, I knew I had to request it and hopefully be able to read it.

Of course, I saw many parallels between Emma and Humaira: they’re both a bit spoiled and have their flaws, but they also have a pure heart, have matchmaking skills and they really grow from the beginning of the book to the end.
Humaira is so caring, she puts everyone first, she loves reading and is very sure about what she wants in all aspects of life, especially want kind of man she wants to marry: she won’t settle easily without really being sure. She’s strong and I learned to appreciate her always more every chapter I’d read, just like Emma.

Fawad - just like Mr. Knightley (who is one of my many fictional husbands) - was a great MMC who was ready to underline the FMC wrongs but also was there for her. The tension between the characters was SO GOOD it had me giggling.

I think this is one of the most highlighted books I have on my Kindle because there were so many good phrases that are now stuck in my mind.

So I know what you all have been thinking while reading this review: why the hell she rated it 3 stars?! And you’re right, so I’ll give you an explanation: first of all, in my opinion any book from 3 stars and above is a story I enjoyed, so it’s not a bad rating at all. However, I couldn’t bring myself to rate it higher because there were some chapters I wasn’t really able to get into because I found them a bit boring. This is the same exact feeling I had while reading Emma too (which I also rated 3 stars) so I should’ve expected it. It’s just because of my personal taste that I couldn’t give it more stars and has nothing to do with the story/the writing which I adored.

I highly recommend to check this one out when it will be released on July 18th!

A big thanks to NetGalley UK and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

AD PR PURCHASE - Thank you for the eARC of If I Loved You Less @onemorechapterhc on @netgalley

Let it be known that I stayed up till midnight reading If I Loved You Less because I COULD NOT STOP. Yet another book that is a Jane Austen "Emma" retelling - I MUST read Emma!

𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿
The whole reason I picked up the book is due to the cover. It's beautiful. It speaks volumes, and genuinely, once you read the book and meet Humaira, the cover makes so much sense 😂

𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀
💰rich people
😂rom com
🕋Muslim characters
🔥Slowburn
🌞😠Grumpy/sunshine
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Family


𝗣𝗹𝗼𝘁
Is it predictable? Yes
Do I care? Nope!

I knew what the end result was, but I wanted to know how we got there! The reading experience was so fun, and I enjoyed the smaller sub plots as well.

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀
Perfect. Humaira is the FMC. She reminds me of an Asian Magnolia Parks. Fashion focused, rich, snobby, a bit dim but actually quite clever.

Fawad is the MMC - broody, moody, the grumpy to her sunshine. He has quite a lot of depth actually to his character, and it was fun to see how his story progressed.

Honorary mention to Humaira's dad - i absolutely loved him.

𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
The entire book is funny. it's the perfect rom com. The pacing is great, the banter is great, the jokes are funny, it's super, super relatable, so you can tell it's been researched well. I was quite teary over the chapters where Humaira is dealing with her grief and still looking after her father!

A charming romance with plenty of chemistry and sizzle! I loved the characters.
Many thanks to HarperCollins UK and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This charming multicultural retelling of Austen's Emma finds wealthy Humaira Mirza, a Long Island native, longing to find her own match after successfully finding love matches for her sister and aunt. But she's not expecting her own true love to be long-time family friend Fawad Sheikh. Full of emotion, wit, and sizzle!

I loved this book!!! This is a muslim and Pakistani Emma retelling and it’s perfect.
I loved seeing more of the Pakistani culture and also seeing how it’s similar to the Turkish culture in a way. Especially the father daughter relationship
“It’s Papa’s opinion that there is no need for daughters to marry: they ought to stay with their fathers, in comfort, and live as they please.”

The author completely followed the plot points of the original book and I just loved seeing that.
I’m obsessed with Fawad and Humairas relationship, they’re so perfect for each other and I want to have their relationship
- Them reading together and recommending books to each other
- Him annotating the book she recommended her
- Him just taking care of her when she’s ill or when she falls asleep
- When she’s the chef and he’s the sous chef
- Him loving her despite her flaws
- Him being so close to her father
- Him always forgiving her
- Him gardening

“‘Will you protect me, then’?’ I tease. ‘Always’ he says”

I also loved Humaira talking about the feeling of being loved only if you’re needed or if you’re perfect. Also how the love between them concentrated on being loved despite someone’s flaws.

4.25⭐️

this was sooooo much fun omg. finally muslim rep let’s gooo (love you aamna ,seriously) anyway thank u netgalley and one more chapter for allowing me to read about humaira and fawad (insane! they are insane i love them) and aamu tbh i knew this would hit and scratch my itch and it did! recommended!

The tension was amazing & there were some close call parts that had me like :O but don’t worry! that halal line stayed firm tho no matter what!!! I will read anything aamna qureshi writes next!! Her romance is a new fav of mine now!

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH! 5/5 stars. Thank you netgalley Uk for the e-ARC.

This perfect rating of a rom com shocks me more than it will shock anyone else because honestly my expectations were middle going into this. Not high but not low.

It just scratched that need for a good halal romance book perfectly.

I won’t lie, the first 2-3 chapters were hard for me to get through because the MC is an unhinged crazy hijabi spoiled nepo baby, emphasis on spoiled nepo baby. As a pakistani (hijabi) who comes from a classic immigrant lower class background, I CANNOT relate to the MC at all. This girl went on and on about designer shit that I couldn’t fathom. But it’s okay because she was also a nepo spoiled baby who was VERYYY endearing & loveable with her big heart even though many times I wanted to throttle or slap across the face & her arc is AMAZING! She has MANY flaws but it honestly made her grow on me very quickly because she gets called out for these flaws and she does listen!!

I especially LOVE LOVE LOVED how the MMC (my new fictional crush) called her out on her bullshit yet also accepted her with her flaws. this dude would not let a single one of her wrong doings slide by unignored & I'm so glad for it be it shows how they both grow TOGETHER as people!

Also the jealously scenes of Fawad had me giggling, kicking my feet, screaming - he was SO HOT I WAS SOOO FOR IT! The angst had me in a chokehold.

The tension was amazing & there were some close call parts that had me like :O but don’t worry! that halal line stayed firm tho no matter what!!! I will read anything aamna qureshi writes next!! Her romance is a new fav of mine now!

I don't usually read romance but I really enjoyed this book! Can't say I completely related to the main character—we are very different people—but it was refreshing experiencing a story through the lenses of someone I wouldn't have normally. The romance stayed halal (we need more actually halal romances in stories. Its so important for people to see positive representations of Muslims) and HAD ME INVESTED. Even if you haven't read Emma (which inspired the book) you will be able to enjoy IILYL. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to dip their toes into the romance world.

This ARC was my first read of 2024 and it is an automatic five-star read! But it’s honestly no surprise to me, because this is book is by Aamna Qureshi and I expected no less. As a huge fan of The Marghazar Trials, I knew this Muslim Pakistani Emma retelling would be incredibly romantic and magical. And that was exactly the case. I loved following Humaira, even through all her faults, and watching her navigate her matchmaking shenanigans while also having amazing chemistry with her neighbor Fawad, and the brown daughter guilt of taking care of your parents as you get older. The way grief is portrayed in this book was also beautifully written, and there are honestly so many layers to this story that I enjoyed. I cried multiple times reading this novel, both from the sad/touching moments, but also to the beautiful love confessions written on the page. I can't wait for Austen fans to pick up this novel! I would rate this book a solid 5 stars.

Thanks so much to Aamna Qureshi, Harper Collins One More Chapter and NetGalley for the eARC, all opinions expressed are my own!

Firstly, let’s talk about the south Asian and Muslim representation here, it’s exactly what I wanted to see and I’m so glad I get to read more stories of character with experiences that align with mine. The story is rich in culture although the relentless references to designers and materialistic items (whilst I understand they somewhat added to the story) quickly became tedious.

Despite this, I loved the tension between Fawad and Humaira, excellently executed and had me utterly obsessed at how oblivious Humaira was in regards to Fawad’s feelings. The writing is slightly distracting but reminiscent of what you would expect from an Austen retelling.

I really enjoyed this story!