Literary Life | 'The Flavours of Love' by Dorothy Koomson

I have definitely found a new author to add to my list of favourite writers. The Flavours of Love is the first book I have read by Dorothy Koomson but I do not plan on it being my last. I have been waiting to read some of her work for months and now, with university officially being over, I was quick to snap up any book of Koomson's that I could find.

 

On the surface, I should hate this book. I am not your rom-com, chick-lit kind of girl. Usually spotting the word love in a title is enough to turn me away but my interest in Koomson's work acted as an exception, and I am so glad it did. The Flavours of Love was the perfect blend of all of life's little complexities and had me turning the pages so quickly, I'm sure I probably missed some vital parts of the plot.

 

What I liked most was how much Koomson's characters irritated me, and I mean that in the best way possible. I like it when I feel entitled whilst reading a character, when they become someone I could encounter in real life or on the new, and ever so easily pass judgement on. Koomson's writing provoked a reaction - many reactions, actually - and it is one of those books that seeps into your consciousness. Starts the 'what if it happened to me' strands of thought that are sometimes difficult to stop.

 

It is a dark book; it covers some of the darkest parts of humanity but Koomson is careful to balance these out. Not with artificial lightness but with reality. We all suffer from hardships, from anxiety, from stress but we cope because we create our own ways of coping. We balance things out and, to use a cooking analogy since much of the book revolves around kitchens, though the scales will tip from time to time, equilibrium is usually restored. There are a lot of decisions made within the novel, some I agree with, some I don't, but they keep you on your toes and force you - in the gentlest definition of the word - to carry on reading. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of Dorothy Koomson's books in the future.


Jade x