Blog Tour: The Henna Wars Guest Post + Giveaway

Hey everyone! I’m so exciting to be apart of The Henna Wars blog tour hosted by The FFBC! In this post you’ll find some information about the book and the author, a really fun guest post written by the author herself, and an awesome giveaway!

Synopsis:

When Dimple Met Rishi meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.
Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.

About The Author:

Adiba Jaigirdar is a Bangladeshi/Irish writer and teacher. She lives in Dublin, Ireland. She has an MA in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Kent, England and a BA in English and History from UCD, Ireland.
She is a contributor for Bookriot. Previously, she has published short fiction and poetry in various journals and anthologies.
All her work is aided by copious amounts of (kettle-made) tea and a whole lot of Hayley Kiyoko and Janelle Monáe.
She is represented by Uwe Stender at TriadaUS.

And here is the awesome guest post written by the author:

Since your novel is an #ownvoices (which I love!), how did your experiences impact what the characters face in the book?

Writing An #OwnVoices Novel

I really love how the diversity movement has made spaces for so many #ownvoices novels,
but writing #ownvoices books definitely comes with its own set of challenges!

A lot of the things that the characters face in the book have an abstract root in my own
experiences. For example, Nishat faces homophobia and racism in her school, from her
classmates. Even though I never experienced anything as explicit as Nishat, I do have vivid
memories of many micro and macro aggressions me and my friends faced when we were in
school, and how they were never really dealt with. One of the difficult things about writing an ownvoices novel like this is having to sort through the bad experiences, but there’s definitely also something cathartic about it. In real life you can’t always deal with the people
who have been bigoted towards you, but at least you can do it in a book!

There are also a lot of really amazing things about writing an #ownvoices novel. The Henna
Wars has many scenes deeply embedded with Bengali culture, whether it’s the chapters
about henna or Nishat’s family friend’s wedding, or a joke that relies on some understanding
of Bengali or Bengali culture. All of these definitely come from my own experience. I wanted
to write a book that celebrates some of the things I love about my own culture.

I have never really read a representation of myself in a book before, or seen a
representation of myself in a show or movie. So, I really wanted to write something that a
teenage me would have connected with, that a teenage me could have related to in some
capacity.

May 12th

The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club – Welcome Post

May 13th

Emelies Books – Guest Post
The Little Mouse That Reads – Review
The Reading Corner for All – Review + Favourite Quotes
Lauren’s Boookshelf – Review + Playlist
Dawn Elize – Review

May 14th

Ya It’s Lit – Review + Favourite Quotes
Between the Shelves – Review
Bookishaestha – Review + Playlist + Dream Cast
dinipandareads – Review + Favourite Quotes
SepiaReads – Review

May 15th

BookCrushin – Guest Post
Booked J – Review + Playlist
Feed Your Fiction Addiction – Review
Dazzled by Books – Review + Favourite Quotes
For The Love of Fictional Worlds – Review

May 16th

Kait Plus Books – Interview
Sometimes Leelynn Reads – Review + Playlist + Dream Cast
Wilted Pages – Review
The Various Hues of Blue – Review + Dream Cast + Favourite Quotes
The Mind of a Book Dragon – Review
Annej Reads – Promotional Post

May 17th

QueerBookReport – Review
The Layaway Dragon – Review + Favourite Quotes
Popthebutterfly Reads – Review
Enthralled Bookworm – Review + Playlist
Books_andPoetrii – Review + Favourite Quotes

May 18th

Utopia State of Mind – Interview
Morgan Vega – Review + Favourite Quotes
Wonder stuck – Review
Fangirl Pixie Blog – Review + Playlist + Favourite Quotes
BiblioJoJo – Review

Last but not least, I am excited to announce that there is an awesome giveaway! Click the image below or this link to go and enter!