Giving this an extra star because it didn't take me long to read but honestly... It was poor. The pretence that a preteen boy would be magically adopted by a rich family is so far flung but it set up the rest of the pure nonsense throughout. Shoddy character development and too predictable for me.

I don't really know how to rate this because it is not the type of book I would usually read but I honestly loved it. The characters were brilliant and although the story seemed a bit far fetched at times, it was just close enough to reality to seem believable and I was absolutely rooting for Stella and Michael the whole way through.

Love neurodivergent queens, economics, sex and clothes? Then this is the one for you. Even if you don't love those things but enough an easy to read romance...this is also the one for you.

The story of a young couple on either side of a civil war across several decades, interspersed with their daughters journey as she comes to terms with their past. But half of the book is literally written from the POV of a tree. A tree. It is such a waste - and could have been done so differently and produced a similar message. The point of the tree in the story is actually quite interesting but it just tips over to nonsense giving it its own narrative.

Last year I read the wonderful book Kololo Hill, about an Asian family expelled from Uganda following the coup in 1972. This reads almost like it's polar opposite - told mainly from the POV of a young man, Sameer rather than a woman, as his life and family is pulled apart by their past in Uganda. Both are love stories at heart, but there is a level of harshness in this I found more difficult, including how dislikeable some of the other characters were but seeing their journey through Sameer's eyes was interesting.

I swithered on a rating but probably 3.5 rounded up.