His Only Wife

 His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie, 288 pages.

Afi is an amateur seamstress living with her mother in a house owned by the biggest businesswoman in her small Ghanaian town. Her whole life quickly changes when that same businesswoman asks her to marry her son. Elikem Ganyo is considered quite a catch; he's handsome, rich, polite, and good to his family. But he is also in love with a woman his family doesn't approve of, and they are desperately hoping that if he marries a respectable woman he'll finally leave his mistress. So Afi, knowing all of this, marries him in absentia and is determined to be the best wife possible, although she doesn't actually see her new husband until weeks after their wedding, and even then only rarely.  Yet somehow falling in love only makes everything harder.

Something I found fascinating about this book is that Eli only actually appears in a fairly small portion of it and the mistress, who I believe appears on the cover, is almost not shown at all. This means that the entire book is very focused on Afi and her development as a character. I also thought this book was fascinating as a snapshot into modern Ghana. The setting feels very significant in all aspects of the book, and I absolutely never forgot where we were, but enough context was provided that no prior knowledge of the country is required going in. This isn't normally a genre I read, but there were enough really interesting elements to keep my attention throughout, and I suspect that readers who enjoy the contemporary/literary genres more would like this book even better. 

Evvie Drake Starts Over

 Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (2019) 289 pages

Evvie Drake has spent the year since her husband died feeling like a fraud. Her husband, Tim, was a respected doctor in their small city in Maine, but what nobody knew–not even Evvie's best friend Andy–is that Tim didn't treat Evvie well. His unexpected death in a car accident came at the very time she was packing her car to finally leave him.

Meanwhile, Dean–until recently–was a professional baseball pitcher who just can't pitch with accuracy anymore. He comes to Maine to be near his good friend Andy to get away from the New York media's attention.

Dean moves into an apartment inside Evvie's home where the two interact and try to heal emotionally. We might think we know they will get together in the end, but these characters feel like real people who may or may not connect that way. There is a lot of baggage!