I received this book via the author, Samreen Ahsan. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.
A Silent Prayer by Samreen Ahsan Series: A Prayer Series #1
Published by iUniverse on 2014-02-10
Length: 330 pages
Reviewing eARC Rating:
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Adam Gibson is a young and powerful Toronto millionaire. Despite his many blessings, he is an atheist, though he has an altruistic soul. He denies there is a God--until he meets a beautiful stranger in a place that does not exist for anyone but him.
Rania Ahmed strongly believes in God, but has lost hope she will ever find her soul mate. Endowed with hypnotic beauty and cursed by a brutal past, Rania has no idea she has cast a spell on Adam, who has never received more from a woman than physical pleasure. As Adam slowly discovers the true meaning of love from Rania, he begins to face his demons and reconsider his beliefs. He learns to love, forgive and repent. But as Adam grows closer to Rania, a series of strange, unexplained events threatens to drive them apart. To keep her from being destroyed by her past, he must persuade her to trust him with her deepest secrets.
In this spiritual romance, an atheist embarks on a path of enlightenment with a tormented soul who may just have the power to change everything he has ever believed to be true.
A Silent Prayerย by Samreen Ahsan is book one of A Prayer Series and follows the story of Adam Gibson and Rania Ahmed. Rania is a young women living in Canada and working at her uncle’s company as a computer designer. A dark past that includes an abusive relationship has Rania swearing off men but fate has other ideas. Adam is CEO of his company, most eligible bachelor, and the richest man in his town. He seemingly has everything but a steady woman and that he doesn’t need. Until one night he sees a mysterious woman dancing in a building that doesn’t exist, Adam suddenly is in love with that woman. He seeks her everywhere. One morning fate steps in and Adam meets his mystery woman, Rania. Can their vastly different beliefs be put aside as their relationship blossoms?
The Characters
Rania Ahmed is in her mid-twenties, a devout Muslim, and hard worker. She is kind, but closed to relationships, and has a strong belief in God and his mercy. Adam is the opposite. He is late twenties (I believe, maybe thirty), also a hard worker possibly even a workaholic, and an atheist. At the beginning of the story, Adam is drunk, leaving a business engagement when he hears music coming from the connected building. On entering he sees a beautiful woman dancing and immediately falls for her. When he touches her she disappears as does the building. Thinking he’s insane or possibly very drunk, he thinks no more of the building, but becomes obsessed with finding the mystery woman. Rania he believes is her.
The relationship that builds between these two characters is kind of unreal. Adam is obsessed with her, and like another reviewer said he is a G-rated Christian Grey. He’s dominating and controlling, and for the way Rania is portrayed I don’t think this would go over well in real life. In fact, I think she would tell him to take a hike, but not so in the book. Instead she is submissive and basically his Ana, kind of annoying actually. Rania starts as a strong woman, living on her own, and independent but quickly her dark past makes her need Adam as much as he needs her.
The Plot
The plot of this story centers around the two main characters and their relationship. It also focuses on, for lack of a better word, healing Adam’s own emotional scars. Rania does this by forcing him to be open with her and his family that he has shut out of his life, but also slowly revealing God and her faith to him. I found the concept sweet but a bit unbelieving for an atheist to convert so easily, but then again the story doesn’t really focus on that so much as it does their relationship.
I kept expecting some paranormal elements to come in after the first encounter with the mystery woman in the building that didn’t exist, but that storyline never developed and only continues as a part of book two where the focus moves to healing Rania. This for me was a bit disappointing as I was intrigued and curious and felt that the story just ended.
My Conclusions
Ummm…..I just don’t know how to feel about this book. On one hand I enjoyed aspects of Adam and Rania’s relationship. On the other I felt it was forced and not built naturally. Also, (call me a prude if you like) the profanity, specifically the use of the F-word really bothered me. Here is a book that has a strong spiritual message about God and the Muslim faith and the profanity sticks out like a sore thumb. In fact, I felt really torn about this because of my own beliefs. In one sentence Rania is telling Adam about her faith and the next she drops an F-bomb…..ummm really?!
Overall, the story was intriguing and well-written, but my own personal feelings and beliefs couldn’t be quieted and I gave the book 3 stars. For the most part this book is a clean read (minus the profanity), it doesn’t fall into the erotica category, but it does represent typical contemporary women’s literature. If you enjoy a bit of paranormal, romance, and spiritual reading I think this book is for you.
About Samreen Ahsan
History, art and literature are my passions. I love digging out information about prophecies, divine miracles and paranormal events that are mentioned in history and holy books, that don't sound possible in today's modern world.
Since childhood, I have been into reading and writing--and yes, it can't happen without imagination, which luckily has no boundaries. Dance and music are also pastimes I enjoy, as well as reading romance fiction. I love to travel and explore historical cities. I live in Toronto, Canada.
A Silent Prayer and A Prayer Heeded (A Prayer Series) is my first story about paranormal events based on Islamic concepts.
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