This Is How You Fall In Love

Product Information

Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. And she's desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. So when her best friend Adnan begs her to pretend to date him to cover up his new top-secret relationship, Zara is hesitant. This isn't the kind of thing she had in mind. But there's something in it for Zara too: making her parents, who love Adnan, happy might just stop them arguing for a while. She may not be getting her own love story, but she could save theirs. Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. And she's desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. So when her best friend Adnan begs her to pretend to date him to cover up his new top-secret relationship, Zara is hesitant. This isn't the kind of thing she had in mind. But there's something in it for Zara too: making her parents, who love Adnan, happy might just stop them arguing for a while. She may not be getting her own love story, but she could save theirs. So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and real feelings... And when a new boy turns up in Zara's life, things get more confusing than ever.

So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship w ith your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and real feelings... And when a new boy turns up in Zara's life, things get more confusing than ever. The course of true love never did run smooth, but Zara's love story is messier than most. most of all, I fell in love with myself. I embraced that I am who I am, no excuses, and I realised that I don’t need to cater to what everyone else wants for me. I can still be loved by those around me while doing what I want’. I received this book for free from Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. While this book fell flat, I still enjoyed my time reading it and liked how the book ended. I'm definitely excited to see what the author comes out with next. This is a group to have fun in. For everyone. Think of others before you post or comment. I'm watching... Always watching...

A Note From the Publisher

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and real feelings... and when a new boy turns up in Zara's life, things get more confusing than ever. The course of true love never did run smoothly, but Zara's love story is messier than most...

Creative Play

the most important thing I learned throughout it all: I did find love; it just wasn’t in the form I was looking for…. While both Zara and Adnan insist that will never happen — they’re close friends, that’s it — the tide turns when Adnan needs to cover-up his real girlfriend and begs Zara to pretend they’re an item. How hard can it be? Very, as things turn out. First up, there’s a whole lot of practical issues around how they behave towards each other, and around Adnan’s actual girlfriend. Then there’s jealousy, and the problem of Zara falling for someone for real. With a fun meta-fiction vibe (a romcom about romcom with entertaining romcom twists), the besties-to-couple trope is thrust to the fore from the off: “that’s literally how every YA romcom starts. Boy and girl are besties, they get involved in a fake dating scheme and then BAM they get together for real.” Bestselling author Alexandra Christo, author of TikTok sensation To Kill a Kingdom, introduces her new book, The Night Hunt (Hot Key Books), a dark... Zara and Adnan are just friends. Always have been, always will be. Even if they have to pretend to be girlfriend and boyfriend… Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. And she’s desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. So when her best friend Adnan begs her to pretend to date him to cover up his new top-secret relationship, Zara is hesitant. This isn’t the kind of thing she had in mind. But there’s something in it for Zara too: making her parents, who love Adnan, happy might just stop them arguing for a while. She may not be getting her own love story, but she could save theirs. So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and real feelings… And when a new boy turns up in Zara’s life, things get more confusing than ever. The course of true love never did run smooth, but Zara’s love story is messier than most… A hilarious and heartfelt romcom, told with a light touch, perfect for fans of TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE, EXCUSE ME WHILE I UGLY CRY and HANI AND ISHU’S GUIDE TO FAKE DATING.

Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sw eeping gestures. And she's desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. Zara loves all kinds of romance stories in novels and movies, yet she is still longing for her very own. She is surrounded by her Desi family and friends, including her childhood best friend Adnan, but when they move from best friends to fake dating, the pair need to keep up the act even around Adnan's real girlfriend. Jealousy begins to bubble and Zara finds herself in an awkward position. Her true feelings for another are showing, making Zara's love life a very confusing story. Not exactly how Zara had imagined how her dreamy love romance would take place...So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and realfeelings... And when a new boy turns up in Zara's life, things get more confusing than ever. I did really enjoy the family aspect in this book, and the way Zara navigates her relationship with her parents; it was really sweet and lovely, and I wish we'd had even more scenes with her parents in. I also really loved the representation of Desi culture - while I can't comment on the accuracy of the book as I am not South Asian myself, it did feel really authentic and I loved reading about it. So much of the drama here could have been avoided if people talked. I’m not convinced anyone in real life makes things that complicated. However, the story wouldn’t have been as entertaining!