This Is How You Fall in Love

Gr 8 Up–At a school in Bath, England, everyone tries to ship Zara with Adnan, her best friend since childhood. Their parents, who came from Bangladesh, are also best friends and do their fair share of wishing the two would pair up. Zara is looking for the swoony-perfect guy, based on the leads of the old rom-coms she and her girl best friend Sadie have imbibed. Sadie decides to make a love documentary for a school project (hence the book’s title). She believes she has the ideal couple for the documentary when Zara and Adnan begin to fake date, lying to everyone in order to cover up Adnan’s relationship with Cami, whose dad doesn’t allow her to date. Zara then meets Yahya and gets all the feels, but fears she’ll never see him again. Meanwhile, a kiss between Zara and Adnan both infuriates Cami and sparks ideas in Zara, right before she runs back into Yahya. Twists and turns abound in this debut, and Hussain keeps readers guessing throughout. It takes a while for the plot to get interesting, and the documentary really doesn’t get off the ground as a framing device. However, Zara’s very real struggles with her feelings for both boys and her anxiety over her parents will keep readers engaged and rooting for her throughout. Hussain expounds on Zara’s sense of being of South Asian heritage in England, adding some depth to the frothy story.