Bookbee
Written on Sep 22, 2021
- ISBN13 9798654288530
- Publish Date 15 June 2020
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Independently Published
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 226
- Language English
Reviews
jamiereadthis
Written on Jun 24, 2020
I mean, how many romances reference Frantz Fanon?
llamareads
Written on Jun 12, 2020
Desta, one of the main character’s names, means “joy” in Amharic, and that’s a very apt description of this heartwarming book. It’s very much a love letter to Ethiopia, its culture, food and people, and an adorably sweet romance between a native Ethiopian and a man with family ties there. There’s a little bit of the workplace romance trope, along with “only one bed,” and it’s just absolutely delightful.
“Checking out a colleague within thirty seconds of meeting him definitely did not qualify as proceeding with caution.”
After a rough break up, Desta is happy to be back in Ethiopia as an aid worker working on a survey of families in various rural locations. At least, he’s happy about returning to the place his family loved living in, even if he’s not as sure about continuing in his late father’s career. When he feels an immediate attraction to Elias, the local aid worker assigned as his driver, he knows it’s not a good idea to act on it, but he can’t help feeling drawn to him. As their work progresses and their friendship deepens, Desta is more and more sure that his feelings are reciprocated, but will a relationship just leave his heart broken again?
“I felt so far away from my life here. I could pretend.
In the place where I was supposed to be finding myself, I would lose myself in him.”
One of the things I love about Adriana Herrera is that she doesn’t shy away from the realities of the world. Desta acknowledges that while he has experience in doing his particular work, the input from the local workers is just as important, but that’s not a sentiment that’s universally shared by his coworkers and causes some friction among the teams. In addition, same-sex relationships are illegal in Ethiopia, so there’s a definite risk in Desta even admitting he’s gay – and even more for Elias, who’s not even out to his family.
“I always got fidgety when I felt I was under someone’s scrutiny, like if they looked long enough they’d realize I was a fraud. That I didn’t mean any of the things I was doing. But Elias looked at me like I was something worth understanding. As if he hadn’t worked it all out yet, but what he could see, he liked a lot.”
Desta’s POV is both humorous and self-depreciating. Both men are struggling with hard decisions. While Desta enjoys aid work to some extent, he knows it’s not his true calling, and he fears upsetting his mom by abandoning his father’s legacy. Elias has been accepted to a Ph.D. program in New York, but feels like following his dreams would be equivalent to abandoning his family and his country. There’s no easy answers for either character, but their relationship helps each man accept and prioritize their own lives and feelings. Their relationship is so sweet, from mild flirting over (gay YA) audiobooks to coffee to dinners, complete with delicious descriptions of Ethiopian food. There’s a lot of initial pining, but once they both commit to the relationship, it gets very delightfully steamy.
Overall, this book is the equivalent of a warm hug and I’d recommend it to, well, pretty much anyone, especially folks who are missing travel this summer.
I received an advance review copy of this book from the author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.