Ties That Tether by Jane Igharo
⭐⭐⭐
There’s a lot going on in this book. So, first and foremost, know that this book features a surprise pregnancy, the death of a child/spouse, and a traumatic birth experience.
I had some knee-jerk ‘white, western woman’ emotions regarding the familial expectations placed on Azere and I had to check myself constantly. For example, a part of me thinks her father’s death-bed request was borderline cruel and that her mother’s disregard for her feelings was not okay. But then again, I cannot possibly comment on the experiences of a minority immigrant family trying to maintain cultural identity while living in North America.
The only thing I can comment on is how the author is characterizing Azere’s feelings about those expectations, and it’s clear that she’s struggling.
I think this is a smart romance grappling with cultural/racial identity. It’s pretty trope heavy (surprise pregnancy, love triangle, forbidden relationship) and there’s a lot of drama. While the tropes featured in this story aren’t generally my favorites, I am happy to see cultueally diverse romance novels taking up more and more space on the bookshelves. I enjoyed this book.
Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all thoughts and opinions are my own.