Title: Ready To Be Loved by You
Author: Enewerome
Series: N/A
Genre: Contemporary Christian Romance
Age Category: Adult
Blurb:
Haunted by the wounds from her past, Vivienne Adetokunbo, a fiercely independent professional bridesmaid and video content creator, wants nothing to do with God, love, or marriage. Levi Edegware, despite being saddled with the weight of a past mistake, is a devout Christian and hopeless romantic events coordinator who desires a happy family with a woman who shares the same faith and values about marriage as him.
When a wedding mishap throws them together, their first encounter is far from a fairytale. However, things take a turn when Vivienne and Levi become colleagues, which forces them to confront their fears, beliefs, and desires.
As Levi shows Vivienne kindness she's never known, an undeniable connection grows between them. But will Vivienne let go of her fears to embrace God's love and a future with Levi, or will her walls remain unbroken? Will Levi forsake all he has ever known to be with the woman he sees a future with?
My Review:
I want to start by saying I absolutely love this book's cover. I think it is very pretty and it captures the book's story and the characters' personalities so well. I also realised while I was reading the book the particular scene captured on the cover so that was nice.
The male main character is Levi who is an event coordinator and also a hopeless romantic. He loves God and also desires to find a woman who he will spend the rest of his life with. He is very meticulous when it comes to his job and hard working. But he also struggles with anxiety and grief after losing his cousin, so we see him struggling with these throughout the book. During one of his wedding jobs he bumps into the maid of honour with her big curly orange afro and the fierce encounter makes Levi say things he regrets. He carries that guilt for a few days, going back and forth on whether he should find this maid of honour and apologise to her, but then he finally decides to forget about the encounter as he didn't think he would ever see her again.
The female main character is Vivienne, the girl with the bright orange afro who is starting her professional bridesmaid business while struggling with some daddy issues and feelings of self-worth. Coming from a dysfunctional family, she wants nothing to do with God or love or marriage. So when she bumps into Levi at a wedding where she is working as a maid of honour, he says some hurtful things to her so she ends up dousing him with her drink before walking away hoping to never see him again. But as God will have it, Vivienne gets offered a job as a social media manager and content creator in the same company where Levi works and not only is Levi appointed as her supervisor, but they also have to share the same office space. The rest of the book shows us how they navigate their initial dislike towards each other and how that turns into feelings of love.
I love the representation of the Nigerian culture in this book, the food, the language and the people. I have never been to Nigeria but I am a 1/4 Nigerian as my paternal grandfather was from Nigeria (Igbo to be precise). I am also married to a Nigerian so I love reading books set in Nigeria. The first few chapters got me laughing so hard because the drama was unmatched. I couldn't put the book down and I read it in 5 days. That's the fastest I have ever read a book as it usually takes me a month to finish a book so that's saying something.
I love that this story wasn't superficial and there were a lot deep themes explored like grief, forgiveness, family relationships and evangelising to our friends and families who do not believe in God. There was one scene where a character surrenders their life to Jesus and I love how the author literally explained the gospel there which is a powerful tool especially for those who are not Christians who pick up this book.
I always get so nervous whenever I pick up Christian romance books where one of the main characters is not a Christian. Of course we know that by the end of the book they will eventually become a Christian but navigating the moments before that happens can be tricky. Levi knew the right to do from the very beginning, but he let his feelings get ahead of him, and both of them ended up getting hurt. Vivienne was the one who had to remind him about why their relationship wouldn't work as she still didn't want a relationship with God. That's why in situations like these, the best thing to do is to guard your heart. It is not God's will for us to be unequally yoked because the foundation of faith in God is so important for a godly marriage to thrive.
I love that both of them had to spend some time apart and Vivienne had to come to a place of surrender to God herself which was great. I wish the book explored a bit more about Vivienne's journey as she navigated her new found faith in God and also how the relationship between her and Levi developed.
That being said, I recommend this book if you are looking for a God-honouring, Christ-centered story which doesn't shy away from deep themes. If you love slow burn and multicultural characters, then I would definitely recommend this book.
Ready To Be Loved by You is available now for purchase on Amazon kindle unlimited. You can also preorder the ebook on Selar. Connect with Enewerome on instagram here.
If you're looking for more Christian romance recommendations with multicultural characters whose hope-filled stories point to the love and goodness of God, then check out my books here.
Thank you so much for reading.
Lots of love
Joanny💕
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