An independent novel review

A Prayer Heeded is the follow-up to Samreen Ahsan’s multi-award winning A Silent Prayer, the book that brought Ahsan international acclaim.

A Silent Prayer has won six international book awards, including Best Romance at the 214 Paris Book Festival.

But A Prayer Heeded is not really a sequel, because the two books together tell a single story. The premise to Fifty Shades of Gray, but written by a talented writer who lives in the real world.

The premise

Adam Gibson is a very wealthy Toronto real estate developer with a troubled past. He has been estranged from his mother, who, he believes, abandoned him as a child. He became a billionaire in a real industry, as a real estate developer in Toronto. It’s a plausible premise.

Adam is an atheist with a strong social conscience who supports several charities. He pays all the costs of a women’s shelter, called Hope.

Rania is a graphic designer, professional, strong, independent and devout with a troubled past of her own. She is estranged from her father, but not through choice.

These bookend characters meet more or less accidentally, through work, and are instantly attracted. Yes, it’s love at first sight, but this is a romance, after all.

Of course, there are a lot of obstacles to their relationship. There’s Rania’s past as an abused wife, which dissuades her from getting involved in another romance. There’s Adam’s past, his estrangement from his mother, which leads him to a string of loveless couplings with women.

And there’s their religious difference. Rania is a faithful Muslim, and Adam a convinced atheist. Gently, with kindness and examples, aided by some mystical experiences on both their parts, Adam comes to believe in divinity.

By the end of A Silent Prayer, Rania has accepted Adam’s love, but then his jealous outburst sends her away. And that’s where A Prayer Heeded begins, with Adam searching for Rania again.

When he finds her, Rania tells him their relationship can never work because Adam’s jealous outburst not only humiliated her, it showed her that he cannot offer what she needs.

But really, she’s running from Adam because she is literally cursed. A jinni loves her, or a woman who looked like her thousands of years ago. For millennia, this jinni has pursued women who look like Rania and prevented them from having normal relationships with human men.

That’s where the book takes a sharp left turn and delves into the confluence of mythology and contemporary paranormal fiction. But at the same time, like the best in the paranormal or fantasy tradition, the fantastic elements can be interpreted as metaphors for the traumas in the lives of the main characters.

It’s obvious that the author, Samreen Ahsan, is very devout, like her protagonist. Over the course of the book, she weaves aspects of religion with psychology and romance, carrying the readers along like a shuttle.

Strengths

Ahsan’s characters are well developed, believable, and sympathetic characters. Like people we all know, they can be strong one moment, vulnerable the next. But even when they’re not at their best, they’re likeable.

Gibson is a believable billionaire, largely because he’s smart and the author takes care to show him working at his job. Rania is a modern, professional woman who knows what she wants, but hides a terrible secret from everyone she loves.

Weakness

The only thing that detracted from my enjoyment of both A Prayer Heeded and its predecessor, A Silent Prayer, is the pacing. They really make up one book, together. That would be a long book, but that’s my point — it takes too long to get to the core of this story, which is the possession, the magic and the ultimate villain of the piece.

On the other hand, the long story does allow Ahsan to fully describe the development of Rania’s and Adam’s love story. So, I’ll just hold back a half-star for that.

4.5*