Bad Love

Jacaranda Twenty in 2020

By: Maame Blue

Narrated by: Vivienne Acheampong

Against a backdrop of enigmatic nights scattered with spoken-word poetry in London, Venice, Accra and Paris, Ekuah tries to reconcile her personal journey with the love she struggles with for Dee Emeka, a gifted musician who is both passionate and aloof in his treatment of Ekuah.

After 18 months together, he disappears from her life, confirming her worst fears about the unstable foundation of their relationship. She attempts to graduate university whilst retreating into herself, searching for new validations and preoccupations from heartbreak.

Life marches on and Ekuah finds personal fulfilment in her poetry and community work. But when she must choose between her first love and the promise of a new, unexpected love, in the form of Jay Stanley, can she handle the vulnerability and forgiveness required?

Grappling with her examples of love, Ekuah must forge her own path. With an increasingly successful career, she finds herself travelling around the world. When her rise intersects with Dee's own fame, the two are pushed to reach a final resolution.

©2020 Maame Blue (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

Good Story

I really enjoyed this story. The one issue that I have is with the books cover. Why make the people so dark? I just don’t understand.

A complete romantic romance novel.

About Bad Love

*What I did not like
At the very beginning, before the read, the cover representation of the book. The caricature, the pitch black woman with ultra pink lips, in my mind, represented ugliness. I had scrolled quickly pass. But was drawn back. A Black author. A face cracked open. Prettiness erupting. I scrolled away again, and then back and clicked >Play<

*Who should read this book
If you would like a story with people who are so strikingly real, read this book. If you wish to hear layers of love lives that are not cold like a documentary retelling and not artificial like an ‘emotional, steamy, sexy’ romance novel, read this.

Note though, it is emotional, steamy and sexy; but it *feels* accessible and real and familiar.

*What I loved about this book
I loved that in so many, many places in this story, I could see the trajectory of what was happening, I felt the stress of the characters, I understood why they did the (wrong, cowardly, childish, loving, stupid, sad, exhilarating) thing they did, and I cheered or cried or nodded with them.

I was living this book. I cracked open. I bloomed.

So many parts of the main female character’s story and that if her mother were mine. I loved that, as young people, we are blind to the ways we are like our parents; blind to how we are retracing their patterns.

I loved that the male characters were incomplete (young and old) and they also broke, and blossomed.

This book left me wanting a book club to discuss it more, to be honest. There is so, very much in it.

The narrator allowed me to be consumed by the story — she was divine.

It is a complete romantic romance novel.

Great story

This is such a real story! I loved it. I almost missed out because the art on the cover really turned me off. It was so unrelated to this story.

Not cohesive

This book bounced around in every chapter with new characters and situations that do not mesh and are irrelevant to the story . This book makes no sense. I would definitely pass on this one . Even the narrator sounded bored with it.