Lendle

What does a young woman from Bradford do to avoid marrying someone in Pakistan she has never met?
A wonderfully energetic and infectious romcom (romantic comedy) on the topical subject of arranged marriage.

from the opening chapter:
My nickname is no coincidence. I was rebranded as Mills after my parents caught me devouring a Mills and Boon novel instead of the intellectual material they thought I was reading for my A-Levels.
I want what most girls want. I want to have my wedding cake and gobble it, too. I want the whole works – the dress, the confetti, the honeymoon and the outrageously attractive groom who’s crazy about me. I want a gorgeous husband that I’m in love with.
What’s wrong with that?
The problem is that I’m not in charge of the search for him.
Find my own husband? Are you kidding?
‘Love? No such thing! Love comes after marriage,’ say all my elders. Yak yak yak, until my ears are practically bleeding. Marriage, they say, is a tradition. Almost all the parents I know have taken their son’s or daughter’s marriage into their own hands, because that’s just what happened to them, and to their parents too. No one in our family has ever denied their parents’ wishes. Mummy-ji and Daddy-ji had an arranged marriage when they were really young. I think that mum was only about seventeen and dad couldn’t have been more than twenty, and of course it all worked out brilliantly, which is great news for them but more down to luck than judgment if you ask me. Not that you could ever convince them of that.
I don’t think I could take the emotional pressure if I don’t ‘see reason’ and agree to their choice. My parents are fantastic. Not fanatics, dictators or control freaks, and all they want for me is my happiness. They see themselves as wholly responsible for this, and if I go against their wishes they’ll be failures and bad parents in the eyes of our community....