Genre Fiction: Contemporary romance.

Blurb “So if you want to know what happens in a marriage where a woman cheats on her husband with his best friend, read this.

It’s not just a juicy story. It runs deep. It’s a collection of true stories that talks about love, hate, revenge, forgiveness, abuse, faith and yes, even incest.

The Fourth Finger is a deeply emotional journey into the complications of the modern day Nigerian relationship.

You won’t regret reading it.”

Dialogue Convincing, using a lot of Nigerian colloquialisms.

Themes Family, Love and sacrifice, Infidelity, Revenge, Deception, Heartbreak of betrayal and Injustice.

Editing Some copy editing errors.

Plot Christie and Folarin seemingly have a perfect marriage then she cheats with his best friend, Raji who is married to her friend, Salma. Both Folarin and Salma discover their spouses’ infidelities and decide to make them pay.

Izu who is Christie and Raji’s business partner, is married to Bernadette but constantly cheats on her with different women, his latest affair with Leticia, a staff of Covet advertising where he is a partner, puts him on the warpath with Toni Braithwaite, Leticia’s friend and housemate.

Due to a bad experience with her ex-boyfriend, Mark, Toni hates men and uses them to meet her own needs. She also discovers her parents adopted her and is on a mission to find her birth parents. She secretly runs a blog where she advises women to treat men badly. Her advice leads to tragic consequences for one woman, whose husband, Andre seeks revenge for his wife’s death.

Lade is the dutiful wife to an abusive husband, Tayo. She’s put her life and aspirations to be an actress on hold at Tayo’s insistence. Things change dramatically for them when she meets an old flame who wants to revive her acting career.

What worked? The Fourth Finger is a character-driven story about several characters whose lives are intertwined by friendship, familial relationships and work. It centres on the lives of four couples and how they are dealing with infidelity within their relationships. If you like drama with a capital “D,” you will like this story as it has copious amounts. It reads like a Telenovela. In fact, Mo included it in this post, From Page to Screen – 10 books We Will Love To See on TV.

Written in the third person, Sally weaves a tale which connects everyone in a giant web. As the name implies, the fourth finger signifies a vow to a spouse but all the characters do is break said vows. The characters show the best and the worst of human nature; humans who love and hurt each other. Sally humanises even the worst of them.

This book is full of twists and turns. Just when you think something is resolved, a spanner is thrown in the works. It makes the story an engaging and suspenseful read as it’s difficult to predict what will happen.

Lady B My favourite character is Lade. I found her inability to stand up to Tayo frustrating, but I empathised with her plight and wished her story turned out differently. My least favourite character is Izu. I think he got off lightly for all the pain and heartache he caused.

Mo If you grew up reading Jackie Collins, you understand all there is about writing a good interwoven plot twist book that will leave your head spinning while you are connecting the dots. You have a perfect mix of the melodrama; romantic entanglements, vendetta, betrayal, cheating spouses and dying ex-lovers making demands.

What didn’t work?

Lady B The story could have been more concise, I don’t think the length was necessary as it includes parts which if taken out, would have enhanced the story.

The copy editor ought to have picked up on odd and sometimes incorrect phrases like “nostalgia fell upon Lade,” “Toni fell into a sea of mushiness,” “They both fell into quietness.” These phrases with people “falling into emotions” were repeated several times in the book and should have been corrected.

Mo The sub plots and characters just appear and disappear as they please.

Number of pages 909.

Publisher Self-published.

Damage N1,500 on Okadabooks.

Rating 7/10.

The Fourth Finger is available on Amazon and Okadabooks.

Have you read The Fourth Finger? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.