#41: Love Accepts Us As We Are

A Review of Amongst a thousand stars by Rosemary Okafor

Author’s Note: Once upon a time, a story unfolded in the world of unplanned romance, weaving chastity and wanton seduction, unwrapping the beauty of tough love, forgiveness, redemption, and promises. This story is one that will arouse different emotions in you: love, hate, gratitude. But I hope at the end of the day, you have a reason to embrace the characters and praise the Lord on their behalf.

Trigger Warning: Profanity, drug abuse, nudity, childhood trauma, morally gray MC.

Greetings, once again dear reader👋🏽👋🏽
I hope you are doing well and taking good care of yourself.

Welcome to another edition of this spectacular newsletter.
Today’s newsletter is a guest feature by Roving, a Bibliophile who enjoys reading books and writing about them. Sometimes, she writes other things too.

A peculiar thing that caught my attention was the author’s note and reading it filled me with suspense, hoping for reasons to praise God on behalf of the characters. Flipping through the pages (more like swiping on my phone screen because it’s only available as an e-book), I became more amazed by the storytelling. Laughing at the use of Nigerian slang, feeling the moments pass by, and loving the story as it progressed. 

Akunnaya is the main character in this story. She is a young Nigerian woman living a life abroad that many people desire. When we discover her source of income, we try not to be carried away. Beneath the smiles and stunning beauty, Akunna carries a burden too big for her to bear. She dislikes her name and when she moves to a new place, she changes it to Scarlett. A name that she intends to reflect class and sophistication.

The other main character is a handsome and talented gospel singer, Noah. He’s a young man eager to serve God with his talent and his passion for God is more moving than his ability to sing.

Noah meets Scarlett by chance and they fall in love with each other. They soon realized they were from different sides of the world and this had nothing to do with their colour. It was simply a case of Noah being a Christian, and Scarlett not being one. They collide into each other’s worlds and try to save each other; Noah tries to save Scarlett from herself, and Scarlett tries to save Noah by telling him she's not worth the trouble.

Emotions run high in this story and we see how deeply they can affect someone. Scarlett struggles with guilt and a feeling of unworthiness, wishing she could have a clean slate. Noah assures her that it's okay and that he loves her just the way she is. To him, her past doesn't matter.

“We can teach the world how to love people whose pasts were nothing like ours.”

The quote above is probably one of the most profound statements in the book. It's a message to all Christians that we should love without bias as the love of God comes without discrimination and it is how we should learn to love. 

Questions like “Does everyone really deserve love?” are answered by Rosemary in this book, where she portrays a love that does not regard a person's past; a love that’s whole and leaves no room for regrets. No matter how bad a person's past is, there's still hope to find a love that is enough.

The people in this story faced many challenges and when they overcame them, Rosemary delivers her promise. We praise God. 

Some more romantic quotes:

“In that kiss, there was a miracle.”

“If staying safe means staying without you, I don’t want it.”

“Attraction truly was such a strange thing. Most times one wouldn’t have the word to describe it. Just ... boom!”

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Have you read this book? What did you think about it? Kindly leave a comment.
If you read this book after reading this review, come back and share 😊

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