The Barefoot Bride - Farah Uddin

Zayna has spent her whole life being told what she isn’t.

Always being told that she is too short. Too dark. Too much of a worry for her mother, who has never hidden her disappointment at Zayna being Zayna. So when she is intorduced to Qais, a ’suitable match,’ she does what is expected and says yes. Finally, something about her might be right. Finally her mother can stop worrying about what will people say.

Except her heart never said yes.

Zayna had to bury a version of herself in order to become the girl who is finally doing something right in her mother’s eyes. But the truth never stays hidden for long. Especially when your heart yearns for another. Some people believe that when you truly want something with your whole heart, even the universe conspires to help you achieve your desire.

As her wedding day fast approaches, Zayna is feeling more constricted and overwhelmed by the future that awaits her.

Will she walk towards the man who ticks all the boxes? Or run towards the life she truly wants and into the arms of the man whose love still haunts her?

The Barefoot Bride is a women’s fiction set in Birmingham. It’s about a young woman who faces colourism, the harsh reality of not having a loving mother and the tough choice of doing what pleases others, or doing what pleases her.