Review: Light My World by Aasiyah Qamar

Light My World

Multicultural Romance

Aasiyah Qamar

Eirelander Publishing

5.99

The Enders rating - D+



Life's good until it throws you the one curve you never wanted or expected.

At twenty-four, Diya Hemant faces the prospect dreaded by every modern Indo-Mauritian girl an arranged marriage to not end up an old maid. But for vivacious and live-life-in-the-fast-track Diya, giving in to her mother's antiquated morals was never an option. Hearth, home and children weren't part of her plan for the short-term, even if she'd love to find her Mr. Right.

Widower Trent Garrison has already been there and done that, and has no plan to go down that road again. He has to ride the straight and steady for the sake of his sons, and nothing will divert him. Marriage, attachment, and love are not in the cards for him, not ever.

Neither can afford a U-turn. But they can't dodge it either.

Review:

Four of us picked up this book. One did not finish the story.

The consensus on Light My World by Aasiyah Qamar came down to a real discussion about what bothered us the most. Was it the five-year-old who talks baby-talk until we wanted to pull out our hair, or the totally unrealistic sex scene after nearly being raped, or was it the lack of multicultural aspects? 

We finally agreed that much of what was wrong with this story was a lack of someone saying "what are you thinking?". The biggest issue really was the lack of detail on the multicultural slant. We were all perplexed when it came down to this one significant aspect of the story; what was multicultural about the story? The litmus test for multicultural stories The Enders review is simple-- did we learn anything about the cultures that are coming together. In this case the answer was "no".

Ender Jennifer nearly gave up on this story but managed to muscle through. Her comment card read-- if I wanted to read a watered-down Harlequin Romance, I would have bought one from the bargain book store. Disappointing.

Ender Anne Marie commented-- The five-year-old's baby talk got to a point I couldn't read the story for more than a few minutes at a time. In all these words, you'd think the author would have gotten past 'cliche' scenes and moved to something interesting. In total, the story lacked umph, vim and vigor.

Ender Joan commented-- I didn't think this story could make me really mad and then it did in spades. A sex scene in an attic after the heroine is nearly raped. Really? Is this realistic? Then the author just couldn't stop the insanity. She adds in an overbearing sister who is like super-mom, a totally unrealistic break-up and the stupidest HEA I've ever read.

They did agree that the author has a pleasant writing voice, but the problems were too great to really make the middle line.  

So, there you have it. Three readers. Three opinions. A score of D+.