A very compelling read. Read it all in one sitting, however, the story was let down by the ending. It feels like the author was trying to make an impact with the ending, but the story didn't support it. Going back to the story, I couldn't find threads that connected to the ending making sense. Would have been a top read of 2022 if the ending was woven more through the book.

I wanted to love this book so much but it was a real struggle to get through until the end.
Nur, a Pakistani Muslim falls in love with Yasmina, a Sudanese Muslim and the story flicks between the present and the past couple of years from when they first met.
Feeling the family pressures on choosing the right woman and keeping up family traditions of letting his parents be involved in who he chooses to marry, Nur keeps Yasmina a secret for 4 years, not even telling his parents they are living together. This ultimately has its repercussions on both Yasmina and his family. I was really interested to see how this would unfold.
I appreciate this is a story based on the two main characters, their backgrounds and their relationship but their wasn't much depth to their characters and I found I wasnt hugely invested in either of them. I wanted to shake Nur on so many occasions!
It contained lots of pages of very little happening, just general chit chat whilst eating a meal for example and I found myself losing interest far too often. I had hoped their would be more depth, more insight into their family cultures and in amongst the seriousness a splatter of hope or happiness.
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to try this though!

Thank you, Netgalley for approving this. I was very angry at the main male character in this book and I think that's a testament bro the character development in the novel. I appreciate this novel for the way it handled the issues in it, it's very layered. Also, thank you for the ending because if it had gone any other way, I would have pulled my hair out.

Good Intentions explores the idea of a relationship between Nur, who is Pakistani and Yasmina, who is Sudanese. Nur is reluctant to broach the subject of his relationship with Yasmina to his parents, unsure about how they'll react.

This book had a strong premise and dealt with some very prevalent issues but I found myself losing interest in parts where the narrative slowed down. The story was told in different timelines and moves between them throughout. There were also times when it was difficult to empathise with Nur and I just wanted to shake him. I was however keen to find out how he would resolve things and how it would all work out in the end.

Good Intentions is a story about Nur, a British Pakistani boy and Yasmina, who is of a Sudanese origin. They meet whilst they are at university, fall in love and move in together. Fast forward to four years later where Nur having kept his relationship a secret from his family, he finally musters up the courage to tell them about Yasmina.

Nur lives a guilt-ridden life. Firstly because he moved away from home when decided to go to Bradford University instead of staying in Birmingham; and secondly because of Yasmina. He constantly feels the guilt of living independently having a life away from his parents.

I'm not going to lie. Nur's character infuriated me to no end. I found him selfish, hypocritical and paranoid. He seemed to need validation for his actions from those around him. At many points in the book, I wondered what Yasmina actually saw in Nur to put up with him for so long. Through most of the book, I thought that Yasmina lacked character development until the end, where she became the voice of reason. The varying timelines also became unnecessary and confusing in parts.

However, the story is relevant and needs to be told. Nur's family is the conservative, "What will people say?" type. Kasim Ali rightly highlights the racism within South Asian society. Yasmina may have been a Muslim, but the issue was that she was black. The author has also cleverly woven in storylines from secondary characters like Nur's friend Imran, whose story also needed to be told.

2* Did the author really mean to paint so many people as racists? And knock Nicholas Sparks, too? This will be offensive to many.

As a fellow British Asian who brought a white guy home back in 1989, I was interested to read this book. As a British Asian born and brought up in the UK, now aged 53, I have to ask myself which UK this author has grown up in to tar, no pun intended, everyone with the racism brush?

The book is well written and the title is apt, but goodness, most of his 'Asian' posse - and I use the term loosely here - have massive chips on their shoulder and come across as woke in the worst of ways. And, they're hypocrites - eating halal when it suits, skipping when it doesn't, going to the mosque and observing customs and yet having (thankfully off-page) sex with other Muslims and in the same breath, admitting that this is wrong in their religion, and more. The only half honest one was the gay muslim guy.

And do not get me started on Nur's parents - if I said what I really feel and think at this point, it'd Spoiler the tale. It feels like there's racism, prejudice and lies in this tale, and it paints Asians as a whole, as an utterly racist bunch. And to knock Nicholas Sparks in a casually racist way, for not having brown characters in his tales, was an unnecessary low blow. As was mention of a brown Stephen King. And for Yasmina to knock 'this racing f****** country' that's been home to her and her family? That's likely given them more chances and more safety than her parents' home country? And stuff like 'that recipe was probably written by a white person'? And how apparently white people move backwards in lifts when they see Asians enter? There's more, but I forget in my anger and irritation.

What was the author thinking? What was his publisher? Were there no sensitivity readers? Yes, Asians of my (81yo) mum's generation do tend to keep to their traditions and have Asian friends, but even as far back as 30 years ago, things were different, more open, more liberal. Maybe it's where the author was brought up that's at fault. Maybe I'm lucky I'm a Londoner. I wish I hadn't wasted time on this book.

An easy read. Lovely characters and good story which hinges on important aspects of today's society, race, religion and sexuality. It was interesting to read from a different perspective of immigrants. Enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers Random House for an Arc in exchange for an honest opinion

This book was really hard to read to the point where I felt it was dragging a bit. I'm also not too sure why the book ended in a cliffhanger like that, it was a little bit dissatisfying for me. However, the story touched upon very important topics.

Nur and Yasmina have been in a relationship for a number of years. Nur has hesitated to tell his family about Yasmina’s heritage. The longer he waits, the harder it becomes. Moving between the past and present this novel addresses the tensions that arise from Nur not acknowledging his relationship to his family.
The ruminations and discussions were interesting to start but eventually became very tedious.

I

What a debut. Wow.

This is one beautiful, heartbreaking and compelling love story and I didn’t want to put it down. All I can say is, “Chapeau!”, Kasim Ali (who is only 25!!!).

Nur and Yasmina meet at university, fall in love and four years later they’re living together. A simple love story, right?

Well, not quite. Although both of them are Muslim, Nur’s parents are Pakistani immigrants, while Yasmina’s parents came to the UK from Sudan. And because Nur, as the eldest, — always wanting to prove himself to be a good son — is so worried about upsetting his parents by bringing home a black girlfriend (read: not one of their own), he still hasn’t told them or even his siblings about Yasmina.

What follows is a careful and tender examination not only of filial obligations in immigrant families, but also of how the intersections of race, religion and sexuality complicate these modern relationships.

I was so moved by this book, so heartbroken, and yet I could feel for all the characters, the ones who were honest and brave enough to stay true to themselves but also the ones who, with the best of intentions, didn’t — for the sake of family and tradition. There are no right or wrong choices, no easy answers, and this book carefully explores these grey areas where someone will inevitably lose out.

Good Intentions publishes on 3 March 2022 here in the UK and I predict it’s going to do really, really well. So go and pre-order yourself a copy, you won't regret it.

With many thanks to 4thEstate and NetGalley for letting me read this stunning debut ahead of publication.

This was a great read with some thought provoking concepts at its heart.
It deals with the ties of family and our assumptions about what is expected of us from our loved ones and from the world around us. We see the contrast of two very different family dynamics and how individuals operate within them.
We meet Nur who is living with the love of his life, Yasmina, but is reluctant to be open about that relationship and feels the weight of the role that he plays with his parents. This novel makes you question what love really is and how we can make it a treasure to cherish or a stick to beat yourself with. There are some interesting supporting characters who provide a bit of perspective and also some humour. The key characters of Nur and Yasmina were portrayed with both their charms and flaws although Nur infuriated and frustrated me at times and I found myself remonstrating with him and willing him to take the advise that he couldn't hear me giving!

Brilliant. A powerful voice for today.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

This was so lovely, charming, sweet and sad. It feels like the book I've been waiting for. You so rarely hear stories about racism between racialised communities, and anti-black racism in particular, and especially how it affects the interpersonal relationships of young people growing up in the shadow of those prejudices. It was a gorgeous, affecting love story, with poignant themes of mental health and rarely spoken about prejudices.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't know what to write, I am blown away by this book. It has totally given me a new perspective.
A very powerful book.
Can't say anything more without giving the premise away.

While this book flits back and forwards in time, laying the groundwork for the story, this book is loosely about acceptance.

The need for Nur to have his parents accept his relationship of 4 years with Yasmina, the girl he never told them about.

We learn how the relationship between Nur and Yasmina developed. How they found themselves in each other. Their hopes for a future tigether6.

There is one main sticking point in their relationship. They have been together for 4 years, living together for 2 years. Nur has still to tell his parents about Yasmina.

Nur always says his parents wouldn't accept their relationship as Yasmina is not like them, while she is a Muslim, she is a black Muslim from Sudan.

Eventually, it happens. Nur, Yasmina and her family make the journey to Nur's family home to meet his parents and siblings. While there, Yasmina comes to a realisation, the problem was never with Nur's parents being unable to accept her. The problem lay with Nur.

Emotions are high throughout this book, and it culminates in a bittersweet ending. Definitely a book you should read.

Loved the story, the writing and how it touched some topics like anxiety, racism, religion. The story is written in different timelines so it shows how some actions were made and why, of course.

Kasim Ali is described as a 'thrilling new voice' and, unusually, this is not hype. He writes with so much skill that I found myself highlighting many passages. This the age-old story of the second generation immigrant child straddling two cultures, but set in contemporary England.

This gives the novel a fresh perspective with characters who aren't stereotypes and are whole people. It's also unflinchingly real in the depiction of South Asian anti-black prejudice which is all too prevalent amongst the older generations of our community. He also doesn't shy away from the visceral anger of a young woman, Saara, who berates a young white man who attends her party. It isn't an example of racial prejudice or racism, but that of someone who's simply had enough and it's a very common emotion amongst people of that age who become activists as they brush up against institutional racism and sexism as they become adults.

Literature is supposed to inform and help us understand and this book really accomplishes this with it's honesty. By framing these issues within a love story, Ali deftly and honestly demonstrates how harmful these views can be within our everyday human interactions.

As a woman of colour, now in my 50s, this is the type of book I have longed to read. It's hard to convey how important it is to see us portrayed as we are rather than tired, one-dimensional stereotypes. To see us love rather than struggle for cultural identity. Ali is an extremely talented writer and I will read anything else that he writes. Bravo to 4th Estate books for signing such a talent. Highly recommend.

It took me a while to get into this book and I found the switching between years a little disconcerting. I think the format of the book that I received made it slightly harder to follow. But I did enjoy the cultural aspects that the book touched on, particularly that of mixed race Muslim relationships particularly those between south East Asian and African individuals and the issues that need to be surpassed. The ending wasn’t what I was expecting but at the same time I was glad it ended in the way that it did

Loving this book which is a very authentic depiction of immigrant families in Britain. It explores themes of racial prejudice and complex family dynamics. I’m enjoying the writing style. The author writes with wry humour and wit.