Jana Suleiman fell very hard in love with Anil Malek, they spent two delirious weeks together, until she learned that he was married. Devastated by this betrayal, she broke up with him, didn’t want to hear any explanations and moved away. Later, when she learned that she was pregnant, she rejected his offer of marriage, and instead had an iron-clad co-parenting agreement authored by a family lawyer. She was generous in that she gave Anil equal time with their daughter and didn’t take any pension. What she also did was evade any further contact, keeping their communications limited to a co-parenting app that aligned their schedules. They were both very busy, both working in their specialties, both related to the development of personal tools in needy people.
When they are invited to the wedding of two close friends and participate in what they call the #bridebrigade and the #groomsplatoon, Jana’s life turned completely crazy. The wedding involved safaris around game reservations in East Africa, where their parents came from, very special to both. It also involved being close to Anil, after five years of separation.
Jana is an introvert, clumsy and uncomfortable with people she doesn’t know, and in big groups. With this bunch, she can deal because she’s known them for a long time and yet still had a hard time. On top of the festivities and frequent trips, she has to deal with a very helpful Anil and a very judgmental mother. She was also dealing with her personality and her inability to “let loose” and enjoy the moment.
I loved reading about Jana’s conflicts. She was torn because she hadn’t resolved her feelings about Anil. I felt that Anil wanted a reconciliation, you could tell he still loved Jana but was very considerate of her feelings. He was a devoted father to Imani, handsome and extrovert to Jana’s introvert. He was all kindness in contrast to Jana’s grumpiness. The chemistry was strong between these too, same as Jana’s doubts! I could tell that Jana didn’t know her own mind, she was being stubbornly blind, and was genuinely suffering.
Apart from the beautiful second chance love story, we get a through lesson in East Africa and Muslim traditions. This part of the story went into a lot of detail and I felt that it dragged the story. The wedding festivities took two weeks and even I was tired of all the events, in spite of not being there. The culture lesson was awesome but the detail was too much. Even so, I loved Anil and Imani, their friends, aunties and uncles. Jana’s mother was too dedicated to appearances and Jana was too conflicted. When she’s with the bride brigade, she was a lovely person, with Anil she turned into a grump, and stubborn too! I understood her but wanted to smack her into reason!
Entertaining if a little long winded, beautiful culture and beautiful country, and a lovely love story! Now I’m off to try all the delicious dishes portrayed in the book!
Purchase links
https://amzn.to/3YsnRdT
Releases May 2, 2023
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