June 10, 2025 by Salaam Reads
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Bibi Hossain's family is very wealthy and fairly easy going, but when she sneaks out to prom and her parents find out, they ground her. In Bibi's mind, she didn't have any other choice, since she is forbidden to date until her older sister, Halima, gets married. Since Halima is finishing up her degree at and heading to law school, that seems too long to wait. Just a week into her stint working at a restaurant in her father's Royal Fried Chicken fast food restaurant, which is beyond mortifying, Halima shows up to announce her engagement. Not only that, but her fiance, Sunny, is from a family near the Bangladeshi village where her father grew up and her grandmother (Thathu) still lives. Flying first class and staying in Sunny's family's resort on the tea plantation that they run seems a whole lot better than serving up fried chicken in Princeton, New Jersey. The plantation is vast, and Bibi's father tells her that he worked there when he was young, and Thathu ran the guesthouse. Sunny seems to dote on her sister, who throws herself into trying to learn as much about the running of the family enterprise as possible, but his brother, Sohel, doesn't get a long with Bibi. True, she thinks a little too much about fashion (she wears $100 t shirt and designer overalls to work on the plantation), and she has a bad habit of saying the right thing, but she doesn't feel she should have to still be grounded and have to work, especially alongside Sohel. Her parents backpedal on allowing her to date now that Halima is getting married, until an auntie shows them a BioData book of eligible guys Bibi's age and say that since Halima is getting married, there has been a lot of interest in Bibi. Because the family is Muslim, they insist of chaperones, and since Sunny is often traveling for business, Sohel is often cast in this role. Bibi is smitten with Akash, a cricket player from a wealthy family whose reputation as a lady's man Bibi is willing to ignore. Bibi is glad to spend time with Thathu, and loves learning about her gramdmother's college years, before her family arranged a marriage for her. As the wedding approaches, Halima starts to have her doubts about relocating to Bangladesh, and Bibi's romantic interests take a predictable turn. How will both sisters balance their own needs with the wishes of their family?
Setting this book on a Bangladeshi tea plantation that is trying to better the lives of its workers was so fascinating, and young readers will adore the Crazy Rich Asians style details like having a servant run one's bath, and carrying $2,000 Louis Vuitton bags. Of course, Bibi also understands what it is like to have to work (even if her fried chicken stint is short), and gets along well with other workers. The visit to the grandmother's village points out some of the dichotomies in the culture.
Enemies to lovers style romances are popular, and while Bibi and Sohel spar at the beginning, there's never any high level of animosity, which made their relationship more realistic to me. Bibi comes across as a pampered, stereotypical American; she even knows this and doesn't try very hard to change in order to help Sunny's family like her. Sohel is a big proponent of education and hard work, so I liked him a lot more than Bibi for most of the book.
Weddings have been fascinating to high school and middle school readers since Cleary's 1963 Sister of the Bride because when older sisters get married, there are a lot of moments for their younger counterparts to shine. Toss this one over your shoulder to readers who enjoyed other multicultural wedding books like Bajpai's Sister of the Bollywood Bride, Avachat's Arya Khanna's Bollywood Moment, Richardson's The Meet-Cute Project and even Liang's Never Thought I'd End Up Here, which starts with a wedding and involves travel abroad, but doesn't have as many details about the wedding planning as the other books.
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