#TNReads: Real Quick Reviews for Lazy Readers featuring Uzma Jalaluddin

I didn’t know I needed a modern day Muslim re-telling of Pride and Prejudice, but I did. I really did.

Ayesha has recently completed her teaching credential and got her first job substitute teaching at a local high school. Her large and overly involved Muslim family have decided that if she won’t let them arrange a marriage for her, at least teaching is a better career than her true passion as a poet.

Khalid is a devout Muslim man who works with Ayesha’s best friend and is anxiously awaiting the day his mother picks his wife. When he and Ayesha meet they hate each other. And then they don’t…and then they do again…and then they don’t. It’s better than I’m making it sound, I swear.

Setting aside the fact that I spent way too much money ordering copious amounts of Indian take-out while reading Ayesha at Last (because the cravings were real) this was easily one of my favorite reads of the year.

Sarah Gilchrist is one of the first women accepted into medical school at the University of Edinburgh in 1893. With a dark past and ruined virtue, Sarah is aware her future as a doctor can be taken away at any moment. Forced into an engagement with a dull but wealthy suitor, Sarah still promises herself that she will not allow anything to distract her from her career goals. When a series of murders ensnares her fiance’s family in scandal, Sarah turns detective with the help of her mercurial (read: broody, tortured, and sexy) professor as they race to find the killer, and hopefully rid herself of an unwanted husband.

This story was ASTOUNDINGLY feminist. Sarah Gilchrist knows what she wants, and she will not compromise. Nothing will stand in the way of her becoming a respected surgeon; not her disapproving family, the scorn of the male students, the endless hard work or the financial cost. Not even the things that could make her happy.

Part historical fiction, part murder mystery, part dark and delicious romance, ALL GIRL POWER, I highly recommend it.

Colleen Donohue left her beautiful home town in the Low Country of South Carolina 10 years ago and has never looked back. After witnessing the ultimate betrayal, she moved to New York to pursue travel writing and enjoys an unencumbered life. Colleen has just reached new heights in her career when a call from her brother forces her to return to SC, facing the past and forcing her to contemplate what home really means.

In The Favorite Daughter, New York Times best-selling author Patti Callahan Henry takes on the topics of forgiveness, heritage and a family coping with Alzheimer’s disease. As Colleen’s father declines in health, Henry’s novel shines a light on the symptoms, terminology, and issues raised in coping with a family member with Alzheimer’s. While Colleen and her siblings, Shane and Hallie, rush to preserve their family history through photos and stories, inconsistencies start to emerge. Their father’s old stories of settling in SC and starting a family give rise to a mystery that just might help heal an old family rift. Though slightly long-winded, The Favorite Daughter is informative, relatable and made me think a bit harder about what it takes to forgive.

Bonnie Blythe has her whole life figured out. She’ll teach college level Shakespeare, marry her high school sweetheart, have a couple of babies and generally live a good, predictable life. Then she walks in on her fiance desecrating her grandma Mary’s quilt with his teacher’s assistant. Suddenly she’s single and on her way to Oxford for a summer teaching position. Luckily for us, the other perk to living in England is Theo Warton; the single, hot, best man in Bonnie’s best friend’s wedding. Oh and he’s the current Duke of Emberton.

If you’re looking for a modern romance with the possibility of an American becoming a Duchess, this is the one for you.