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“British Bangladeshi teens Zara and Adnan are besties, but can these friends stay just friends? …Things get complicated when Adnan starts dating new classmate Camilla, who’s white and has an overly protective father who won’t let her have a boyfriend. To cover for them, Zara agrees to pretend to date Adnan…Zara mulls over questions around stereotypical depictions of South Asians that overshadow “the reality of who we are.” She checks out online gossip about her classmates and follows their lives through their posts, raising questions about social media pressures on teens as they relate to cultural norms and representation in popular media.”

– Kirkus Reviews

This is How You Fall in Love

Written by Anika Hussain
Published by Bloomsbury YA

Zara loves love in all forms: rom-coms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. She’s desperate to have her own great love story-a real one.

Everyone thinks Zara and her best friend, Adnan, obviously belong together. And they do love each other-just not like that. So when Adnan begs Zara to help cover his new, secret relationship by pretending to be his girlfriend, she doesn’t really hesitate. How difficult can it be? It isn’t the kind of great romance she had in mind, but with fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and . . . real feelings?

And when a new, exciting boy arrives in Zara’s life, things get more confusing than ever. Her fake romance might be making everyone around her happy, but should it be real, and can Zara and Adnan really be in love if they both have real feelings for someone else?

Primary ISBN: 9781547614509
Publication Date: February 2024
Available As: Hardcover, eBook
Young Adult, Age 14 or older

Community Represented:

Themes: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Setting: England (Bath)

Character's Place in the Immigration Journey: 1st Generation

Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience

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