HANI AND ISHU'S GUIDE TO FAKE DATING

The book has everything YA books should have. Tension at school. Seemingly apocalyptic (or what looks like that from the POV of YA) consequences for decisions. School politics. Interesting characters.And of course, a taste of racism in Ireland. With the much loved trope of fake dating.Great rep for Muslim and Hindu Irish Bengali kids.Did I mention the good writing?

This book tears of joy in my eyes. This fast paced novel shows the life and love story of two Bengali high school girls. The coming out story of Hani and Ishu’s struggle with her family’s high expectations in academics. This story was quite relatable to me and left me complete with a warm heart

Amazing.....Hani&Ishu....😌🥰

(Voluntarily reviewed an eARC of the book on For The Love of Fictional Worlds)Trigger Warnings: Emotional Manipulation, Peer Pressure, RacismI was first introduced to Adiba Jaigirdar on bookstagram when I first heard about The Henna Wars (Read My Review) - a sapphic romance that literally took my breath away. I am not kidding, it was actually a breath of fresh air for someone who adored the YA genre, but was fast becoming disenchanted with the same old characters being reused over and over again.Adiba Jaigirdar’s books are the response to those typically white washed experiences that a desi girl, who while enjoying them as a spectator, could never relate to the characters themselves.Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating is a brown girl’s answer to that. Hani and Ishu are the only two Bangladeshi’s in their Irish school and they couldn’t be more extreme opposites if they tried.Hani, an out bisexual, is one of the sweetest persons around. She always has a smile on her face, is genuinely helpful to anyone who asks and is quite friendly as well.Ishu, on the other hand, is a focused, could be considered rude, sarcastic and almost unfriendly girl at her school.When Hani finds out that her friends have trouble accepting her bi-sexuality; she, in desperation, says that she is dating Ishu.Ishu, on the other hand, needs to be well liked to become the head girl, so she can show her parents that she is serious about her future.Fake dating trope along with an almost enemies to lovers trope in a brown girl sapphic romance will have you absolutely giddy while reading this book.It’s not all roses though, the trigger warnings are genuine - emotional manipulation, peer pressure, your own confidence in your identity as well the struggles that a brown girl goes through as an immigrant!I certainly enjoyed The Henna Wars far more than this, true but Hani and Ishu find their own place in my soul when I read their book!

This is the brown girl rep that I was looking for!I personally love opposites attract and fake dating trope and this book did it in such a good way.Humaira is a sweet, bubbly, friendly girl and Ishita is..not any of that. She is direct, practical and a no-nonsense girl. Other girls at their school expect them to be friends cz "they both are brown". In reality, these two cannot be more different than each other.But crazy expectations from friends and family push them to get into a fake relationship. And thats where the fun and sweetness and craziness begins! Hani and Ishu are so precious, I feel like wrapping them up in cotton candy and protecting them forever! (I personally love Ishita more).We not only see the friendship, and in time, love, blossom between Hani and Ishu, but we also get to see the realities of many relationships. We see the stressful expectations of Ishu's family and the heartwarming love of Hani's family and the bitterness caused due to prejudices amongst friends.While this book highlights many important topics, the one that affected me the most the message that we should never feel ashamed for standing up for ourselves. Hani and Ishu both have to face social ostracization on many occasions for no fault of their own. They are singled out and even directly ridiculed at times for their skin colour, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation.Its not selfish to speak up against racism and stereotypes, and the author has made this point very nicely in this story. If someone is repeatedly being unsupportive and forcing you to be/do something you don't want to, then its ok to voice your opinion and state your boundaries. It's ok to distance ourselves from toxic people in our life.There are in-depth conversations about the various issues faced by immigrants and these discussions were so touching.The author has given clear content warnings in the foreword and I was so impressed by that. I haven't seen many authors do that and I really appreciated it.On a lighter note, there were references to bollywood in the book and that made desi self so happy!All in all, this is a must read book.

Characters-10- Oh my goodness I loved Hani and Ishue so much. I can’t pick between the two as my favorite character. I related to each of them a bit which I enjoyed.Plot-9- I’m a sucker for fake dating. This story was delightful and I really enjoyed the story. This story is packed with discussions of being yourself, and standing up for yourself.Writing 9- This was my first novel from Adiba Jaigirdar, and I will be reading other books by this author. I loved the writing style of this book.Enjoyment-10 I throughly enjoyed this book and it is definitely one I will reread.

I have no words to describe how amazing this book is!

This book felt a little like when I was starting to read full books in English and had to research terms every 50 words or something. At first, I was so lost because terms like "Abba", "Abbu", "Amma" and "Ammu" were literally foreign to me and the book doesn't care to explain them at all (so it took me a while to realise they were not names, but the words for "father" and "mother").My first reaction to this was like... why didn't they put a footnote or whatever? It doesn't bother me in particular since I was 1) reading on Kindle, and 2) I like researching different terms when I'm reading something I don't understand, but it could keep more impatient people from reading it.But then the narrative and the characters made me realise how wrong I was for thinking like that. Why should the book explain it to me? Why should a Muslim person have to keep justifying their traditions? Why should people from other cultural backgrounds have to explain how they behave? People of colour and queer people fight every day for recognition. It's hard enough without them having to answer the same dumb questions over and over. If everyone just tried to do their own research, educating themselves, it would make things at least a bit easier.I know how it is to be put in a box and have many misconceptions been thrown my way. But I just can't imagine how difficult it must be to live in a country that treats you so badly for your customs and habits and the colour of your skin. I strongly sympathize with Hani because my instincts are always to hide aspects of myself that make people look at me differently, but the fact remains: while I can hide it, people like Hani can't. Because you can't hide your surname and the colour of your skin even if you want to, even if you feel you need to hide it to make your life easier and make your friends like you more.To me, reading the book was a fantastic lesson and experience. It was gentle and kind, but strong enough to pass the message. I loved it!

Letto quasi tutto d'un fiato, ho amato la storia (I'm a sucker for a good fake-dating trope) e i personaggi. Lo sguardo sulla cultura bengalese e le differenti religioni è stato molto interessante. Consigliatisaimo!

The book is absolutely beautiful but it came bent in the corner in the back :(((