Genre Fiction: Contemporary romance.

Blurb “An old love…

…or a new passion.

Hope has never forgiven Charles for the pain he caused her when he married someone else, but when he shows up in her life, separated and contrite, she is tempted to accept his apologies.

But then there’s Daniel, who is handsome, successful and sexy, with a smile that lights up her insides. He’s the perfect man, as long as she’s prepared to let go of her feelings for Charles.

With her heart on the line, will Hope choose the past, or allow herself to fall for someone new?”

Dialogue Well-written and realistic in English and Nigerian Pidgin.

Themes Love, Heartbreak, Abandonment and Family.

Editing A few errors.

Plot Hope Alade, a beautiful engineer in her late twenties is the quintessential Lagos middle-class working girl. One day at work, she runs into her ex-boyfriend, Charles who broke her heart years ago when he left her to marry someone else. He seems contrite, claims his wife left him and he’d never stopped thinking about her. Hope wants to hate him and punish him for what he did to her but her attraction to him and feelings for him are getting in the way.

Daniel Amadi, a handsome and wealthy entrepreneur whose office is in the same building with Hope finds her attractive and seeks to date her. But the shadow from her past prevents a smooth relationship, and Daniel is wary about the past repeating itself and leaving him reeling in pain again.

Can Hope and Daniel work through the baggage from their pasts and create a future together?

What worked? The Only One is the third book in the Lagos Romance Series by Somi. The stories in these series are about the romantic relationships of young, working middle-class and wealthy people living in Lagos.

What I like best about these series is how relatable they are and The Only One is not an exception. You feel like the story could be about you or your friends or family members. They are familiar.

The book is a realistic portrayal of life in Lagos from the perspective of middle to upper-class people and only mentions the usual socio-economic issues; traffic jams, intermittent power supply, poor sanitation etc. in passing. Instead, we read about nosy mothers, annoying work colleagues, pesky younger siblings and of course, Lagos social life of parties and soirees.

I spent most of this book oscillating between frustration and exasperation at Hope, especially and rolling my eyes at all the sappiness. But as I have said in the past, it’s a good thing if an author can make you feel so connected to or concerned about characters in their book that you react emotionally. Of course, we all know that one person in an abusive relationship who, regardless of what everyone says, remains in the relationship. Perhaps, we are or have even been that person at some point!

I read an earlier draft of this book as a blog series and didn’t know what to expect of the final book, but I love the changes Somi made to Daniel’s character and backstory as it gave the book more depth and made the story more believable. And I liked the way the end of each chapter made me want to read the next one. Not really a cliff-hanger yet intriguing…

What didn’t work?

I think the book was extra syrupy. I don’t remember Always Yours being this syrupy. I would have liked to see that toned down a bit. Yeah… I know it’s romance. Still…

I wanted to know more about Stephanie. I’m not sure any justice could have been done to her character without detracting from the main story, since she isn’t a protagonist, but it would have been nice to know a little more about her because of her backstory.

Number of pages 329.

Publisher Sweet Acacia Press.

Damage $4.35 on Amazon Kindle.

Rating 7/10.

The Only One is available on Amazon and Kobo.

The Only One was reviewed by Lady B.

Many thanks, Somi for sending us a copy of your book for our honest review.