He has pretty much decided that aid work isn’t what he wants to do going forward and he’s started to realise that fulfilling his father’s legacy is preventing him from following his own dreams. But after a messy break-up, Desta decides to take a last-minute assignment which will see him spending eight weeks in Ethiopia as well as getting out of DC and away from his ex, he hopes it will also give him the time and space he needs to make some important decisions about the direction his life is taking. He’s travelled in Africa quite extensively for his work with Aid USA, but has always avoided being sent to Ethiopia, being scared, deep down, of how it would feel to be back there, especially as his father – also an aid worker – died there while Desta was in high school in the US. Twenty-six-year-old Desta Joy Walker is returning to the Ethiopia for the first time since leaving it when he was just three. In Finding Joy, an ex-pat aid worker returns to the land of his birth and discovers a love for the country – and for a handsome colleague. I loved the author’s Dreamers series, which features a group of Afro-Latinx friends living and working in New York they’re gorgeous, sensual romances that don’t shy away from exploring some very relevant and sensitive topics, but which are a wonderful celebration of diversity and an exploration of the immigrant experience.

Adriana Herrera’s Finding Joy has been recommended to me a few times, so I eagerly snapped up an audio review copy when it became available.

Finding Joy by Adriana Herrera