Cover Crush: The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan has a cover that stands apart. Not just because our main character is standing in such a way that imparts so much feeling, but also because of who she is on this cover. I may not have many things in common at first glance, but I would immediately pick this one up off the shelf based on the cover alone. OK I may have a few things in common, I wear black like its going out of style, I am fiercely unmoving, and I too, am gay. I have to say I am really looking forward to reading about the struggles of being a lesbian muslim teen in America, and struggling to hold onto her life and beliefs that must be mixed into her culture and her families expectations of who she is. This book is sure to cut deep, and I am ready. The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali is releasing this winter, January 29th, so be sure to add it to your TBR now.

 

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali

by Sabina Khan
Published by: Scholastic Press
on January 29, 2019
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 336
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Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali tries her hardest to live up to her conservative Muslim parents’ expectations, but lately she’s finding that harder and harder to do. She rolls her eyes instead of screaming when they blatantly favor her brother and she dresses conservatively at home, saving her crop tops and makeup for parties her parents don’t know about. Luckily, only a few more months stand between her carefully monitored life in Seattle and her new life at Caltech, where she can pursue her dream of becoming an engineer.

But when her parents catch her kissing her girlfriend Ariana, all of Rukhsana’s plans fall apart. Her parents are devastated; being gay may as well be a death sentence in the Bengali community. They immediately whisk Rukhsana off to Bangladesh, where she is thrown headfirst into a world of arranged marriages and tradition. Only through reading her grandmother’s old diary is Rukhsana able to gain some much needed perspective.

Rukhsana realizes she must find the courage to fight for her love, but can she do so without losing everyone and everything in her life?