The book we’re summarising is “Ties That Tether.” It’s a romance novel. The overall theme of the book is love and the paragraphs below provide a glimpse of what is within it.
It follows the story of an Edo woman, a Nigerian immigrant in Canada. Azere migrated to Cabada at 12 and has lived there ever since. Just before the death of her father, she made a promise to her father, that she would not lose her roots and cultural identity and that she’d settle down with an Edo man. In view of this promise, Azere’s mother has attempted to matchmake her daughter to several Edo men, with every attempt resulting in failure.
After a failed matchmaking attempt, Azere meets a handsome stranger in a hotel lobby and has a genital meet and greet with him. Months later, the handsome stranger turns out to be her new colleague at work, Rafael. Rafael hasn’t forgotten about his passionate night with Azere and wants to pursue something more with her. Azere turns him down despite her attraction to him as he happens to be a white man.
Ties That Tether attempts to shed light on interracial relationships and the struggles of trying to navigate one, especially with unsupportive families. It doesn’t do so very successfully.
I had a number of issues with the book, one of them being romance. The author fast-paced the romance scenes. It was also very insta-lovey. She failed to capture the progression of their romance. She did a lot of telling and not a lot of showing.
Another issue I had with this book was the dialogue. It was very cliche and bordered on being unrealistic. The main character was also a bit immature and didn’t seem to have a mind of her own or the courage of her convictions.
The method of resolving issues in this book was my biggest issue. They were resolved very poorly. The author built up these significant and genuine issues about family relationships, cultural identity and the clashing of cultures in the raising of a biracial child and did a terrible job resolving these issues. The conflicts were basically glossed over and resolved with pretty words and half-assed apologies. No true communication was done.
This was a disappointing read. It had such great potential to be something much better and more impactful. The romance, given a little more attention, could have been more engaging. The author could have developed the characters a bit more and tackled the issues more intelligently.
The one good thing I have to say about this book is how gorgeous the cover is. It truly is beautiful.
All in all, I rated it 2 out of 5 stars.
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Wow… Nice review.
While I might agree with you that the romance portrayed in the novel was fast paced, my opinion is quite different on other issues highlighted.
I think the writer’s main idea was to highlight the main issues that people of different descent face when they are about to get married and other issues that Nigerians who wants to travel out of the country might not think about. Disconnection with one’s root is a big issue and people have a different way of dealing with it.
What was portrayed in the story is an example of how a parent in the older generation might handle such issue.
For me, it was an enjoyable read. I had fun reading the book and the cover is an absolute delight.
Nice review!
I enjoyed the book though, i’d give it a 3 out of 5.
The author kept making numerous movie references. It was fun at first but then it got annoying at a point.