This is the third book by Akwaeke Emezi that I have read - as soon as I saw it on Net Galley I pounced on the Request button because I enjoyed the other two books ("Freshwater" and "The Death of Vivek Oji"). Huge thanks to the publishers for approving me for an ARC.

Compared to those books, this is quite mainstream, as it moves away from dealing with characters who are trans or gender non-conforming. It appears on its surface as a straight-up romance but, as I've grown to somewhat expect of this author, it has plenty simmering under the surface. The opening scene is a hot sex-scene but even the opening line - by mentioning "the accident" - lets us know that there are depths of loss and grief to be explored.

All of the dialogue between the MCs is perfect - Feyi and Joy are as sassy towards each other as they are supportive; Feyi and Alim's back-and-forth is so real and genuine. I felt the showdown with Nasir was less believeable, my one foible with the book.

All of the plot points and characters are woven beautifully. I found that I felt apprehension as Amil's character was introduced. I began to slow down as I was reading it as I felt I could see and didn't like the direction it was going. In the end, it was just beautiful and made for a more realistic romance than many I have read.

"You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty" has reaffirmed by view that everything by Akwaeke Emezi is worth reading.

Emezi should be a cultural critic, as they excel at integrating art, music, and literary references into their work. I frequently had to dip out of the book to look up the names dropped - and their taste is GOOD. The story itself was strong. I like how Alim and Feyi have heavy shit to deal with, but they DO deal with it. The dialogue felt spot on, even the colloquial exchanges. Two minor qualms - almost every character is queer, which was nice but also felt unlikely. And Alim was a bit too perfect. No one is that good.

From the title, I really had no idea what to expect from this book. But from the first page, I was transfixed by this story of love, lust, art, betrayal and fierce, uncompromising female friendship.

Feyi had shut off her feelings after a car accident involving her and her husband Jonah. Five years later, she has a hook up at a party, and realises she can feel lust, but she no longer wants anything more.

Then she meets Nasir, a strong, sexy and kind man who is prepared to wait for her. But this man has no idea how his fate is set to detonate when he invites Feyi to his Island home.

A story about forbidden love, written with such dexterity and intelligence. We might think there is right and wrong. But in between these binary labels, there is nuance and complexity which this writer beautifully demonstrates. I was captivated especially by the friendship between Feyi and Joy which felt so real. Having someone who'll give you harsh truths but also always have your back is true friendship and Joy and Feyi together were the best part of this book.

A truly inspiring and intimate portrayal of love in all its many guises.

I will just start off by saying this is not my go to genre. I am really glad I picked it as I did enjoy it overall. It took me a little while to settle into the author's writing style and adjust to the big hit of spicy steam that hits you at the start and end!

I loved the quality of the writing, it evoked such strong visualisation for me, this I particularly enjoyed when reading the scenes that involved food. Boy was I hungry for those dishes.

This was my first Emezi book and will not be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed all the strong themes they covered in this book:
Food, arts and culture
Trauma and grief
Love and lust
Black women celebrating their sexuality

In summary this is a sure fire red hot summer read for you to get your teeth into!

Thank you for the review copy.

I loved this book. The opening few chapters don't set you up for the type of book it's going to be - don't let the raunchy opening sex scene fool you into thinking it's going to be pure 50 shades style romance, this is so much more. It explores relationships in all their complexities - platonic and romantic - and what it's like to be young, free and trying to carve out your career whilst figuring out who you are and what you want. The added layer that explores grief in its various forms really adds to the plot and connects all of the characters in a clever way, without overpowering the story or feeling like it's a book about death. There's so much hope and beauty in this story - the writing is brilliant and kept me hooked all the way through. I'd love to see this as a movie!

Akwaeke Emezi is up there with my favourite authors and their latest novel 'You Make a Fool of Death with Your Beauty' has simply reinforced this for me.

As a reader who doesn't usually gravitate towards romance, I was unsure whether I would enjoy this book but, as ever, Emezi pushes the boundaries of the genre to create something special. Themes of grief, friendship and identity are interwoven with entertaining conversations between Feyi (our protagonist) and her best friend Joy, spicy sex scenes and stunning descriptions of people and landscapes. We follow Feyi as she tries to open up to new love 5 years after her husband died in a car accident. She is so messy and makes mistakes along the way but you are always rooting for her. Her best friend Joy is also a fantastic character who encourages her friend to seek pleasure and happiness above all else, we all need a Joy in our lives.

The obligatory Happy Ever After of the romance genre is here but it in no way felt contrived or cheesy with enough loose ends to keep you wondering just how things will pan out for these characters after the novel ends. I thoroughly enjoyed this vibrant, saucy but also poignant novel. Is there anything Akwaeke Emezi can't do?

I wanted to like this so much and to be fair, the first 50% was excellent - gorgeous writing, great flow, strong side characters (I need a Joy). Unfortunately, it really lost it’s way in the second half. Feyi’s personality never really comes through and she feels flat, the age gap romance was borderline creepy, and so many pages of dialogue were dedicated to agonising over it - reading Alim and Feyi’s endless back and forth bored me to tears - and trying to justify it. The steamy romance fizzled out fast and I skimmed the last 25%. Probably wouldn’t recommend.

Oh my days, this book was everything I thought it would be and then some! Anything romance related isn't usually a go to for me but this one caught my eye and it blew me away! The raw emotion. The descriptive language. The love. The spice! The hurt. The friendships. The romance. The setting. The humor. The sadness. The hope. I loved it all. I am in love with Emezi's writing. It was such an intense read at times but ultimately I found it to be a literary breath of fresh air.

I could go on and on gushing about this book. But I think I shall leave it at this. Go and read this book. Go now.

*Please look up any trigger warnings before reading*

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is contemporary and at times steamy romance novel – it certainly opens with a bang!
Feyi Adekola tragically lost her husband five years ago in an accident. She’s now taking steps to start dating again, with lots of encouragement from her best friend.
After a steamy encounter with a stranger at a rooftop party, things start to change drastically for her.
She is whisked away from her art studio and home in Brooklyn to a tropical island.

Little does she know the man she is currently dating and taking to his home has a very famous celebrity chef as a dad.
She's dating the perfect man, and is ready to embrace her new life and yet something isn’t quite right the spark she feels isn’t for the man she’s dating.

This book has a few themes grief, friendship, moving on from loss, loving again, and second chances.
It’s been five years since the awful accident that killed Feyi’s husband but she is still dealing with the loss and trauma.
This is a slow-burn, sometimes messy story and if you love romance, you will like this one.

This book is just *chefs kiss* literally ;)

Akwaeke Emezi has written a perfect romance book and you should all pick it up like yesterday.
So Feyi is trying to start dating again after she lost her husband in a car accident. and she ends up finding love in someone who has also lost their partner. I really thought finding love after grief was written well in this book. Another thing that was written well were the men! They knew how to communicate and I was frothing over it.
Would love to see a companion novel about Feyi's best friend, Joy.

Absolutely adored everything about this book and I can not wait to reread it!

What a stunning novel! I got into it without knowing much and got struck by the romance and the journey that the characters go through. My best 2022 read so far!

Part hot summer romance, part exploration of love and loss, You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty is a stunning novel.

Feyi is only just about ready to consider physical intimacy, 5 years after losing her husband and childhood sweetheart Jonah in a car accident. After a few casual trysts, Feyi meets Nasir, someone she feels she could potentially feel emotionally intimate and close with.

Despite both agreeing to move at a glacially slow pace and remain just friends for now, Nasir invites her to his childhood home. There, she meets Nasir’s father Alim, and that is where things get complicated…

What begins as a sexy, scorching tale of an independent woman in a vibrant city like New York morphes into a story with substance and heart.

Desire and passion thrums through Feyi, both in her work and in her soul, but she has never allowed herself to feel close to anyone besides her best friend Joy since the loss of Jonah. Her artwork is both visceral and powerful, using blood as a medium to covey how the loss she experienced has shaped her.

The sparks fly when she meets Alim, and despite knowing that he is the father of someone she is ‘almost’ dating, it doesn’t prevent their chemistry almost jumping from the page.

The messiness of this relationship, with the potential fall-out affecting not just Feyi and Alim but Nasir and his whole family, might not exactly be something to aspire to, and yet it oozes life; life IS messy, and you can’t choose who to fall in love with. When you experience loss as Feyi and Alim have, can you really turn away from genuine connection when it presents itself?

This novel is exquisitely written, laced with humour but also full of beautiful prose. The island home of Alim is described beautifully, and in contrast to the gritty cityscape of New York. It is a joy to read; messy, moving and memorable, it is not to be missed.

I am so happy I got an early copy of this, it’s as good as all the early reviews told me it was. I adore the approach to mature romance, You Made a Fool really does show a true reflection of relationships, messy ,sad, angry, joyous and hopeful. Emezi's writing is beautifully descriptive and has such a strong voice, this is a romance with strength like that voice, it deals with loss, grieving, guilt and second chances. It’s addictive (frustratingly so at times) but overall a fantastic read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I have mixed feelings about this book. This book does a beautiful job at looking at the messiness of relationships when tied in with loss and grief. Both Feyi and Alim have lost loved one's; as they open up to each other about this, they allow themselves to be vulnerable and fall in love with each other, but at what cost?
For me the pacing was just slightly off. The first 30% of the book is fairly fast paced, but then slows down after that.

3.5 stars

It took me a while to come to a conclusion on how I should rate this book because I had such mixed feelings about it. It was such a quick and easy beach read and I loved the vibe of the setting, however, I wasn’t sure about the writing. One moment there was beautiful, descriptive world-building, and then the next it was let down by what I felt was very repetitive dialogue and an unnecessary overload of character thoughts and feelings.

What I struggled with the most was the lack of a real story. The book seemed to reach a climax very late on and then the issues that had arisen were never really resolved.

The relationship between Feyi and Alim was unrealistic and happened far too quickly to be believable. We discovered why Feyi was so attracted to Alim, but his attraction to her wasn’t explored as fully, it just happened. I think it needed to be fleshed out more. I would have liked to have seen the story, characters and relationships developed further.

What I really liked was the deeper meaning of the story. There were some beautiful quotes about living life on your own terms, which really resonated with me.

Overall, it was a fun, slightly spicy read but I was left wanting in some areas.

I was over the moon to be accepted for early access to this book via @netgalley. After reading and OBSESSING over Bitter & Pet by @azemezi, this author quickly became one I needed more from. 👏

You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty is an absolutely stunning and heart wrenching portrayal of dealing with deep grief after losing a spouse. We see Feyi attempting to come to terms with the want to start seeing other people since her husband died in tragic circumstances five years ago and the fallouts that happen along that journey back into dating. ❤️‍🩹

Using art and sex to explore and relate to her own grief and splintered soul, Feyi ends up connecting deeply with the one person she thinks she can’t have. An explosive and confusing amount of feeling and hurt follows, as she tried to explain this connections with those around her. 🥲

I ADORED the amount of rep in this one, for LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC characters and mental health/grief. @azemezi is an absolute master of lyrical writing which portrays as much emotion and thought as possible. 🥹

This is a story about being true to your own heart and connecting with people who understand your pain. It’s packed with trauma, self work and meaningful relationships, as well as bucketloads of SPICE and friendship, too. I’d highly recommend this one and can’t tell you how much I enjoy being immersed in @azemezi’s unique writing style. 👏

If you’re ready for an absolute rollover coaster of emotions woven into a character based novel, with stunning imagery, this NEEDS to be on your TBR. 👀

I adored this book! I absolutely adored this book and the journey of Feyi, the main protagonist, throughout the chapters while she deals with the complexities of love as well as coming to terms with her trauma. One for your summer TBR for sure.

The book is messy, stunning, heartbreaking and relatable. Emezi's prose is propulsive, gorgeous, and urgent. I loved it!

Akwaeke Emezi is one of the most talented writes of this generation, I will absolutely continue to read every single masterpiece that they release and this is no exception to that.

This story is so incredibly intense and keeps the audience hooked on every moment, whilst tackling grief and sadness.

4.25 rounded down. I don't normally read romance, but I made an exception when I saw that Akwaeke Emezi was releasing a new book.

What I loved:
- The beginning scene! 🥵🌶 I started it on the train on my commute and ahem - I hope no one was reading over my shoulder!
- The writing style. I had already fallen in love with it when I read The Death of Vivek Oji and Emezi did not disappoint, even though it was a completely different genre to what I'm used to.
- The dialogues between Feyi (the MC) and Joy. It was fun and authentic and a beautiful friendship. Reminded me of the series Insecure.
- All the descriptions of food made me drool. Almost made me miss my non-vegan days!
- This was a "visually-rich" book: all the descriptions of nature, architecture, art, clothes, faces, hair (and bodies 🤩) were so vivid, I could close my eyes and picture it.
- The representation of skin colours (especially Black love 🤎🖤 but also a fab Asian female character) and sexualities. Not just straight and gay, but the spectrum 💖💜💙

What I found not as good:
- Some characters were not fully fleshed out. I wanted to find out more about Joy and her life. Same with Feyi's first love, whom we find out very little about.
- Some of the internal dialogue was a bit repetitive/cliché - the word "alive" may have been overused. That said, it was probably intentional, given the character's traumatic past...
- Overall the plot is simple and the second half of the book did not captivate me as much as the first - BUT it may be exactly what you want if you like romance 💗

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @faberbooks for providing me with an ARC.