Self Published – …on the B.L.

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

Read No
Length 194
Quick Review The plot is flat, and the characters are superficial at best. For having a grammar police of a main character, the syntax is riddled with errors. The cover is incredibly misleading. Overall, it reads like a sub par young adult novel.

Bridges by Maria Murnane is a novel about female friendship. Three women, who met in college, are in very different points in their lives. Told through the eyes of Daphne, a divorcée, mom and aspiring novelist from Ohio; she meets her friends in New York City for a long weekend. Daphne celebrates the impending marriage of the successful and perpetually single Skylar along with KC, the hottest, youngest grandma there ever was. Though they are close, they still have things to learn about each other, which could bring them together or drive them apart.

The story centers around three women in their forties, but the cover is incredibly misleading picturing three women looking to be in their early twenties. Not only is the cover mismatched but the title, as well. I have finished the book, and I still am not quite sure where Bridges comes into play.

Murnane tries to tackle the complexities of female friendship but falls short. Her characters are hollow. Their friendship feels incredibly surface. One of the largest contributing factors to this is the dialogue. Murnane makes a concerted effort to keep the dialogue light and true to how people talk; however, it doesn’t flow naturally. She tries too hard to make the dialogue witty and interesting. There are unnecessary characters, who do nothing to further the plot. Murnane is trying to stay relevant by using Lokai bracelets, but it’s kitschy and overdone. She also tries to incorporate internet dating through an irrelevant side character. The “horrifying” dating experiences she comes up with may have been avant garde in the 1940’s, but they’re nothing to bat an eye at for any actively dating woman under the age of 45.

Daphne seems to be a fictional version of Murnane as an aspiring novelist. The other characters are always referring to Daphne as something of a grammar police. She shows her knowledge of grammar in ludicrous ways, which add nothing to the story except irritate and distract the reader. After constant mention of being the perfect icon of grammar, the novel itself is riddled with grammar mistakes and odd word choices.

Overall, the novel could be something really interesting, but, as it stands, Bridges is a let down falling short of a the complexity that is female friendship. I would be happy to recommend you better novels about female friendship. Just let me know!

Memorable Quotes
“… love is completely random. There’s no rhyme nor reason whatsoever to where we’ll find it, or how.”

Title: Bridges
Author: Maria Murnane
Publisher: Self-Published
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9780980042511