Take a Hint, Dani Brown: A Novel (The Brown Sisters Book 2)

I absolutely loved this book! It had two of my favorite tropes like fake relationships and friends to lovers. Dani and Zaf were great characters together and apart. They both had their own positives and negatives that they brought to their relationship and I liked seeing them work through them.

Zaf is my new book boyfriend and I love him. I love a broody boy who is a sweet cinnamon roll inside.

Overall, great book. You should read it.

“What you get out of being loved, it’s supposed to be worth the compromise. When it’s good, it makes you want to compromise.”

"I never have to do anything with you. But you make me want to. You make me feel like myself, and you make me feel like I'm enough, and you even make me feel like I would be fine without you. The thing is, I don't want to be without you, and so I don't ever plan on it"

For some reason I don't remember a whole lot about this book although I know for sure that I enjoyed it much more than Eve's book ([b:Act Your Age, Eve Brown|51824384|Act Your Age, Eve Brown (The Brown Sisters, #3)|Talia Hibbert|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1598833651l/51824384._SY75_.jpg|76322191]). From what I do remember, Dani was a great and intelligent female lead. She had a charming, bold, and slightly eclectic personality which aided her in her desires to spread awareness about issues like intersectionality and representation read my review here on how Hibbert touched on sensitive topics so well in this book and yet completely fumbled doing so in "Act Your Age" . I also love when characters in books have jobs/hobbies about books, and Dani worked with literature/wrote and Zaf loved romance books. Zaf himself was such a sweetheart and it was refreshing to read a romance where the male love interest is not a grump/asshole and actually expresses emotions and shows that he likes the female love interest. In the novel, Zaf worked through grief and anxiety which is more good work on Hibbert's part to talk about hard topics and have a male character being open with their mental health when so many men ignore their feelings.

Overall the characters were very cute together, my only gripe is that it was so obvious from the start that Dani liked Zaf that it was frustrating constantly hearing her talk about how they are only friends with benefits/fake dating with no attachment. It may have been better if readers were told earlier on why Dani wanted to avoid serious commitment, but the reader is not told until three quarters of the way into the story and at that point Dani just seems a little childish and repetitive. Of course Zaf was head over heels for her the whole time (which readers know from chapter 1) but for some reason I cannot even recall how his love confession went, only that Dani freaked out.

This book is a solid 3/5 stars for me; it's a good romance to scratch the romance itch but I just can't remember any real details about it to give a further in-depth review or higher rating.

IMPORTANT: I cannot make sufficient claims about whether this book is an accurate, good, or harmful representation of Muslim culture as I am not familiar enough with their customs/etc.. I, however, have seen some reviews that state that it is pointless to have a Muslim character to say you have representation in your book when the character is in fact not a practicing Muslim. I completely agree with this and having Zaf be non-practicing feels ingenuine, like Hibbert was just checking off a box to say she had diversity rather than doing her research to properly show diversity. However, I have also seen other reviews from people who enjoyed the novel and its representation. Please go read reviews from Muslim reviewers and readers, take in their input, and support them!