Love after Love by Ingrid Persaud is the story of an unusual family, bound together initially by circumstance rather than blood. Betty Ramdin is bringing up her son Solo alone following the tragic death of his father. Her friend Mr Chetan moves in as a lodger to help her make ends meet and quickly becomes close to Solo, becoming a second father as the boy grows into a young man. Both Betty and Mr Chetan are hiding secrets, Mr Chetan does not want anyone to know that he is gay, while Betty, having endured years of abuse at the hands of her husband finally pushed back only to accidentally push him down a flight of stairs and kill him. When her role in his father's death is revealed Solo feels betrayed and moves to the U.S. to live with his paternal uncle, turning his back on Betty completely though he still remains in contact with Mr Chetan. What will it take to bring this fractured family back together?
This is a really raw and emotional book that does not shy away from difficult topics, but because I was invested in the characters I found myself continuing to read. I did not realise when I started the book that it was set in Trinidad and at first I found the use of dialect a little difficult but surprisingly quickly I got into the swing of it and by the end of the book I found myself appreciating how much it added to the sense of place.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own .

A poignant, heartbreaking and life affirming story. Family is the people who are nearer to you and this is a family bound by love, protection but also a very frail relationship that can be broken.
I had some difficulties with the parts in dialect but I got used after some chaptes.
Well written, excellent character and storytelling.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Read from February 26th, 2024 to March 6th, 2024. Written on April 5th, 2024.

DNF at 7.5%

Don't know what I was expecting, but this book was just not doing it for me. It wasn't captivating me enough to want to keep reading.

(Free ARC from NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd that I chose to review after reading)

I really enjoyed this, it's a book that's been on my radar for a while but I'd never gotten around to picking up so thank you to netgalley for the chance to read this.

This is the story of Betty, her son Solo and their lodger/friend/father-figure/family, Mr Chetan. At it's heart, it's about family and love and the different forms it can take, set in mainly in Trinidad and partially in the US when Solo moves away from home.

Persaud does a great job at creating fully rounded characters, although I personally found Betty and Mr Chetan to be especially interesting. Their friendship and the way they become one another's family was so interesting to read about while both continued to live their lives, trying to love and dealing with Solo moving away.

I did, at first, think I would struggle with the lack of speech marks and the way the book is written in a Trinidadian dialect but actually I very quickly got used to it as sometimes I can find things like that distracting or off putting in a book, but in this one I think it's a testament to how good Persaud's writing is that I quickly got used to it and it didn't bother me.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for Persaud's next novel, The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh, when it is released in April.

Love After Love follows Mr Chetan, Betty and Betty's son Solo, showing how their lives and relationships with each other evolve over a long period of time. There are so many important and difficult topics covered here - family issues, domestic violence, death, love, self acceptance, racism, homophobia to name a few...

The book takes you on a really raw, painful and emotional journey. I felt a mixture of happiness, sadness, frustration, pain and anger throughout. However there's a good sprinkling of lighthearted one-liners thrown in as well.

I don't think I've read a book quite like this before and I'd say it's well worth picking up!