I LOVED this book. It was a super cute, no-spice college romance. It was giving To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before vibes, especially with the ski trip chapter. Perfect to read in the winter. Farah Naz Rishi did a wonderful job of crafting a sweet friendship-to-lovers storyline with some well-fleshed-out sub-plots of family drama and boy drama. The pacing was on point. I also enjoyed the character growth we saw in Anisa from the start to the end of the book. Marlow was such a sweet MMC! Overall such a cute read and I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

Gave 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 :)

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books | Quill Tree Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anisa has her whole life planned out, or at least, she thought she did. That's until the guy she and her entire family expected her to eventually marry becomes distant. Teamed up with a stranger in class, they decide that he will also be her communication/love coach as Anisa tries to get closer to the guy she feels like she is losing. Marlow is such a cinnamon roll, sometimes to his detriment in the past. He takes Anisa just as she is and hopes for her to get what she wants out of life. She works to overcome her familial and cultural expectations as Marlow tries to move past a bad breakup.

If You're Not the One is a true YA; do not expect spice. Overall, I enjoyed it a ton! There is a ton of humor, but also deeper themes of overcoming familial/cultural expectations, self-doubt, and rumors. I imagine I'll like anything that Farah writes.

Thanks to Harper Collins Children's Books - Quill Tree Books, and NetGalley for an eARC of this book for an honest review.

If You're Not the One is another beautiful YA novel from Farah Naz Rishi! I've enjoyed her previous works so far, and as a fan of their humorous dialogue, relatable second-gen immigrant themes, and swoon-worthy romance, I was super excited to read this book. If you have read Farah's memoir, Sorry for the Inconvenience, some of the themes of this story will seem familiar with you, but this book honestly felt like a warm hug after reading her memoir!

I loved Anisa and Marlow's friendship first and foremost. It was so special seeing Marlow care for Anisa as a friend through all of her hardships with Isaac, her family, and more. It was also very cute seeing their relationship progress into something more. The trope of the extroverted MMC giving dating and relationship advice to the more "inexperienced" FMC will always hit in teen romance, The jealousy and confrontation scenes with Marlow, Anisa, and Isaac were also soooo juicy and I lived for the drama LOL. I was also a huge fan of all the ski trip scenes, and it gave me so many throwbacks to To All The Boys I Loved Before.

Some of my favorite themes in this book definitely include the idea that many brown girls are often an afterthought among men when it comes to beauty standards, dating, and desirability. I found myself relating to Anisa as she often compared herself to her white peers. The exploration of parental expectations and the often unrealistic standards first-gen immigrant parents hold their children too was also very relatable. I really appreciated all of Anisa's thoughts on these topics in her inner monologue and footnotes, as I really could have used this validation as a teenager.

I can't wait to see what incredible stories Farah creates next! I'd rate this book 4.5 stars rounded up.

thank you netgalley for the e-ARC!

i thought this was sweet but i think i'm getting too old to enjoy contemporary ya lmao. i had to stop reading in some parts because it was kind of cringe but overall it's a good book and i liked the footnotes as well.

3.5 ✨

Absolutely gorgeous cover, which is what drew me in immediately to this story. 

This story is a cute young adult coming of age romance involving an interracial couple, with the female lead being Pakistani in an unofficial arranged marriage with another character and the male lead being half black and half Indian. I don't know too much about Muslim culture, so I can't say whether things talked about in the book were accurate, but I enjoyed reading the representation that was given.

I mostly enjoyed this story. The romance was cute, and I loved Marlow. As for Anisa, she definitely had some character growth, but she is very insufferable for about 30-40% of the book. She is a perfectionist who is very judgmental of others and very set in stone about her relationship and how it should work in her mind. I do appreciate that as the story continues, you see her thoughts change on certain subjects and see her letting down her walls and becoming comfortable with her friends and family, but for me it was difficult to keep reading past the beginning because of how insufferable she was. In the end, the writing style for me was good, and the romance was cute, and I can see myself recommending this to younger readers.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳, 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘦-𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺.

first of all, some appreciation for the cover, please!! it is so beautiful.

i do however regret to say that this failed to live up to expectations. cute rom-com it was, but it was just okay to me. i felt meh about the whole book really.

DNF
So all of you now I love me my eastern asian girlies! So I was so excited to get this arc since I rarely see books where the mc is muslim, though I was quite disappointed. Anisa is perfect or at least that’s what she’s made herself to be. Perfect grades, perfect boyfriend, and a plan set out for the rest of her life. To me though she is a snotty conceited woman who thinks she’s better than everyone and sure she sort of had character growth and she has worked hard for her grades yet if I had to read about how she put on highlighter on her perfect nose or how perfect her hair was I’d give out. She’s seriously one of the main reasons this book is a dnf because I also understand she’s meant to be this way but I just truly couldn’t stand her even if she was in her ‘true form’.

this book is also just cringy asf so there’s that

Now as a non-muslim I’m not 100% sure if this is all religiously correct though slight spoiler I do know it’s not like halah halah cause there is kissing but the book mentions muslim traditions, praying, and cultural foods which is nice representation. Marlow the mmc is probably one of if not the best part of the book he’s just such a nice and chill dude I would totally hang around. I truly do think there are people who will read this and enjoy it but I was sadly not one, especially since I felt there was so much missing and the book is long the e-book is around 400 pages so I feel like Rishi could’ve expanded or just made the book a whole lot better.

I am a big Farah Naz Rishi fan, so I couldn't wait to read this! I loved both her other YA romances, and this one is no exception. IF YOU'RE NOT THE ONE is a bit more of a traditional story -- smart beautiful incredible academic weapon meets .....boy. This trope could be written a million times, and yet I'd love it all the same. This was such a wonderful exploration of Pakistani culture, and even got rid of the weird Western taboo around arranged marriages. This book was refreshing, fun, and so real!

2.5
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc of this.
it’s always a sad day for me when i have to give a negative rating on an arc review. this book was just missing something for me. the mc and her love interest were to supposed to not like each other but she was blushing at his messages less than 20% of the way through. i honestly don’t have much to say about this one because it felt unwritten/half done. this wasn’t a bad book but i don’t think i would recommend it simply because the main characters weren’t very compelling and the romance wasn’t very believable ( at least to me) so go out and try this for yourself if you are interested.

This book reminded me of "Red White and Royal Blue" in the ways that the characters had so much pressure on them that conflicted with their egos and made them have to work so much harder to understand themselves and be ready for a relationship.

Anisa has it all planned out: she has an image to maintain, an arranged match to follow through with, and a law degree to obtain. A boy with bright yellow crocs—a boy determined to be Anisa's friend—is not part of the plan.

"If You're Not the One" is more or less a fictionalised version of Rishi's own story. I read "Sorry for the Inconvenience" not too long ago, and as soon as I saw that Rishi had also written her story into a YA fiction format, I knew I'd have to read it. So there are two things to talk about here: "If You're Not the One", and the experience of reading the two books nearly back to back.

The book itself: This is pretty classic YA romance. Anisa is in college, with her whole life planned out ahead of her; she has wrenches thrown in her way via family upheaval and just normal college figuring-things-out. Anisa has put a great deal of effort into projecting an image of perfection, and she's pretty damn insufferable about it. It works because Rishi is aware that Anisa is pretty damn insufferable, but also, Anisa does some genuine growth—and grew on me—over the course of the book. I love how hard she works at making her relationship work, too; she doesn't have great models for communication, and she's definitely still figuring things out, but she knows enough to actively try to communicate...and to know that, whatever else, she wants to be with someone who wants to be with her. (Is this a low bar? Yes. But it's too high a bar for a lot of books.) The book also carries the bonus of much of the romantic context being outside the YA norm, as Anisa is perfectly fine with the idea of an arranged marriage, and whether or not her marriage is arranged is largely beside the point throughout the book. Also, there are footnotes. So generally? I think the book is a win.

Reading the two books not quite together: Now, I'm not here to spoil either "If You're Not the One" or "Sorry for the Inconvenience", so I'll tread carefully here. The inspiration is clear as day, and there's a lot of overlap, but there are also substantial plot and character differences. In particular, the romantic interest of the novel gets a bit more backstory than the real-life love interest; the one who was Not Meant to Be is allowed to be more complex in the novel; certain adults are allowed a softer (if *less* complex) side in the novel; Anisa's sibling's story is not Rishi's sibling's story. (I'm guessing, also, that Rishi was rather less insufferable than Anisa in college...?) The novel also covers a significantly shorter time period.

I'm more likely to reread the memoir than the YA novel, partly because the story in the memoir is simply more complex and partly because as much as I enjoy YA I really, really love memoir—but they serve different purposes. And maybe someday I'll get to teach a class on paired literature...? These would be a great fit.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

Anisa Shirani seems to have it all—perfect grades, looks, and a meticulously planned future. But when her parents split and her dream guy begins to act suspiciously, she's forced to confront the imperfections beneath her flawless facade in this witty and engaging rom-com.

📔𝐞𝐀𝐫𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰📘
4 🌟
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𝑰𝒇 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝑴𝑬! This cover is gorgeous 😍!
The character development is amazing. We have Anisa, who in the beginning is the most self-centered, selfish character I have ever read about. Her world has to be perfect, but once she starts college, her perfect life has literally blew up in her face. And now Anisa is struggling to reclaim that perfect life, and at the same time, she is discovering WHO she truly is.
𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 :
•young adult
•romance
•coming of age
𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 Oct.8
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Thank you, Netgalley, and Harper Collins Publishing for the (eArc)-eBook for my honest review.

Farah Naz Rishi tells another beautifully romantic story, this time based on her own relationship with her husband, in IF YOU'RE NOT THE ONE.

This book was amazing and I devoured this book in just a few sittings! I loved the character development and how the story progressed.