As seen on The Today Show! One of the best summer romance picks!One of Publishers Weekly Best Romance Books of 2019!A modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice for a new generation of love.Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being … She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn’t want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.
When a surprise engagement is announced between Khalid and Hafsa, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and the unsettling new gossip she hears about his family. Looking into the rumors, she finds she has to deal with not only what she discovers about Khalid, but also the truth she realizes about herself.
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Ayesha At Last is the modern Pride & Prejudice retelling I never knew I needed. Warm, witty, romantic, and relatable. Honestly, Darcy who? Khalid is everything.
Ayesha at Last ruined my life because how is any romance novel allowed to be THIS romantic? Like, I understand that it’s a romance novel, but still. THIS romantic? Uncalled for. I’m not even a Pride & Prejudice fan, but Ayesha and Khalid indirectly made me love that book, along with their book. THAT’S HOW POWERFUL THIS IS.
Enemies to lovers done right. The sweet but stubborn hero of every romance reader’s dreams. The greatest heroine of all time (poetry-writing, career-questioning, bonkers-grandpa-having, rebellious and loyal and bold and relatable icon, in case you were wondering). Basically, I want every word of it tattooed on my bones and no I don’t think that’s an overreaction, why do you ask?
A page turner halal romance!
Pager-turner. The kind of book you stay up all night to read!
Ayesha at Last is a Muslim own-voices retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and begins with a clever restatement of Austen’s famous opening line: “Because while it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Muslim man must be in want of a wife, there’s an even greater truth:To his Indian mother, his own inclinations are of secondary importance.”
This P&P re-telling is set in Scarborough, ON in a South Asian Muslim community. In a rare turn of events in Islamophobic modern times, the hero, Khalid is a practicing conversation Muslim. It’s nice to see those who faithfully practice their religion faithfully viewed in a favorable light rather than as token Muslims or terrorists. Khalid wears a thobe and a skullcap and hasn’t cut his beard in years. He believes in chastity and believes his mother will find him an appropriate wife. Ayesha, the heroine, is aging out of the marriage market at age 27. Her mother has encouraged to be independent, so she isn’t certain she wants an arranged marriage—or marriage at all. These two butt heads immediately as they each make snap decisions about the other.
As this is a retelling, there’s no need to summarize the plot or to worry about spoilers—everyone P&P knows the story. The hero and heroine eventually redeem their impulsive first opinions about each other and fall in love.
I enjoyed Uzma Jalaluddin’s deft way at revealing Islamophobic sentiments and anti-Muslim discrimination in the work place and in schools. Overall, a cute book that also provides an important service: reinforcing that humans are more alike than different.
This is hands down one of the finest novels I’ve read in years. As two young Muslim-Americans try to navigate life in America, and to navigate around each other, the reader sees the universality of the human experience, and the dreams and difficulties we share. It’s a celebration of family and friendship which avoids sentimentalism while delivering wonderfully zany moments. I smiled all the way through it.
I am a profound lover of the “classic” novels and so I was eager to read the modern day retelling of Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”.
This retelling is set in Toronto Canada and includes well rounded Muslim characters. The story has enough changes in it to stand on it’s on as a romantic comedy underlying the tumultuous relationship of the main characters and their strong family ties.
“Ayesha at Last” will be an excellent way to introduce a younger generation (the same ones who don’t understand why a black and white movie could be a good movie) to a classic tale making it relevant to them, while giving a fresh spin to those of us who understand and appreciate the tale.
Uzma Jalaluddin’s novel was a good read that I enjoyed very much, but I would recommend that the story (and not that it pretends to be) not be a substitute for those who have not read Jane Austen’s novel.
I’d forgotten this was a Pride and Prejudice retelling until I reached the hero’s first proposal. Then it all clicked into place. I usually go for steamier reads, but this chaste romance completely captivated me! Set in contemporary Toronto, the South Asian Muslim hero and heroine clash over cultural expectations–his more traditional and conservative, hers more Western-influence–as well as the issue of arranged marriage. This heart-warming story taught me a lot about the dilemmas faced by modern Muslim women in the West, and it kept me up all night reading as well! Highly recommend.
A simply marvelous modern turn on Pride and Prejudice! Every character won my heart, even the ones who started off less than appealing. Ayesha is wonderful, and Khalid is perfectly charming, once he gets over being shy. And the ending is pitch perfect.
A fun read with likable characters.
AYESHA SHAMSI has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn’t want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.
When a surprise engagement between Khalid and Hafsa is announced, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and his family; and the truth she realizes about herself. But Khalid is also wrestling with what he believes and what he wants. And he just can’t get this beautiful, outspoken woman out of his mind.
http://www.darlenejonesauthor.com
I love every and all Pride and Prejudice retellings and Uzma has created a fabulous addition to the mix.
Ayesha at Last has been on my TBR list for a while. I adore the cover when I first saw it. Just a stunningly beautiful cover. And I loved the premise, so I was stoked when I saw my library had it.
I love everything Pride & Prejudice, so I adored this modern loose take on Darcy & Elizabeth.
The romance was wonderful. The characters leapt off the page at you. It was funny. Really, really funny. I was really rooting for Ayesha and Khalid to get their shit together, lol.
I wanted them to find their happy-ever-after.
I won’t spoil the story. But this is such a lovely romance with twists and turns I didn’t expect.
A Muslim Pride and Prejudice! I thought this was fun and different, but I didn’t love all the changes she made. The cousin was hard to like and Khalid’s sister’s story was hard to read about. I didn’t like the porn website thing. But I really like both Khalid and Aeysha. They made the book more compelling.
This was a little twist on Pride and Prejudice and I really loved it. Khalid was the perfect sort of hero for me and I loved how Ayesha spoke her mind. I felt the love blossoming between these two and I was rooting for them the whole time. When he becomes engaged to her cousin Hafsa my heart sank for him completely. He trusted his mom to make the best decision for him regarding a wife, but little did he know he could fall in love on his own. Family tradition told him that love comes after marriage, but as Khalid soon learns, the heart is a tricky little bugger.
There were lots of similarites from Pride and Prejudice, which I liked. I am a sucker for a good modernization and this one really did it justice. I will read all the modernizations and this one was really good. If you are looking for a romance book, this is not your book. This is more womens fiction set in modern day Canada with regency type values, if that makes any sense. I really adored this story.
I loved a lot of aspects of this book. The writing was lovely, and learning about romance between Muslim people was wonderful. However, I really didn’t like how judgmental both Ayesha and Khalid were. I also didn’t like how most of the women were portrayed throughout, mean and scheming and grasping at men and riches.
A wonderful Own Voices read about modern Muslims in today’s society, Ayesha at Last had me thinking about the diversity in Muslim communities – what it means to be a fundamental Muslim versus a liberal Muslim. The look is complex, with both characters building tension and ultimately, not losing themselves in the process.
This is not a steamy read, but the tension built is amazing and I rooted for all the characters (well, maybe not Shiela).
Very interesting twist on Jane Austen with a look at a different cultural spin.
I didn’t realize that it was an Indian remake of Pride and Prejudice. Had I known that, I probably wouldn’t have purchased it. It wasn’t a horrible book. I was just looking for something with a little more substance. It was a bit too fluffy for my tastes.
Great writing
This modern Pride and Prejudice retelling did Jane Austen proud. It heartwarmingly portrayed family, love, and life in a Toronto Muslim community. The writing was engaging and the characters well drawn. Grab your cup of chai and settle in to be entertained.
The story starts out slowly and gently as it introduces the backdrop of the main players, their community of family, work, friends, and religious life. The author added in explanations so that I was never lost as a reader. She also hit on some serious issues that Muslim people face in their changing communities and even in the workplace. Arranged marriage was discussed from both Ayesha and Khalid’s perspectives, but also the older generations. Family and religious values were given due consideration. Khalid’s issue at work shocked me because of how over the top his boss acted. I don’t doubt it can and does happen, but I’m shocked it went as far as it did without anyone catching her out. But then again, it read like a Shakespearean comedy which were mentioned several times in the book by Ayesha’s grandfather and several of the characters in this one were extreme in their behavior. I didn’t mind the extra drama and found it amusing most of the time because it didn’t carry on too long.
The early conflict for Ayesha and Khalid was based on misunderstanding, but then, when it starts to iron out as they get to know one another, their friendship and budding romance gets seriously sabotaged by others who have their own agendas. The second half of the book gets into the deeper drama and the pace picked up and had me intent to know how it would all untangle. I confess that I had hoped to see a bit stronger retribution for one of the players who was thoroughly narcissistic (our Lydia figure) though the others definitely got a good dose of revenge served up and I was happy to see those comeuppances after all the mess they stirred up.
A great deal of this book had Ayesha and Khalid on the wrong foot with each other and the romance was slow burn and had its stops and starts as a result. Khalid stuck that foot in his mouth once or twice, but so did Ayesha in her own way. She calls him judgmental when he dismissed her after seeing her sitting in a bar with a cocktail in front of her pulling out a pack of cigarettes (cocktail was virgin and cigs weren’t hers). It gets her back up, but she had just gotten finished judging him for his conservative dress and appearance and later takes the word of a stranger she doesn’t even like with lies about Khalid and his family.
They sit in opposite opinions about arranged marriage and she constantly calls him a mama’s boy for respecting and obeying his mother’s wishes not knowing that he does it due to a family tragedy that still wounds him. Khalid apologizes profusely when he learns his error and he struggles to change where he feels he was in the wrong after listening to Ayesha, Clara, and others. He was such a sweetie and, for all his awkward blundering, he was a very romantic figure. I loved that pivotal scene in Ayesha’s home with her grandmother teaching them both how to make a traditional dish, paratha, and dispensing sage advice over chai and the food. And, his relationship with his older sister and how he tried to take care of her as best he could left me swooning.
But, for all the enjoyment I took from this story, I had one niggle. I never saw Ayesha more than mildly remorseful when her mistakes came out and Khalil seemed to do all the changing. I don’t mean to say that she’s bad or I didn’t like her- in fact I did and I could relate on some levels as she searched to figure out what she wanted and understand more about love. But I felt that she owed Khalid words of apology in a candid conversation since she had no trouble delivering words of condemnation on more than one occasion and half the time she was wrong particularly in the painful way her lie about who she was hurt Khalid deeply.
There were some good twists and big scenes in the last half that had been building for a while. I had to chuckle over some of it and yes, I was cheering hard to see Khalid shine as the hero in the end. The ending had me smiling and sorry not to be able to stick around to see what came next to get the gossiping and matchmaking aunties chattering over the chai tea and desserts.
All in all, is was an engaging story and a fabulous tribute to Austen, Shakespeare, and the Muslim community. Whether you’re an Austen fan or not, if you enjoy stories about family, friends, and a colorful romance pair, give this one a go.