Read Yes
Length 302
Quick Review A young, conservative Muslim woman begins a journey of self-discovery when she removes her headscarf. Trying to balance her parents beliefs with the Western world she grew up in, Zoha is torn between two selves.
Awakened by Love is the first book in a trilogy about a young Muslim woman living and attending college in California at UC Davis. Born and raised in California, Zoha is torn between her traditional Islamic beliefs upheld by her family and her own desire to explore the world she has never truly felt a part of.
At 19 years old, Zoha is a junior bio-chem major about to graduate and enter medical school. She is hiding a secret from her family. When she began college, she decided to remove the headscarf she had been wearing since she was eight years old. Zoha had started expanding her horizons when she met a handsome senior. Making new friends, entering her twenties, and studying, Zoha is racked with guilt from keeping a secret from her conservative family she loves.
Zoha was raised in a traditional Iranian, Muslim family full of love and extended family members. She was born in California spending the summers in Iran. Her faith and crisis of faith is so tangible throughout the story that it almost becomes a character in and of itself. In a country where Christianity is the belief system at large, it is wonderful to have a narrative depicting Islam in a positive light with questioning as a part of the story line.
Sametipour writes about love, friendship, self exploration, religion, rebellion, and culture, which is far more relatable than you’d first imagine. Every teenager and young adult experiences the difficulties of navigating parental expectations and ideals while achieving their own dreams and goals. I love reading books by authors from diverse backgrounds. I have a special spot in my heart for Iranian culture and literature; why, I don’t really know. It’s something that brings me pleasure. Sametipour writes on a subjects that is very obviously important to her.
The novel is self published and very well done. There are a few yet minor grammatical mistakes. Over all it is a fabulous novel. I’m looking forward to the second and third in the trilogy.
Memorable Quotes
“Zoha couldn’t and shouldn’t live for herself.”
“But she knew what she wanted and what she was supposed to do were two different things.”
“In Islam, no matter what the age, a woman’s place was always behind a man; something Zoha had struggled to accept all her life.”
“Religion was a tool to make them look good and respectable.”
Title: Awakened by Love
Author: Azin Sametipour
Publisher: Self-Published
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9780999061411
