A beautiful story about love, the difficulties with love and everything that goes with it.Get a tissue. The story got me hooked.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Riptide Publishing for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

A retelling of Romeo & Juliet, Rabi and Matthew is a m/m emotional, raw story. The struggle is real, the characters portrayal is convincing and the storyline compelling. I enjoyed this rendition and this author is fast becoming a must read for me with her unique take and portrayal of her stories and characters

3.5 Stars

The last twenty-four hours had been hellish, but he’d always heard it was darkest before dawn. Maybe the sun was rising. Maybe the darkness was receding.

I hate you, LA Witt. You made cry!!!

I’m kidding of course. Witt portrayed a raw, sweet, convincing, yet chilling new adult romance in this classics queered retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Frankly, the classic was not among my favorite story - not fond of tragedy in my reading - but this author never let me down before so I dove in. And once again, she delivered!

“Rabi and Matthew” set in midwestern town of Arbor Hills, a majorly Red neighborhoods, in the middle of heated Democratic vs Republic race for Senate between two family rivalries, a Moslem Pakistan-descent Hashmi and a White Christian Swain. It was an old and bloody rivalries that reached to a boiling point. When Rabi and Matthew met in a Halloween frat party, they were drawn to each other not knowing each was the member of the rival family. What followed was a series of stolen moments, secret meetings between two young men who despite the odds fell deeply to one another.

I really felt for both Rabi and Matthew and their turmoil. For Matthew, it must have been hard to live among such hatred, racism, and bigotry and loving a man targeted by that vitriol. As a Moslem, I could relate to most of what Rabi felt here, how alone he felt among his loved ones when he couldn’t live as himself. Using the young men’s POV alternately to follow the route to the inevitable tragedy, Witt deftly maneuvered through these opposing yet similar situation, cleverly played with reader’s emotion on - as in: me - on when and where things would hit the roof.

There is an issue that I felt worked for Rabi and Matthew’s predicament, yet some sort of niggle for me. For someone as young as these two MCs, they practically had no close friend to confide things. Matthew got a best friend, though he didn’t feel like sharing his deepest secret with Jude. This friend seem to blip in and out of the scene, appearing on a needed base. As for Rabi, other than the opening scene with a cousin, he didn’t seem close to anyone. The only person who pay close attention to him was his older brother Eshaan (which made the overall situation more gut-wrenching). The story so focusing on their secret affair that there were almost no other nuances here to get better sense of these guys.

Having said that, the emotional roller coaster this book brought, especially once it got to the peak of conflict... Man, I should’ve been more prepared. A box of tissue. A quiet nook to read (and sniffle). A darkened room to hide until you (as in: me) could show up sans puffy eyes. In essence, I thought Witt captured a blunt climate of hostility in current America, albeit in dramatized manner, and it was rather chilling. It was up to the rising generation to stand up and refuse the wrong norm and initiate the change. The not-fully-closed ending - while promising a long and slow healing cum beginning - could mean anything to this Arbor Hills setting story; say, a sequel or a spin-off. I wouldn’t say no to either options.


Advanced copy of this book is kindly given by the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4*. Sweet and innocent in some ways for what is meant, I think, to be 2018 USA, but strangely scary...

...in others with all the prejudices, the feuding and the hate.

I knew before reading this book that it was a retelling of Romeo and Juliet and I'd been looking forward to it, as it not only pits Muslims against Christians, but Democrats against Republicans, and LAW can write a pretty good tale. As a Brit, I did have to suspend disbelief a little, assuming it is a contemporary tale, as I've never come across hate of this sort and prejudice the likes of which there are in this book. That's not a criticism, but at times, I did wonder, as there's nothing specific in the tale to allow me to date/situate it, whether it was a contemp tale in our world (yes, I checked that Arbor Hills exists) or in an alternate reality; either way, it worked and I enjoyed it.

The love story between Rami and Matthew is sweetly innocent, and rather romantic, especially with everything that's stacked against them. You couldn't help but root for them, be a little scared for them, and hope for them. As to the families? Well, I think LAW has been pretty brave and maybe more than a little personal in this tale, with her support for Muslims and Dems. I liked that. I liked that she was brave enough to be so bold in print, because hers is a voice in the world of MM social media that others listen to.

I'm from an ethnic minority background and had to read up extensively on Islam to edit a book earlier this year, and I think she did pretty well with the religion, other than having what sounded like both men and women worshipping at a mosque at the same time (which is not unheard of in progressive mosques, in a few countries, which I think this mosque was aiming for, but I didn't get the impression that this US Muslim community or mosque was that progressive, though the imam was a pleasant surprise), with what it means to be from an ethnic background, with what family means, with what loyalty means and how sometimes change comes hard. This last sentence can equally apply to members of the Swain family, who were portrayed as ignorant, loyal, bigoted, crooked and blind in many ways. Again, I think this is pretty brave of LAW to go there, but there were enough examples of the family's actions to condemn them.

The tale is pretty true to the Romeo and Juliet from modern portrayal (a la 1996 film, a la West Side Story, etc., not the original written work) and the good guys and the bad guys are convincing. LAW nailed bigotry, prejudice, hate, support and loyalty, and everything that she orchestrated could be ticked off against a ticklist of Romeo and Juliet must-haves.

At the end of the tale, there's a note from LAW about why she rewrote Romeo and Juliet, giving Rami and Matthew the ending that she did, and it was good to read her reasons for it. Made me appreciate her writing. Made me appreciate her 'stand up' stance, which I've always admired, though not always agreed with.

ARC courtesy of Riptide Publishing and NetGalley for my reading pleasure.