Love from Mecca to Medina

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No worries, I can ensure that the boundaries follows the sunnah and also showed a side of Medina of the people that has lived there and make a home there. I loved this book for the most part, although there were moments throughout that felt a little underdeveloped.

this book is special in that it documents our two favorite RELATABLE characters throughout their jounrey of love and rediscovering their religion in a deeper view.I have waited my entire life for a Muslim couple like this that breaks barriers and I will be damned if I let anyone take that from me. Moreover, Zaynab and Adam's struggle in their relationship worried me so much ngl but, after reading a few chapters they all went away.

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.On the other hand, Zaynab had so much going on in her life and that it got stressful for her in a completely different way. And when it's getting too unbearably intense, SK Ali decided to threw some light jokes to the narrative. She emphasises the esteem that Islam gives such relationships when carried out in a halal framework and mentions in her afterword how important showing this was to her.

so while I didn’t really find myself emotionally affected by the following points, I was able to consider them from an academic perspective. And why did zayneb lied to her friend just to spend some time with Adam while being in Mecca is just 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ ! I have seen some Muslim readers out there feeling a bit apprehensive with the story because it takes place when both characters are performing Umrah and going to Medina and so, in their minds, it was coming off as “sacrilegious” and “blasphemous” because the two main characters are in love and a married couple while visiting Meccah and Medina.

In that book, I found Zayneb a bit preachy and lacking in self-awareness, but it seemed like the roles were reversed a little in this one, with Adam being the oblivious one. K. Ali had really taken her time to understand this topic and consider how most accurately to portray this experience. in book 2, we have zaynab and adam's established relationship with each their own trials from Al-Rahim (God). i couldn't figure out why adam or zayneb made such an issue out of what was essentially nothing and then actively squandered any chance of (a sooner) reconciliation with each other.

Also, I was surprised by all the mixing/chilling/"hanging-out" that was happening between the male/female members of the umrah group--even when they were at Makkah.

I was especially moved by the powerful spiritual message at the end it, a necessary reminder that even in the midst of a love story, there is a more important love to be focused on. Adam's worries regarding his career made sense but yes no matter how much you try, these highs and lows always hit you. Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I was quite surprised by my greater empathy with Zayneb since I definitely felt more in tune with Adam than Zayneb in Love from A to Z. So this inaccurate cultural detail caused another major issue/conflict in the book and it just made it less convincing and more plot-driven than anything.