A Beautiful Homecoming

Sánní offers a self-help book for women to aid personal growth and self-acceptance. The author invites readers on a “journey of self-recovery where [they’ll] know with every molecule within [them] that [they] are worthy.” Sánní discusses her training in practices like Neuro-Linguistic Programming and her experience working as a personal coach for women. She also details her firsthand experience with challenges like finding oneself in a “self-imposed prison of negativity.” In this work, the author encourages her audience to discover new conceptions of themselves. Readers are advised to examine what types of thoughts they give their time to and to take a look at their pasts through the perspective of an inner child. The journey is not always easy; to embrace one’s inner child, one must “come face to face with her and really see her.” Chapters end with actionable steps, like journaling from question prompts such as, “What are ten things that you love about yourself?” Sánní writes from a faith-based, Islamic perspective—there are occasional quotations from the Qur’an, such as a verse about repentance that acts to remind readers that “past mistakes don’t define us if we choose for them not to.” The text progresses in a friendly, conversational style (the author often addresses the reader directly as “my lovely”). Sánní emphasizes that “you, and only you, have control of your thoughts and feelings; and only you have control over whether you’ll allow your past to define your future.”  The welcoming tone for specifically Muslim women helps to set the book aside from similar works. Ultimately, the author’s warmth shines through as she wholeheartedly guides her readers to new versions of themselves. - Kirkus Reviews