Genre Fiction – Contemporary romance.

Blurb Sewa’s decision to steer her love life in the direction she wants instantly backfires, prompting her to halt her quest for love and focus on other more important things like getting a job. Fate has its own plan and puts her in the path of the man of her dreams, Jide.

Jide isn’t afraid to go after what he wants. Crossing Sewa’s path more than once, he doesn’t leave it up to chance because there is something special about her.

When their budding relationship suffers a huge blow, Jide will have to prove that love is worth fighting for, to Sewa.

Dialogue Written in English. The dialogue was stilted at times.

Themes Love, Family and Friendship.

Editing A few errors.

Plot This book is a love story between Sewa, a 23-year-old, working-class woman in Lagos and Jide, a 28-year-old wealthy entrepreneur.

What worked? It’s always refreshing to read a book based in Nigeria which doesn’t dwell on the socio-economic issues in the country. Not Just Another Interlude is narrated in the first person and is really a personal commentary on the everyday life of the heroine, Sewa. The downside of this personal commentary was that we didn’t really read much about her love interest, Jide as the book focused more on Sewa’s life, family and friends.

It’s a quick read which touches lightly on societal issues such abusive marriages, widowhood and corruption. We liked the unapologetic inclusion of Nigerian lingo and language but we think a glossary should have been included at the end of the book.

The clumsy heroine bit was an endearing angle to this story. However, she seemed to straighten out midway through the story and so that quirky trait was not sustained.

What didn’t work? The main issue with this book is that there was no build up to the affection between the protagonists. The romance didn’t really tug at one’s heartstrings. 

There was also an absence of real conflict in this story, the protagonists had things too easy and so, didn’t provide cliff hanger moments to engage the reader. Like most romance novels, it followed the pattern of girl meets boy or vice versa, they fall in love, they have issues and then they reconcile. However, this couple seemed to coast throughout the story until the conflict which wasn’t conflicting enough and seemed unnatural in the course of the story.

Number of pages 161.

Publisher Love Africa Press.

Damage $3.10 on Amazon Kindle.

Rating 6/10.

Not Just Another Interlude is available on Amazon and Love Africa Press.