The Marriage Clock

Title: The Marriage Clock

Author: Zara Raheem

Publisher: William Morrow

Genre: Women's Fiction

Source: Own

My Review:

I grabbed this book two years ago because of the cover and the title. The Marriage Clock is Zara Raheem's debut novel.

Short review:

A journey of self-discovery! 

Longer Review:

Leila's parents are traditional Indian, while she was born and raised in America. While her parents hold traditional values and want her married, like yesterday, Leila balks against them arranging her marriage. She wants to pick her groom, and she has a list a mile long of what he should be/look like.

Despite Leila's unrealistic expectations, I was rooting for her. She has a great group of friends speaking the truth to her, and they also want the best for her. 

The book was well-written and engaging. It is very much the story of Leila's serial dating and discovering who she is, and what she truly wants from a marriage.

Content warning: Some mild cursing.

★★★★/5

Synopsis (Goodreads): 

In Zara Raheem's fresh, funny, smart debut, a young, Muslim-American woman is given three months to find the right husband or else her traditional Indian parents will find one for her--a novel with a universal story that everyone can relate to about the challenges of falling in love.

To Leila Abid's traditional Indian parents, finding a husband in their South Asian-Muslim American community is as easy as match, meet, marry. But for Leila, a marriage of arrangement clashes with her lifelong dreams of a Bollywood romance which has her convinced that real love happens before marriage, not the other way around.

Finding the right husband was always part of her life-plan, but after 26 years of singledom, even Leila is starting to get nervous. And to make matters worse, her parents are panicking, the aunties are talking, and she's wondering, are her expectations just too high? So Leila decides it's time to stop dreaming and start dating.

She makes a deal with her parents: they'll give her three months, until their 30th wedding anniversary, to find a husband on her own terms. But if she fails, they'll take over and arrange her marriage for her.

With the stakes set, Leila succumbs to the impossible mission of satisfying her parents' expectations, while also fulfilling her own western ideals of love. But after a series of speed dates, blind dates, online dates and even ambush dates, the sparks just don't fly! And now, with the marriage clock ticking, and her 3-month deadline looming in the horizon, Leila must face the consequences of what might happen if she doesn't find "the one..."