A robust piece of historical fiction that follows a young British born Jamaican and her friend Connie, an undocumented Jamaican immigrant, in 1980’s London. Their friendship, love, family and the obstacles they encounter made this compelling reading. I learned a lot about racism in London during this time. Thank you NetGalley for providing the ARC.

3.5 This historical fiction novel follows Daphne a second generation British born Jamaican and Connie an undocumented Jamaican immigrant. We see Daphne and Connie's friendship grow through the ups and downs of adolescents as they navigate family challenges as well as racial tensions being Jamaicans in 1980's London. Weather it's Daphne and Connie navigating school, their sometimes turbulent home lives or the racism of the time they were always there for each other. The best of friends. We witness them come into adulthood and navigate new relationships and come to terms with their feelings for each other. This story is both heartwarming and heart wrenching. Emotionally raw and real. I wanted the best for both Daphne and Connie and their families. I appreciated the way the author had Daphne and Connie navigate the racial tensions of the time and their individual family dynamics. The topic of immigration and being undocumented was also handled with care. Overall a beautifully written work of historical fiction spanning decades.

Jamaica Road is a family saga that covers 1981-1993, mostly in London. Daphne is a young Black student whose family is from Jamaica. She faces a lot of prejudice from her white classmates. A new student comes, Connie, who has just moved from Jamaica, and Daphne is wary of befriending the only other Black child, but then they do become friends and their families become closely intertwined throughout the years. Both are fatherless, but Connie's mother has a dangerous boyfriend who threatens his family in various ways. I really enjoyed Connie and Daphne's relationship over the years, this is not a simple romance story. Sometimes in the US we think there is less racism in England, but it feels like the deep South at times. I really enjoyed the different characters and experiences, especially when Daphne finally makes it to visit Jamaica.

This was a very interesting read for me! I loved the idea of watching a friendship grow and blossom (and also teeter away) during the course of many years. That said, I felt that as the story continued on we didn't go as in depth with our leading characters as we had at the start of the story. Although the book was 400+ pages, I felt as though when it got to the end years things felt more rushed than they had been in the earlier years.

All and all, I loved diving into the world of these characters.

𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 is a coming-of-age story set in 1980s London. The historical fiction novel is centered around smart schoolgirl Daphne Johnson—a second-generation Jamaican-Brit who lives with her single mother, grandmother, and assorted relatives in a bustling, loving home and shares a friendship and burgeoning romance with charming and athletic newcomer Cornelius “Connie” Small. It was interesting and important to see the time period and region from this perspective and witness the racism and difficulties the immigrant community endured. Unfortunately, the story didn’t fully grab and hold my attention since I found the characters somewhat one-dimensional and the frequent use of Jamaican patois difficult to follow. A solid effort, but it just wasn’t for me. Thank you to Alfred A. Knopf for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Set against the backdrop of the racial tensions of the 1980s, Jamaica Road is a coming-of-age novel exploring growing up within a tight-knit Jamaican immigrant community in southeast London. As the new student, Connie, a recent immigrant from Jamaica, is forced to sit beside 12-year-old Daphne, the only Black girl in her class. Over the decade or so that this novel covers, we witness the friendship and struggles they face with their families and the wider community.

Jamaica Road is very much grounded in truth. There's the tug of life and dreams of a former homeland. There's the vibrant community of southeast London. And there are the real-life events of being stopped by police for merely being Black. Yet there's so much love within Jamaica Road.

I appreciated how we came to see Daphne in particular working through her feelings of growing up Black whilst trying to comprehend the events of her community, be it the New Cross house fire, the Brixton Riots, and the murder of Stephen Lawrence. I really appreciated being able to bear witness to Daphne seeing and learning for herself the systemic racism that affects the Black populace. Also, risks of living as an illegal immigrant are tenderly handled.

I highly recommend Jamaica Road, and I look forward to any future publications Lisa Smith puts out.

Although this story takes place during the 1980s-1990s, the issues around race and immigration are so current today. While Daphne is born in England to Jamaican parents, Connie has immigrated to England from Jamaica as an elementary-aged boy with his mother. Daphne and Connie initially become friends as children as they bond over being very much in minority in their white school. As they mature, they experience racial and cultural tensions from different perspectives along with their own family struggles. They eventually find more than friendship but all the issues combined threaten their budding romance.
I found this book a little slow to start and get engaged in but eventually ended up really liking it. The author does a great job of using some recent historical fiction taking place in England to describe so many issues going on in the US today. The characters are well developed and their struggles illicit lots of emotion. I enjoyed the whole book but especially the part taking place in Jamaica with a good description of the culture there even though this part takes a back seat to the issues of immigration and racism.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own.

Okay so I loved this, but then it felt like it didn’t end? I needed more?! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

I loved the writing, the characters, the story. But there was a huge thing that happened and then I looked at my audiobook and it was almost over!

And this isn’t a series or anything. So I’m just left wondering how Daphne and Connie’s story ends forever 😭.

Thank you @netgalley and @aaknopf for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Really enjoyed this novel about Daphne, a second generation British/Jamaican and Connie, a Jamaican undocumented immigrant in London, their friendship and their families. It is also a great account of what life was like as a Black person in London during the 1980s and 1990s. I really appreciated the author's voice and writing style and I look forward to what she does next. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced digital copy. 3.75 stars, rounded to 4.

This coming of age story begins in London during the 1980’s and follows the lives of two kids: Daphne and Connie. Connie has recently moved from Jamaica with his mother, Althea and his stepfather, Tobias. Daphne, who also has Jamaican roots, lives with her mother and grandmother and knows nothing about her absent father. The two develop a sweet friendship that is not without its challenges as they navigate their teen years into adulthood through family dysfunction, racism, immigration woes, and young love.

At the heart of the story is this beautiful friendship that has its ups and downs as Daphne and Connie mature from kids to young adults. Along the way, Connie struggles with his undocumented status and the dysfunction and abuse at home while Daphne tries to find herself amidst the chaos of rampant racism and the desperate desire to have a relationship with her father. The ending of this story was a wild ride that I did not see coming!

Thank you to @aaknopf @netgalley for a #gifted advance digital copy of this novel

Jamaica Road


Jamaica Road by Lisa Smith is an epic love story about two best friends Daphne, born in England to a single Jamaican mom and Connie, born in Jamaica and recently moved to England.

Their story begins in middle school, when Connie arrives in Daphne’s classroom as an awkward foreigner and she is assigned to help him assimilate to his new school. Although she is embarrassed by his ill fitting clothes and wrong type of shoes and the fact that he is not at all the typical teenager she aspires to be (and be seen with), his charming personality and handsome dimpled face win her over and they become the best of friends.

The novel brings us through their teen years, Daphne’s relationship with a fellow student whose racist family challenges Daphne to examine how she views her identity as a black woman. We follow the couple through their college years, where they are affected by racial protests and unrest in London, domestic violence in their families and finally a trip to Jamaica.

I don’t want to spoil the story but I was rooting for them all the way through. I love Jamaica and this book gave me more than I hoped for by including food, culture and Jamaica patois which really created a special reading experience.

I was sad for it to end and I am still thinking about Daphne and Connie and what will happen to them please write a sequel!!! I’ll be your first reader!!!

“𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳.”

Thanks AA Knopf for the advanced readers copy via NetGalley!

So I hadn’t realized that this was more of a coming-of-age and romance story with themes of race, class, culture, and identity. I think I had anticipated more of a focus on the latter aspects but these tended to take a backseat. Because of the genres, what has unfortunately become common in books nowadays, our main character Daphne engages in self-exploration and locker room peer pressure (for instance, at one point as a preteen she feels the need to fully expose herself to a classmate of the opposite gender) and later engages in intimate acts. I personally don't care to read about these types of things and these scenes happen throughout the book. They are a huge turn-off for me, as is just the romance genre, and being coming-of-age as well, I constantly felt half-hearted about it, never connecting with the characters, and was actually kind of bored. Ultimately, I liked it okay but at the same time… I didn’t? I don’t know how to explain it. I guess because I don’t read much in terms of either genre (though the writing never felt YA) I wanted more mature characters, more exploration in the cultural aspects, and less focus on the will-they-won’t-they slow burn.

Sadly, it just didn’t hit the mark for me and never really grabbed my attention or interest. I wanted to be into it, I wanted to finish, so I kept with it, but personally I also would have been fine with DNFing or not picking it up at all. I saw a few rave reviews so I had felt confident when borrowing the audiobook but felt less so as the near 14 hours wore on, which truly disappointed me as I had looked forward to it. Content includes sexual content (between teens, at times with descriptive terms), some profanity, racism, violence (protests, rough handling, domestic abuse)

1981, South London. Daphne lives with her mother and grandmother in a tightly knit British-Jamaican community. She's also the only Black girl in her class. Her plan to survive the next few years of school is to keep her head down and become unnoticeable.

Enter Connie. He's the opposite of Daphne. He's loud. He fights back. He also wants to be friends with Daphne. He's also in the UK illegally, so Daphne starts to protect Connie as best as she can.
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I am NOT someone who loves reading romance novels, but this was something else. This was about immigration and cultural as much as is was about love.

Home can be more than a place. Home can be a person.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Jamaica Road was an interesting read for me. It was a departure from my typical romance reads but I still enjoyed the story overall. There was a point in the teenage years of Connie and Daphne's story that was getting a little hard for me to get through but overall I'm happy I pushed through. I loved how the book was broken up into different parts of their lives and we didn't get to see absolutely everything. Also, the book felt like "If Beale Street Could Talk" with a British and Jamaican twist.

This story was an intriguing one. It kept me engaged. I learned many things that I didn't know before.

This is one arc that almost got away! Publishers don't always offer accessible copies through NetGalley, and while I've learned how to identify them now (PDF files are inaccessible in either Kindle Reader or the NetGalley app), I requested this one long ago.

I liked this book a lot, and I admired it for its style. The author's choice to write the bulk of the dialog in Jamaican Patois really worked for me, and eventually became my access point into the story and characters. And I'm not usually a dialog lover!

The love story central to this novel stretched with ups and downs -- an absolutely devastating story that will stay with me for a long long time.

I recommend JAMAICA ROAD to fans of coming of age stories mixed with romance, devastating romances, and romance stories complicated by a setting in conflict. Readers who enjoyed The Brief and Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao will find something to enjoy here.

Thank you to the author Lisa Smith, publishers Alfred A. Knopf, and NetGalley for a digital arc of JAMAICA ROAD. I found an accessible copy on Libby. All views are mine.

i loved the start of this book! our quiet, bookish girl our protagonist was at the beginning, and the mixed feelings she felt as her friendship with our other main character began. i loved how unflinching the depiction of racism in london was, and the complex relationships — with her mother, grandmother, father — explored.

as the book went on, i felt some things were skipped or passed over or dropped, but i still felt this was a very strong debut.

Book Review

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinions.

Publication: July 15, 2025

I really struggled to connect with this book. I’m not sure if this is a problem of me being drawn in to the synopsis.

What a deeply personal and socially resonant novel! This book explores friendship, identity, and resilience in England. The portrayal of immigrant life and the complexities of growing up between cultures is both moving and feels very authentic. However, the pacing of the book can be uneven. Some sections feel richly detailed and immersive, while others drag or rely too heavily on exposition. The narrative occasionally loses momentum, especially in the middle chapters, which may test the patience of readers looking for a tighter plot. Worth reading for its cultural insight and heartfelt moments, but not without its flaws.

I absolutely loved every moment of this story. It was emotional, it was shocking and it was moving in ways I wasn’t expecting. It’s so fitting for where we are in our nation and I enjoyed the love story at the heart of the book. I am definitely a fan!!