entire clan and many aunties of no relation, her writing often features families, communities, and all the drama therein. Currently, Taslim teaches English by day and tells all kinds of stories about Bangladeshi characters by night. Her writing usually stars spunky Bangladeshi heroines finding their place in the world—and a little swoony romance, too.
Taslim applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Love Match, and reported the following:
Page 69 finds Zahra Khan, the heroine and narrator of The Love Match, in the home of the boy her mother is determined to set her up with: Harun Emon. Since her father’s death two years prior, the Khans have been struggling financially, to the point where Zahra has deferred an acceptance to her dream college to work full time at a neighborhood tea shop. The Emons, on the other hand, are very wealthy, running a successful restaurant and wedding banquet business, so Zahra’s mom thinks being with Harun is the solution to all of their woes.Visit Priyanka Taslim's website.
Zahra’s first meeting with Harun at the Emons’ restaurant earlier in the book, however, did not go very well. He was recalcitrant and moody, giving her the impression that he thinks he’s superior to her, so she’s reluctant to visit the Emons for dinner. All of a sudden, as she’s taking off her strappy heels, lost in thought, Harun appears beside her and startles her, to the point where she starts to fall—except he manages to catch her and pulls her into his arms! Despite all of her frustrations with him, Zahra can’t help feeling a spark of attraction.
I think the Page 69 Test works well for The Love Match. Readers immediately get some insight into the matchmaking setup and can sense that Zahra is hesitant about it, but because of the presence of tropes common in romcoms, they’ll also start to wonder if there’s the potential for more between Zahra and Harun. In the chapter prior, Zahra has just met and instantly connected to Nayim, her other love interest and coworker at the tea shop, so ideally, reading page 69 would immerse readers in the story enough that they’d like to find out not just what happens next, but what came before. If they kept reading, they’d learn that Zahra and Harun begin a fake relationship to please their families even as they scheme to sabotage it from within, which is complicated by her growing feelings for Nayim.
My Book, The Movie: The Love Match.
Q&A with Priyanka Taslim.
--Marshal Zeringue
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