The Aroosi Arrangement | Review

The Aroosi Arrangement puts new twists on classic romance tropes that tackles love, diaspora, and sexual norms in an impressive debut novel.

I’m not one to read a lot of romance novels. This might be shocking to people who know me, as I’m always clambering for more romance in franchises like Star Wars. However, The Aroosi Arrangement by Arezou Amin is one of my few ventures into this genre.

And if they’re all as good as her book, I need to start reading more of them.

I should be clear at the top of this review that Arezou is a good friend. So, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a positive bias, as I’m incredibly proud of her with her debut novel. This absolutely impacted my reading of The Aroosi Arrangement, but maybe not in the way you’re thinking.

The Aroosi Arrangement focuses on Sharzad and Sam, two Iranian-Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area or GTA, which I had to repeatedly tell myself wasn’t short for Grand Theft Auto. Both characters are demisexual but on different points of this specific asexual spectrum, which has made it hard for Sharzad in particular to find love. When her little brother gets engaged, Sharzad is forced to get a plus one for the wedding. Enter Sam, who is coming off a breakup and not looking for any real commitments. They concoct a scheme to pretend to date until the wedding. Sharzad will have her plus one and not have to face the prying aunties, and Sam gets help from Sharzad on his personal passion project. Like any fake dating story, feelings start to arise, blurring what’s real and what’s part of the scheme.

As an Ace person myself, I was thrilled to read a novel with two people under this umbrella in a romantic setting. Seeing how this story impacts them by gender was a fresh new way for me to read them. For Sam, his demisexuality just makes him look like he’s “doing the gentleman thing” when waiting to have sex. As a woman, that doesn’t work for Sharzad, as societal norms make her look like an old spinster or label her as “too picky.”

Sharzad in particular resonated with me. The struggle to explain what being asexual is can be difficult. I’ve had my own struggles with friends and family members blow up in my face to where I just don’t like talking about being Ace anymore. There are people who try to get it but don’t. There’s the hurtful “you just haven’t found the right person” or “everyone has a low sex drive sometimes.” In The Aroosi Arrangement, Sharzad’s point of view dives meticulously into how this impacts her struggles with romance as well as how accidentally hurtful other people can be. It was like reading my own struggles over the years. It made me cry to feel so seen.

Even more, it gave me hope. It made me hopeful that if Sharzad could find someone to love her, so could I.

I think my favorite part of The Aroosi Arrangement is the fact that this is my friend’s novel. There is a heavy focus on Iranian culture, foods, and traditions as Sam especially struggles with diaspora. He gets to experience many Iranian customs he missed and yearned for growing up as he moved around a lot. It’s a smart way to engage the reader who may not know about these things either. To 100% sound like a “White Girl Learns About A New Culture,” those moments were my favorite to read.

For context, we live in two different countries, so I rarely see Arezou in person. Through her novel, I got to experience a side of my friend’s life I never knew about. It’s why having diverse stories is so important. I’ve seen a million white people’s weddings in media. The real joy was being able to call my friend and have her explain to me about salt, sugar, and honey, and why those things are important to her culture’s wedding ceremonies. I learned so much more about Arezou, and that alone made this experience so worth it.

I also googled so much food mentioned in the novel that I want to try.

I adored The Aroosi Arrangement. Not just because it’s my friend’s novel but because it’s good. The characters are flawed in relatable ways. The supporting cast pushes our protagonists to change, for better or worse. The ending made me sob right after some major fist pumping moments that were satisfyingly earned. Again, I usually don’t read romance novels.

This debut novel made me want to try more from this genre, and I can’t wait to see what Arezou does next.