Ties That Tether deals with race, ethnicity, and diversity through the life of a Nigerian woman, Azere, who must deal with family acceptance, love, and the importance of herself.
Azere has lived her life through her mother’s orders and wishes, constantly being set up by her to date the perfect men, according to her mother, a Nigerian
Book: Ties That Tether by Jane Igharo
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: September 29, 2020
(Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review)
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Links: Goodreads | Ebook | Paperback | Hardback | Audio
Read: July 15, 2020 to July, 2020
When a Nigerian woman falls for a man she knows will break her mother’s heart, she must choose between love and her family.
At twelve years old, Azere promised her dying father she would marry a Nigerian man and preserve her culture even after emigrating to Canada. Her mother has been vigilant about helping–forcing–her to stay well within the Nigerian dating pool ever since. But when another match-made-by-mom goes wrong, Azere ends up at a bar, enjoying the company and later sharing the bed of Rafael Castellano, a man who is tall, handsome, and white.
When their one-night stand unexpectedly evolves into something serious, Azere is caught between her growing feelings for Rafael and the compulsive need to please her mother who will never accept a relationship that threatens to dilute Azere’s Nigerian heritage.
Azere can’t help wondering if loving Rafael makes her any less of a Nigerian. Can she be with him without compromising her identity? The answer will either cause Azere to be audacious and fight for her happiness or continue as the compliant daughter.
Ties That Tether deals with race, ethnicity, and diversity through the life of a Nigerian woman, Azere, who must deal with family acceptance, love, and the importance of herself.
Azere has lived her life through her mother’s orders and wishes, constantly being set up by her to date the perfect men, according to her mother, a Nigerian man who can take care of Azere so she can live her life as the perfect housewife. But Azere doesn’t want that.
When she meets Rafael Castellano, after a disappointing date, at a bar, their instant connection and attraction was absolutely incredible to read about and I saw the way Azere was changing her views and going against what she believed in – and what her mother believed in – to be with Rafael, even if it was just one night. Or so she thought.
When Rafael turns out to be a coworker of hers, Azere begins to cut off all thoughts and interactions with Rafael, the attraction – and fate – seems to bring them closer. The connection brings them together multiple times throughout the book and I absolutely loved their interactions together and the way they dealt with their situations and troubled times together. Azere and Rafael were great together and had an instant connection together and their situations pushed themselves to talk and communicate.
Although sometimes Azere and Rafael did not tell each other things while their relationship was getting more developed, I think that the way they went about things was important to read especially when it came to their family and especially Azere’s family.
I found that the cultural, diverse, and traditional discussions about how Azere’s mother continuously pushed for Azere to stick with marrying a traditional Nigerian man with a nice job and to continue a good legacy and the Nigerian blood.
The way Azere’s mother went about things made me realize that there are many women around the world that deal with similar situations and have to deal with parents needing to stick with tradition and continuously having to order their children around and decide what they do with their life.
This book discussed a lot of controversial topics that I felt was such an important part to read which was one of the things that I loved about this book. Besides the romance between Azere and Rafael, the controversial topics and diverse and cultural representation was something I enjoyed while reading Ties That Tether.
Thank you again to NetGalley for an ARC for an honest review.
I hope you guys have a great day, please like and comment down below if you enjoyed this book as well or if you plan on reading it!
Loves,
Veronica Chen