Love From Mecca to Medina

LOVE FROM MECCA TO MEDINA by S.K. Ali is a sophomore novel in the world of Adam and Zayneb, a couple, who after their Nikah, are still living apart. Zayneb is in the US for law school and Adam is in Qatar with his family, focusing on his artistic prospects, or lack thereof. The two are due for a romantic visit in England, but plans change when Adam realizes with his current health, it’d be best to go on Umrah while he still can. Zayneb reluctantly agrees to this change of plans, and what’s supposed to be a long-awaited reunion, becomes fraught with a series of miscommunications. The question becomes: will Adam and Zayneb come out of this trip stronger, or will they realize they’re not as perfect for one another as they thought?

I loved getting to go on this spiritual and physical journey with the characters. Especially with current times, the realizations they come to are good reminders for everyone: we can get through hard things. As mentioned in the book, non-Muslims are forbidden from entering the city of Mecca, which means it’s likely I will never get to visit this place in person, but it was such a treat to be able to do it by proxy. This situation is exactly what makes books so special and vital— they can transport us to places otherwise unreachable. Along the same lines, getting to experience another culture and religion was so refreshing. I wish books like this were mainstream long ago, and I hope the representation brings delight to many, especially people of the Muslim faith.

The structure, however, seemed to get in the way of the book’s flow. I was thrown off by the cat’s POV chapters, particularly because it’s how the book opens. Then, the business with the box and the artifacts also raised a lot of questions, so I started the read confused. When it did transfer to Adam and Zayneb’s POVs, I put too much stock in the artifact headers, because I thought they were important, but when I realized they weren’t crucial to the story, it took a while to catch on to how they were used to designate POV. In turn, that resulted in me not being immediately sure whose chapter I was in for at least half of the book. As a result, the structure slowed the story down for me.

I also at times was frustrated with the characters, particularly Zayneb. I appreciated that the author really let the characters be human, flaws and all, and as a result, the characters felt real, not idealized. However, at the same time, it did seem like the characters often made the situation more difficult than it had to be. In addition, I was surprised that there wasn’t much of a resolution in the end, particularly with Sarina. I thought we’d get a glimpse at her real motives, but when we didn’t, which to be fair is like real life, it did leave me wanting.

All in all, LOVE FROM MECCA TO MEDINA is a sweet, feel-good story that will tug on your heartstrings. Don’t fear if you haven’t read the first novel, this book works perfectly well as a standalone.