A story of love, friendship, self-discovery, and heritage.
As Layla's wedding date nears, her best friend Sera reveals some concerns about Layla's fiance Andy, and his family's connection to the British slave trade. Layla must dig into her own past to see how their two families may have been connected and decide if she can live with Andy's heritage.
This novel raises some interesting questions, especially for mixed-race couples. For me, it is a window into some considerations I wouldn't have thought about.
Overall, this is a good story of some contemporary issues that we should all be aware of.

Dominoes

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was so thought provoking. I was so intrigued by the premise, and glad I picked up a copy on @netgalley.

Layla and Andy immediately hit it off when they first meet, and find it amusing that they have the same last name. Layla’s best friend Sera keeps cautioning her about Andy, until a documentary pushes Layla toward some research that leads her to believe Andy’s family owned her ancestors as slaves. Layla digs into her family history and finds what is important for her future as she gets closer and closer to their wedding date.

This book was so heavy but I really enjoyed it. The decisions that Layla had to make were so hard, and I loved watching the intention she put into them. I also loved how she surrounded herself with her family in the process.

4 🌟

This was such a thought provoking read.

This book dealt with a really tough, complex subject but I felt like it was dealt with really well. It was honestly really eye opening how racism exists outside our country and things happening here impacts others.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

This is a thought provoking story about a woman who finds out her fiancé's ancestors might have owned her ancestors as slaves. This is not a plot heavy book and most of the content is devoted to her thoughts and feelings about this discovery. Overall, an interesting read.

Dominoes, by Phoebe McIntosh is an absolutely beautiful story of family, generational love, commitment and loyalty. The symbolism of the domino blew me away. The author’s art of storytelling was so clear that I could feel all of the characters’ emotions genuinely. I felt the discomfort, the doubt, the fear and the undeniable love throughout, making me love this book even more. An absolute gem.

The premise of this book was what drew me to it. About a month before her wedding, a mixed race woman of Jamaican descent finds out that her white fiancé’s family might have been slave owners of her ancestors.

This book makes you think about racism, reparations, privilege and what the present owes to the past. The author does an outstanding job of pointing out how prevalent racism still is: not just the casual but the bold in your face types.

There are no easy answers here but Phoebe McIntosh does a fantastic job. I love books that make you stop, think and question everything you think you know and believe.

You've finally met the man of your dreams. He's everything one could want in a husband and more. But along comes your best friend with earth shaking news that could ruin everything for you. What is a person to do? Especially when your friend tells you in no uncertain terms, it's either me or him. That is the premise of this wonderful novel by playwright, Paula McIntosh.

The story unfolds in England and Jamaica. It makes you think very hard about the million choices one must make when choosing a mate. Especially when you are both members of a different race.

I loved this book. And I highly recommend it

Layla discovers that her finance’s ancestors enslaved her ancestors through the prompting of her best friend, a social justice advocate. Fascinating story of love and pain, friendship and the loss of friendship, and history that isn’t fully in the past. McIntosh successfully brings her one-woman play to the written word.

This book has layers. I almost bailed on it (because some of the descriptions can get a bit tedious...), but I could not stop thinking about it. I'm glad I went back and finished it.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advance copy!

I found this book well written. It was an interesting story observing Layla’s thoughts and feelings when discovering the history behind her fiancé and her families, but it was also fascinating seeing how her loved ones reacted.

Layla and Andy are about to get married, but as the wedding approaches, her best friend tells her that she needs to do some searching as to her ancestry to answer questions before she get married. When she uncovers a shocking truth about her and Andy's families, can the relationship survive the new information?

The truth of history is shocking to the core, and this novel encapsulates just that! What would you do if you found out your fiance's family likely enslaved your ancestors? This novel delves deep into this topic examining the lives of Layla and Andy. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for a copy of this book for an honest review.

First I want to thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

I absolutely loved the idea of this story and was interested to see how it would end up. I kept thinking...could you imagine realizing that the family you are marrying into could have a dark past.

It took me a while to really get into the story. I think it was because I didn't care for Layla or her friend Sera at the beginning. About 40% into the book I was getting more interested in the history. I enjoyed the story, but there were alot of times were it seemed to drag. And sadly, by the end I still did not care for Sera.

3.5/5 stars - a thought-provoking novel that questions just how much of our generational history impacts our present day.

In present-day London, Layla McKinnon is preparing her upcoming marriage to Andy McKinnon; the fact she their last names are the same has always been a point of humor for her, and nothing more. However, as the the date gets closer and Layla's best friend and maid-of-honor Sera starts behaving unexpectedly, Layla comes to question if she should dig further into her family's genealogy - something she's avoided doing as a mixed-race woman who's primarily been raised by her black mother, only hearing in passing about her white father. As she continues looking, she comes to realize the very real possibility that her fiance's ancestors may have enslaved her own family several centuries back - and it calls into question their entire future.

I think the novel does a good job framing a complex problem in a plot that many readers can grasp, and also sheds light on portion of history that often gets overlooked when slavery was rampant; growing up in the US, I wasn't aware of how this was also widespread in other parts of the world like the UK. Layla's journey to Jamaica to reconnect with her extended family and seeing the place her grandfather considers home was also one of my favorite parts of the novel, as it put stories and faces to the people she had only heard about. However, much of the plot felt circular and roundabout and I personally didn't like how Sera's behavior was ultimately overlooked and forgiven in the end.

A fast read that pulled me in, but one that didn't feel fully tied together at the end.

Thank you Random House for the advance copy of the novel!

When Layla's best friend Sera sends Layla a video explaining that Layla's White fiance's racist family might have owned her Black family, Layla is thrown into doubt about race and relationships and what it means to be Black (but sometimes passing as White). Layla agonizes, Sera ends their decades-long friendship, Layla goes to visit her family in Jamaica. There, Layla learns that even Black families had slaves, and that despite them having the same surname, a professional genealogist can't find proof that Layla's fiance owned hers. Layla begins to recognize the microaggressions Sera has been exposed to all her life, and realizes that she needs to do a lot of thinking about how the world treats Black and mixed-race folks. She returns her engagement ring, likely bought with slave trade money, to her fiance, and they buy a new one and get married and everyone who needed to gets a little more woke.

Some of the characters are annoying--Layla, for one--but others are people you'd want to play dominoes with, like her Grandpa. The character development isn't as dramatic as it might have been, and the wedding scenes in which Layla's mother dances with the White father of the groom is a little bit pat. The scenes with Layla teaching are painfully awkward and cringeworthy, but the first person narration of the rest of the book works well and is easy to follow, although as a protagonist, Layla remains a bit vague and blurry.

Finally. the author chose to set the story during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, and because of that and the way certain characters react to the lockdowns and recommended safety precautions, the story is also about ableism and disability. I was pretty angry that characters who readers are supposed to like were so thoughtless when it came to keeping others safe. It changed how I viewed some of the characters and made me less sympathetic to Layla and others.

This book had me hooked from the beginning. It is a quick, thought provoking read. This is a debut book from Phoebe McIntosh and I look forward to reading more from her.

Layla is days away from her wedding to Andy. Funny thing about Layla and Andy, they share a surname, McKinnon. Luckily they are not related but do they share a past? What happens when you find out that it is possible the ancestors of the man you are marrying might have owned your ancestors as slaves?

Layla was so easy to like. She is a sweet caring woman. She loves her family and friends. Andy was even easy to like. I appreciated that he may have been clueless but he was willing to listen and learn and try to understand. My biggest issued was with Sera. I felt that while she is trying to fight the wrongs that black people face, she didn't give Layla grace. Sera also didn't really give Andy a chance. My heart hurt for Layla as she navigated her way through what she should do. Of course she really should have talked to Andy and her mother sooner but when faced with life changing decisions, it can be hard to have the hard talks.

I feel like I learned a lot reading this book. I think everyone should read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Layla and Andrew are getting married. It has been a quick decision and they are twenty-nine days away. There have been bumps; her best friend Sera’s reluctance to be involved in the preparations and the reactions of Andrew’s white family. The fact that they share the same last name is unique and becomes pivotal in whether they make it to the altar after the revelation that his ancestors had received compensation for lost “property” when England abolished slavery. When Layla finds her surname is that of the slave owner of her ancestors, she hires a researcher and makes a family trip to Jamaica to find answers. Phoebe McIntosh’s characters are real; their storylines, intriguing and the reader is engaged from page one.

I read this book fairly quickly. It explores race and racism in an interesting way. Layla, a mixed-race woman, and Andy, a white man, meet at a party. Coincidentally, they have the same last name. They hit it off and eventually get engaged. Everyone is thrilled—except for Layla’s best friend Sera. The upcoming nuptials put a strain on their relationship, and Sera sends a video that leads Layla to research her family history and the possibility that Andy’s family owned hers. The story alternates between the lead-up to the wedding and “before.”

This was a good read - I really enjoyed this book. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

4 stars

Prospective readers looking for intriguing characters, a clearly defined narrative, and a series of circumstances that will make them think, incessantly, about the characters' respective plights will find exactly what they're looking for in this compelling novel from McIntosh.

Layla and Andy have a meet cute that turns into a bit of a potential meet creep when they discover each other at a party and connect, just a little, over their shared last name. It's not THAT kind of book, so don't worry; there's nothing overtly untoward about this coincidence. Instead, the reveal is much more sinister and complicated. When their relationship enters a more serious stage of commitment (readers need to be prepared for some time jumping but know that it's well defined and easily followed), a critical detail about Layla's and Andy's shared past comes to light.

McIntosh introduces compelling characters and does an excellent job of helping readers connect with several ancillary characters in a manner that is more successful than most authors can pull off even with their protagonists. This attention to developed characters makes what these folks have to grapple with even more breathtaking.

For me, this was just the right amount of answers and remaining questions, which is not easy to pull off with this subject matter. I'm grateful that this book and author were brought to my attention and will encourage others to take a chance on this one, too. One should expect to have a whole new respect for "It's complicated" while and after reading. I can't wait to read more from this author.