Title: The Henna Wars
Author: Adiba Jaigirdar
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre/s and Tags: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, POC, LGBTQ+, lesbian rep Rivals to lovers trope
Content Warnings: (From the author’s website) The Henna Wars contains instances of racism, homophobia, bullying, and a character being outed. All of these are challenged and dealt with on the page.
Publication date: May 12, 2020
Goodreads synopsis:
When Dimple Met Rishi meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.
When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.
Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.
Hey book nerds! Today’s stop for the The Henna Wars Blog Tourhosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club. I’ll be sharing a review and a book playlist inspired by The Henna Wars!
Funny, wholesome, rich, diverse—all things that describe The Henna Wars. This queer contemporary romance will make your heart flutter.
My thoughts on The Henna Wars
I was so excited to read this book! An f/f romance YA novel with the rivals-to-lovers trope? Count me in!
The Henna Wars is funny and light, however, there are also moments that provoke emotions and keep the mind running. It’s the perfect balance for me! However, though the writing style is good, I can’t help but feel like something’s lacking. I kept waiting for something that will truly enthrall me.
Despite that, Nishat is a likeable and relatable main character and all throughout the book, I can’t help but feel for her. We see Nishat go through new feelings for this old friend and navigate the new, complicated relationship they found their selves in. We see her suffer through her parents’ conservative views. We see her deal with racist and ignorant schoolmates, we see her make mistakes and bad decisions. And we see her try to grasp the realness of her sexuality and the need to make her parents and other people realize that it’s still her and she hasn’t changed at all.
I also loved learning about the Bengali culture in this book—how Nishat’s family keeps their culture and tradition alive even though they’re not in Bangladesh anymore, and also how different lives and environment are.
The romance is good, although, I feel like Nishat fell for Flavia a little too fast. Not exactly insta-love, but she was quickly smitten. Although, maybe this is just me not liking the insta-love trope in general. In any case, the romance was cute and sweet (and of course, the tension!).
Bottom line is I really enjoyed reading this book and I just know others will, too!
The Henna Wars Book Playlist
And here’s the book playlist I create inspired by The Henna Wars! I picked some of these songs because they represent Nishat’s feelings, certain scenes or lines from the book, and more. I hope you enjoy!
https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/1GzIazPJxYB6fjEHJJTmF5
The Henna Wars Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Kobo
About the Author
Adiba Jaigirdar is a Bangladeshi/Irish writer and teacher. She lives in Dublin, Ireland. She has an MA in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Kent, England and a BA in English and History from UCD, Ireland.
She is a contributor for Bookriot. Previously, she has published short fiction and poetry in various journals and anthologies.
All her work is aided by copious amounts of (kettle-made) tea and a whole lot of Hayley Kiyoko and Janelle Monáe.
She is represented by Uwe Stender at TriadaUS.
Website| Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram
Tour Schedule
See more reviews, interviews, guest posts, playlists, or dream casts from other bloggers included in The Henna Wars blog tour hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club! Click here to see the tour schedule!
Giveaway
Prize: Win a copy of THE HENNA WARS by Adiba Jairgirdar (US/CAN Only)
Starts: 12th May 2020
Ends: 26th May 2020
Enter here!
Instagram Giveaway
Get another chance to win a copy of The Henna Wars! Join the Instagram giveaway here!
Enthralled Bookworm 
[…] 1 > Books with Lesbian or Gay rep > We recommend The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar and We are the Ants by Shaun David […]
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