Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating, by Adiba Jaigirdar, is a LGBTQ+ romance novel.When Hani comes out as bisexual to her school friends, they tell her that she can't be bi if she's only ever dated guys. To defend herself, Hani lies that she's actually dating a girl at school - Ishu. Ishu and Hani are opposites, but make a pact to pretend to date each other because it benefits them. However, they don't take into account that they may start to develop real feelings for each other and their relationship grows increasingly complicated.
Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating is an incredible source of validation for brown queer girls. There are few sources for that specific kind of representation but Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating delivers. The book contains familiar tropes such as fake-dating and a mild enemies-to-lovers storyline. More importantly, both Hani and Ishu have independent character arcs. The novel excels with the family relationships part of the story and with balancing intense content with lighter parts. However, the plot was paced very quickly. There was little time for Hani and Ishu's relationship to develop and the ending left the story feeling incomplete. The most compelling part of the novel is that it differs from other LGBTQ+ novels because the main characters' character arcs are not centered around their coming out, rather, it is about the aftermath of coming out.