It’s been 5 years since Feyi’s husband died in a tragic car accident, and finally she feels ready to dip her toes back into the dating field. Artist Feyi knows how beautiful she is, and soon is exploring her sexuality and sensuality in fun ways, encouraged by her friend Joy. When she meets Nasir, she’s ready to take things slow and as friends they travel to his home country for an art show. But while there, Feyi finds a connection she didn’t expect but it could break multiple hearts and cause a whole lot of trouble.

I think this author has such a beautiful way of writing, and there were some passages in this book about grief, owning your body, queer identity and island life that I really loved. However, despite appreciating the style of writing, I just really didn’t enjoy the actual content of the story. I don’t know if Feyi is written as unlikeable or I just found her a bit unlikeable but I just couldn’t warm to her at all - I’m all for a woman doing her thing but I just thought some of her moves were a bit reckless and ultimately didn’t help with the situation she ended up in. I also really feel like we didn't learn anything about her other than she is a widow, an artist and very beautiful. We didn't get much else to really understand why people liked her for her so much (other than when she trauma bonded over dead spouses).

This is my first book I’ve read as well that followed the trope of (view spoiler) even though Nasir wasn’t really her boyfriend, there was a romantic connection there and it wasn’t just friends at first until she got the ick and cooled it off while staying in his family’s mansion on a free holiday. I just found it all a bit icky, and it’s so obvious how hurt people are going to be for the relationship, and potentially a man’s relationship with his children fractured forever, but they didn’t care because they had a 'connection'.

I also didn’t really like how Nasir’s rage at the situation was used by Feyi then as a good reason why she never let things go further with him. While yes absolutely he said and did some things that were not on, I don’t think Feyi was innocent in the situation and Nasir was right to be blindsided about Feyi’s new relationship when she had never stated as a fact they would just be friends and nothing romantic would ever happen between them.

And I had very little patience when Feyi freaked out that she might love this man - considering he’s imploding his life for her, I mean of course those feelings would be very strong so her freak out kind of annoyed me like wasn’t this the idea all along, that you loved each other and so were ready to deal with all the terrible things you might face.

I did really think I would like this but unfortunately the romance in this just wasn’t for me though as I said, I did appreciate some of the beautiful moments of writing.