Title: Chancing Faith
Author: Empi Baryeh
Binding: Paperback
Genre: contemporary (Interracial) Romance
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 2012
Publishers: Black Opal books Publication
Reasons for Reading: From my TBR. (An autographed copy I must add :-))
Naaki Tabika wanted to prove to herself, that as a Ghanaian young woman poised on the doorstep of a successful career with a fine advertising company Media Image Advertising (MIA), she was much more than wife and mother material. She had broken up with Gyamfi precisely because she did not want to be tied down to a man who would submerge her identity and dreams of making it in the competitive advertising world. And she certainly had no room for another man in her life so when Thane Alexsander, the American Ad Executive came striding into her life, she was confused big time. She found it difficult admitting her hopeless attraction for him. Could she dare mix business with pleasure? More importantly could she trust him and her heart?
‘Thane Alexsander didn’t date co-workers either until business took him to Ghana and he met Naaki. Now he was at risk of breaking all the rules. Could he stop this headlong fall until it’s too late?’ (Blurb)
Chancing Faith is Empi Baryeh’s second romance to come out of Ghana but this time it is an interracial romance between two career-driven professionals who must find a common ground to able to give their blossoming love a chance.
I must say that there is nothing racial about this novel, not at all. Both Thane and Naaki were very comfortable in their being different, and of different races, if you get what I mean. If there was any difference, it was more cultural than racial. The main cultural divergence in the novel concentrated on business issues related to the advertising field, with the unpleasant potential threat of an American company taking over an African one by forcing their policies and values on the employees, without due cognizance to the culture of the local employees.
What I love about Chancing Faith is the background information on the business of advertising in my own country which I never knew much about. The novel was well written and very well researched, with interesting believable and well-developed characters. Thane and Naaki’s romance was conducted amidst lots of fun and with much decorum and respect for each other’s views and cultures. That is not to say there were no hot moments; there were quite a number of them, though the couple did not jump into bed on their first meeting. (I must admit I was expecting something like that after reading her first novel, Most Eligible Bachelor) I guess, Thane had to put a lot of restrain on his feelings though the telltale signs of his attraction for Naaki gave him away most of the time.
The language was simple, interspersed with the local dialect giving the novel that ‘Ghanaian feeling of our own special kind of English’. (the author explained the foreign words in italics) and the writing very well-edited.
In my review of her first novel, Most Eligible Bachelor, I did say that Empi is one Ghanaian lady we should watch out for. She is carving a niche for herself as a hot contemporary romance writer with fast-paced plots and hot upwardly mobile Ghanaian characters who know what they want and go all out for it. Yes, we can have it all, education, fine jobs and wonderful partners. 🙂
This is a fine novel and I recommend it to all who love romance and would want to know more about Ghana and her wonderful people and culture.
Reading Pleasure 