Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
Published by: Twenty7
Pub Date: September 3, 2015
Pages: 464
Format: paperback | Source: gift
Genres: adult, contemporary, romance
Rating:

Sofia Khan is single once more, after her sort-of-boyfriend proves just a little too close to his parents. And she’d be happy that way too, if her boss hadn’t asked her to write a book about the weird and wonderful world of Muslim dating. Of course, even though she definitely isn’t looking for love, to write the book she does need to do a little research . . .

I’m so happy to be part of the Ramadan Readathon Blog Tour this year! Be sure to check out the other posts on the tour, which are listed in the graphic below. For my part, I decided to review a book that’s been on my TBR for a few years: Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged. I struggled a tad in the middle as it felt long but I loved it overall! I totally see the Bridget Jones comparisons and I love that the book was written with British Muslims in mind- there were no italicized words or in book explanations unless Sofia was already explaining something to another character; you either knew culturally what was being discussed or you looked it up yourself. I really appreciated that because I think it does a disservice to the story AND the readers otherwise.

Even though Sofia and I couldn’t be more different, it was so easy to relate to her and her struggles with family, friends, and her faith. There was a lot of diversity with how Islam was portrayed as well. The writing was very funny and I loved her burgeoning friendship with neighbor Conall. This was a charming, culturally authentic, hilarious, lovely story with depth and QUITE a good ship (although I couldn’t see what direction the ship was going to come from at first). I highly recommend it for fans of smart romantic comedies!

(I know that Nadiya from GBBO is British Bangladeshi, not British Pakistani, but I just love her and this gif is too perfect for Sofia haha!)

Have you read Sofia Khan? What other adult contemporaries do you love? Let me know. And thank you again to Muslim Readathon for organizing the blog tour- Ramadan Mubarak!