The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters

Amir Sisters #2

by Nadiya Hussain

’Funny, warm and uplifting, Nadiya has produced a fabulous follow-up about faith and family’ OK! magazine Heart-warming storytelling with strong themes of sisterhood from nation’s favourite and former Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, this is Little Women meets Marian Keyes’ Walsh family series for a new generation of readers.

The four Amir Sisters – Fatima, Farah, Bubblee and Mae – are as close as sisters can be but sometimes even those bonds can be pushed to their limits . . .

Becoming a mother has always been Farah’s dream so when older sister Fatima struggles with a tough pregnancy whilst Farah has trouble conceiving she cant help but be jealous. Until a plan to break a huge cultural taboo in her family, and use a surrogate gives her a renewed hope. But nothing is ever that easy in this warm, witty look at a modern British family.

What readers are saying about the Amir sisters:

‘Utterly brilliant’
‘Heartfelt and emotional’
‘Life-affirming’
‘Another fabulous read from this multi-talented author’

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction, Family Drama, Mental Health, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Drama

352 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2019

About the author

Nadiya Hussain is a British baker, columnist, author and television presenter. The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters is her debut novel.

Hussain was born to a British Bangladeshi family in Luton, where she grew up. She developed her interest in cooking while at school and largely self-educated herself in cooking by reading recipe books and watching instructional videos on YouTube. She married and moved to Leeds, where she began studying for an Open University degree. In 2015 she appeared on the BBC's The Great British Bake Off and won the contest. She was subsequently invited to produce a cake for the 90th birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II and to present her own BBC documentary, The Chronicles of Nadiya.

Hussain is a columnist for The Times Magazine and Essentials magazine, has signed publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Hodder Children's Books, and Harlequin. She is also a regular reporter for The One Show and a guest panellist on Loose Women. Hussain was named by Debrett's as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK in 2016. Hussain was on BBC News' 100 Women list in 2016.

Reviews

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not resist reading this heartwarming and comic novel co-authored novel from British Bake Off winner, Nadiya Hussain. This is the second in the Amir sisters series, although it works reasonably well as a standalone, bearing in mind much has happened previously. There are four Amir sisters, Fatima, twins Bubblee and Farah, and the youngest, Mae. As is often the case, this is a family of secrets, for example, Mae is mad about social media and is secretively blogging about her family. Fatima is struggling with a difficult pregnancy and Farah is having problems conceiving, desperate to have a child. This must be such a heartbreaking position to be in and it is barely surprising that Farah is both envious and resentful of her sister. We follow the turbulent family dramas as Farah finds herself in unthinkable cultural territory, of solving her problems through surrogacy. This is an entertaining and humorous look at family, sisterhood, facing heartbreaking problems and coming to terms with who you are. Many thanks to HQ for an ARC.

[Nadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of Nadiya. Since winning the British Bake Off a few years back, she has published some great cookbooks and quickly became a sweetheart of the nation. When I saw she wrote a fiction novel, I got excited and jumped at the opportunity to read it. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I hoped.

The book is about 4 sisters and their everyday life with the main plotline centring around Farah who is desperate to have a baby.  I am a fan of family dramas and the Amir sisters had good banter and some funny moments, but the whole book felt a bit flat for me. I felt both the story and the characters were lacking in depth. There were some big decisions made in the family but I had trouble connecting with the main characters and understanding their thinking. Also, I didn't find the main character Farah very likeable, she was even annoying at times. Bublee was perhaps my favourite one from the bunch.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Shagufta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Amir sister series by Nadiya Hussain about the lives of four Bengali sisters and their families in a small English town. I remember not liking the first book that much when I read it a few years ago, but this one is better. It is about purpose, depression, motherhood, infertility and relationships between sisters, and the challenges relationships undergo when two peoples’ lives go in different directions. What struck me most about this book though is how it features female characters who are angry, and men who are pretty absent - husbands, their father, their brother. It also talks about toxic narratives of masculinity and how devastating it can when men are expected to not have any emotions/ don’t allow themselves to admit struggle. So many Muslim fiction centers around the journey to marriage, and it was refreshing to read a book where the characters are already married. Three stars because I appreciated the themes and some of the dialogue, but overall the book still feels not very good. I’m glad I read it though!

[Highlyeccentric]

I’m sorry to say I’ve had to put this one aside at 1/3 through- not due to poor quality, I hasten to add. The characters and plot are engaging, and the writing effective if a little clunky to start. I hadn’t realized the book was a sequel, which explains some of the big character details being simply dropped while others (the key points for this book) get full explanation. Nadiya Hussein and Ayisha Malik have done a pretty good job at readable chicklit here (I do think it’s a pity Malik doesn’t get co-author credit).

I’ve had to put it aside for personal reasons- the depiction of the spiralling despair of a woman struggling with infertility is just a bit too much for me right now. If that’s something you’ll either be more comfortable with or more able to engage with as a personal narrative than I am, by all means i recommend the book.

[Hannah Polley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did pick this up because I love Bake Off and I think Nadiya is great. So I didn't actually read what it was about. I think it must be one in a series because stuff had clearly happened before that was not explained in great detail.

It is the story of 4 sisters. One is pregnant but struggling badly with morning sickness, one can't get pregnant, one surrogates for the one who can't get pregnant and one is not mentioned very much.

It is typical sister relationships (although I'm not sure I would ever surrogoate for someone). I was not expecting Farah's husband to kill himself and I loved at the end that Farah and Bubblee decided to raise the baby together.

However, I really struggled to pick this book up and I was looking for excuses to put it down so it didn't really grip me unfortunately.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was... not as good as the first book. It felt rushed and the writing was very clunky at times. I appreciate that she wanted to tackle difficult topics but it was jarring to go from "this thing is upsetting for one or several characters" to "everyone's moved on and we're all OK with it". And this happens several times. Plus, there's too much Farah in this book and not enough of the other sisters, I think the first one was more balanced, even though Fatti was obviously the main character. I'm rather disappointed to be honest, but still on board for the next book, I sincerely hope it's better plotted (and written) than this one.

[Litsplaining · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trigger warning: death by su1c1d3 and head trauma

I enjoyed this book because of how well the characters were written. However, there are several consistency issues with this novel between established facts in book one and this sequel. I chalked it up to the new addition of a co-author, but it felt like there were gapping plot holes in Bubblee’s storyline and a minor one in Fatima’s case because of these inconsistencies.

First, the minor inconsistency.

In book one, Ash has two kids, a daughter and a son. But, in this book only his son is mentioned. A simple line about Ashe’s daughter just staying with the ex-wife would’ve made up for this inconsistency. But, because the daughter isn’t mentioned at all, it cheapens the way Fatima and Ash’s relationship started (re: her staying in the daughter’s room when she stayed with Ash after running away from her family when Malik tells her she’s adopted in book one). It also diminishes Fatima's growth from book one to book two since she ultimately moved out of her parents' home and Ash took her in after she decided to journey to Bangladesh to visit her birth parents. During this time, Fatima learned that she wasn't the odd one out in her family. To take all that away and not to even mention how Fatima and her family got to this point feels like a huge oversight.

Which brings me to inconsistency #2!

I kept waiting for the authors to mention Malik, who is/was Mustafah and Fatima’s sibling from the first book. Leaving any mention of him out of this second book was a glaring inconsistency I couldn’t understand. This error in inconsistency is even more egregious to me than the first one because not only did we learn in book one of the series that Fatima was really the Amir sisters’ cousin from Malik, but Malik shows obvious interest in Bubblee. It appears that Bubblee seems to show mutual signs of possible affection back to Amir by the end of book one too. So, having this second book begin with no mention at all of Malik and an adrift Bubblee was confusing. I appreciate that the co-authors make a point of keeping Bubblee headstrong and independent.

Yet, the subtraction of her love interest and the addition of her being a surrogate for Farrah was an uneven exchange in terms of character development. There was also something strange about the sisters' collective turnaround from being outraged at their mother for not telling them that Fatima was their cousin and had been conceived by their aunt and then readily Bubblee being Farrah's surrogate was weird. It once again diminishes the happenings of book one in the series.

The upside of this series is that the co-authors (and Hussain in book one) have done a great job of moving the spotlight from sister to sister with each book. While book one focuses on all the sisters, it's clear that Fatimah is the first book's main focus. In this book, though, Farrah and Bubblee take center stage. And even though Bubblee's storylines has some gaping plot holes, Farrah's storyline is the most gripping in this second novel. If the co-authors don't do anything else well in this sequel, they bring the drama.

I saw another reviewer say this book reads like a soap opera, and I highly agree! Reading the breakdown of Farrah and Mustafa's relationship was like watching a car crash in slow motion. Farrah's spiraling is so believable and palpable, it started to feel slightly smothering as a reader when her scenes would take place and she'd be arguing with Mustafah or her sister. Then, when she starts to ignore Mustafah and his wants and obvious needs after his serious car injury years before, I became concerned for how he would deal with it. Knowing what I know about CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy aka brain trauma), I appreciated how the co-authors show his erratic behaviors and how he jumps in and out of his mood swings.

I will say that the one downside to this story being a women-centered novel is that you very rarely get to hear any of the men's voices, and in Mustafah's case, I really wanted to hear a longer explanation to his unraveling than we get to see through his wife and sister-in-law's eyes. To see that Mustafah ended up dying by su1c1d3 was heartbreaking. Then, to not have Malik or any of Mustafah’s Bangladeshi family members (besides his wife’s side/English cousins) at Mustafah's funeral also felt out of character for the chain of events Hussain had established in book one. And this was once again a prime part of the plot that was left in turmoil with the disappearance of Malik.

The last nitpick thing I'd say is that I also felt sad that Mae was demoted to a basic side character until the end when the co-authors threw in another “social media mishap” caused by her. This plot device of having Mae be the catalyst via social media gaffes felt redundant here. This was especially true because it felt forced this time around and almost malicious because the authors took this honest and sweet moment at their elderly mother's expense where she's talking about her sex life to cause chaos and embarrass her for no apparent reason when the book's plot didn't need this gaffe to tie up any loose ends like in book one when Mae caused the chaos. The co-authors could've left this scene out and kept the "delivery" scene, and the story would've worked out the same. My only hope is that Mae's snafu will be highlighted or explained better in book three and tied to her college adventures.
Being that she is my favorite character after Bubblee, I’m so excited that this third book is more Mae-centered because outside of Jae, this sibling gets under utilize.

TLDR: Read this series! If you're a lover of soap opera-esque novels and enjoy complex novels about women who have rich inner lives, you'll enjoy this series. Now, there are some plot points I could do without, but the co-authors do a great job of keeping the reader interested enough to want to know what is happening with each sister.

[SalScamander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book better than the first book that's for sure. I think I tolerated the characters a little bit more in this book, more on that later. First of all I liked the story line of this book. I can't fault Nadiya on her writing style either, the words flow nicely on the page and make for easy reading. However there were one or two things that still didn't sit well with me. Firstly while the story line and drama in the book was interesting and good, I find that there were just some little details that made me think otherwise. With Farah marrying a first cousin things would have been complicated even with Farah's dodgy womb. Technically, even with IVF it would have been very, very difficult to conceive a healthy baby straight away just like that. Because technically with them being so closely related like that, the blood and DNA would be so similar and from the same family strand that they wouldn't mix properly. Causing miscarriages before the fetus has had the chance to develop properly, or the baby having lots of complications, deformities, and life threatening health problems. I'm not saying that people who marry first cousins can't have normal children, I'm just saying it would have felt more real if there were complications with her baby and Bablee's pregnancy rather than Fatti's. I can't remember, but is Fatti married to a first cousin too? Anyway there were no mention of these complications with Fara's pregnancies, instead the focus and problem turned out to be a typical Bengali thinking one, that Farah was the problem. That it was her dodgy womb. Because it's always the woman isn't it, who has to have the problem, who is the problem when a couple can't have babies. It's never the man, or both of them. So yeah that sort of irritated me. Why couldn't Mustafa take some blame too? Or if you want to write a book that moves away from the stereotype then why not do it properly? At least she addresses mental illness , & that men suffer mental illness too.

When I read the first book I found nearly all the characters irritating, selfish and just bi**hy. In this book as I say I managed to tolerate them a little bit more. I still found them to be horrible and selfish. I didn't like them so much, but I did find myself feeling sorry for Bublee a bit more in this book. I hated her in the first book, but felt a little bit sorry for her in this one. While in the first book, I sort of thought Farah was ok, but really didn't like her in this book at all. I thought she was a complete cow to Mustafa, and Bublee. I really didn't like her at all. She was part of the problem of Mustafa's suicide. He probably heard her say that he wasn't enough for her, that only a baby could complete her. But that seemed to be forgotten in the book. Yet she claims she loved him. She was just awful. At least we didn't have to read too much about annoying dippy Mae. Sorry don't like her, and her videoing everything and then not taking responsibility when things go horribly wrong. She didn't seem to learn from the first time, and shows no remorse. Fatti was the only decent one out of the sisters that came out ok, and probably the only sister I kind of like.

The other thing I really don't like is how selfishness is romanticised, and seen as what did Sasha call it? Following one's dreams. Personally I don't think Bublee wanting to live a life of freedom and out of the stereotype as selfish. But her lack of empathy and feelings for other people's feelings and lack of respect for people that I thought Bublee was more selfish in. But it's Sasha's words of selfishness being ok and calling selfishness out to be something good is what bothers me. Anyway despite all these flaws and irritating habits of the characters, it kind of worked for the story and made it tolerable. So I guess it worked out in the end. I just hope people don't take the message that it's ok to be rude, selfish and indifferent to other people's feelings to be ok, because it's not. I still didn’t like reading about selfish characters & would have preferred they were better people.

Anyway enough of my rambling, this book is still an interesting read. If theer'e a third in the works, it would be interesting to see how Bublee takes to motherhood, and what they had, girl or boy. And see if she changes and develops as a person. I didn't like how it ended, it felt too cliff hangery, but I guess it wasn't too bad a way to end things. So all in all, this book wasn’t great, but it wasn’t too bad either.

[Ria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ Stories for the ARC of The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters by Nadiya Hussain.

Following on from The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters, The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters continues with the story of Fatima, Farah, Bubblee and Mae. Fatima is struggling with a difficult pregnancy; Farah’s husband Mustafa has recovered from his accident but is suffering with mood swings, and the couple have been unable to conceive; Bubblee is finding herself increasingly unable to produce artwork that she is happy with; and Mae is heading off to start her new life at university. When their mum comes up with an idea for Farah to have a baby, the family must consider this breach of tradition. When tragedy strikes once more, can the sisters pull together to rise again?

I really enjoyed The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters, so I had high hopes for this sequel. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. What I liked most about the first book was the way it was told in the first person by each sister in turn; this book is totally different, being told in the third person. That immediately made it harder to connect with the characters. Where I really liked the characters in the first book, I found them very unlikeable for the most part this time around. The story centres on Farah and Bubblee, and I found these two to be the hardest to like, with sweet-natured Fatti and comedy-element Mae taking much more of a backseat. There were a couple of moments where the story came to life, but then we were whisked off to another time or place too quickly too really enjoy the effects. I did, though, enjoy the overall story, and it was a nice quick read.

Overall, this was a reasonable book, but had this been the first in the series, I wouldn’t have bothered with the sequel.

3 stars out of 5

The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters will be published on 24 January 2019.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fall And Rise Of The Amir Sisters by Nadiya Hussain is a contemporary novel that will make you smile and make you cry. It is a splendid tale about the relationships between four grown up sisters. There are complex needs to be balanced. With comprehensive descriptions, the reader feels like a fly on the wall listening to their conversations.
Life can be hard. We all need a supportive family who will pull you through the tough times. Lives in transition create new dynamics.
The sisters share good natured banter. They support each other through life’s ups and downs. We make our plans but sometimes they are derailed in the worst way possible.
The novel is the perfect antidote to a gloomy January day as it injects both love and light.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

[Aatqa Arham · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the type of book it is- best way to describe it is like a soap opera - i think it is written fine. But I was just not a fan of the story. It felt consistently claustrophobic and stressful.

[Natalie Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book we re-joined the Amir sisters a few years after the events of book one. Fatima is now happily married and expecting her first baby. Mae is getting ready to go to university whilst bubble is feeling a little lost and at a crossroads in her life. Farah is still feeling the affects of Mustafa’s accident and once again we join the sisters as they face some tough challenges and have to pull together through these.

It was great to head straight into this book following book one and I was pleased I didn’t have to wait to read the next instalment. Although this book does give us the opportunity to catch up with all the sisters, there is more of a focus on Farah’s story. We follow her battle with fertility and her dealing with the changes in Mustafa following his accident. This book did take quite a shocking dark turn in the middle that I was not expecting. It really took the story in a new and interesting direction.

I did feel overall this book was a little sadder than the first one. However, there were still lots of fun and funny moments throughout. It felt like the strength of the family and their tight bonds shone through. I love the feeling of returning to a new book in a series and meeting old characters and reading two books back to back really helped that.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Novel. The four Amir sisters are adults and each is at a different point in her life. The youngest is just leaving to begin her university years, another sister is trying to cope with a difficult pregnancy, the third desperately wants to get pregnant, and the fourth is struggling with her career choice as she realizes that she will not make it as an artist. This book introduces some serious topics such as mental health issues, sexuality, gender stereotypes and faith; however, most of these issues are treated superficially. My other criticism of this novel is that while the four sisters and their mother are fully realized characters, the men (two husbands, a brother and a father) are all one-dimensional at best. Note: the author is a winner of the British bake off show

[Muslihah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn’t a bad book. Kudos to Nadiya for writing about such important and stigmatised topics including surrogacy and mental health in her first piece of fiction.

Having said that, I felt like there was far too much going in the book. The characters didn’t help either.
Most of the characters were unbearable. Most of the men were totally useless and most of the women were exhausting and selfish. If the author was trying to portray what it’s like being part of a big family that expresses their love through antagonism, then she nailed it.

[Saba · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Amir sisters - Fatima, Farah, Bubblee and Mae are back. Fatima and Farah are ready to move on to the next phase of their lives with their respective husbands. But the sisters are facing problems when starting a family. Then one big decision tests the bonds of this tight knit family which could bring them closer than ever or break them apart forever.

My top three thoughts on 'The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters':
1. Unlike the last book, where the focus was on Fatima; this one's focus is mainly on Farah and her challenges. As a protagonist, she's is very unlikeable! I can empathize with her to an extent but I can't look beyond her selfish, controlling and ungrateful nature. She keeps dismissing grand acts as if they're no big deal and takes everyone around her for granted. Fatima and Mae barely contribute to the story so Bublee is the only character who lifts this book. She's not perfect but at least she brings a different perspective with her bold approach when she challenges age old traditions.
2. It's not all bad in this book. I like the way mental health is written about. We tend to quickly dismiss people with mental health struggles because we ignore the signs or make excuses for unusual behavior. There's generally a tendency to blame the person or fault them instead of being empathetic towards them. Hussain has covered such conflicts and lack of understanding really well alongside all the other family drama. Overall Naidya Hussain's writing can't be faulted - there are even a few parts that made me chuckle. But the maddeningly annoying characters bring the entire book down.
3. Hussain covers uncommon themes of infertility, surrogacy and difficult pregnancies. I appreciate that she attempted to touch on 'taboo' topics within the Desi and especially Muslim community. I don't want to reveal too many details about the book but let's just say that the main 'taboo' topic (in the first half) has a negative reaction in the family all of two paragraphs and then every single family member is more or less on board. I would have liked to read about this conflict in detail rather than the almost immediate acceptance.

[Rayyan Mohd Zain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sequel to the first book The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters. The second book move at quite a fast pace as compared to the first book. There's so much going on and how this book invoke me emotionally that I had to pause reading a few times (even if I actually didn't want to) to process my emotions and thoughts on the issue been raised.

I can resonate with Bubblee most of the time as I always been single through out my life.

The first book mostly taken from Fatti point of view, and her crises but the second book revolves around Bubbly and Farah. Which I came to adore because there is some character growth here.

I enjoy reading this book as it highlights sensitive issues revolving Asian cultures and norm. How patriarchal and misogynist system affects the victim and sorts.

On the other hand, what I resent the most about this book is how the author potrayed Muslim life. As if they are muslim secular. Only does the prayer and sorts when there's special occasion like death. She never mention on how they submitted to Allah. And the issue about surrogacy which is Haram by all means in Islamic law; there's a character (their dad) who actually against this but the issue is being dismissed here as other plot settled in and just to make the plot interesting. This is quite disappointing for me.

I can say that the author is quite a liberal muslim maybe? IDK but I despise the fact that she can actually educate the society (especially non muslim) on how Muslim life is supposed to be and Islamic teachings and all but she dismiss the opportunity.

I love how Bubblee characters have grown and her life principle all around being different to the social norm and sorts refusing to bow down to the negative side of patriarchal culture that deep encore in Asian household. I love how she choose to dictate and shape her own life and liberating her life decision from this culture.

[Rhoda Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn about how to review this book. On the one hand, it's brilliant to see warm hearted rom com with British-Asian characters whose main conflict isn't their Asian-ness. On the other hand... this is a sequel to The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters. I haven't read that book, so I think I missed some of the details that might have enhanced the experience.

This book focuses mainly on Farah and Bubblee. Farah desperately wants a child. Bubblee has lost her artistic mojo and is struggling to find her meaning in life. There is only one way Farah can have a baby and that's through ... a surrogate.

The story touches on the lives of all of the sisters and on their mother's life too. It's warm and funny in places. I liked the What'sApp group very much. There's plenty of dramatic moments too (the scene where Farah and Bubblee find Mustafa is incredible). To me, it felt as a little disjointed. This could be because I haven't read the first book in the series.

I received a review copy from Netgalley. Thank you!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea that Nadiya Hussein wrote novels as well as he capability at baking. I struggled initially with this as so many characters were introduced and through conversations. After I worked out the cast it was easier. I also found the txt talk between the sisters a bit annoying as I m not a fan of txt speak.

The story was good and once it got going it moved at quite a steady pace. I found the Bengali family rules and customs interesting and nice to see the sisters rebelling against it too. I work with a number of families with Pakistani backgrounds and much was familiar but sadly the second and even third generation do not seem to be taking on British ways and are still tied very closely to Pakistan and are still marrying cousins from back in Pakistan.

I liked that the girls were all quite feisty yet still respected their parents' views while not always going along with them. I do like a novel with strng female characters.

[Sarah Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know that Nadiya Hussain (winner of Bake Off) wrote literature, so I was interested to see what The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters would be like. It is the second in a series of books, and I think I would have benefited in reading the first book and learning the background to some of the characters, although this did not stop me enjoying the novel.
This is the story of the Amir sisters, Fatima, Farah, Bubblee and Mae, and is a story about family, relationships, fertility, and has some heartbreaking moments. About a quarter of the way through, I didn't think I would finish the book, it just wasn't gripping me, however I carried on and have to say I enjoyed reading this. The last part of the book had more story to it. I think that this book is mainly aimed at a younger market though, but I did enjoy reading the book. I think that if this is Nadiya's second book she has written, I think that as she develops as a writer, her writing will improve. Worth a read.

[Natalya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this sequel to The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters. Hussain's work shows the power of writing from one's own experiences. The interactions between the sisters were authentic as well as the complexity between more traditional parents and children who are questioning some of those values. I admire the way that Hussain tackles mental illness, sexism, misogyny, and the struggle between the modern and the traditional.
That being said, this book has the same issues as the first. There can be so much angst and drama with each character that it's sometimes hard to like them. While drama can drive a story, being able to keep the balance between a character struggling while still being likable can be very difficult.
I listened to the audible audiobook version and I really enjoyed Avita Jay's voiceover work.

[Maham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book immediately after finishing the first book in the series. It’s written differently to the first and follows the lives of the sisters a few years on.
The story really dragged for at least 2/3rds of the book and then suddenly it picked up and was worth continuing! I hated one of the sisters so much this time round, she was written to be very unlikeable. Everything she done was selfish and she literally forced and manipulated her sister to do everything she wanted. Plus the mum enabled it all!
The book touched on some very sensitive topics however I don’t think there was enough there for me to really feel the depth of these topics. If anything the way things were being handled was just annoying me. Overall an easy read and I like that I was able to check in with the characters again. I will be reading the third book in the series soon.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poignant novel about family, dreams, and what truly matters. I didn't realize this was a sequel, but I put things together easily enough. Most of the characters are well-drawn, and a few stand out as especially realistic. I caught some of Hussain's spirit that came through so strongly on the Great British Bake Off. I'm not sure I've ever read a book about surrogacy before, and I appreciated how the topic was handled. Yet, the novel as a whole didn't really impress me. Perhaps I would feel differently, had I read the first novel, but I'm not seeking that out. I'll keep it on my shelves because having a book by Nadiya Hussain makes me happy, but I doubt I'll re-read it. A charming enough way to spend a few hours, with some deepness along the way.

[Rashida · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I reserved this on my library's ebook app as soon as I saw it, so that must mean that I felt compelled to go back to these characters in some way. It was a quick, okay read, but nothing remarkable or particularly well-written. Cosy slice-of-life is how I would describe it. More of the same as the first book, if I'm honest, though there was growth in some of the characters.

I think I felt quite blah because so much of what little plot there was revolved around babies and pregnancy and all that jazz, and that just doesn't interest me much.

[Mona Chergui · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's was OK

I appreciated the Asian aspect, especially as it didn't descend into stereotypes. I also liked the relationships between the sisters - I thought that was very realistic.

I struggled with the speed some big decisions were made. Almost overnight it was agreed who should be the surrogate. And the ethics of a person who hadn't already had a baby becoming a surrogate seemed to be ignored entirely.

I feel like the writing was good, but plot was not thought through

Overall it was fine, but not something I'd rush to recommend.

[Opal · Rating 3 out of 5]

copy provided to me via netgalley

3.5/5
This was a definite improvement on the first one of the series to me. I had found the first one very fatphobic, which made me quite apprehensive about reading this, but I found this book much kinder to Fatti.
An interesting and funny look at families, what sisterhood means, and the ways we can hurt but also heal one another.
I would like to hear more about Mae in the future, it'd be interesting to hear more from her perspective.

[Mothwing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things are getting a little contrived here, but I'm still enjoying these Austenesque shenanigans very much. Even though I was very sad that Bubblee's storyline did not turn out the way it would. I was so rooting for her to get together with Sasha, but I'm also enjoying her non-defined non-straightness. With her disinterest in love, sex and dating she reads very much like the rarest of beasts, a female Aro-Ace character in chiclit. I would be so happy if that stayed true!

[Nur Aidillah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didnt quite like this sequel. The sister’s characters lacked depth, the story & plot gets draggy altho I didn’t expect Mustafa to commit suicide halfway thru. I get very annoyed with Farah’s character & whoever say surrogacy is allowed in Islam? And suicide is also disallowed. This book sort of bashes its way thru the taboos and may not be advisable to the young and impressionable.

To be honest, I got to the last chapter but didnt care to read until the end.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this book dealt with so many situations. Surrogacy, depression, suicide and relationships just to name a few. I loved it so much. I loved seeing the sisters again and what they are up to. It’s just a really lovely book about sisters and family.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A heartwarming story of four sisters and the close bond they share. The difference in ages is evident in the comments they make on their WhatApp account. This is the second in the series but it worked as a stand-alone. I'm going to read the first book next to find out the back-story.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely read

I read and enjoyed the first Amir sisters book but this one is even better! A story of four sisters, their parents and family complete with the trials and tribulations of modern day clashing with faith and tradition. Excellent.