This book is classified as 'chick-lit' but I think it really goes beyond that. The author did a good job of mixing tami's feelings of freedom for the first time with the constant anxiety of trying to find the right husband. It did make me think about what freedoms that I take for granted on a daily basis and made me want to spend more time appreciating the little things in life. I did want to learn more about the development of Ike and Tami's relationship. Maybe that's just the romantic in me, but I kind of felt like something had been left out in the end. Overall, a good read. ( )

I saw this book in the store and fell in love with the cover. I skimmed through it and it seemed to be a feel-good type of story, looking at life in the US from foreign eyes. I brought it home and put it on my TBR pile. It sat there until just the right moment, after reading about child rape and murder; I needed something warm and life-affirming.

It is light and fluffy and could be called romance or chick-lit, though it has a bit more meat than most in either genre.

The story is of the youngest daughter, Tami in an Iranian family. They are well off and she went to college and started a career, accepted moves to delay marriage. Not that she doesn't want to marry, but she doesn't want a man she has never met, chosen for her. She wants to date and fall in love. She doesn't want her life ruled by her husband's parents. Her parents support her in her goal, and also want her to leave Iran. They returned to Iran after the Shah fell, and her father has been denied an exit Visa and he and her mother are stuck there.

Tami has an older sister who lives in the US. She married an Iranian-American and it is what they all hope will happen for Tami. She needs to marry an American to get the right to stay in the country. She has 3 months to do it in. Her visitor's Visa then expires and she will have to return home permanently to an arranged marriage.

The story could be quite dated, with the idea that a modern woman must marry to have any chance at happiness, but it was handled well. Tami didn't want a man to complete her, she wanted a chance to bloom in a new garden where she would be free.

The story follows Tami as tries to adjust to life in the US to navigate the sometimes thorny relationship with her sister Maryam, and to explore freedom. Along the way she meets an American young man, Ike, with whom she has a prickly but charming relationship. The prickly part is that he is forbidden fruit - her sister is only considering a Muslim, Iranian-American man as a possible husband. Tami is drawn to Ike, but knows he would cause an uproar with her sister. Tami also goes to ESL school and meets a group of people from other nations who are trying to fit in and become Americans. She forms friendships and tries out different things on her own, things we take for granted.

There is some humor with her adventures in dating, especially when she attracts on OCD germ-a-phob, whom her sister wants her to marry, and her brother-in-law can't stop making jokes about. There are ups and downs, and some wacky possibilities.

There seems to be some controversy about the portrayal of Iranian woman and culture, with some denouncing it as fake, and others saying it is spot on. The author's husband is apparently from Iran. I wouldn't take anything as gospel with out researching it, but this is a work of fiction, and I suspect that just as there are many different pictures of American life (depending on age, region, class, wealth, education, race, ethnicity, religion), there are a similar number of different pictures of Iranian life.

What I really liked were the characters and the writing. I was rooting for Tami and Ike to get together. I loved the tone of the book and it seemed to have avoided the dreaded plastic perfection of many romances. It was a book that I couldn't put down and the warmth has stayed with me long after reading it. I will look forward to her next book. ( )

Unimaginitive and unrealistic. ( )

I finished this book the same day I bought it. It's a very easy, quick, engaging read - but don't read it as a textbook for how things are in Iran. ( )

Reading this provided me with a different insight into the repressive lives of girls and women in Iran during the reign of Ayatollah Khomeini, but it also offered glimpses of the stolen moments of pleasure they manage to create for themselves, albeit few, whether it be dating via a taxi ride, or having your friends over for parties.

Tamila is given a taste of freedom when her parents manage to get her a passport so she can go to America, to visit her sister and her brother-in-law, and with the sole purpose of finding herself a husband so she can stay in America and never have to return to Iran.

One would think that, leaving a repressive society, that one would immediately embrace and enjoy the freedom that America provides, but Tami is unprepared mentally for the cultural change, and her instinctive responses to innocuous gestures such as a barrister giving her a free sample of tea at Starbucks, to passing policemen out for their cup of coffee and people of both genders just hanging out together having fun.

And all this time that she's learning the ropes of freedom, she's frantically, with the help of her sister, trying to find a Persian man to marry so she can stay in the country, accepting the fact willingly that once married, she will be trading one type of prison for another, because some of her liberties will be curbed once more, despite living in America. The irony of her enjoying her freedom while looking towards marriage wherein she is expecting to be submissive is not lost on the reader.

There is, however, a happy ending to this story. ( )