I picked this up because I loved How We Met, which is the author's memoir, but her fiction didn't quite hit the mark for me. Because it's a collection of short stories, it quickly struck me that one common theme is that all her female main characters are POC and Muslim born, and the majority of them are in a romantic relationship with a non-Muslim man. Maybe this is because of the author's circumstances—some of the stories did feel like they came from a very personal place. I guess I was just hoping for more diverse stories and voices. I also noticed that she never calls the characters Muslims, or refers to Islam by name. She talks around the religion by using descriptors like "the holy book" when she clearly means the Quran. I personally dislike this because it feels like she's trying to make being Muslim more palatable to a white, Western audience.

There are a lot of common themes here, like the struggles between mothers and daughters. Some of the stories really hit the hard way—The Jammaker is a definite standout for me, but I also really liked Superstitious. I still appreciated her writing, but I'm not sure her fiction is for me.