The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena: A Sweet, Fresh Take on the New Girl/Bad Boy Trope!

I am officially in love with Tanaz Bhathena’s books.

I really enjoyed reading A Girl Like That last year, but The Beauty of the Moment absolutely blew me away!

It finally gave me that romance I was craving–tropey enough that I was hugging it to my chest, but fresh enough that it didn’t feel overdone.

Basically, Tanaz Bhathena is a master.

For the blog tour, I not only have my gushing review for you to read, but also some quote art feat. quotes from the novel that I made, and a giveaway (but you totally don’t want to enter it. let me win pls.)

So, without further ado, enjoy!

4.5 stars

This book managed to tick every single box on a romance list that I had no idea I even had. It was sweet and endearing yet spicy and a bit forbidden and wonderfully balanced with real life.

In short, this is one of my favorite romances ever.

I just–the new girl/bad boy trope has so much potential to flop given all the bad tries from the late 2000s, early 2010s. From aggressive to almost abusive love interests to just plain bad to trashy and cliche, there’s a lot of ways to go wrong.

Yet Bhathena did such an amazing job of getting it all right? It feels like it suits 2019 with its diverse characters (YESSS) and a romance that’s sweet and gentle yet balanced with life and forbidden-ness and so much more.

The romance was definitely my favorite part, and since it’s February, I was in the best mood to read this book and swoon over Susan and Malcom.

Ugh. Adorable.

The dual POVs were so awesome, and I loved reading both Sarah and Malcom’s side of the story and found them to be so well balanced.

And even more than that, they’re their own people. The whole ending solidifies that (though I promise you a happily ever after) and they have agency and weren’t just made to be the other person’s other half.

Susan has things going on with her mom & dad’s marriage, as well as art and potentially going to art school instead of engineering.

Malcom has a lot to handle and unpack with his dad and his relationship with his sister and friends.

It was all very well balanced, and that’s another highlight of this book. How well Bhathena juggled romance and real life problems for all the characters.

I took of the .5 star ultimately because . . . I wanted more. So much more. I wanted to devour 5 books of just Malcom and Susan.

And also because I feel like there could have been a little more exploration of Malcom and his father, but also we don’t want a 400 page contemporary so it’s still cool.

But yeah!!! I want so many more contemporary romances from Tanaz Bhathena and I also really really loved the Easter Eggs she left in the story about characters from A Girl Like That. (You don’t have to read A Girl Like That to read this, though.)

Basically, I had a really fantastic time reading and just got all the fluffy, happy, feel-good feels from this book. I was in the perfect mood for this and devoured the whole thing in less than a day.

I would definitely recommend The Beauty of the Moment if you like

• fresh takes on classic tropes
• adorable couples who have agency
• diverse casts and West Asian rep!
• a lighthearted read that will make you swoon
• artists! also gorgeous covers!

Overall, I had the most fantastic time reading, and this feels like one of the rare books that I’ll be rereading in a time of need. So yeah. Please read it, so you can gush with me about it after!

More About the Book

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: February 26th 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Susan is the new girl—she’s sharp and driven, and strives to meet her parents’ expectations of excellence. Malcolm is the bad boy—he started raising hell at age fifteen, after his mom died of cancer, and has had a reputation ever since.

Susan’s parents are on the verge of divorce. Malcolm’s dad is a known adulterer.

Susan hasn’t told anyone, but she wants to be an artist. Malcolm doesn’t know what he wants—until he meets her.

Love is messy and families are messier, but in spite of their burdens, Susan and Malcolm fall for each other. The ways they drift apart and come back together are testaments to family, culture, and being true to who you are.

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More About the Author

Tanaz Bhathena was born in India and raised in Saudi Arabia and Canada. Her critically acclaimed novel A Girl Like That was nominated for the 2019 OLA White Pine Award and named a Best Book of 2018 by The Globe and Mail, CBC, Quill & Quire, Seventeen, PopSugar, and The Times of India among others. Her second novel The Beauty of the Moment releases on Feb 26 2019. Her short stories have appeared in various journals including Blackbird, Witness and Room.

A wanderer at heart, Tanaz can often be found travelling to different countries, learning bits and pieces of a foreign language, and taking way too many photographs. She loves slapstick comedies and any kind of music that makes her dance. She lives in the Toronto area with her family.

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Giveaway!

You should definitely not enter this giveaway, so I can win. This is not the giveaway you are looking for. Definitely not. Use the buy links in the “More About the Book” section instead to guarantee yourself a copy!

(Or, if you insist, enter through the Rafflecopter button below where one lucky winner will receive a finished copy of the novel! US only.)

Thank you so much to The FFBC and Macmillan for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the tour stops through the FFBC button below!

Please tell me The Beauty of The Moment is on your TBR.