Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced e-copy of the book for my honest opinion.

I was really excited about reading more from author Asha Ashanti Bromfield after finishing her debut novel “Hurricane Summer.” I found her to be a great storyteller who mixed the rich culture and beauty of Jamaica with a story that had deep color and emotion. I must say, her sophomore effort “Songs of Irie” did not disappoint. I loved how she weaved the history and resistance of reggae music during a time of political turmoil in Jamaica with the story of two best friends, Irie and Jilly, who are total opposites in economic status, cultural upbringing, and political stance. But it is their love (and forbidden and unspoken desire for each other) that gives them a strong bond. But is that enough?

I would rate the book 4 out of 5 stars. Although I loved Bromfield’s storytelling (I was engaged from beginning to end), I found that I had some issues believing the depth of the friendship. I felt like the way they were so drawn to each other and proclaimed that they were the best of friends, they didn’t know basic information about each other and held lots of secrets from each other. I would think that they would have been each other secret keepers, which is what would have drawn them into each other. And perhaps that was by design by the author. Maybe she wanted to show that their friendship was really only surface level. However, what I do think that was done well was developing their attraction/love story. You could genuinely feel the raw emotion and confusion that each girl felt. While I enjoyed the choice to tell the story through alternating chapters between the two girls’ voices, I found myself never connecting with Jilly, the rich friend. I found her to be self-centered, so I never really felt bad for her or rooted for her. In fact, I found myself during their conflicts thinking that Irie would be better off without her as a friend.

However, neither of those points took away from my enjoyment of the plot or novel. The pacing was great. I enjoyed the minor characters and subplots. And I really enjoyed the informal history lesson about the evolution of reggae music in Jamaica and its part in the country’s political unrest in the 1970s-80s. I also liked that Bromfield did not shy away from the use of Jamaican Patois heavily in the book to create authentic characters. I would definitely recommend this book and again am looking forward to Asha Ashanti Bromfield’s next novel.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝘼 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜-𝙤𝙛-𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙜𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙙𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙅𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙪𝙣𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 1970𝙨.

I read Hurricane Summer when it came out and really enjoyed that book. Therefore, I was so excited to dive into this one. I’m so glad to say I ended up enjoying this one just as much!

I haven’t read too many books set in the 1970s, let alone Jamaica. I learned so much from this book and I had such a blast learning about the Jamaican culture and the events that happened at the time.

There’s a lot of racism and violence I wasn’t expecting. It’s obviously super important and I honestly found myself emotional at times. I really cared for all the characters - not only Irie and Jules - but also the side characters… especially Junior.

This story is written in Dual POV between both girls, and I’m so glad it was! I gained such an amazing experience that way. It was also so interesting to get different backgrounds and how they differentiate from one another.

At the end of the day, this is a YA story. However, I do think some of the themes are difficult to read about. The book is written so well, where at times you’re reading about emotional times and others you’re feeling some sort of joy with these characters.

And that ending… I teared up a bit. There’s a beautiful love story here, but there’s so much these girls have to go through… this book was incredible.

I still haven’t processed this book, but it’s definitely one of those that will stick with me for a while. I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!

•𝗧𝗪/𝗖𝗪: Gun Violence, Racism, and Violence

I didn't love the ending of this and was expecting something a bit less heavy, but I was very invested and this was still a very good book! I think if you go into this expecting a look at some of the brutal history of Jamaica during the 70s/80s, this will be a great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sending me an eArc of Songs of Irie.

Songs of Irie is set in Jamaica during a time of political turmoil. I absolutely love the way Asha was able to weave the beautiful parts of the island and it’s culture into descriptions of unease and fear. The love she has for Jamaica is apparent in every page.

I loved the dynamic between the characters and I love how we were able to see the internal struggles between Irie and Jillian. I look forward to more work by Asha.

i had a few issues with this book, so let’s start with the good..

i enjoyed the use of patois in dialogue & the political landscape infused in every aspect of the book. irie and her family showed a part of jamaica in the seventies that lots of people don’t know about (and jilly’s family showed how awful rich politicians are).

however, i think the writing was weak and storyline underdeveloped. i don’t think the relationship between irie and jilly was equal, and didn’t have much sympathy for the issues that jilly “thought” irie was posing against her—i didn’t like their dynamic at all. & the last few chapters just felt rushed, too perfect, and kind of cheesy.

thank you to netgalley & the publisher for a free eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Beautiful and refreshing. The love the main characters have for each other leaps from the pages and makes itself know from their first interaction. Sapphic representation was A1 as well.

Songs of Irie was such a cute sapphire book. I'm so in love with these characters and the story. I wanted this book to be so much longer.

Book: Songs of Irie
Rating: 5 Out of 5 Stars
Author: Asha Ashanti Bromfield

I would like to thank the publisher, Wednesday Books, for sending me an ARC. This is the second book by Asha that I have read and I think I enjoyed this one. For those of you who don’t know, Asha writes books set in Jamaica. The Jamaica that she writes about is not the tourist destination. This the Jamaica that the everyday people live in. She brings light to a country that most of us don’t know beyond the sandy white beaches and resorts. This book is no different.

In this one, we follow two best friends Irie and Jilly. While they go to the same school, they could not be more different from each other. Jilly is the daughter of an up and coming politician. She lives in the hills in a gated community, is rich, and has a staff attending to her every need. She is light skinned and has the chance to attend university aboard. Irie is from the ghetto. She is a Reggae lover. This is what actually brought and Jilly together. She lives in a part of town where fighting on the streets is common and so is death. She works in her father’s record store. Her mother isn’t around. She doesn’t have a chance to go to university. She is an amazing singer and wants to use her voice to talk about what is happening in Jamaica. Despite being from different paths of lives, the girls do consider each other to be their best friend. They claim that they know each other. Their relationship eventually becomes something more. However, it’s election time in Jamaica and both have different views on that. As fire reigns down in the streets, Jilly and Irie find themselves on very shaky ground.

I love the use of the duel point of views. It gives us the full scope and scale of the story. As I have already said, Irie and Jully are from different sides of the same island. Music has brought them together. They also believe that they have a lot in common and both long to have the other one life. By giving both girls point of view chapters, it allows us to see how what they think the other one has really isn’t the same. Jilly thinks that Irie gets to work in her father’s record store and listen to music without having to hid it. She also believes that Irie is lucky because she gets to take a gap year from university. (She doesn’t know that Irie cannot afford to go.) Irie believes that Jilly is lucky because she has money and can escape from Jamaica. The more you get into the story, the more you realize that both girls don’t live the life that the other one thought. Irie has to worry about her safety, having food on the table, and how the election will impact her. Jilly has to worry about pleasing her family, being perfect all the time, and forced into a marriage that she wants. I will admit that Jilly does live the better life of the two. Irie’s is the most dangerous. By having both girls, you get to see how both sides very each other and the impact that has on each other.

This book does pack a punch. There are times that both girls are very likeable and other times that they are both brats. It makes sense for the story. You need to have both trying to show and tell the other one about how they live. Irie lives in a world where she can be talking to someone and they are dead when she turns around. She lives where drive-by shootings are common and where wearing the wrong colour at the wrong time can get you shot. Jilly doesn’t experience this. However, she lives in a world where appearances are everything. You have to go to the best school and how you look in public is everything. This means that you cannot hang out with whoever. She is also being groomed to be a wife and to serve the men in her life. This makes her relationship with Irie more than a little bit awkward for her. These differences both bring the girls together and tear them apart. The differences are just too much.

Wartime is difficult to write about in books. Asha does an amazing job at giving us the real deal. We see how Irie, once again, is on the front lines. Jilly is behind the gates and doesn’t know what is going on. She is sheltered and it’s not her fault. Both get their eyes open. Jilly comes to see that everything she knows is written in blood. She sees how people view Irie and people with similar backgrounds to her. Irie sees how Jilly lives and how it has impacted her. These divisions are very real in war. People don’t have the same views and it divides them. People also see how others think. Not only do we have going on, but Asha brings in the human impact. We get to see how war affects the innocent and how it forever changes people. We also get to see what happens to people who are caught in the crossfire. All innocence is lost.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I read Hurricane Summer and enjoyed it. I will say out of the two, I did enjoy this one a little bit more.

This book comes out on October 10, 2023.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/O3KnK-DyEHU

This book is absolutely phenomenal. Bromfield is such a talented writer-- I don't even know where to begin without risking any spoilers!!

I will say that this novel contains the following themes:
- Colorism
- Class
- Colonialism
- Political violence
- LGBTQIA+ representation

I cannot wait for this book to be published. I NEED a hardcopy to grace my bookshelf.

Asha Bromfield has done an amazing job with Songs of Irie! She brings Jamaica to life. She brings a tumultuous time in Jamaican history to the forefront and makes it personal for her reader.

After being blown away by Hurricane Summer (no pun intended), I was THRILLED when I got an email from St. Martin’s offering me an E-Arc of Asha Ashanti Bromfield’s new book.
•
Songs of Irie left me crying on my couch in the best way possible. This book filled me with so much anxiety, anger, and hope. I was ignorant to the Civil War that took place in Jamaica in the 1970s. I also didn’t know that the desire for freedom and unity was the message behind reggae music.
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This was a beautiful story of friends from very different sides of Jamaica. The hardships they both endured, and that their friendship endured was just heartbreaking.
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To read this story after just finishing another queer YA written by a celebrity that was not my favorite in terms of writing style, I was in absolute AWE of the writing in Songs of Irie.
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Asha, PLEASE KEEP WRITING. I WILL READ ANYTHING YOU WRITE.
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Readers, PLEASE PICK UP HURRICANE SUMMER IMMEDIATELY AND SONGS OF IRIE WHEN ITS PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER. Asha deserves FAR more recognition for her beautiful works of art.
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One of the easiest five star ratings I have ever given.

Thank you Netgalley, Saint Martin's Press and Asha Bromfield for this ARC.

For anyone who read and loved Hurricane Summer, you'll be happy to know the Asha is back again with another captivating story.

It's 1976 and Jamaica is on fire. The country is on the eve of important elections and the warring political parties have made the divisions between the poor and the wealthy even wider. And Irie and Jilly come from very different backgrounds: Irie is from the heart of Kingston, where fighting in the streets is common. Jilly is from the hills, where mansions nestled within lush gardens remain safe behind gates. of Reggae music, spending time together at Irie's father's record store, listening to so-called rebel music that opens Jilly's mind to a sound and a way of thinking she's never heard before.

Friendship. Budding romances. Politics, Family allegiance. Poverty. So many barriers stand between Irie and Jilly. It's hard not to feel the emotions each character exudes. From the sweet and innocent Junior,to the blindly loyal yet conflicted Jilly to the headstrong and wishful Irie, each and everyone is fighting for something. Asha perfectly captures the political turmoil of the 70s and envelopes in in Reggae, forbidden love and tension. The friendship between Irie and Jilly is repeatedly tested as it becomes evident how different their lives are. This complicated and heartwrenching love story told from two perspectives did not disappoint.

Rating 5/5

4.5/5 stars

The cover is so misleading, but that's not a knock against it. I went in expecting a sapphic romance in the middle of a political turmoil. I mean, that is what I got, ultimately, but emphasis was put on the politics much more than the romance, which I didn't expect.

The politics were so interesting, too. Having both of our leads associated with one side, Irie with the socialist/left-leaning party and Jilly with the conservative/right-leaning party, shows the yawning gap of differences between the two girls. It really drives up the tension naturally, and when the politics eventually drive them apart, it's heart-breaking because Irie and Jilly have such fantastic chemistry and you can really see how much both girls adore the other whenever the POV jumps back and forth between them.

Speaking of which, both Irie and Jilly are such fantastic leads. Their struggles around the political landscape and each other, with colorism and classism on top of all that, just drew me to them. I don't often get too invested in romances in books, but I was with these two. There's just something about Bromfield's writing that lights up whenever there's romantic/sexual tension in a scene; it kept me on edge and wanting more. Even without the romance, both girls carry enough on their own to make them unique individuals that had me feeling for both of their sides when they inevitably fell out.

The sapphic pining, y'all, that's where it's at!

Overall, this was just a really great read. Now I have to read Bromfield's debut to see how this compares to that.

A Sapphic romance between two people from different backgrounds. The world is on fire but somehow bonding over music brings them closer together. Music isn't based off of where you live or how much money you have , or the struggles you have to go through. And while love can make you reckless, it can also make you stronger

This book is a beautiful and moving sapphic novel that explored 1970s Jamaica, class differences, politics, and love existing in spite of it all. This is a great historical fiction novel with a dash of romance but that is not the central feature to this work. I feel that the cover may be a bit misleading as romance is not the central storyline, however, I still love it. This book is well-developed, beautifully written, and a breath of fresh air. For lovers of history and sapphic representation, please read!

It's Read Caribbean month and this book, Songs of Irie did nit disappoint! Set in the backdrop of Jamaica's political turbulence of 1970s, vest friends Irie Rivers and Jillian Casey find themselves peeling back the unspoken layers of their family, community, and each other.

It's rich vs poor. It's the ghetto vs the Hills. It's the PLM vs JCG political parties. It's the have vs the have-nots. It's love vs hate. It's 2 friends who desire to be more than friends. It's the love of reggae music. It's so damn good!

It releases October 10, 2023...pick it up!

The story line was interesting and I liked the central characters, as well as getting a glimpse of what life is like in Jamaica. Before reading the book I had no real sense of the challenges people faced in that country, especially those like Irie who were the poorest of poor.
The friendship between Irie and Jilly struggles to bloom into romance as they deal with those differences in social standings, as well as the war between political parties rage in neighborhoods.
At times brutal and shocking, this is still a powerful story of friendship and survival.
When some of the characters spoke in a strong dialect, it was so hard to understand the words. Since Irie sometimes spoke, and thought, in perfect English at times, when she switched to the dialect, I had to wonder why. It never seemed to be clear. That in and out of dialect was jarring at times and I would've enjoyed the read much more without it.
Still, I'm sure that readers more familiar with some of the dialect from Jamaica won't have trouble following the dialogue. And despite the difficulty I had, I can still highly recommend this book.

A beautiful sapphic story, set with a very important history and message. I loved the characters and how flawed they were, while having qualities to them that made them memorable and human.

Thank You NetGalley for sending me an arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was introduced to Bromfield this year with "Hurricane Summer" and I knew instantly that she would become an auto-buy author for me, so when I saw the cover of "Songs of Irie" I knew instantly that I would fall in love with it.

Asha is not afraid t0 show you the real Jamaica, from the beauty to the ugly.

I went into this thinking that I was going to get a friends-to-lovers sapphic romance. In return I got politics, the history and importance of reggae, experience gang violence and how that segregated the people on the island as well as classism. I loved how we got to see both characters POV and to experience how people of high-class and low-class backgrounds can yearn for experiences that others have. Asha has a way of connecting you with the characters, so I definitely cried at the end, but seeing Irie's future and watching her dreams flourish was worth the heartbreak. The only thing keeping this from being a 5 star is the lack of romance. I know that this isn't classified as a romance novel, but I do wish that we could have gotten more of Irie and Jilly. we got more of them apart than together, but I enjoyed the story regardless.
Although this is a work of fiction it was based on real world experiences and educated me on the history of Jamaica. I love Asha's work and I cannot wait to see what she produces in the future!

I had to read this after loving Bromfield’s Hurricane Summer, and it did not disappoint. It was really cool to read about 1970s Jamaica, though the political turmoil is so frustrating. The different perspectives of the two girls help to see a fuller perspective of the two sides. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.