Now THIS is how it’s done! Ayesha At Last is a lovely loose retelling of Pride and Prejudice, with a perfect mix of humor, heartbreak, misunderstandings, and humor. It’s a contemporary set in Canada and the characters are described with empathy and with plenty of surprises. Upon somber reflection it has some flaws, but the reason the flaws are so glaring is that most of the book is so perfect.

The Darcy of the book is Khalid, a Muslim man who works in IT. He lives with his mom and expects her to arrange a marriage for him. He wears robes, has a long beard, and avoids shaking women’s hands. However, he is respectful and appreciative of his female coworkers, including Clara, the company’s empathetic Human Resources manager. Khalid meets Clara’s friend Ayesha at a lounge (“Not a bar!” his friends insist, despite the presence of alcohol, which makes Khalid very uncomfortable). He immediately assumes that Ayesha is “the type of Muslim who frequents bars” and she assumes that he is a “judgmental, sexist jerk.”

Ayesha lives with her widowed mom and her grandparents. Ayesha longs to be a poet but has just started her first year of teaching as a substitute in high school. She wears a hijab, is serious and responsible, and determined to avoid arranged marriage. Ayesha serves as an older sister to her younger cousin, Hafsa, a spoiled young woman who is interested in money, the color pink, and boys.

When Khalid and Ayesha meet, he immediately jumps to conclusions about her, she is immediately offended and jumps to conclusions about him, and sparks ensue. The hijinks increase when Hafsa begs Ayesha to fill in for her at a committee at the local mosque. The committee is trying to put together a youth conference and, surprise, Khalid is also involved. This throws the two together long enough to argue, exchange ideas, and get to know each other better.

As every romantic couple should, they help each other grow as people and (eventually) are supportive and mutually respectful of each other. The storyline is based on misunderstandings, yet there’s a sense that these two people can actually communicate just fine when they aren’t busy making assumptions or using false names like Ayesha does, since she has to keep being her cousin Hasfa in the committee. I love how Khalid and Ayesha deny liking each other but also won’t shut up about each other when talking to friends – a true sign of interest.

Early on, we meet a group of women who are developing a line of plus-size lingerie. These women are my everything. Their appearance signals an unlikely alliance and a deeply satisfying moment. I deeply regret that this group of women are not in every scene of the book as they were a delight and I would have loved to see more of them.

With the exception of the rather one-dimensional antagonists (Khalid’s Islamophobic new boss, Tarek-the charming guy who’s supposed to be helping with the conference, and Khalid’s controlling mom), the characters are all layered and interesting, and their problems are resolved in surprising and satisfying ways. One of the greatest joys of this group were the resolutions, large and small, all of which were grounded in character and explored that individual from unexpected angles. There’s also a lot of humor in the book.

I’m giving this book a B+ for the following reasons:

1. The mistaken identity plot device was an unnecessary complication.
2. The villains were one-dimensional.
3. While I delighted in Clara’s solution to her own relationship problem, I do not see romantic happiness in her future, which makes me sad. I believe she wasted a clever solution on a guy who wasn’t worth the effort.
4. I was irritated by some of Ayesha’s feelings about teaching. While her struggles were realistic, her comment that she feels belittled by “absent teachers who took delight in leaving work their students would hate,” angered me. I was raised in a family of teachers and I know how much they struggle to leave solid lesson plans behind when they are sick. I’ve seen many teachers stagger through a work day because coming up with a substitute-worthy set of lessons plans is more exhausting than coming to class. It’s an unfair crack at teachers and doesn’t match the tone of the rest of the book.

These flaws were more obvious to me because everything else was so perfect – the tonal balance between serious content and humorous, the layered characters, the high level of empathy, and of course the representation. Many people in the story make assumptions about both Khalid and Ayesha based on their appearances. This is especially true of Khalid, who has a very conservative manner of dress and strict rules governing his behavior. However, as the characters are challenged to examine their assumptions, the reader is challenged as well. This author is an auto-buy for me from now on.