Dele Weds Destiny by Tomi Obaro

It also highlights that love is a choice and way beyond feelings because feelings can be fickle. It reminds us that sometimes, sustaining our friendships can be pretty tricky.

This book follows the lives of three women who have been friends for over three decades-Zainab, Funmi, and Enitan. They meet at the university and become close friends. However, circumstances, as is often the case, keep them very far away from each other, and they do not get to be in the same space until 30 years later when Funmi invites them to her daughter Destiny’s wedding.

I immensely enjoyed reading this book. It reminded me of some of my mother’s friends who have been a massive part of her life for decades- women who have been there for each other in good times and in bad times and continue to love each other through it all. Tomi did an excellent job with the representation of female friendships and sisterhood.

This book portrays the highs and lows of friendships. It shows us how we must make sacrifices and efforts to sustain our friendships consciously; how we need to extend grace to our friends.

It also highlights that love is a choice and way beyond feelings because feelings can be fickle. It reminds us that sometimes, sustaining our friendships can be pretty tricky. Sometimes our friends may hurt us, but we forgive them because we love them. Loving our friends and making compromises because of them is a decision we must often make consciously. 

I liked how culture, tradition, and marriage were explored in this book because they are a massive part of us. It’s no surprise that although the title of this book is Dele weds Destiny, it is more about the three friends than them.

Weddings are a force that unites and brings friends and families from different parts of the world together, and the parents of the bride/ groom make the wedding more about themselves than their children. 

The character development in this book is fantastic. Tomi wrote the POV of each of the friends with so much depth. She also highlighted how parental patterns and trauma shaped the three women and influenced their decisions and behavior as adults.

This book was absolutely well written and treated many vital themes- female friendships, mother-daughter relationships, culture, marriage, love, loss, sacrifice, and trauma. 

Zainab’s POV was my favorite, and I wanted to read more about her relationship with her husband, Ahmed, and her children🥺.

Thank you, @nenye, for buddy reading this book with me. I really enjoyed our discussions ❤️.

This book is so good, and I’m looking forward to reading another work from its author. I highly recommend it!❤️.