Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald

From Goodreads: Tamila Soroush wanted it all. But in the Islamic Republic of Iran, dreams are a dangerous thing for a girl. Tami abandons them…until her twenty-seventh birthday, when her parents give her a one-way ticket to America, hoping she will “go and wake up her luck.” If they have their way, Tami will never return to Iran…which means she has three months to find a husband in America. Three months before she’s sent back for good.

This book has been laying around here for one, two, maybe three years. I'd looked at it's lovely cover again and again and yet, still selected something else. Then Dreaming in English, the sequel, came out with an even more beautiful cover and despite not having read Veil of Roses, I found myself requesting it on Library Thing and I won! So I hurried up and read this one to get to the next one! I liked Veil of Roses and then when I went to look at reviews, I was so surprised to read some really vicious ones. Critics of the book think that Laura exaggerated the restrictions on women and girls in Iran and took her to task for writing in an Iranian voice without actually having lived in Iran. I have to admit when I read that it gave me pause, I really expected this to be written by a Middle Eastern woman. I had to ponder that a bit. But, this isn't a memoir, it's fiction, so who's to tell her what she's allowed to write? No one told Wally Lamb he shouldn't write She's Come Undone because he's not a teenage girl. So I went back to appreciating the book for what it is - a work of fiction. Tami is a delightful character so sweet and desperate to find love, you can't help but cheer for her and wish for the best. The story was somewhat predictable but overall the light fun tone made it a good read.

Laura Fitzgerald addresses some of the controversy at her website (author's website).

This book counts for a few challenges...