Agent: Taylor Martindale, Full Circle Literary. Saeed includes resources for those who, like Saif’s family, wish to help real-life Nailas, in this wrenching but hopeful story. In her YA debut, attorney and writer Saeed, a contributor to the collection Love, InshAllah, movingly conveys the intense cultural pressure that motivates Naila’s parents and the heartbreaking betrayal Naila feels as she is deprived of her rights, cut off from the outside world, and threatened with shame and death. However, she breaks one of their strict rules about dating and boys by falling for Saif. Saeed has given a novel that is both entertaining and important. Review for Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed DecemReview Contemporary, Muslim, Own Voices, Pakistani American, Young Adult My Summary: Naila tries to please her parents, who give her considerable freedom in many ways. But your husband, that’s different.” After Naila’s transgression is discovered, she is whisked back to Pakistan and forced into an arranged marriage. 2. Written in the Stars is a wonderfully complex love story unlike any you’ve read before. Her parents’ expectations are clear: “You can choose what you want to be when you grow up, the types of shoes you want to buy. However, her American education has exposed her to her classmates’ comparative freedom and allowed her to spend time-and fall in love-with Saif, a Pakistani boy whose family has been ostracized from their community.

Raised in a conservative Pakistani immigrant family, 17-year-old Naila has been an obedient daughter for most of her life.

Written in the stars by aisha saeed