Jen’s 2024 Diversify Your Romance Challenge

These three are all to-be-read for me. If you’ve read them, I’d love to hear from you. What did you love? I tried to find three romance books (Written in the Stars is YA, by the way) written by Muslim women. I think when I dreamed up this Diversify Challenge, I didn’t write specific enough categories. Each week as I pull together titles, I’m finding myself digging a little deeper. Are there romance novels with characters who just happen to be Muslim? Maybe. But I wanted these three to be stories their authors wrote from their own experiences.

• Aisha Saeed is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of books for children. Her middle grade novel Amal Unbound (Penguin) received multiple starred reviews and was a Global Read Aloud for 2018. Her picture book, Bilal Cooks Daal (Simon and Schuster) received an APALA honor. Aisha is also a founding member of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books™.  She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family.

• Uzma Jalaluddin grew up in a diverse suburb of Toronto (her parents immigrated to Canada from Hyderabad, India), but her favorite place in the world is the nearest bookstore or library. She is a former contributor to The Toronto Star, and has written for The Atlantic. She lives near Toronto, Canada, with her husband and two sons, where she also teaches high school.

• Noreen Mughees is a South Asian Muslim writer who lives in New Jersey. She works as a public servant and when she’s not chasing a new plot, she loves to cook for her family and friends. Noreen loves hugging trees, people and cute kittens when she’s not daydreaming about HEA’s for brown people like her. A desi food addict, she loves cooking and having a mug of garam chai (hot tea) next to her. When not writing she can be found traveling to places real and imaginary.

I hope you love these three books. What romance novels with Muslim main characters do you recommend?

Week 10: Muslim Main Character

Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed, narrated by Soneela Nankani & Aisha Saeed

This heart-wrenching novel explores what it is like to be thrust into an unwanted marriage. Has Naila’s fate been written in the stars? Or can she still make her own destiny?

Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. And until then, dating—even friendship with a boy—is forbidden. When Naila breaks their rule by falling in love with Saif, her parents are livid. Convinced she has forgotten who she truly is, they travel to Pakistan to visit relatives and explore their roots. But Naila’s vacation turns into a nightmare when she learns that plans have changed—her parents have found her a husband and they want her to marry him, now! Despite her greatest efforts, Naila is aghast to find herself cut off from everything and everyone she once knew. Her only hope of escape is Saif . . . if he can find her before it’s too late.

Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin & Marissa Stapley, narrated by Ulka Simone Mohanty

A multi-faith holiday rom com about the delightful havoc that occurs when Christmas, Eid, and Hanukkah all fall at the same time, and two strangers-turned-friends are snowbound in the small, charming town of Snow Falls along with the cast and crew of a holiday romance movie, nosy family members, and their lifelong crushes.

As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays—Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding, and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time—neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another. At least they’ll never see each other again. And the love of Maryam’s life, Saif, wasn’t sitting two rows behind them hearing it all. Oops.

When Anna, Maryam, Saif, and Maryam’s sister’s bridal party are snowbound at the quirky Snow Falls Inn—on the outskirts of a picture-perfect town where a holiday romance starring Anna’s actor-crush is being filmed—chaos ensues. But as Maryam and Anna start to feel the magic of Snow Falls—and find love beyond their deepest hopes—they just might realize there’s no place they’d rather be for the holidays.

The Mis-Arrangement of Sana Saeed by Noreen Mughees, narrated by Shawn K. Jain & Deepa Samuel

Thirty-three-year-old hijabi Sana Saeed has put away her childhood dream of ishq—an all-consuming, sweeping love. The arranged dates she’s agreed to have failed time after time, and she has responsibilities to consider—namely her sweet, autistic younger brother, Zia. Sana and Zia are a package deal, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But their traditional mother won’t allow Sana to be named as his future guardian . . . unless she’s married. When Daniel Malik walks into Sana’s office at the Department of Environmental Conservation, she’s astonished—their childhood friendship has been a cherished memory ever since a feud between their families put an end to it eighteen years ago. But there’s no chance of them becoming close again; Daniel may be as hot as a Bollywood heartthrob, but not only is he Sana’s new boss, her mother would disown her if she ever brought him home. With the clock ticking, Sana agrees to a marriage arranged by her family. She’s seen plenty of arranged marriages grow into love; maybe that will happen for her too. But when a high-stakes case at work forces Sana and Daniel to team up, they find themselves less able—and willing—to play their parts of “good desi children.” Now Sana must make a choice: family and security, or the one man who claimed her heart long ago.