Book review: Forever There For You by Chioma Nnani

 

Blurb:

How does a daddy's girl from Nigeria, who's never been in a toxic relationship in her life, end up with an abusive husband in the UK?

The only child of a wealthy entrepreneur and a celebrity event planner, Nadine knows what it is to be ride or die.

But she's also a Type A personality who's been homesick, survived sleep deprivation, learned to tolerate English weather and British food, battled loneliness despite close friends, noticed her shedding hair, and managed to dip her toe in student life - ever since she started studying Law in the UK as an international student.

Convinced she's found her soulmate when she starts dating, Nadine hopes for a love marriage and a happy ending.

But Nadine's dad isn't particularly looking forward to a father-and-daughter dance at what he's afraid might be an interracial marriage ceremony for her.

When unexpected events trigger a life change for Nadine, she feels her best bet is to reconsider her options without rose-coloured glasses. Meanwhile, her closest friend, Stella believes Nadine is having a quarter life crisis.

Will the loyalty of a perfectionist to those who aren't there when she needs them the most, turn Nadine into a domestic violence statistic?

Or will Battered Woman Syndrome cause her to self-destruct in a foreign land, where the weight of generational differences she has carried with her, makes her feel alone?

Book Review
3 Stars ⭐

This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This  story  spoke to many issues domestic violence, education systems. studying abroad and culture, religion among other topical issues. 

The book follows Nadine a Nigerian student, as she embarks on a study abroad opportunity in Britain. 

The story is a very detailed account of Nadine's adjustment in Britain as a Nigerian student. The author was very descriptive in my opinion because there was a lot of detail about Nadine's experiences from the weather, to the food. I think  a lot of work was done in the first half of the story to really make the reader connect with Nadine as a person through her experiences.

I really liked the characters in the book but the ones that I felt that were most important to making the story into a good one were Stella and Nadine's parents. I think Stella was such a good friend but her role in Nadine's story illustrates vividly that when you are friends with a person as close as they claimed to be you should be able to recognize when something was amiss. As you read about Stella you will understand what I mean.

In Trinidad and Tobago lately, there has been a constant rise in domestic violence recently. So the situation that Nadine experienced in her marriage with Tony  and the reaction and advice that was given by her mother to persevere is very similar to what occurs  sometimes in our culture. I really liked also the fact that sometimes the different viewpoints from the bible can really blur the lines between what is actually right from wrong.

One criticism though is that I felt that the story took a bit long to get to the point. So while getting to delve in all Nadine's experiences were good, I felt that some things could have been omitted for a richer reading experience. 

In all it was an emotional yet very important story.