I Can’t Think Straight is a contemporary romance about Tala, a Jordanian woman of Palestinian descent, and Leyla, a woman from an Indian family living in London. The book was made into a movie in 2008 – I haven’t seen the movie, but based on this book it’s on my to-be-watched list.

Tala is on her fourth engagement, this time to a man named Hani. Leyla, who is dating a man named Ali, is a writer trying to find the courage to publish her work. When they are introduced, they can’t stop thinking about each other. However, both women are under huge amounts of pressure from their families and their communities to marry suitable men. Will they defy convention and follow their hearts, or live the lives their families expect from them?

This book is at its best when it talks about Tala and Leyla’s families and the expectations that surround them. It challenges stereotypes in many ways. Tala’s family is Christian and Leyla’s is Muslim. Tala and Leyla both live in London, although Tala’s family lives in Jordan and some of the book takes place there. Both women are very well educated, independent women with careers they love (Leyla’s is just beginning while Tala’s is well-established). However, their families still expect them to marry, and to marry well. Both families are very well off but very concerned with social and economic status – there are certain qualities of a Regency romance in the parents’ attempt to set up upwardly mobile marriages for their daughters.

My biggest problem with the book is that I didn’t like the character of Tala. I felt that Tala was dishonest not just in being in the closet, which was understandable, but in her relationships with Hani and Leyla. She is cruel to her younger sister, she picks a fight with Leyla about Leyla’s religion the first time they meet for no apparent reason, and she’s self-centered. It bothered me that both Leyla and Tala are cheating on other people, and it bothered me even more that Tala is cheating without telling Leyla that she has no intention of pursuing an open relationship.

For many people, cheating is a no-go in romance, and it certainly was a turn-off for me in this one. I thought it was a brave choice to make both of the boyfriends, Ali and Hani, perfectly great guys. The author doesn’t take the easy route of demonizing them – they are truly not at fault for the problems in their relationships. Ali and Leyla had a more casual relationship, and he seems headed towards a romance with her sister, but Hani is truly heartbroken. It was a good literary choice to show that Tala’s actions have real consequences, but it also meant that I was not entirely happy about the happy ending, although Hani does seem a little happier by the end of the book.

My other problem was that I never actually felt the romance between Tala and Leyla. I’m not sure why I never believed in it, but I never thought, “Those two have to stay together.” I didn’t understand why they were drawn to each other. I couldn’t picture a long relationship between them. They spend most of the book apart; there’s a lot of pages devoted to them thinking about each other but not many pages devoted to establishing their actual relationship.

I found it interesting that even though Tala comes off as the more brash of the two, it’s Leyla who is the first to come out to her parents, the first to have the courage to pursue the life she wants (as a writer), and the first to openly date another woman. Overall ,Leyla has a more supportive family, but she still has a great deal to overcome. I liked her bravery, and I liked the twist that Tala is all talk but afraid to take action, and quiet Leyla is the one who is able to move forward.

The book is very short yet it’s crammed full of side characters who stories aren’t developed. It feels like it’s set up of spin-off novels about the other sisters, but I’m not aware of any. Tala has two sisters who have their own problems, and Leyla has one, the hilarious and endlessly supportive Yasmin. Yasmin seems poised for romance with Ali, while Tala’s sisters have so many issues that it felt odd not to have some resolution of their problems.

It’s easy to picture this book as a movie, and I suspect that the film version might work better for me than the novel because in film the chemistry between actors can make or break the romance regardless of how much actual time the romance has to develop. The novel is paced like a movie, with a lot of short scenes and a lot of dialogue. So while my experience with the book was lukewarm, it did make me curious about the film.

Overall, I liked the idea of the book better than it’s execution. Despite its flaws, it was an interesting look at people often not represented in romance. The author has stated that the book is largely autobiographical and it has a ring of authenticity in showing people from Middle Eastern and Indian cultures in ways that Western audiences might not expect. Even though I wasn’t sold on the romance, I was interested in what was going to happen and in how people interacted. For people want an inclusive f/f romance, it’s worth checking out despite its flaws.