You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty: The Summer's Hottest Romance Novel - Perfect for Beach Reading & Vacation Getaways

Feyi, an artist, lost her husband in a terrible car accident five years ago. Still haunted by her grief, she escapes to New York with her best friend Joy to put the aftermath behind her. I immediately loved Joy; she has a fondness for unavailable (straight, married) women, is brutally honest and the perfect ride or die. I totally think we need a book about her, but I digress.Feyi is ready to put herself back out there in the dating scene and live life fully on her own terms; I applaud how she does it with both wreckless abandon and a guarded heart. She’s certainly not ready for romance, but it finds her just the same. When the opportunity comes to travel to an island paradise and show her work in a show, she goes for it. Her companion (who orchestrated this opportunity) is handsome and caring, and he’s giving her all the space she needs to be comfortable with their are-they-or-are-they-not relationship.What no one, especially Feyi, expects is that she will find something more on the island, something that should be off-limits. She’s very much aware of societal expectations, and while it’s insta-love (which I normally ? over), it’s written so exquisitely I’m not mad about it. This is not your typical romance.It’s a steamy read with amazing queer and cultural representation. I completely melted into this world; the unapologetically real characters, the deeply relatable trauma and healing of moving forward, and the locales (both Brooklyn and the Caribbean) that transported me. Emezi is never afraid of embracing the messiness of life and love, and let’s face it- life and love are MESSY AF. Their writing is so poetic and raw and will stay with me.