The main character is Menaal, a 30-year-old Muslim woman living in Pakistan. She's well-educated and a successful owner/editor of a popular magazine...oh, and gorgeous, of course. Her father has significant cardiac issues. Worrying about the future of their daughter with the father so ill, her parents arrange her marriage with her father's best friend's youngest son. Hamid is 33 and lives in the United States. He works as a Project Manager for a prestigious computer firm in Philadelphia for the last 11 years.
Menaal is a spoiled, selfish brat and a snob. She objects to marriage with Hamid because he's beneath her station. She went to private schools; he went to public schools. Etc. She appears to be upper-middle class while he's just regular middle class. {Oh, no!!} Amazingly, she eventually agrees to the marriage, but then complains the entire story about Hamid and his family. "She received a gaudy gold ring from her mother-in-law. It was a far cry from the diamond solitaire she had always pictured as an engagement gift." She constantly compares Hamid, his family, and her wedding to those of her brother and her friends.
The only saving grace to this book at all is Hamid. He's a kind, gentle, thoughtful, caring, and respectful gentleman. He deserves better than Menaal. He asks nothing of her, but gives her everything to make her feel comfortable, welcome and, well, loved. It takes her three months before she appreciates anything about him. And, that's only when she's looking at her wedding pictures. She notes a woman sitting next to Hamid and suddenly feels jealous. She decides not only to be his wife, but a decent human-being as well. Yesh.
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