Friday Favourites – Books Set in a Country That’s Not Your Own

This was hosted by Something of the Book who created this tag out of a love for lists. Now Geeky Galaxy is taking over the tag. There are different topics for us all to be able to take part and you can find the prompts here. There isn’t a specific number of favourites so it’s entirely up to you how many you share.

So as I live in the UK I will share some books that I read and loved set elsewhere:

Ayesha At Last – This is set in a small community in Canada and desi culture is an important part of the story.

When Dimple Met Rishi – It’s set in the US but Indian culture is also integral to the story.

Other Words for Home – This is set in two different places, in Syria and the US. It’s the story of the MC journey when she has to leave Syria because it’s unsafe for her to live there.

The Weight of our Sky – This is set in Malaysia in 1969 during a period of riots that took place.

All American Muslim Girl – Again it’s set in the US but also includes Syrian and Circassian culture which is an important part of the story.

Love From A to Z – While the beginning is set in the US, the majority of the book is set in Doha.

Ayesha Dean and the Istanbul Intrigue – This book is set in Turkey while the MC is on holiday there with her friends.

So here are some books that I loved set outside of the UK. All of these books are also diverse books!

My Favourite Books By Muslim Authors

I am absolutely loving that there are more books being released by Muslim authors so I thought I would share some of my favourites and ones I highly recommend you all read! They range from non-fiction to fantasy to contemporary books.

This month is also Ramadan and you can also take part in the Ramadan Readathon taking place on Instagram and twitter and these books are perfect for many of the prompts!

1 Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed – a book that I will recommend to every single person until the end of time! I adore this book and it’s written in such a way that it feels like it’s written just for me. This book has gotten me through so many difficult times in my life.

2 The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty – I am completely and entired in love with and totally obsessed with this trilogy! It is absolutely amazing and you all need to go read it. If you want to know more you can read my review here

3 Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin – a Pride and Prejudice retelling with Muslim characters and I absolutely adored it! The banter and slow burn romance was done so well! You can read my review here

4 Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed – a book that deals with a topic I am so passionate about, girls rights to an education. I really loved how Aisha dealt with the issue and highly recommend you all read it. You can read my review here

5 An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – this book is brutal and intense and will keep you on the edge of your feet right until the end!

6 Revive Your Heart by Nouman Ali Khan – a book that deals with many important societal issues faced by Muslims today. Highly relevant and really inspiring.

7 She Wore Red Trainers by Naima B Robert – a halal love story that I absolutely adored! You can read my review here

8 Ayesha Dean – The Istanbul Intrigue by Melati Lum – a Muslim teenage detective who ends up solving mysteries while she is on holiday with her friends. If you enjoy Nancy Drew type books then I highly recommend it! You can find out more by reading my review here

9 Kick the Moon by Muhammad Khan – dealing with toxic masculinity that is still very much prevalent in todays society and that it is okay to be you. You can read my review here

10 Prayers of the Pious by Omar Suleiman – this is a short concise book but full of inspiring duas and how amazing Muslims in the past knew the power in dua. It’s such a great book and perfect as a Ramadan read.

So these are some of my favourite books!

Do you have any favourite books by Muslim authors? Or books by Muslim authors you want to read?

Ayesha Dean – The Seville Secret by Melati Lum – ARC Review

Thank you to Melati Lum for sending me an eARC of her book in exchange for an honest review.
I am super excited to be part of this blog tour as I loved the first Ayesha Dean book and I can’t wait to read more of her adventures in the future! You can also read my review of the first book here

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Ayesha, Sara & Jess are back in an exciting new adventure, and this time they’re off to Spain! When a fellow passenger’s beloved grandpa strangely disappears, Ayesha and her friends gladly join in the search for the missing person. But as Ayesha delves further into the mystery, the more sinister the stakes become! Ayesha finds a link between the missing person and a seventeenth-century diary that contains clues to an ancient mystery. However, each step closer to discovery seems to pose greater chances of peril. Can Ayesha uncover the truth without putting herself and her friends in mortal danger?

This is the second book in the Ayesha Dean mystery series and I really loved this book even more than the first! I loved seeing how Ayesha, Sara and Jess develop from the first book and we got to see more of their interactions both while they’re solving the mystery and just hanging out together. I also loved this mystery even more than the Istanbul Intrigue. Spain is a place I have wanted to visit for a long time, especially to see the Islamic history there and this book has made me long for it even more!

This story is steeped in the Islamic history of Spain and I loved how Melati wove this history into the mystery that Ayesha and her friends need to solve. I can tell that it has been well researched. Even the way modern day Spain is described in the books. It’s so vivid from the tourist spots to the food and culture and everything, like her first book, was so well researched that all I wanted to do was drop everything and go and visit the places and eat the food!

I also loved that in this book we get to see more of Sara and Jess and their backgrounds. It made them more distinct and well rounded as characters outside of being Ayesha’s friends. It was so nice to see a group of girls who are such great friends and support and love each other yet still make jokes and have fun together.

I also want to mention Ayesha’s uncle, Dave, he is such a wonderful character and although we don’t see much of him, what we do see shows that Ayesha has a beautiful, loving relationship with him. In YA it’s not often we get to see parental figures having a great relationship with the protagonist.

The story itself was so interesting and intriguing that I didn’t want to put the book down and was reading well into the night. It was also much more darker at times than The Istanbul Intrigue which I liked seeing as solving a mystery, especially one which involves a missing person, can lead to dark secrets.

One of the things I love about these books is the way Ayesha’s faith in seamlessly woven into the story. She wears a hijab and prays and her faith is important to her yet she is just your average teenage girl who wants to be work in the police force and become a detective. It makes Muslim women “normal” rather than shown as “other” and I am so thankful for that.

Although this book is part of a series each book has it’s own complete arc so while the adventures build on each other they are completely separate stories and separate mysteries that Ayesha solves.

I highly recommend picking up this book especially if you enjoy mystery/detective books. And make sure you go check out the other posts on this blog tour!

Ayesha Dean – The Seville Secret releases today!

March Monthly Wrap Up

This month has simultaneously been really long and ended so quickly! My health hasn’t been great so I have been struggling this month but I did have a pretty decent reading month and read some really great books! Though nearer to the end I have been in a reading slump which I hate because there are so many books I want to read!

There was some really great events that I attended this month too. At the beginning of the month I met Angie Thomas on her UK tour. Then I went to the NYA Lit Festival which was really fun! And just a couple days ago I met Yasmin Mogahed on her UK tour. Meeting her was probably my highlight of the month because she is one of my biggest role models!

So back to the books I read this month:

It’s Not About the Burqa edited by Mariam Khan – I really loved this anthology full of inspiring and empowering essays by Muslim women. A book that should be read by everyone! You can read my full review here

Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller – I loved this book so much! I read this in two evenings because I couldn’t put it down!

Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo by Rick Riordan – One of the world book day books this year. I loved seeing Percy and Grover together again! I miss their adventures so much and hope we get to see more of them together!

The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James – Another amazing book by Lauren! So thought provoking and amazing plot twists! You can read my full review here

Viper by Bex Hogan – I really enjoyed this book, there’s pirates and assassins and it’s dark and brutal and I’m looking forward to reading the next book! You can read my full review here

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – I reread this book after reading it for the first time several years ago and I loved it as much as I did the first time! This book is so relatable and so cute! You can read my full review here

Nine from the Nine Worlds by Rick Riordan – Really enjoyed the short stories in this book. Loved seeing Samirah and Alex and Amir. And Amir’s short story was probably my favourite!

The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston – OMG this book is the geeky adorableness I needed in my life! I think I loved this even more than Geekerella. You can read my full review here

Ayesha Dean – The Seville Secret by Melati Lum – A Muslim hijabi teenager being a badass detective and chilling with her friends on holiday and I just loved this book! Keep an eye out for my review in April as I’m part of the blog tour!

I also finally posted my review of King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo. I have been thinking about this book for a while, so it took me some time to write my review. You can find it here.

So that’s everything I read this month!

What were your favourite reads? Were you disappointed by any books?

Ayesha Dean – Istanbul Intrigue by Melati Lum – Book Review

I first read this book last year and I really enjoyed it. So when I was lucky enough to become part of the street team for the next Ayesha Dean book I decided to reread this to refresh my memory before reading the arc of the new book.

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Ayesha and her friends Sara and Jess jump at the chance of accompanying Ayesha’s uncle on a trip from Australia to Istanbul. But when Ayesha discovers a mysterious note as a result of visiting an old bookshop, their relaxing holiday starts to get a whole lot more complicated! Ayesha finds herself trying to uncover a hundred-year-old Ibn Arabi mystery, while trying to avoid creepy villains, and still making sure that she gets to eat the best doner kebab Istanbul has to offer. It’s all in a day’s sleuthing when you’re Ayesha Dean. Lucky she can count on her best friends to always have her back!

This book was such a fun read! I really loved the mystery and intrigue, there’s plenty of plot twists that kept me interested and trying to figure out the secrets until the end. It’s a really great detective mystery type book and reminded me of Nancy Drew.

One of my favourite things about the book was how well fleshed out Ayesha was as a character. She is a smart, resourceful, brave person. She knows what she wants and she is always curious about everything. Once she picks up a mystery she has to follow through until she solved it! She is also a badass! At the very beginning we see her take down a man who was running from airport security after stealing something and even throughout the book when things start to get a little scary, she doesn’t back down. She remains calm and is quick thinker which helps to save her life and catch the bad guys at the end!

I also love her friendship with Sara and Jess and how close they are with each other. They have fun and support and care for each other and it was so nice to see that in a book. I don’t get to see lots of great female friendships in stories. I also loved how she has such a good relationship with her uncle and that they actually talk about everything. She is open and honest with him and he trusts her judgement.

I loved seeing the great Muslim rep throughout the story from Ayesha wearing a hijab to the adhaan being heard to the rich Islamic history we are told throughout the book. I really loved how she wore her hijab in different styles and that she was always dressed stylishly. I related to this so much because I love matching my hijab to my clothes and making sure my hijab looks nice and smart. Especially when I was 18!

The story is also set in Istanbul so we get to see the culture of the Muslims there and how they live. I loved seeing how friendly and open many people that Ayesha interacts with are. It reminded me of the lovely community feel that we often experience I Muslim countries. I felt like I was with Ayesha and her friends as they visited the tourist sites and I always ended up craving the food they ate! I could see how much research Melati did about Turkey.

If you enjoy detective stories then this is a really great read. It’s fun, fast paced and has a really interesting and unique mystery that Ayesha discovers! I’m really looking forward to reading her next story!