A short review of this book was posted on Goodreads. This one is more detailed.

Plot Summary

For 64 pages, it was quite an eventful plot.

1. Laila, Danish and Ayela are on a trip and Ayela gets lost in the jungle.
2. A jungle scene in Kenya featuring the hero Omar and heroine Ayela
3. Goons attack Ayela and Omar saves her, even slaps her for disobeying him. Wow, that is so romantic, NOT. That’s so not cool.
4. Then Omar takes her to meet his friends and within a few hours, Peter, his friend, knows that Ayela loves Omar and that she’s the perfect woman for his crazy friend. Dude, how insightful are you? Are you a psychic?
5. She comes back home. Laila and Danish are also safe. Laila’s mother tells her to keep this rendezvous to herself. Ayela agrees. Say what? Shouldn’t her mother know?
6. All the girls in her family are fighting to be the rich phuppo’s bahu. Where have you read that scene before?Every Urdu women-fiction story had it, almost.
7. The handsome vilayat-returned dude Taimoor chooses Ayela instead
8. He is a nice fiancée head-over-heels in love with her
9. She runs into Haroon and he tells her about his feelings.
10. Taimoor, Laila, Danish arrive there. Taimoor befriends Haroon. Lovely chap!
11. Haroon realizes what he has missed. Laila realizes what her friend has missed.
12. Again, our heroine is surrounded by goons and the spineless fiancée runs away.
13. Some random “shakhs” saves and I thought it is the hero right there to save the damsel in distress.

Hah, I am out of breath.

Review

There are several things I want to say, all at once.

1. It didn’t read like Farhat Ishtiyaq AT ALL. Only a couple of scenes between Haroon and Ayela sounded a little bit like her.
2. The story wasn’t anything unique. And, the execution was sloppy. We have read accidental run-in, we have read plenty where the heroine wants a strong man to protect her (because she needs protecting) and a fattu fiance just doesn’t work.
3. Everybody was soooo nice. Is it possible? No.
4. Since all of the above (read my breathless 13 point summary) is rolled into one story of moderate size, most of the plot lines are under developed.
5. The last page has Ayela saying – “ہارون میں تمہاری بانہوں میں آنا چاہتی ہوں”
   I cringed at her choice of words.
6. Which brings me to my question – is it one of her earlier work? It was amateurish.
7. Sohail Khan (author of many OTT stories, Indian origin) has a story which has the jungle scene as-it-is . Almost all of it. I am having a hard time remembering it, but I will find out. PS: Bandh Gaya Tere Daaman Se Mera Aanchal is the novel.
8. Both are pretty well known names, Farhat more than Sohail, obviously. Still… Whoever wrote the story first, wins.

Not impressed.

A two 🌟 rating. Only for Haroon. I have a thing for non-expressing (male) leads.

Parting Thoughts

This is my poor opinion. If any reader disagrees with it, then let’s just say that our choices are different. I respect your opinion and you should respect mine.

That’s enough. See you later!

Shabana Mukhtar.