Thank you so much to Ballantine Books for the copy of this ARC.

Rootless starts off with Sam noticing a charge on a shared credit card with his wife for a plane ticket. Efe decided to leave Sam and their daughter and fly back to Ghana as their marriage has reached a crisis point. From there, the book goes back to when Sam and Efe first met and closes in on the present timeline, and I really loved that structure. Their meeting was so sweet and I loved all the 90s/early 2000s references. We learn about the ups and (lots of) downs from their pasts and get to understand who the characters really are and delve into their experience as Ghanaians living in London.

When we get to Part 2, closer to present day, I had a harder time with this book. Sam and Efe both made some choices that I really wasn't on board with, but still think they can reconcile their marriage. The ending had a CHOKEHOLD on me - totally unexpected - but I think it worked well for the novel. I appreciated the reality of how hard motherhood is in this book, along with the discussion around the lack of self confidence and necessity of having others to help while raising kids. But also - get therapy and help others get therapy when it’s needed.

There are some pretty major trigger warnings in this book that I think will affect the reading experience pretty heavily, as it did for me, so be sure to research those.