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notesbynnenna 's review for:
Ties That Tether
by Jane Igharo
I wanted to read this book as soon as I heard about it and I’m happy to report that I loved it!
It’s about a young Nigerian-Canadian woman named Azere, who meets a man named Rafael Castellano and starts to develop feelings for him. There’s just one problem- he is not Nigerian and she promised her parents that she would marry a Nigerian man. As her feelings grow, she has to choose between love and duty, between following her heart or following her parents’ wishes.
I saw a lot of myself in Azere. She’s Nigerian (she’s Edo, but I’m Igbo) and she works in advertising. She’s a dutiful daughter. She loves rom coms and tends to bury her feelings and pretend everything is fine, when it’s not. It me!!! I don’t recall either of my parents ever saying that I had to marry a Nigerian man. But other members of my family have, so I’ve experienced that external pressure to some degree.
I really connected with the way the author wrote about some of the struggles of being an immigrant. I was born here, but I think some of the struggles of being an immigrant and having immigrant parents overlap. Igharo writes about how immigrants chase success, wanting to work hard in their new country to prove that they belong there, while also showing those they might have left behind that they made the right choice when they moved.
She also talks about the struggle of growing up with multiple cultures and how Azere learned to fit into Canadian culture as a survival mechanism. I remember growing up and sometimes feeling suffocated by the Igbo ways that my parents were trying to teach me. I remember thinking, “Why did we have to do things differently? Why can’t we just be normal.” Now that I’m older, I have a better understanding and appreciation of what my parents were trying to do, but even now, my relationship with my Igbo heritage is complicated.
I didn’t mean to go that deep, but now you have a sense of some of the thoughts that surfaced as I was reading this book. The fact that I related a lot to the main character probably makes me biased, but I thought she was a great character and I really sympathized with her struggles. I also enjoyed the writing and how she incorporated some Edo phrases, and there were a couple good steamy scenes as well.
This is a story about love, family, being an immigrant, and choosing a different life than the one you’d envisioned or that was planned for you. I was thrilled when I heard about this romance written by a Nigerian author and for me, it was such a fun, relatable read.
It’s about a young Nigerian-Canadian woman named Azere, who meets a man named Rafael Castellano and starts to develop feelings for him. There’s just one problem- he is not Nigerian and she promised her parents that she would marry a Nigerian man. As her feelings grow, she has to choose between love and duty, between following her heart or following her parents’ wishes.
I saw a lot of myself in Azere. She’s Nigerian (she’s Edo, but I’m Igbo) and she works in advertising. She’s a dutiful daughter. She loves rom coms and tends to bury her feelings and pretend everything is fine, when it’s not. It me!!! I don’t recall either of my parents ever saying that I had to marry a Nigerian man. But other members of my family have, so I’ve experienced that external pressure to some degree.
I really connected with the way the author wrote about some of the struggles of being an immigrant. I was born here, but I think some of the struggles of being an immigrant and having immigrant parents overlap. Igharo writes about how immigrants chase success, wanting to work hard in their new country to prove that they belong there, while also showing those they might have left behind that they made the right choice when they moved.
She also talks about the struggle of growing up with multiple cultures and how Azere learned to fit into Canadian culture as a survival mechanism. I remember growing up and sometimes feeling suffocated by the Igbo ways that my parents were trying to teach me. I remember thinking, “Why did we have to do things differently? Why can’t we just be normal.” Now that I’m older, I have a better understanding and appreciation of what my parents were trying to do, but even now, my relationship with my Igbo heritage is complicated.
I didn’t mean to go that deep, but now you have a sense of some of the thoughts that surfaced as I was reading this book. The fact that I related a lot to the main character probably makes me biased, but I thought she was a great character and I really sympathized with her struggles. I also enjoyed the writing and how she incorporated some Edo phrases, and there were a couple good steamy scenes as well.
This is a story about love, family, being an immigrant, and choosing a different life than the one you’d envisioned or that was planned for you. I was thrilled when I heard about this romance written by a Nigerian author and for me, it was such a fun, relatable read.