This book is a bit odd. I was expecting it to be different as its about a different culture and the subject is unusual for those of us in the Western world. But it was hard to follow, i wasn't sure whose POV i was reading as this changed with each chapter. A moving subject but conversations were not thorough, it felt that more should be said.

Stay With Me is an addictive read about a woman, Yejide, her husband, and her attempts to have children, set in Nigeria from 1985 to 2008. It is a novel about hope and it is the hope that keeps you reading, a hope for Yejide and for her husband Akin and for the hope that hope is worth it after all.

Adebayo’s book is often a subtle one, showing character relationships and moments rather than immediately telling the reader what to think or how everybody felt. The main characters are rounded and flawed, often thinking they know everything but missing crucial details. Yejide’s emotions in particular, from her huge desire to get pregnant to her feelings in the important final moments of the book, come across through the writing very effectively, making this a novel thoroughly grounded in its characters. The writing style is easy to get into and gripping, with the narrative jumping from Yejide’s point of view to Akin’s in order to show events from both sides. Neither character is wrong, but both characters think, hope, and love in different ways.

I read a proof of Stay With Me after having been interested by the promotion of the book so far and it didn’t disappoint. It is a novel that draws you into the world of its characters and their lives. Stay With Me is literary fiction with emotion.

This emotional story centres on family pressures, secrets, grief, betrayals and shock revelations. Based around a culture that I’m not completely familiar with and set against a backdrop of political unrest, I really enjoyed this story which kept me turning pages and guessing throughout.

One small point that I would like to make is that the author tries to bring into the story, the political unrest of Nigeria, but I felt that this came across as a little disjointed and didn’t go deep enough to really link with the main story. That said, this was an extremely great debut and I very much look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

I chose to read this NetGalley ARC for which I have given a voluntary and unbiased review.

A gripping tale of a marriage in conflict against the background of a country in conflict. For fans of Half of a Yellow Sun but sadly just like Homegoing it suffers from a weak end. The writing is fantastic and apart from the end I loved it.

I think this author has potential. I liked the fact that the story was told from different viewpoints but I think it would have helped to indicate the narrator in the chapter heading as I found several times to have gotten the narrator wrong partway through chapters, which was frustrating. Lots of surprising twists and turns. I like reading African books because the authors tend to describe the sights, sounds, and smells but somehow this was missing here. Nonetheless a promising debut and I shall be looking out for more.