Guest Book Review: Ruth Saberton - Rearranged

Reviewed by Tanya Phillips

Parents may think they know best, but sometimes daughters know better…  

Mills Ali has her dream job writing for a magazine and a social life busier than the London rush hour. Everything's good except for the husband sized shadow looming on the horizon. With a year’s countdown to her arranged marriage, Mills is on a mission to choose her own husband. Just how hard can it be? She's bound to find her soul mate.  

But is he closer than she thinks? Or do her parents know best after all? 

Amazon link: Kindle

Last year Ruth Saberton very kindly sent me a copy of Rearranged, now re-published as The Wedding Countdown, to review but it sadly got neglected on my PC along with a few other eBooks.  As I'm trying to clear my backlog once and for all, I've sought the help of a few guest reviewers including Tanya who kindly offered to review this one for me.  

This book is about a Pakistani’s girls challenge to have a career and to try and find herself a suitable husband within a year rather than go ahead with an arranged marriage where she will have to move to Pakistan and become a good housewife. She faces many challenges as she can not be seen to ‘date’ a man or to even touch a man. She needs to find one that has her same values in life and is a suitable match according to her parents.If he is not suitable her family will lose their izzat.

She persuades her parents to allow her to move to London from Bradford to start a job as a intern in a magazine called GupShup.  She lives with her Jewish and Hindu friends, Eve and Nina, and makes friends with the other members of the magazine team, Raj, Wish and Kareena.  She tries different ways to meet a suitable match including supermarket dating and speed dating.  For a girl that has never been kissed or even dated before these are challenges alone. 

To find whether she finds her true love or has an arranged marriage in Pakistan you will have to read. 

I found that at the beginning of the book I was struggling to keep myself reading however as I progressed I began to enjoy it.  There are funny parts with a serious story running through it.  It is the first time I have read a book by this author but I would now be tempted to read further books of  hers.  I would say if you had a need of a fairly easy read this book is worth reading.