Leila Abid has always kept her dating life private from her traditional Indian parents. At 26, Leila is an English teacher with a close group of friends, and she has dated, but no one has ever been “the one.” When her mother brings up an arranged marriage - she and Leila’s father had one and things turned out great! - Leila is taken aback, but scrambles herself into a bargain… In three months, by the time of her parents’ 30th-anniversary party, Leila will find her own husband. If she hasn’t found a good, Muslim American man to make her Bollywood romance dreams come true, Leila will let her parents proceed with an arranged marriage.

Encouraged by her friends to date with wild abandon, Leila goes on what seems like a million terrible first dates, tries speed dating, and even gets ghosted by the one guy who was actually decent. And even though her mother said she’d stay out of her way, Leila finds herself being ambushed by meetings with a matchmaker, lunches and dinners with family friends who know many eligible young men, and countless questions about how things are going. But with the marriage clock literally ticking away, Leila finds herself desperate to figure out what to do…

THE MARRIAGE CLOCK by Zara Raheem is a quick, fun read. Full of Bollywood references, aromatic food descriptions, and relatable familial frustrations, Leila is a modern woman in a traditional household, with the ever-looming expectation of marriage over her head. Leila goes on a string of bad dates, gets ghosted by the only man she felt a genuine connection to, and even tries speed dating. It’s a humorous look at modern dating, with the added caveat of finding someone her very traditional South Asian parents will like. While much of this novel was humorous, Leila was a bit of a mixed bag - at times she seems very committed to finding a husband in just three months, almost as if she’s doing it in spite of her parents. But at other times, she’s upset (and rightly so) that her only worth is tied to who she marries. She's caught between following her own instincts, let alone her heart, and upholding the traditions that are literally responsible for her family. Additionally, Leila finds fault with every single person in this book who isn’t herself - she complains about her parents, the men she tries to date, even her friends. There is a trip to India for her cousin’s wedding that was a much-needed change of pace toward the end of the novel, and it also served as a transformative space for Leila, where she comes to realize a few things about herself that change the rest of her story. An interesting novel!

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