The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim. Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, 2023. 9781665901109
Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 4
Format: Paperback
Genre: Romance
What did you like about the book? Zahra Kahn is a Bangladeshi teen in Paterson, New Jersey. After her father’s death she has stepped up to work and help her mother support the family (Zahra, her mother, her grandmother, and her siblings) all while still getting good grades in high school. Her mother is concerned with Zahra getting married into a family that can take care of her financially so she will not have to worry about these struggles her whole life. Zahra’s mother sets her up to meet a boy she approves of for Zahra, but he is standoffish and uninterested. As is she.
Meanwhile, Zahra has met a boy at work that she likes very much, but would not meet her mother’s approval. Secrets and good intentions abound in this tangled web of romance weaved by the author. Zahra wants to date the boy of her dreams without letting down her family as well as go to college and become a writer and not just the wife and mother tradition expects of her.
Anything you didn’t like about it? This was more a mirror book for those familiar with Bangladeshi culture than a window opening to a different culture as there are many references that go unexplained. But you can gloss over them and still enjoy the story or look them up in another source if inclined.
To whom would you recommend this book? Teen hearts looking for a little romance, ages 14 and up
Who should buy this book? High schools and libraries
Where would you shelve it? YA fiction/Romance
Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? Near the top, if you like romantic comedies
Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City and State: Vicky Tandy, Athol Public Library, Athol, MA
Date of review: December 27, 2022
Youth Services Book Review 
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