Scan barcode
A review by amyvl93
Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I've followed Babalola for ages on Twitter, so was excited to read her short story collection. In the introduction she talks about how much she loves romance in all its forms, and this short story collection takes various global myths and centres the love and romance within them, in addition to a few contemporary original tales of her own.
I wasn't necessarily familiar with all of the sources of the stories in here; but I felt that Babalola was excellent at almost instantly creating little worlds for each of her protagonists to live in; it always felt like we were joining really well established characters and places in all of these stories.
Whilst I did get swept up in the gooey romance of these stories - they did start getting a tad repetitive as the story progressed; strong female character who has cut herself off from love for reasons that will be disclosed being swept of her feet in many cases from a love at first sight encounter with an impossibly attractive man (there is one sapphic romance in here as well - whose plot around the romance I loved). There were also many where I wanted to read more about the world and the characters and what happens next - so I'm looking forward to reading <i>Honey & Spice</i> her debut novel to really get a sense of that!
I wasn't necessarily familiar with all of the sources of the stories in here; but I felt that Babalola was excellent at almost instantly creating little worlds for each of her protagonists to live in; it always felt like we were joining really well established characters and places in all of these stories.
Whilst I did get swept up in the gooey romance of these stories - they did start getting a tad repetitive as the story progressed; strong female character who has cut herself off from love for reasons that will be disclosed being swept of her feet in many cases from a love at first sight encounter with an impossibly attractive man (there is one sapphic romance in here as well - whose plot around the romance I loved). There were also many where I wanted to read more about the world and the characters and what happens next - so I'm looking forward to reading <i>Honey & Spice</i> her debut novel to really get a sense of that!