Bad love is one woman’s journey through the memories of her early love life and the formative moments that made her who she is. Ekuah Danquah first falls in love at 18 with an ambitious young musician. She relives the memories of their relationship from their first fiery meeting to the confusing trials that discovering life through University can lead a couple to find themselves in.

Maame Blue writes love how many of us experience it the first time we find it. Ekuah endures the ache and ecstasy of being with someone your heart has fixed itself upon.

The parts where Ekuah find herself drifting from her (not-quite-but-kinda) boyfriend are the bits that hit me the most. That feeling of uncertainty that comes from not knowing another person’s mind and the mental torture that we put ourselves trying to figure where we stand with a not so emotionally generous lover surges and wanes throughout the story. Maame Blue gives us exquisitely enjoyable pain.

Some of my favourite moments in Bad Love came from the memories that Ekuah shares with us about her family. Ekuah is born in London. She does the battle a lot of us do with the UK school system where the tiniest little thing can make you a social outcast or figure of ridicule. She has mixed thoughts and feelings about her family life. Both her parents are Ghanaian. Her parents are also very different people from one another. You can feel how she has to live with her feet in two different worlds as what she lives at home can clash with what she experiences at school and later university.

She has strained relationships with both her parents at different points. She also has views of her parents’ marriage that conflict with her own expectations of relationships causing her sometimes to question herself.

You could see how her past influenced who she was. It was great to see why she decided to choose the path she chose or the actions she took when she handled her love life.

I listen to the audiobook which is read by Vivienne Acheampong who has appeared in BBC One crime drama, Death in Paradise and Netflix comedy series, Turn Up Charlie. I loved the way she narrated the story. I was completely absorbed in every single memory.

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. If you are looking for a great heartfelt story about life, love and family then this is the audiobook for you.

Maame Blue is a Ghanaian Londoner, writer, and project manager for not-for- profit organisations. As well as co-hosting Headscarves and Carry-ons – a podcast about black girls living abroad – she regularly runs social media campaigns for www.bmeprpros.co.uk and sporadically blogs over at www.maamebluewrites.com. In 2018 she won the Africa Writes x AFREADA flash fiction competition for her story Black Sky. She has since been published in AFREADA, Afribuku, and Memoir Magazine; with stories forthcoming in Storm Cellar Quarterly and Litro Magazine.

Bad Love by Maame Blue is available on Audible. Click here to find out more.

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