This was a very sweet novel. The main character was quite overdramatic at times and didn't always make the best decisions but that helped him seem human. I particularly enjoyed the cast of characters he met in Rome who were messy complicated people and especially the theme of found family within this group. Jahan was a very intriguing character and I would have liked to know more about him.
Ahmadi has a fun accessible writing style and scattered in some great humour throughout the novel. I liked that the main character had a really specific uncommon hobby, editing Wikipedia articles, and that this was also useful to the plot and not just randomly thrown in.
Where the book loses a star for me is that I would have liked more of a resolution at the end. Also, the story of a gay child from a conservative family has been told before so this book doesn't bring a huge amount of new things to the table. That being said, the perspective of a child from an Iranian family isn't one I have read before and it is nice to read about someone with different experiences to my own in literature. Plus, it was interesting to see a less religious family that still held onto some of those conservative while not following others.
You can definitely see that this a personal story for the author and he further describes that in his author's note. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun sweet book that also tackles harsher important topics and I definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys the found family trope or escapist travel romance style books.
Ahmadi has a fun accessible writing style and scattered in some great humour throughout the novel. I liked that the main character had a really specific uncommon hobby, editing Wikipedia articles, and that this was also useful to the plot and not just randomly thrown in.
Where the book loses a star for me is that I would have liked more of a resolution at the end. Also, the story of a gay child from a conservative family has been told before so this book doesn't bring a huge amount of new things to the table. That being said, the perspective of a child from an Iranian family isn't one I have read before and it is nice to read about someone with different experiences to my own in literature. Plus, it was interesting to see a less religious family that still held onto some of those conservative while not following others.
You can definitely see that this a personal story for the author and he further describes that in his author's note. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun sweet book that also tackles harsher important topics and I definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys the found family trope or escapist travel romance style books.