December 1, 2021
After the gorgeous verve of the award-worthy novels Freshwater and The Death of Vivek Oji, National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 author Emezi looks at love, loss, and healing from another angle. Feyi has spent five years mourning the death of her one true love and thinks that finally she might be ready for a new relationship. She's an artist with her own studio, sought out by a major curator, and excited after a summer of wining and dining and one hot rooftop encounter. She's even started dating a man who seems ideal. But she can't help feeling drawn to the one person in her life who isn't available. Smart readers everywhere will be clamoring; with a 150,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 3, 2022
Bestseller Emezi (Freshwater) unpacks the ever-present weight of grief in this deeply emotional love story. It’s been five years since artist Feyi Adekola lost the love of her life, Jonah, in a car crash that still haunts her dreams. Now the 29-year-old hopes to create a new life in New York City, refocusing on her art and living comfortably with her best friend, Joy. A flirtatious-turned-sexual encounter with a stranger even convinces her to reconsider the possibility of companionship. Enter perfect gentleman Nasir Blake, who’s attentive, supportive of Feyi’s art, and understanding of her reluctance to get serious. When Nasir offers Feyi the opportunity to show her work at a gallery with a famous curator while on a luxury vacation with his family, her life finally starts to feel like her own again. But after Feyi meets Nasir’s famous chef father, Alim, she’s smitten with him, and no matter how inappropriate the infatuation may be, she can’t get him out of her mind. Emezi does a great job capturing the unavoidable mess as the complicated characters collide. Though the middle gets a bit winded and repetitive, there are some powerful revelations about loss and love along the way. This is sure to tug at readers’ heartstrings.
April 1, 2022
A scorching tale of love after loss from the author of The Death of Vivek Oji (2020). In the opening scene of this novel, Feyi Adekola is in a bathroom at a house party having sex with a man she's just met. This is the first time she's had sex in five years--since her husband died in a car accident--and Milan is attractive, eager, and convenient. Soon, she embarks on a slightly more demanding relationship. Nasir wants more than her body. When she shows him her artwork, he gets her a place in a group show and an invitation to his father's luxurious home on a tropical island. She's shocked to discover that Nasir's father is celebrity chef Alim Blake. The attraction she feels for the older man is instantaneous--and different. "When she'd met both Milan and Nasir, she'd been drawn to them because the want had started in their eyes. It had beckoned her over like bait, calling her until she built a mirror, reflecting it back to them. This was foreign...." She feels a special connection with Alim when she learns that he's known tragedy, too. What transpires from this point is...complicated. The slow burn Emezi generates as Feyi and Alim fight their shared desire is well crafted, but the ease with which Alim is willing to destroy his relationship with his son--and his daughter--for Feyi is chilling. Feyi insists that no one who hasn't lost a partner can understand her, but the way she and Alim talk about themselves as a whole world with two people in it feels more like folie � deux than real love. Feyi's career as an artist also seems detached from reality. She achieves a level of success that means she's either singularly gifted or uniquely lucky. And it's too bad that the most engaging character here--her best friend, Joy--gets relegated to the role of one-woman chorus, talking sense that Feyi absolutely does not want to hear. A narrative built from clich� and pure fantasy.
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January 1, 2022
After the tragic death of her husband, aspiring artist Feyi Adekola has been widowed for five years when she decides it's time to take her life back. With some prodding from her best friend Joy, Feyi slowly eases back into the dating scene with handsome Nasir. Nasir whisks Feyi away to a tropical island where she's a guest at his family's home. With the prospect of an art exhibition, exploring a beautiful island, and staying at the home of a celebrity chef, Feyi's life seems perfect. However, even though she is dating Nasir, Feyi cannot help the feelings she develops for someone else on the island. Will Feyi succumb to her feelings and the forbidden romance, or will she stay with Nasir? VERDICT Emezi's (The Death of Vivek Oji) latest work is sexy, complex, and moving. The author illustrates the complexities of grief, new love, and a young woman discovering who she is and who she wants to be, and readers will enjoy a new take on a love triangle romance.--Anna Kallemeyn
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from March 15, 2022
Emezi followed their masterful debut novel, Freshwater (2018), with another adult novel, two young-adult novels, and a memoir, Dear Senthuran (2021). They now present a refreshingly complex take on love stories in a tale filled with lingering, heartfelt sentences and passionate embraces. Five years after losing the love of her life in a car accident, artist Feyi Adekola is ready to rejoin the land of the living. At the encouragement of her best friend, Joy, Feyi steps back into the dating world, planning to keep her liaisons simple and easy. But an unexpected meeting on a rooftop bar leads to a summer on a tropical island and the chance to showcase her art and express the pain still tearing her heart apart. Unfortunately, the one person able to piece the fragments back together, her new lover's father, is the one person who is most definitely off-limits. Emezi has created a dazzling celebration of the messiness of living and feeling with their signature gift for articulating characters' inner voices in raw and expressive detail. Couple that with a thrilling story of forbidden love, and Emezi has created a seductive and powerful novel that will make readers feel renewed.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Emezi is the main attraction, but with the screen rights sold to Amazon Studios, and Michael B. Jordan on-board for development, this title will attract an even larger audience.
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