Books to Borrow Williamsburg Public Library Recommends

Love. There is not much more powerful in this world than love. Feyi Adekola had a love once. It's been five years since the accident. When her husband was killed, a part of her died, too. She's finally learning to be whole again. Well, she's learning to live again, learning to feel human. She may never be whole; there will always be a gap where the loss of her husband cannot be filled. It will not heal any more than the scar on her hand will mend completely from the same accident that took away her love.

Feyi is trying every day. Trying to be a new person. She has her art studio. She has her best friend Joy, with whom she shares a New York apartment. She has herself. For the first time in a long time, she's finding herself and that's a big step from the grief and nothingness she'd been experiencing for the last few years.

In the book's opening scene, Feyi jumps back into the dating scene with a physical encounter at a rooftop party with a man she's just met. It's not what she had before, but it's what she needs right now. It seems it's what he needs now too. They meet regularly, and it's no strings attached. For a while, it's enough. When she moves on, they part ways as friends and she intends to take the next relationship slow. When she catches someone else's eye, they date, they hang out as friends, and she holds to her word of taking things slow. When he invites her to his family home to exhibit her art, she meets his family and something unexpected happens. Feyi falls for someone that makes things very complicated for her.

The whirlwind summer is not what Feyi had in mind. She's been in several almost relationships, been staying on a beautiful tropical island, she's cried and wailed from sadness, grief, and even happiness. She wonders if this new path she's on could be destructive when it feels so right. She feels love again and knows what she needs to do. But can she go through with it? Can she trust that it's real? Feyi will need to decide if she can part with her past and if this new future is worth the possible risks it presents.

Akwaeke Emezi's characters are real and the problems are messy. Feyi is a strong woman and when she finally finds herself and her voice again, she is a force to be reckoned with.