Letters to God

Letters to God #1

by Norhafsah Hamid

Synopsis Letters to God is about a journey of young girl named Sarah in trying to find her footing in a challenging world. An introvert by nature, Sarah strunggles to balance her work, life and her spritual longing while trying to adapt to her new surroundings. She found friendship along the way and also experienced hostility and heartache.Not knowing who turn to, she decided to rant and rave to her Creator. This is a story of how a young girl, who made a decision to write letters to God, telling Him of all her worries, and pain. She believes that one can talk to God at any time, any place, even outside prayers. Did Sarah find solace? Or did she continue to be lost?

Genres: Fiction, Islam, Religion, Love

241 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Norhafsah Hamid was born in 1973 and received primary and secondary education in Malaysia. She then proceeded to pursue her studies in United Kingdom until she graduated with a law degree from Reading University, United Kingdom. She completer her Bar in Malaysia and went back to United Kingdom to work for a year. She then came back to Malaysia to commence her practice as an Advocate and Solicitor, specializing in civil litigation matters. She completed her Diploma in Syariah & Legal Practise and has been handling various Syariah matters.

Currently she has taken a break from civil practise and co-founded an NGO called 'Nadi Anissa Muslim Women Organisation. she now dedicates her time to her family and Islam.

Reviews

[AK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Letters to God brought me back to the time when I was studying in the UK. The places that the author mentioned, the lifestyle, the people, that hijab and halal-haram thingy... I could totally relate.

Frankly speaking, I don’t really like Sarah. Idk. Something about her irks me.

When Sarah said Malaysians who are studying there but don’t really want to mingle with other people shd have just studied in Malaysia. Err sorry Sarah but you got it wrong there. Back in the UK, me myself preferred to be around my Malaysian friends. Not because I hated others nor I didnt want to talk to them but probably because I felt much more comfortable being around people of same background as me in a land that was so different to me. Yet I still went around, talked with my fellow classmates and had discussions with them. Just so you know Sarah, I went to the UK for the sake of knowledge and experience, not solely for gaining new friends from around the world. Well now, you must be proud because you think you’re all cool for having a lot of friends in the UK but I’m sorry to say this - While you were ranting in all your letters to God, I could only see you were boasting. Now dont say that all Malaysians in Reading are bad yada yada. Trust me my dear, if only you turned around, if only you approached more people, you’d find a good Malaysian (in your eyes). And you made me thinking - Was that what people (like you) thought of me back then? That me, a Malaysian, should have made friends, hang out with others, and that I shouldn’t stick to my Malaysian friends? Did they think my friend and I were ganging up on the others? Sigh.

Dear Sarah, if you hated Linda, so do I. I just don’t, can’t and won’t understand her. But then Sarah, didnt Amy tell you that her bad and nasty behaviour might be a cry for help? Why didnt you try, at least for once, to approach her and tried to befriend her? Yeah right, you were busy. And you couldnt stand her being a b*tch. So you just let her do whatever she wanted to do. I know you said you shouldn’t bother explaining yourself to others for Allah knows everything and that’s the only thing that matters. But dear Sarah, you should know this one thing - Allah wont change your life when you yourself dont even try to. You shd have stood up for yourself and try to clear up all the misunderstandings, dear!

Oh now. I just realised I have written a letter to Sarah. I shd really stop here, shdnt I? By the way Sarah, I love it when you rely on Him, put your trust in Him. I love it when you use Quran and Hadith as your reference. Thank you for sharing your story with us, Sarah. All the best to you and let’s pray there would be no cliche drama featuring you, Brother Rasyid and Linda.

[Shuhada Ramli · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are times when I read this book, I cried (because it’s not easy to be in that soul of Sarah. Only one knows how depressed life is to be like, more or less like her). It’s not a sad story. It’s about finding the courage to be strong and make the living worth in here and the hereafter. Some of us may choose to speak to God, and Sarah chose to write.

This is actually my first time reading Norhafsah Hamid’s writing and she won my heart. She wrote it in the softest way that made every moment reading it feels like I was reciting my prayers to Allah with the purest heart. What matter the most is, I feel totally relieved from a heavy burden after reading this. I believe Allah has answered my prayers and guiding me to the right path He wants me to be, Insyaallah. The best part is, I feel completely loved by Allah and begins to remind myself that even the smallest things, Allah knows whereas we know not.

Thank you Norhafsah Hamid for writing such a very calm and beautiful story. Characters and storyline are well balanced and the English is great, simple, fast and easy reading. I would recommend, this is a must read book. Suitable for all ages.

[Faqihah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very simple read, and it had a few endearing lessons from it. However I’m appalled that the book hadn’t been proofread first before being published as there were many grammatical and spelling mistakes. I would probably not read another book by this author or publisher unless these things improve.

[Syahirah Jani · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book wasn't for me for many reasons and I will try to explain why. Firstly, the style of writing is more like a diary instead of letters. I found myself favour less on diary because it is usually creatively less appealing for me. Reading diaries meant to be personal, as much as I hate other people reads my diaries, I would hate to read others as well. Besides, her diaries sound like a 12-year-old me writing my issues instead of 3 years worth of anecdotes in college years. Maybe it's just me, I don't know.
Secondly, I found the main character, Sarah is unlikeable. We get it. She's new to the experience, trying to fit in, trying her best to be a devoted Muslims despite most of her Malaysian friends are not. Maybe the author tried to reminisce her experiences studying abroad. But sometimes she can sound condescending and a bit immature in her writing. Frankly speaking, I would rather read about foreigners who happened to rebel and refused to assimilate in Westerners culture. But the way she was writing, the perspective seemed to be restricted only for her own.
Thirdly and last (I can do more but I'm way too lazy for that), I wish there's an actual story in this book. One that I can make out of something instead of what I already know. I understand the setting was in early 2000, not a lot of Malaysian lucky to study abroad and experience a foreign culture,(things have changed much now thanks to globalization) but as much as my vocabulary limits, I would wish my experiences won't. I wish she would tell the socioeconomic or political settings in the eyes of immigrant/foreigner in the book. Scandals that we never heard before as an outsider. Instead of her internal turmoil, I wish she opened her eyes for her external turbulance. We heard the culture shock stories so many times and honestly, it kind of bores me.
All in all, maybe not my cup of tea.

[Emmy Hermina Nathasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ramadhan Read Book 1

This was supposed to be one of the books to be read in a week's time but I finished it in a day! 😂

Its a simple story really. A good university student, a muslimah named Sarah writes to Allah SWT to share her experience as a student overseas, her feelings and emotions having to be separate with her parents and bestfriend, her fears confronting bad-intentioned students, etc. She talks to God through her diary entries aka letters.

The storyline is a bit monotone to be honest. I wanted more drama. She is a good student, trying to be a good muslimah and follow God's words. In her letters, she incorporated Quran verses that's easy to understand. (with footnotes!) In other words, this is a good book to be read if you want a book that delivers good message and values. You won't have to worry that your teenage children or young people to be misled by the messages in this book. Although in real world, she might probably be thought of as boring or 'skema' as she really try to follow God's words in true sense.

The language used in the book is simple language, hence I encourage those who wants to improve their language and is looking for a simple English young adult book genre to read, then this is the book for you.

I have always admire books written by Norhafsah Hamid, among her books that are a fave of mine is Trying to be Muslim and Saya Bukan Fanatik, must read for all muslimah and even non-Muslim women as well. You'll find great insight of a, what I believe to be a Muslimah's journey to be closer to God and her religion.

Do give any of her books a try!

My rating for this book, 3.5/5.

[Fatini Zulkifli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I would like it. But, no. Maybe because I have read many books. After being exposed to many plots and stories, it is getting more difficult to find one which could satisfy me because many of the stories are similar to each other.

[Siqahiqa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review on blog >> https://siqahiqa.com/2019/06/review-b...

This book is dedicated to all the strong girls and women around the world. The story is about Sarah, an introvert who continues to study abroad. She made decision to write letters to God, telling Him about all her worries and pain. Dia rasa yang dia lebih baik bercakap dengan Allah through her letters than talks to people. Allah don’t judge her and Allah knows everything.

What I loved the most about this book is the concept of write letters to Allah and share your worries, grateful and everything. Open my eyes that we can talk to Allah anytime and reminds that Allah is always with us. I started to write letters to Allah on my journal app on my phone. Thank you to the author for introducing this beautiful concept of writing letters to God.

A self-reminder from this book:
“Somewhere in my head, I did remember reading about being nice to people who are rude and a strong Muslim is someone who can control her anger, plus when we are angry, we should remain silent so that we don’t utter harsh words”. 😊

[Ismim Putera · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my honest review. The so-called letters are not letters but perhaps short entries of a diary. The narration is surprisingly simple & but bland. Info dumping is everywhere. Mostly are reactionary rantings from an embittered Law student. The tension & conflicts in the story are poorly explained & executed. The dialogues do not develope the characters or expanding the plot.

I feel detached with the protagonist as well as other characters. Towards the end of the book, the budding romance is somewhat exciting but the book ends right away.

[Sooraya Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grammar dan tenses caca marba. Walhal ada proofreader dan editor. Kemudian, ada banyak flaw dalam naratif. Sebagai contoh:
In 2001, UK autumn is in March. Tahun 2002, tiba-tiba spring meletus bulan April. Doesn’t make sense at all.

Sarah (the protagonist) is a highly unlikable character. A complainer, that’s the best description. And this is sort of a fictional diary detailing her life as a Malaysian Law student in the UK.

Banyak sungguh contradictory statement. Dalam Bab 5, dia luah betapa tak selesanya melepak dengan geng mat saleh berbanding kawan-kawan malaysia sebab kononnya orang senegara judgemental dan suka hidup berpuak. Perenggan seterusnya, tiba-tiba dia kata tak selesa sangat lepak dengan mat saleh yang cenderung buatkan dia rasa uncomfortable. Ugh! Make up your damn mind, girl!

Plot-wise, kosong. Banyak merungut. Tiada apa yang menarik berlaku pun. Setakat keluar/masuk library. Lepak dengan kawan-kawan mat saleh. Konflik dengan seorang minah saleh celup yang konon bitchy. Elemen cinta tentulah ada. And I have nothing against this. But of course, dalam banyak-banyak lelaki, she falls for the ‘devilish handsome’ blue-eyed white guy. Rants about iktilat and aurat segala bagai, but spends most of her time with foreign boys.

Hence the award for Best Hypocrite goes to…

At the end of it all, no closure. Cerita tergantung.

[Atiqah Ghazali AlKashif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the book before but it was not mine, hence, I had to stop after couple of chapters. Gladly, someone bought this book for me. Thank you very much to that dear friend of mine. The book is easy read, written in simple English and it has 26 chapters with one epilogue at the back.

The story was about Sarah, a young lass who further her education in law degree at University of Reading in UK. Therefore, the whole book is about her three years journey there. What she went through is very much predictable and most of the students face similar situation too, anywhere in the world.

Nevertheless, two things I like is that the letters she wrote to God became like a reminder for me. Though some of the verses of Quran used can be pretty common, I like how the author took some unpopular verses too. Second thing would be the hadith. There are many hadiths between chapters which we practised some after prayers. How forgetful and ignorant we could be, to always need to be reminded.

Unfortunately, the epilogue is kind of distasteful. I had to drop one star off the rating because of it. Quite unnecessary (and little unfair) to paint the antagonist with that one colour brush, which sadly, makes the book sounds like a big cliche.

Anyway, this book is a good gift for young girls or teenagers aged 13-17 years old. It would prep them up for their future undertakings and be a guidance of reminders for them.

[Aiza Idris (biblio_mom) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't remembered the exact date i've read this in 2019, but i noticed that i haven't leave a review yet. so here it is.

One sentence to sum it up, this book, this WHOLE SERIES is worth to be read and re-read. Read with your Imaan (you'll get what I meant)

You don't get THAT MANY books about young adults being love with THE RIGHT MUSLIMS PRESENTATIONS. No kissing, no holding hands, not even a single handshakes. This is how you find your true love through Allah, walking on the RIGHT PATH.

jap. nak sambung tulis nanti panjang sangat. buku ni best. kbai.

p/s : The prequel (Heaven Sent)'s ratings are high, unlike Letters To God, the sequel, the backstory of Sarah, has under 4 stars. They came from a different publishers, and, obviously EDITORS. So please, take note. It should have been improved, since its in MPH and Popular weekly bestsellers for many times already.

[Erin95 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book. Well written. Reading this book make me feels like reading a human diary. Sarah's diary. An ordinary girl who got same interest with me which is books. She was fanatic with books which I can feel it closely.

I love how Sarah choose to write a letters to God instead of telling the others. As Sarah said she had been betrayed many times in pasts. Somehow people love to conclude the things we tell them in their own perspective without knowing the truth behind it.

Oh for the Author: I love your books, but I have some suggestion to you. If you don't mind? I hope you can put the end notes below the current pages, so that, reader did not need to slide to the page 219 to understand more about the sentence. Btw thank you for inserting a lot of Quran and Hadith that closely related to our daily life. Keep inspiring! ❤

[Fey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"𝙒𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙔𝙤𝙪, 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙩. 𝘼𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩, 𝙞𝙛 𝙄'𝙢 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙟𝙪𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙙, 𝙄'𝙢 𝙟𝙪𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙢𝙮 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙖 𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣."

What if I tell you that Letters To God manage to make me miss my past-self, who always loves to write letters to her Creator? What if I tell you that this book touch something in my heart? This book kept making me cry for longing.

"I miss writing letters to my God." This was the words that keep repeating in my mind and not going to lie, I really miss it. But maybe because I think I'm not worthy enough to write letters to Him anymore, I stop.

Hence, when I read this book, I can tell you how much I can relate to our main character, Sarah. The grief, sorrow and difficulty she's going through, it's so relatable to me.

Thank you to the author herself for succeed making me want to write letters to God again. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in LOG's series and I will read it soon since I bought the abridged version ;).

Highly recommended.

Rate: 5🌟
—Feyssa.

[Siti Nur Izzati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading this book after 30 gave me new insight. Rather than commenting on storyline and grammatical aspect, I'd rather look at lesson learnt from each of the plot.
Yes, there are many lessons to pickup and apply in life. Thanks so much for writing this.
(Finishing this before starting Will You Love Me?
Glad I read this, so I'm aware of the characters in the new novel)

[yoongi's tangerine :] · Rating 1 out of 5]

edited (saw some errors in here so i re-wrote the review again)

anyways, i mentioned that i wasn't able to finish the book and here's why:
-every chapter is repetitive. sarah talked about the same thing over and over again

-her judgemental self is making me irritated, sometimes i wish she can just look at different perspectives before saying anything

-the story is going nowhere(?), i stopped at the 2nd part of the book a little to the finishing but the progress on the plot is still the same

-the main character is being a wanna be girl to be honest. she ranted things on her letters and badmouthing people and never stops. she always have a say on people she just met and i noticed that they are always the negative ones

now onto the grammar, there are many errors and i'm very surprised by the mistakes being found throughout the whole book. the publisher should proofread it first before actually selling them. next up would be the writing. it's an easy novel to read and understood but they are really simple and the words used are also bare minimum, there are no bombastic words. i expected for them to appear out of nowhere for me to search the meanings up, i'm learning english through reading too so finding these phrases can really help me grasp the language more. now, don't get me wrong, i have read some books that are quick-read ones but the writings are interesting and the writer managed to get the readers hooked to the story but this novel? no, it has no ability on that and instead, the writing is making me feel worn out to actually finish it.


i don't want to say more in here to avoid spoliers but i guess these points can definitely really tell why you shouldn't even read this book to begin with. i won't be suggesting this to any of my friends of this novel, sorry for that. i don't really know about this author, maybe her other books are great but one thing for sure is that this one is not it.

ps: got this as a gift from my old friend but too bad that i didn't enjoy it

[Nurul Nabila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally I am a bit dissapointed with this book. Maybe because I put high expectations on the author and the book. Because the marketing that I saw on the bookselller's instagram that showed this book is interesting. It's more like reading a diary than letters to God. It's hard to remind myself about these are the letters of Sarah for Allah and these are not Sarah telling us her stories but she is telling Allah her stories. I think Letters to God is not working because there are a lot of books already about other people diary entry that we read. The plot is normal too, nothing extraordinary. When reading the book, I am wondering what is the conflict, climax etc of the book. Being an islamic book and Sarah as a practicing muslim, I am confused why the author seems to potray the mixing of men and women in this book (ikhtilat) with Sarah and her friends. Maybe the setting is at the oversea,but still there are boundaries that have to be kept. It may give a wrong idea to other people that is is permissible or other people will be encouraged to do that (ikhtilat). I think the author could do better in terms of 'menghantar pemikiran' and educate readers because that is an opportunity that should not be wasted

[Noral · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book after finished reading, rough diamond by the same author. This book.... a bit bored reading it. I skipped sentences and fast read really quick. Maybe ... because i read rough diamond. I kinda know the in betweens and the ending.

Nonetheless, the idea is quite interesting, write letters to god.

Maybe, its because of my age. The story is for youngsters perhaps.

[Sizarifalina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I was half way through reading this book when i saw @biblio_mom 's IG story regarding this book. In her IG story, she was telling about how people can actually give such nasty reviews about a book and also somehow bashed the author and the publisher at one go. To make things worst, that person seems to be hiding behind a fake acc.
.Since I have read more than 50% of the book,I decided to take a peek at the reviews in Goodreads. Wow, I was surprised at how mixed reviews were there in Goodreads about the book. .Now that I have finished reading the book,here is my review :-
What the author is trying to tell us is that at that age (maybe 18-20yrs old) a clueless young Muslim had to go through many obstacles. The obstacles varies from her faith up to her friendship. You see, what a reader should understand here is that the author was giving us a glimpse or a short introduction to Studying Abroad 101.Hence the book is more suitable for young adults who are planning to study far away from home. At that age,I was like Sarah - misunderstood and confused. So we tend to give out different ideas about who we really are. Basically because at that age, everyone is struggling to find their identities and also trying to understand themselves.This leads to alot of self reflecting and also contradictions. I love the phrase 'Lost Souls' used by the author, because at that age,believe me when you are away from home,we are all lost to a certain degree.So yeah,this book is not for those who wants to find a philosophical character because Sarah is just a normal young muslim girl who is studying abroad at a young age. She is just enjoying things that make her happy and avoiding the toxic people (i wish i had her strength to stay away from toxic environment back then) Sarah was described as a prude.Well we have to understand her background and also how she was raised. So that is why she contradicts herself alot.
It is not that she is being a hipocrite,but she is just exploring new things. In the end we could see how much Sarah had matured right?
Targeted readers? Young Adults! #5thedition

[Hannah Mustafa · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, this book’s rating is supposed to be between 2-3 stars. The reason I put 3 stars is because I do learn good things from it although I was a bit struggling to finish this book. Sarah’s character is not likable and uninspiring at all. I get that the writer may try to make a normal character who makes a lot of mistakes, but honestly, she’s just a complainer and all she does 90% of the time is complaining about her life. I know it seems like she’s talking to the God, but she’s not really someone who you can look up to and all the time when I read, I can’t help but thinking I don’t want to be end up like her.

Anyway, what’s up with character names in this book?

[Plainqoma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letters to God is like reading a diary. A very easygoing read. Love how the writer put verses from the Quran and hadith between chapters. I don’t really fancy Sarah character to be true.

[Naurah Hazwany · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

Quite relatable, I like how the character is trying how to survive and deal with people.

The English used was super easy to read btw

[Nur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars, because I did finish the book (begrudgingly) and the language is easy to understand. It's good that this book constantly reminds us on that God is near and we can always return and rely on Him. However, honestly, the story is boring.

The main character, Sarah, is also far from relatable. The book began with her starting her university life, presumably at age 19-20, after many years of living abroad (also assumption as she made few references on how her father worked abroad for many years). From the beginning, she shown immaturity and lack of tact and diplomacy, especially when interacting with her fellow countrymen. She told it was uncomfortable talking with her Malaysian peers and found no common interests with them. While this is understandable, she later exhibited holier-than-thou attitude with her interests being better than her peers. Dude, I know Malaysian students abroad - 90% of them are nerds - and she is far from special.

Sarah's bias also, unintentionally, widen the gap and put the strains on the relationship between her and her peers. While she focused on the good and Islamic values found on her international friends, she focused on the wrongs of her Malaysian peers and see no value on hanging around them, except to borrow for class notes. It's so weird that her attitude made me empathised with her peers? Even when the book is written from her POV and her peer is definitely in the wrong at one point?? Her character lacks depth, especially her 'black and white' viewpoint, which made me wonder why she chose to study law?

While Sarah's immaturity can be easily dismissed in the beginning due to her young age, I thought that as the book progress, she would reflect and contemplate on her character i.e. her own bias, prejudice, and judgmental issue. Or perhaps, she would explicitly apply lessons she learned from her Islamic classes - or from interaction with her friends - to solve her conflicts i.e. depression/anxiety/relationship issues/da'wah attempts when astray/etc. But alas- years passed and the book thus ended with a weird cliffhanger. What a shame I cannot see (or read) her character development. What a shame.

[Carol Chu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book thinking to find something easier for my student(a Malay girl) to read but ended up reading it in less than 3 hours(just to filter anything in case if not suitable) before passing it to her. LOL, sorry for the long sentence, I hope that sentence made sense.

Originally, I passed her The Weight of The Sky by Hanna Alkaf but she returned it to me soon after because she was struggling to read the book.

Anyhow, I'm glad that this book uses simple English and is an easy read. It's suitable for my student too. Will definitely pass this book to her soon.

My only gripe was actually this book is peppered with grammar mistakes sometimes here and there or maybe those are typos. I really think the editor should do a better job. Sorry, I kind of have the red pen syndrome because I'm an English teacher in a high school. I actually felt like marking the book.

I love the story alot (I love the values taught in this book although I'm not a Muslim) but I feel like there's not much happening that I want to know more about. Although I did learn and gain some knowledge about the places and things (i.e. cultural atmosphere) in England, I still think this book could be better.

All in all, it was an okay read. However, I might just read the author's other books due to my friends' reviews.

It's great that the author is a Malaysian because I find it hard to find books that have a Malaysian voice, and whatmore books that appeal to teenage girls.

To the author: Thank you so much for writing this book.

[ki · Rating 1 out of 5]

first time reviewing a book so bear with me if this is a bit negative
came from a book from the same author (will you stay) when i heard someone say that this was kind of like a prequel to that book bc of the protag sarah

the story is so boring and uninteresting.
kept reading till the end to see if something interesting would ever happen but literally nothing interesting happens
what even was the point? even the ending is so??? ??? no resolve at all. dissapointing

even the friendships are bland. atleast the book i said i read from the same author, even if it was a bit cringe(sorry), atleast the characters were likeable and i like the friendship dynamics but this????? bland

like another review said, this book is really just tell not show and its what grates me the most about it
none of the characters are interesting or memorable in any way at ALL with all the new names that kept being added, if anything it just made me confused who was supposed to be who with how unmemorable they were

sarah is also pretty contradictory with how she says she hates people who play god but is quite the judgy person

also, reading the author's bio, cant help but wonder if these books are just projecting

people say not to judge a book by its cover but after reading two books of from this author that had such an interesting back description but the content is literally nothing like what it promised, maybe i should remind myself to not judge a book by its back description as well

0/10 i want my time back

[Qayiem Razali · Rating 3 out of 5]

15/23

Letters to God (Letters to God Vol 1 - Abridged Version)

Setelah selesai membaca trilogi kisah Amy-Hassan-Nieza, saya mencari novel penulis yang lain. Terjumpa LTG V1 yang menggabungkan 3 buah novel. Dimulakan dengan Letters To God.

Membawa kisah Sara yang berkelana di negara orang untuk mencapai cita cita. Cerita ini lebih kepada diari perjalanan hidup seorang Sara. Menggunakan pov Sara semata-mata.

Sejujurnya, bagi saya yang telah menamatkan trilogi Will You Stay, saya kira novel ini sedikit tidak terkesan dengan jiwa. Walau bagaimanapun, saya menggemari kisah tulisan penulis kerana penulis menerapkan unsur keagamaan dengan baik diselang seli kan dengan potongan ayat Quran pada akhir setiap bab.

Walau apapun, yang ingin mencari novel berbahasa Inggeris lokal yang mudah difahami, buku tulisan Norhafsah Hamid antara yang wajib dimiliki.

[Nabilahmustafa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah, an introvert girl that pursue her study in Law at Reading University. There she faces a challenges as a student, as a muslim woman in a foreign land. It’s surely hard so she decided to write some sort of diary but specifically more likely talking to God. Even she already know that Allah swt already know everything and in between. With that she feels much better. What I like about this book is in every problems that Sarah encounter in she will try her best to related it to a good thing like Prophet Muhammad pbuh hardship or comparing herself with the unfortunate one. That makes her more grateful and thankful with her life. Not to forget author also put a quote and verse from quran and hadith at every end of chapter.

[Reading Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would recommend this for anyone who wanted to learn the language. Easy English, perhaps suitable for young readers.
I love the quotes of hadith and Quran verses. I took longer to finish this simple book because of, erm, sorry but it's a little boring. But I'm glad I finished it at the right time, when I needed God's words the most.

As for the story line, not so much on the life as a student in UK, pretty bland. I don't fancy Sarah. It felt like reading a comment section of makcik bawang. Everybody's wrong, everyone's bad, no one loves her yada yada.
Sarah for me, has a little hollier than thou attitude.
Oh, and the ending, I wish it ended better, more details perhaps.
Don't hate the book tho. Maybe not for my age.

[Safa Safwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything about this book is great, masya-Allahu ta'ala. The cover, the contents, the arrangement of stories, the uncomplicated words, the everything lah! 😁
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From the first chapter until the last chapter (26th)–i flew my mind to Reading University, Reading National Library, Sibly Hall, Littlewoods, Sainsbury, Sarah's dome etc.
I adores the bright personality of the main character; Sarah. That beautiful relationship she has with the Almighty Allah through her letters are so pleasing and lovely.
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Each letters are truly inspiring. The way she convey and utter her words to Allah are something that i loooveee to hear and read. The honesty she shows in conveying her emotions to Allah– has made myself adored Sarah's character in each letter–aren't you? she is so cute, ain't she? 😉

[Tyrah Draman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite several grammatical errors, I absolutely enjoyed reading this book.it definitely has taken me back to my creator and learned to be grateful for even the tiniest blessings given by Him. I found this book sincerely inspiring and Sarah is such a strong character that I wish I could be like her. I learned a lot from her and her friends as well. It has also significantly changed my perception of other religions and non Muslim I would say. For some unknown reasons, I relate myself to Sarah a lot, though I'm not a lawyer nor I have ever set my foot out of Malaysia. 😁 Such a good writing with simple English, hence 5 stars is all I could think of.

[Izis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very inspiring story. I love on how she put her trust on Allah and everything and how the letter to Allah shows that is the good way on how we communicate between Allah and us.

This is story on how an introvert person continues her degree in UK alone. But what I can say that she is actually is trully blessed than how she think. Well, i am not in her shoes so I cant say much but from the stories, I really think she is a blessed girl. She has a true find, happy family and good people around her in UK despite she faced many challenges from other Muslim.

A good stories to read.