Literary Everything

 Genre Fiction: Contemporary romance.

Blurb “A story about love discovered by two people who have no business being together.”

Dialogue Well written, engaging and witty. Peppered with Igbo, Nigerian Pidgin and lingo.

Themes Family, Love and Feminism.

Editing A few errors.

Recently, well known African literary blog, Brittle Paper tweeted this:

African writers are constantly make grand claims about books: my book explores colonialism, polygamy, islamic radicalism, politics, corruption, etc. Maybe its time to begin writing stories about small things, delineating the micromoments and intimate spaces of African life.

— BRITTLE PAPER (@brittlepaper) August 9, 2018

Love Eventually is a book about the “micro moments and intimate spaces” of the lives of two working class Lagosians from wealthy backgrounds.

Plot Love Eventually is a love story (of course) about Cordelia Chinazaekpere Anachunam aka Lea, a young lawyer and Phillip-not-Phil Ekezie, an auditor. Lea is a fun loving live-for-the moment kind of person whilst Phillip is a prim and proper plan-for-every-eventuality kind of person. But opposites attract right? Can two very different people overcome the hurdles of their differences and accept love?

What worked?

Lady B Love Eventually is one of only two romance novellas by Nigerian authors I have read which are really fun reads (the other is Dirim’s Man by Dumebi Ezar Ehigator). I think we made an error with our review choice, we should have done an audio review so we could read excerpts from the book.

Mo This book was written by two male authors. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t read a lot of romance novels written by men. If you have, kindly suggest them in the comments section, thank you. I read this book a while ago and when we started reading it again for this review, Lady B challenged me to see if I could differentiate the writers.

Walter and Chisom did a good job with this book, and even though we now know who wrote which chapter, it is all so seamlessly done that it’s difficult to tell their writing apart. Mo could see a distinct pattern three chapters in but Lady B only noticed Walter’s writing was wittier.

The book is written in a relaxed and conversational manner in simple and clear English. It’s a book which draws you in and makes you feel. The characters are believable and relatable.

Love Eventually also addresses female independence and how society views it. It touches on family, both Lea and Philip’s. Family differences, feuds and reconciliation. The ultimate lesson here is on compromise; learning to be vulnerable with one another and learning to love despite differences.

Mo One thing I like about this book is the humour. A truly funny book, not in the slapstick-cliché manner. Love eventually is a cute book. As a matter of principle, I’ll recommend it.

Lady B My favourite scene was the breakup scene. It was well written and felt real, especially Phillip’s lines about Lea’s independence. Love Eventually is the kind of book you read when you want to escape the harsh realities of Nigeria but still remain in Nigeria.

What didn’t work?

Lady B The phrase “robbery assault” is a tautology.

The scenes with Nina were my least favourite scenes. They were too cliché. Nina should have been a more balanced character, she was too one-dimensional. Perhaps the exaggeration by the authors was intentional to add a slapstick comedy feel…

I think the book cover should be changed to something more eye-catching. It’s a disservice to the book to have such a boring cover. And that blurb, come on guys…

Number of pages 170.

Publisher Self-published.

Damage N500 on Okadabooks.

Rating 7.2/10.

You can buy Love Eventually on Okadabooks.

Have you read fictional romance novels by male authors? Please leave the title and author name in the comments section. Thank you.