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The Relationship Between Love and Culture

"Amira has a no-dating rule..."

These are the best six words to draw anyone to a romantic novel, but they are also hard words to live up to. Why does the heroine of The Chai Factor have this rule? Well, she has a project for her Master's degree to finish, a job in industrial engineering to get back to, and a family life to manage...how could she possibly have time to date?

The Stubborn Heroine

I have an interesting relationship with The Chai Factor by Farah Heron, as I read it for the first time before I started this blog and did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. (Part of the reason for this was that I had just read The Matchmaker's List and my expectations were high). A few weeks ago, I was on Goodreads and read some negative reviews regarding this book, and I was shocked...I didn't remember disliking it to the extent of a one-star review. In fact, I thought that some of the reviews were a bit unfair, so I decided to buy a copy and try again. 

This time, I suspended my expectations and cleared my mind, wanting a fresh perspective on Heron's debut novel, and I enjoyed the story so much more than I did the first time. 

Amira Khan has had too much experience with racism and sexism, as she is a Muslim, Indian-Canadian woman working as an engineer. She is not one to back down when confronted by these hurdles, and she speaks her mind. She is stubborn, intelligent, passionate and has a bit of a temper. None of this changes when she meets Duncan Galahad on a train going to Toronto, where he steps in to help her escape from some unwanted attention. Amira immediately gives Duncan a piece of her mind, but something is different about him...he's not afraid to explain his actions or stand up for himself either. 

Amira and Duncan cannot escape each other, not when they realize that Duncan and the rest of his barbershop quartet are renting the rooms in Amira's Nanima's basement for the next two weeks. The question is, can they coexist while the quartet practices and Amira tries to finish her paper, without killing each other?

The Importance of This Novel

I find that this novel is important for several reasons: 
  1. It shows the complexities of living in an immigrant community in Canada, especially one with such a rich culture 
  2. It addresses the difficulties of interracial relationships
  3. Amira has (and admits that she has) flaws. Characters in a book cannot be passive, and I enjoyed the fact that Amira had things to learn as well as things to teach her stubborn love interest.
It is for these reasons that I connected with this novel and the story had power over me, but it was not quite a 4 star novel, so I give it 3.75/5 stars. 

On another note, this bookworm got her job back (which was lost because of COVID)! While I am happy to go back to work, I do not know how this will affect my already infrequent posts. Thank you to all who have been reading my posts so far, and I hope to continue while adapting to my new schedule. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts or recommendations in the comments section below, by email (theopinionatedbookworm@gmail.com) or on Instagram (@theopinionatedbookworm1). 

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