Syed Masood

Danyal Jilani may not be the smartest guy in the room, but he's funny, gorgeous, and going to make a great chef one day. His father doesn't approve of his career choice, but what matters more to Danyal is the opinion of Danyal's longtime crush, the perfect-in-all-ways Kaval, and her family, who consider him a less than ideal arranged marriage prospect. Selected for Renaissance Man, a school-wide academic championship, Danyal knows it's the perfect opportunity to show everyone he's smarter than they think. He recruits brilliant, totally-uninterested-in-him Bisma to help with the competition.

More Than Just a Pretty Face

Syed M. Masood

For fans of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han, a sweetly funny YA debut about falling in love, family expectations, and being a Renaissance Man. Danyal Jilani doesn't lack confidence. He may not be the smartest guy in the room, but he's funny, gorgeous, and going to make a great chef one day. His father doesn't approve of his career choice, but that hardly matters. What does matter is the opinion of Danyal's longtime crush, the perfect-in-all-ways Kaval, and her family, who consider him a less than ideal arranged marriage prospect. When Danyal gets selected for Renaissance Man, a school-wide academic championship, it's the perfect opportunity to show everyone he's smarter than they think. He recruits the brilliant, totally-uninterested-in-him Bisma to help with the competition, but the more time Danyal spends with her...the more he learns from her...the more he cooks for her...the more he realizes that happiness may be staring him right in his pretty face. In this young adult debut full of depth and heart, author Syed M. Masood will have readers laughing, sighing, tearing up, and shouting "YES!" at the top of their lungs.

Shareca

This novel started entirely too slow for me. I put it down for a while before I picked it back up. The beginning of the book was lackluster and I felt myself turning the page to figure out when it would pick up. After a while, it does pick up and get better. The voice and tone alongside the characters are fantastic once you get through the first few chapters. Sadly, most won't be as generous as I was and may put it down before they can get to the story, but the ones that stick around will get a wonderful YA tale. Again, it is not perfect or completely out of the park fantastic, but it is good for a read in between books. If you feel yourself needing something easy and quick, this is a book to get. I think it works for the genre, but can be quite slow.

Avery Baumel

This was back before I knew what good romcoms could be (Henry obv, even McQuiston to an extent, Spite House/Maggie Moves On types are at least better than these types of novels). So I loved it then but now it's like a 3 at best. I would've given it a 4 though because I did enjoy it, I laughed, I loved Kaval.

Preye

Ughhhh. The cutest! Loved this so so much. Was pleasantly surprised because this book sat in my library collecting dust for the longest time. I felt like wrapping Danyal and Bismah in the most tight and suffocating hug ever.

laura

*I got this book for review from the publisher*

I really loved this book. I thought this book was the prefect elements of YA roncon but also tackled the elements in the Muslim community. This book had so much diversity as well and found it be such a informative read that was also super fun and funny and made me laugh out loud. I loved how the book only had a male lead and loved how this book tackled family drama, passions, and romance and academic element. I loved the side characters in this read and the romance made me so happy! Will def read more by this author in the future.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received the e-arc and arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: More Than Just A Pretty Face

Author: Syed M. Masood

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 2/5

Diversity: Muslim/Desi reps!

Recommended For...: contemporary, muslim/desi books, romance

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 16+ (language, sexual content, non consensual filming of sex TW, emotional abuse TW, slightly racist moments)

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 352

Synopsis: Danyal Jilani doesn't lack confidence. He may not be the smartest guy in the room, but he's funny, gorgeous, and going to make a great chef one day. His father doesn't approve of his career choice, but that hardly matters. What does matter is the opinion of Danyal's longtime crush, the perfect-in-all-ways Kaval, and her family, who consider him a less than ideal arranged marriage prospect.

When Danyal gets selected for Renaissance Man--a school-wide academic championship--it's the perfect opportunity to show everyone he's smarter than they think. He recruits the brilliant, totally-uninterested-in-him Bisma to help with the competition, but the more time Danyal spends with her...the more he learns from her...the more he cooks for her...the more he realizes that happiness may be staring him right in his pretty face. 

Review: For the most part I enjoyed the story of this book. It had some great moments, like building up Bisma’s and Danyal’s relationship (very well done!) and I loved learning some more about Desi/Muslim culture and religion. I also thought the author did well with Bisma’s character and she didn’t feel badly written at all. She’s a character I’ll remember for the longest time, not only for her quiet strength, but for her intelligence and kindness as well.

However, I had a lot of issues with the book that I didn’t wish I had. I felt that the book made a lot of comments about girl’s appearance. I understand that the POV is a young man in high school, but it felt like he was stereotyped into an 80’s version of a high school guy who’s girl crazy. The mother’s comments on sex appeal in reference to how Danyal views them and how she condoned it was cringy and creepy. She said Bisma was “not hot” and I don’t think any mother should be commenting on the hotness of a young girl. It was kinda misogynic how, not only the mother, but all of the female characters aside had a “women hating on women” mentality. There were also comments about the rep that I didn’t feel should be in the book. Danyal says at one point all Desi’s are shallow and says they only judge on looks. There is also a very religious Muslim character and he’s written to be hated on for his devotedness. I am not religious, but I found that very distressing. The Islamic religion is very beautiful and the hatred on the character can be misconstrued to a more naïve reader. Many other reviewers also pointed out problems with the rules of romance and how the book didn’t follow them and didn’t state them to the full extent. 

Along with those problems I also had some smaller issues of the text in terms of racism and abusive content. The father was severely written and it wasn’t that well resolved by the end of the book. The father is very emotionally abusive to Danyal to the point he says Danyal can’t be his son because Danyal is a failure. That’s very gut wrenching and as someone who faced some of that in her childhood, it’s very distressing to read. There’s a racist remark made by the teacher towards Danyal in regards to “where he comes from”, and then the teacher is written as this cool teacher that’s on Danyal’s side and it’s weird. 

Verdict: For the most part, the book seems to be ok, but there are a lot of badly written moments. I think the book should have had a round or two with sensitivity readers to help smooth out the roughness of this book.

Olivia Balderstone 

This is one of the best books I have read in a while, I loved this book with all my heart. Normally I am not a fan of contemporary novels but this book just did something for me. It is so lovely and heartwarming as well as serious and sends out an amazing message. This book is what has pulled me out of my reading slump, I recommend this book to anyone of any age. It is truly amazing.

Hannah Adamson

*An ARC of this book was provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review* 

4.5/5 stars
THIS BOOK WAS SO CUTEI had such a fun time reading this book! It was really sweet and the characters were well developed and fun. Also there was lots of food which was amazing. 

Danyal is a really engaging main character. His first person narration is sweet and really entertaining to read. I was rooting for him throughout the whole book.

I also really enjoyed the discussion of Churchill and Colonialism in this book. I think its a really relevant topic given the current discussion regarding historical figures and I think this book handled it really well. 

The secondary characters in this book were also wonderful. Bisma and her sister were two of my favourites, I loved the they had and of course I loved watching the romance between Bisma and Danyal progress. 

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a more diverse, sweet rom com. I can't wait to read what Syed Masood writes next! <3

Manon van Heumen

This was absolutely amazing! Although brought breezily, the message was strong, and I found myself really enjoying it.

Irin 

Before I start my review on More Than Just A Pretty Face, I want to share my favorite quote-worthy conversation from the book. Don’t worry, it doesn’t contain spoilers.
” You know how people think the moon is beautiful? Well….it’s not perfect, is it? There’s like spots on it and stuff – ’’
“ Craters. ”
“Be less of a nerd for like two minutes. I’m just saying that those craters are part of the moon’s past. The moon has a history, and I don’t know about it. No one knows it, really…. but we can still love the moon. It’s still wonderful. It still lights up the dark. So, you don’t ever need to talk about anything you don’t want to talk about. You are who you are and that’s more than good enough for me. “

AND THAT’S HOW MY HEART EXPLODED, GUYS. 

More Than Just A Pretty Face was the sweetest book ever. Don’t let the book cover fool you, though. This book is so much MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY LOOKING THING.

If I had to describe More Than Just A Pretty Face in three words, I would choose Adorable, Heartwarming and Relatable. This is the second book that I’ve read where both of the male and female leads belong to brown families, and I think I’m falling in love with desi couples all over again, lol.

I absolutely loved the storyline – it was simple, yet so impactful. The characters and their development, the banter, the comedic outbursts and the sweetest romance, made this book a memorable one. The fact that dreams can bring out the best versions of people was an important ( and my favorite ) part of the book.
I was introduced to the familiar aroma of a Muslim household as well, and that just made the book so much better. Some of the situations that the characters dealt with, along with their conversations were so relatable. I was weirded out by the fact that the families of the main characters were planning to get their kids married off at just the age of 19 in the beginning though. I got over it after the first few chapters hehe :’( 

Danyal has become one of my favorite characters from YA novels. He was just the sweetest person ever. I loved how he didn’t let his academic failures define him at all. He went ahead and followed his passion of being a chef with his head held up high – that’s really admirable in my eyes. The author did an amazing job of perfectly fleshing out his character development throughout the storyline. I connected with Danyal from the very beginning of the story. Seeing him happy melted my heart.

More Than Just A Pretty Face featured some important political problems and issues of religious extremism as well. I loved how the author chose to address these aspects by blending them with the plot. The book was really funny too, and I think that was a wonderful BONUS!

Highly recommend reading this book. PLEASE READ IT.

More Than Just a Pretty Face

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