This story of a young woman in Ghana is perhaps a bit bittersweet but ends just exactly the way it needs to for the protagonist. The heroine Afi is from a small village. She's poor, living with her widowed mother in a hardscrabble life, but she is also beautiful and has excellent sewing skills.
When the matriarch of a very powerful and rich Ghanaian family arranges for Afi to be married to her son Eli, Afi has no choice but to agree. It's the way to improve her and her mother's situation in life. So she is married by proxy (Eli's brother Richard stands in for him at the traditional Ghanaian wedding ceremony) and then is sent off to the big city (Accra) to live in a luxurious apartment where she is somewhat overwhelmed by her new modern life. A new life without a husband in it since Eli does not show himself for several months.
It turns out that Eli is in love, but not with her. He has had a Liberian mistress for several years and only married Afi because of pressure put on him by his dysfunctional family, who do not like his mistress and will not allow him to marry her. He and his mistress and their daughter live in his primary residence. As Afi becomes more and more aware of her new life and situation, she realizes that things aren't the way they should be.
The mistress remains somewhat of an unknown throughout the story. Eli, who finally does visit Afi and even becomes a part-time husband to her, refuses to talk about his situation or the woman. The only information Afi gets is from Eli's family, who are hostile to the woman and give Afi only disinformation and misinformation about the woman and Eli's relationship to her. The woman is ugly and horrid. Just be patient. Give Eli time. He will give her up and be devoted only to you.
But this book is more than a story about Afi's marriage to Eli. It's the story of an unsophisticated, naive village girl coming into her own in the big city. In Accra Afi goes to fashion design school. She learns to stand up for herself. She becomes a career woman. She makes a good friend in the woman living in the apartment across the hall from hers, a woman who just happens to be the mistress of Eli's brother Richard. And she finally learns the truth about where she stands in her marriage.
This is very readable and enjoyable and educational. I learned a good deal about life and traditions and customs in Ghana. How different some things are from life in the U.S. But it was also obvious from the reading that people and love are basically the same in both countries.
"Afi grows up" could be the theme of this story which revolves around her and mainly lets us know her thoughts and feelings. Eli remains a handsome, usually pleasant, entity whose thoughts and feelings are never divulged. The other woman is a total mystery until the very end. And if you're looking for a 100% HEA to this Ghanaian "romance," you won't find it, but the ending is understandable and satisfactory.
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That marriage shouldn’t be a never-ending competition where you spend your life fighting to be seen and chosen.Highlighted by 305 Kindle readers- It wasn’t easy being the key to other people’s happiness, their victory, and their vindication. I desperately wanted the wedding to be over because then I would have done my part. Or, rather, I would have begun to do my part.Highlighted by 208 Kindle readers
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The story had such a captivating opener that I expected to be locked in on every page. Instead, I found countless useless details which had me incredibly bored. The plot itself was great but underdeveloped and I felt as though some pages were included simply to make the word count. I see this is a missed opportunity to properly expound on important customs, and a failed opportunity to humanize and give ear to those who have similar situations at play in their lives. This was shockingly underwhelming and I would have liked more character development, a stronger plot, more feeling, and less meaningless descriptions.
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Laugh, cry, hurt worthy read
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