Promise Me This (Circle of Vows Book 1) by Inaara Sheikh – romance with portrayal of Muslim family

Promise Me This is a dramatic and engaging romance with portrayal of Muslim family and customs, strong themes of healing, growth, and love.

Synopsis

Imaan Ali has built her life on discipline and restraint. With a childhood scarred by loss and secrets she has never shared, and a mother who sacrificed everything to raise her daughters, she knows better than to believe in fairy tales. Success at work is the only promise she allows herself—and love has no place in her plans.

But fate has other ideas. One rainy night outside a multiplex, she ends up sharing an auto with a stranger—older, confident, and far too unsettling. She never expects to see him again. Until she walks into her new job at Meridian Enterprises…and finds him seated behind the CEO’s desk.

Haider Khalil, newly appointed CEO of Meridian, is brilliant, controlled, and ruthlessly focused. Imaan is just another junior marketing executive—until a family dinner backed him into a corner. To silence the pressure to marry, he blurts out the first thing that comes to he’s already in love. With Imaan.

Now, caught in a fake engagement neither of them wanted, Imaan is forced into Haider’s orbit—office whispers, his family’s approving smiles, and the simmering tension every time his gaze lingers too long. For a man who claims not to believe in love, Haider is making it dangerously easy for her heart to betray her.

But when the news reaches Imaan’s conservative family and tragedy strikes at home, she’s reminded of why she built walls in the first place. She wants to walk away before she loses everything. Haider is not ready to let her go.

One lie started it.
A thousand unspoken promises could change everything.

Trigger Mention of child sexual abuse.

Review

Imaan Ali comes from a conservative Muslim family who, despite society’s nonsense about a woman’s only role being to marry well, is independent, hardworking, and honest. Her integrity leads her to leave her brother-in-law’s company and join Meridian Enterprise as a marketing executive.

The night before her first day, she ends up stranded in the rain with a dead phone and shares an auto with Haider. The next day, she discovers he is the CEO of the company. Their connection and attraction spark instantly, and both feel the pressure from family to marry. One day, Haider blurts out that Imaan is his girlfriend, thrusting her into a fake dating relationship and forcing her to confront a past demon that looms over her life.

While the novel reveals Imaan’s secret early on, it was engaging to watch how she navigates her past and whether it will threaten her happiness with Haider. The writing is engaging, and the pacing is good, though it occasionally stumbles due to over-explanations and repetitions in both Imaan and Haider’s points of view, I like portrayal of Muslim family and customs.

Imaan herself was a compelling character, though at times frustrating. She carries her mother’s anxiety in her bones, lacks a confrontational nature, and doesn’t have the bravery her sisters display in standing up to their mother and society. Watching her cede to circumstances rather than fight back was often annoying. But it was also fascinating to see her gradually shed her anxious shell around Haider, with his support and belief in her bringing out her confidence and strength by the end.

Haider was consistently charming and admirable. His gentlemanly nature, love for his family, work ethic, and accountability for his mistakes made him a joy to read. He supported Imaan in every possible way and fought for her, making it satisfying to see the villains face consequences, not just by him but also by Imaan and her sisters. I strongly agreed with his perspective on Imaan’s mother.

Speaking of her mother, I understood her struggles—being abandoned by a husband for not giving him a son, tolerating her in-laws, and raising four daughters in a world where men leered at every turn. But her lack of faith in her daughters and her willingness to let toxic relatives’ words dictate her judgment was infuriating. She failed to be the fierce, protective mother her daughters needed, and that tension added to the story’s complexity.

Overall, Promise Me This is a dramatic and engaging read, with strong themes of family, growth, and love. Despite minor pacing issues and overexplained POVs, the evolving relationship between Imaan and Haider and the strength of the female characters make it a satisfying story of empowerment, romance, and familial bonds.

Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon.in | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Have you read this or any book with portrayal of Muslim family and custom?
Do you enjoy fake-dating romances with heavy family drama, or do you prefer lighter love stories?

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• Promise Me This (Circle of Vows Book 1) by Inaara Sheikh – romance with portrayal of Muslim family
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