The Mother-in-Law Cure: A Book Review

The Mother-in-Law Cure is a modern-day fairy tale that chronicles the rise of the book’s central character, Humara from orphan to power matriarch in an affluent family.

Humara’s influence spans generations and continents, but things are seldom as they appear. Humara’s prosperity is not simply good fortune but stems from something dark and sinister – as those who meet her quickly begin to realize. It seems that nothing can stand in Humara’s way as she pulls the strings of those around her, until she meets the unlikeliest of nemesis. Another young orphan whose status in the household is little more than a servant will be the instrument of Humara’s demise.

The Mother-in-Law Cure is an urban fantasy that takes you from Pakistan to the Middle East and back to the United States.

~ Synopsis from goodreads

Once in a while I come across a book that’s a bit of a dark horse. This is one of them.

When the author Farha Hasan emailed and asked me (very politely) whether I would like to read and review her book, my first instinct was to refuse. I did a little googling and there was very little information online. I really dislike accepting books for review without knowing in advance whether the book’s going to work for me or not (one of the reasons why there are so few negative reviews on my blog, I do a lot of screening before I accept review copies).

But something about the way the mail was written made me change my mind about the book, and after finishing the story, I am so glad I did.

This is an awesome book, people. I loved it totally, unreservedly. This is not one of those reviews where I say I liked it but x,y,z could have been better. This is that book that went down as smoothly as ice-cream on a hot summer’s day.

[title subtitle=”So what’s the book about?”][/title]

The book is a modern-day fairy-tale. It has elements of Cinderella and Snow White, only instead of the horrible stepmother, there is a wicked mother-in-law.

When it’s a fairy-tale, there is the automatic expectation of a happy ending, right? But the blurb at the back of the book gives enough advance warning that happily ever after is not for everyone and that’s true for this book, definitely.

I don’t want to give out more information about the story because the fun of reading this book is figuring out its take on the original fairy stories. What I can say is that there is a little magic, a little drama, a little romance, and a whole lot of suspense.

And I guarantee that the unconventional (for a fairy-tale) ending will make you sit up in surprise.

If you love magical realism and/or modern-day retelling of fairy stories, this one will be right up your alley. I am normally not a fan of fairy stories, but this one with its darker overtones was just perfect for me. In fact, this book is so, so good that it also gets a mention in my top ten books read this year so far.

Ignore the cheesiness of the book cover and the title and just dive into this little gem, it’s totally worth it.

Huge thanks to the author for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

You can also purchase a copy of this book from Amazon