oh boy, what a perfect rom-com setting for me. I felt right at home with the protagonist and the entire characters. I didn't only identify with the book 80% of the storyline, but it was an absolute delight. An own voice book at that
Blurb ':
Azere must choose between love and her family as she tries so hard to honor the promise she made to her father at his death bed and be an obedient daughter of her conservative mother who is adamant on preserving her Nigeria heritage/culture by matching making potential suitors for her (thus making the promise be fulfilled)
But when another match-made date night -by-mom goes wrong, Azere ends up having a one night stand with Rafael Castellano, which unexpectedly evolves into something serious (and his totally white) .
Azere is caught between her growing feelings for Rafael and the compulsive need to please her mother who will never accept a relationship that threatens to dilute Azere's Nigerian heritage.
Azere can't help wondering if loving Rafael makes her any less of a Nigerian. Can she be with him without compromising her identity?
I particularly enjoyed the romance movie's references/scenes the author made trying to imagine Azere's case in them. It was both hilarious and damn cute.
Lots of likeable characters, ofcourse my favorite was her mother though (she reminds me of mine and the typical Nigeria mother's characterization).
I do find Azere's character sometimes annoying and overly unnecessarily dramatic. I didn't care for her character sometimes. She didn't seem mature enough for me, I sort of find the sibling exhibiting the strong will and mature thinking that I would have loved to see Azere had. But that's also what makes the book interesting enough.
The sort of love triangle (not exactly one because Azere wasn't exactly in love with Elijah) was also fun to read too. And i love how Elijah's character was written as a total villain.
I deeply appreciated the cultural depictions of Nigeria delicaese, music, attire and the language as well. It's always fun reading a book that identifies with me and this was well written.
MY only dissatisfaction was the angst. It was unnecessarily too much sometimes
If you are a fan of interracial romance
Love learning about West Africa cultures (Nigerian as matter of fact) and Chick lit, you might want to grab this.
Thanks to the author for the gifted copy