Book review: Much Ado about Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin

Much Ado about Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin

Book Title: Much Ado about Nada (*affiliate link)
Author: Uzma Jalaluddin
Genre: Contemporary romance
Published: June 13, 2023
313 pages
My rating: 4/5

“Nada had tried forgetting. She had buried her secrets and regrets in a small bundle she kept hidden in a floral hatbox inside her closet. It hadn’t helped; even years later, they kept bubbling to the surface, magma that threatened to erupt in a dramatic volcanic explosion, obscuring her emotional atmosphere and making progress impossible.”

Twenty-nine-year-old Nada Syed is stuck: unmarried, living with her parents, and mourning the failure of her start-up company. Her best friend Haleema is determined to bring her out of her shell once more and forces her to attend a giant Muslim convention at the heart of Toronto. And Haleema knows the perfect man for Nada to spend her time with: her fiancé’s brother, Baz. What Haleema doesn’t know is that Nada and Baz have a very long and very secret history.

Much Ado about Nada is a second chance romance inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion (*affiliate link), and I read it for the Jane Austen July readathon. I expected that this book would be closer to Persuasion, but it was really a very loose retelling. That wasn’t a bad thing, as this book very well stands on its own. So much so, in fact, that the few references to Persuasion were pretty unnecessary and often just took me out of the story. I might have even liked the book better had there been no winks at the source material.

I enjoyed reading a Muslim contemporary romance with what to me (as a non-Muslim) seemed to be good Muslim representation. The cast of characters is diverse, and the writing is fun and witty. There are minor issues with the pacing of the books – nearly half of it takes places within a few days, and the ending is wrapped up a bit too quickly – but I was immersed enough with the story that it didn’t bother me much.

The story is told from Nada’s perspective with flashbacks to her history with Baz. Nada is a very different character from Persuasion’s Anne Elliot. She more independent, not as demure, and even a bully. Possibly because I had expected her to be more Anne-like, I found it difficult at points to understand why Nada behaved the way she did. In this instance, the retelling aspect actually worked against itself. I’m also not sure how I felt about Baz – his constancy was admirable, but I did not find him quite so swoon-worthy as Nada did.

This was an entertaining read, but I did have a few minor issues with the book that prevent me from giving it full five stars. The big revelation around the 67% mark wasn’t the jaw-dropping surprise it was probably intended to be. I read it and was simply like “okay.” I would have wanted it to give me a bigger emotional reaction. The midpoint surprise was shocking enough, though, although also a bit confusing (it made sense when I continued reading the book).

An even bigger issue was how differently the main couple’s character growth was addressed. Nada and Baz were very young and immature people when they first were in a relationship, and it makes perfect sense why their relationship didn’t work out when they were twenty-two. However, the book focuses solely on Nada’s flaws, insecurities, and regrets. At no point does either main character acknowledge that Nada’s apprehensions and concerns were valid, that Baz was immature, and that he did need to grow up. Baz clearly did improve himself offstage during the years of their separation, so this idea is present in between the lines. But neither Nada nor Baz says explicitly that he needed to improve himself in order to deserve to get Nada back. It was as if the fault of the relationship failing was all Nada’s, and Baz had been faultless.

Despite these minor gripes, I found the book a nice light summer romance. If you like contemporary romance and Jane Austen retellings, you’ll enjoy this one. It was a fun book and made me interested in reading Uzma Jalaluddin’s other Jane Austen retelling, Ayesha at Last (*affiliate link).

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