Heiress Kamila Mughal is humiliated when her brother’s best friend snubs her to marry a social climbing nobody from Islamabad. Roya discovers her fiancé has been cheating on her and ends up on a blind date on her wedding day. Beautiful young widow Begum Saira Qadir has mourned her husband, but is she finally ready to start following her own desires?
Inspired by Jane Austen and set in contemporary Pakistan, Austenistan is a collection of seven stories; romantic, uplifting, witty, and heartbreaking by turn, which pay homage to the queen of romance who lives on among us.
Disclaimer: A Huge Thanks to Bloomsbury India for providing me with a review copy. My thought, opinions and feelings expressed in this review are, however my own!
Honest Confession: I am not a big fan of Jane Austen; though I recognize the literary genius that she was.
So I went in blind with regards to which stories in this book were related to which ones of Jane Austen – but the writers were wonderful enough to leave clues at the start with quotes from jane Austen books!
Loved every freaking story in this – mostly because it resembled so closely with my own culture and traditions that it was like I was living the stories in my head!
So many different stories, but every single one of these stories were heartwarming in their efforts to show the colorful and wonderful traditions of Pakistan; something that closely resembles the one that I have grown up in India.
While some stories dealt with first love, starting again, and others dealt with the realities opf marriage, but each story left me with the feeling of warmth and comfort like a big tub of ice – cream after a crappy day!
For anyone who is interested in understanding the East Asian Culture, this is a wonderful way to introduce yourself to this colorful tradition – Jane Austen Style 😀
For The Love of Fictional Worlds 