Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this book after reading Jenny Colgan’s piece in The Guardian. (FWIW, I don’t agree with all of it, but I didn’t feel it was racist at all). Anyway, back to this book. I’m always going on about how there aren’t enough genre fiction books with minority characters doing normal things, so a book about a Muslim girl looking for romance sounded exactly my kind of catnip.

I really enjoyed this story. It took me a few chapters to warm to Sofia’s voice, but once I got into it, it galloped along at a good pace, like any good rom com should. There was at least one scene where I giggled out loud.
It was really nice to see a regular chick lit book featuring a Muslim girl. I liked that her day to day life was unique to her – and not super-cliched. I loved the bit where she tells her Dad that if he’d given her pocket money, she wouldn’t have had to learn to hustle. I also approve of the prominent role given to biscuits. Biscuits are important.

If you like chick lit – give it go. It’s fun. If you’re looking for a book that highlights how different a Muslim woman’s dating experience is compared to a non-Muslim’s… not so much.

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