Can a love be truly forbidden?

Synopsis

It’s forbidden for me to love someone from a different culture.

The hottest summer brings the first flames of love.
Love is dangerous. It collides with culture, and culture is defied with rebellion.

#1 in New Adult & College Romance and Multicultural & Interracial Romance
#2 in Romance Literary Fiction and Family Life Fiction

Ryder
It’s summertime, and I’m at the beach when I see a young, college girl. Azure eyes and dark, raven hair. Our eyes lock together and now I’m obsessed. Intrigued by her, I want to approach her but she quickly disappears. Disappointed I return home, but I see her the next day in my summer class.

Cyrah
Good girls don’t fall in love. They only obey. I’m a caged bird. I’m from a traditional family where love doesn’t exist. I’m a foreign-exchange student at a study abroad summer program. The local small-town biker is intimidated by me, so Ryder begins writing love letters. I’m flattered, but I try to steer clear from him. We have nothing in common, but then an incident happens that draws us, two star-crossed lovers, together. Slowly, I reciprocate the same feelings and promise myself to him. Summer doesn’t last forever though, and I have to leave.

Our love story is forbidden.

This is the first book of the Forbidden series. The story explores two star-crossed lovers, family dynamics, international romance, and first loves. This is a light read but has some sensitive topics that can trigger someone.

My review

Cyrah is spending her summer in Canada, taking part in a summer program. The only condition for her being in Canada is that once she is back in Iran, she will obey her baba and meanwhile won’t do anything to shame her family.
When she meets Ryder, she flattered by the attention she received from this biker. She receives love letters from him, but she still keeps her distance.
However a traumatic event will bring them closer than expected. Yet summer will end and that means that Cyrah has to go back home. will their forbidden love survive the summer? Or will it only remain a holiday romance?

I found this a sweet yet intriguing story.
Maybe it’s a bit of ignorance from my side, that I had no clue how things are handled in Iran, but I found it disturbing that a young woman like Cyrah had no saying in who marrying to and that she had to obey her baba.
But the luck on her side was that her mother understands her better and is supporting her. I’m not saying that her father is a bad man, not at all. But when traditions are very important to a person, it’s difficult to look at the future with an open mind.

The blooming love between Cyrah and Ryder was something I found very sweet. To have that first love, and with such strong emotions, it’s something beautiful.
Their bond is so strong and I was hoping that their plan would work out.

There are some twists I did not see coming and one revelation left me totally agape! I can honestly say I did not expect *that* one coming!

The pace of the story was sometimes a bit too quick for me, it all went very fast for me. But then of course it’s a novella, so some speed is to be expected!
Yet I kept thinking that maybe it would have been a more completer and calmer story if there would have been more chapters. That would have made it easier for the reader to fully understand all the characters. But like I said, it’s a novella, so the writer cannot write endless pages 😄.

I enjoyed discovering this author and her writing style. She dares to write about topics that are not that easy to accept, yet she manages to keep the focus on this lovely young couple facing the  problems their love encounters.