The conclusion was also PERFECTION (which is a major reason why I didn't rate this book lower lol) - both Adam and Zayneb go through a lot of growth, and it's just such a happy feels-good ending. Something I didn’t realise until a couple of days after finishing this book was how clearly I had been visualising and experiencing being present in Makkah and Madinah and performing Umrah as I read it. The room opens via French doors to a traditional English garden where seasonal blooms put on a show well into autumn while you partake of your specially delivered afternoon tea, sandwiches, and cakes on the patio. Ali's voice feels altered, as if it's not written so much for the Muslim Audience but written with someone else in mind. it was perfection, romance at its best, halal goodness with a sprinkle of condemning inequality, racism islamophobia and pointing the finger at institutions.

Then a marvel Adam and Zayneb get the chance to spend Thanksgiving week on the Umrah, a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia. Lord it was frustrating, please I kinda wanna go in the book and make them SIT DOWN AND TALK, but SK Ali had showed the realities of a young couple , who is doing super long-distance relationship at the very start of their marriage, AND juggling to come to footings with their lives. In this essay, I’ll share some photos of Mecca in the olden times (meaning around the seventh century).As one wedge after another drives them apart while they make their way through rites in the holy city, Adam and Zayneb start to wonder: was their meeting just an oddity after all? It comes with Understanding your partner, Being Honest and mostly, Working as a We rather than as an I The problems that Zayneb and Adam had seemed menial and can be solved, but I liked that they somehow worked through their problems with the reliance of faith and mostly of their families and the people that cares about them.

the way both the cities are described were so exact to what i felt when i was there, that just about every chapter had me overwhelmed. Its not often that POC authors, that is Muslim to be highlighted and I'm thankful that more POC Muslim Authors books are brought forward in the limelight.The other problem: A woman organizer in their umrah group who clearly sees Adam as the one who got away vies for his attention in insidiously pious ways while finding ways to ensure Zayneb and Adam are separated the whole trip. I loved this book for the most part, although there were moments throughout that felt a little underdeveloped. And Adam's enthusiasm was actually contagious because I started yearning to go that special place again😭 I could literally feel him as I have been through this. adam and zayneb always always be my favorite people, regardless of anything else, and i'm over-the-moon happy i could be a part of their umrah journey.