PREORDER ALERT: A Small-Town Girl by Diana Anyango #romance #Kenya @DianaAnyango18

Title: A Small-Town Girl

Author: Diana Anyango

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tropes: small town, ranch/cowboy, military veteran

Publisher: Love Africa Press

Publication date: March 30, 2022

BLURB

Lucy Akinyi returns home to lick her wounds after a bad breakup and finds purpose in advocating for children’s rights. But the hurt has left her slow to trust and almost numb to love.

Adams Okal goes into the heart of Kachieng’ to set up his dream ranch and have some peace, away from deception, war, death and despair. But without the army, he feels like a blind man groping in the dark and starts to feel lonely without his family until he meets Lucy.

Their physical attraction makes him want her. Yet, Adams can’t settle for a brief liaison. Lucy pulls his heartstrings like no other. However, she is resistant to getting entangled with a man in uniform. Are they strong enough to demolish all the barriers and discover love on the other side?

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EXCERPT

The pride of a woman is to get married.

Lucy Akinyi mulled over her grandma’s favourite statement as she plopped on her seat, fatigued after finishing her share of the morning chores.

“My daughter, it is three months in this hell hole. You should get back to Nairobi. There aren’t any opportunities for you in this town. You are wasting your time here,” her mother, Nyakisumo, walked into the house with an aluminium tea kettle in hand. She placed it on the table and sat down, the seat squeaking under her heavy weight.

Akinyi groaned inwards, dreading and hating this conversation in equal measure. It was like this every morning. Was home no longer a haven?

She’d returned here after everything in her life fell apart. David, her ex, ended their six-year relationship on the day she’d thought he would finally propose to her. Pain radiated in her chest when she remembered the break-up.

Afterwards had been the tragedy with Kadogo, and then Akinyi had lost her job. Indeed, misery came in pairs.

Hence, she’d escaped to her hometown to lick her wounds and patch her life together.

Sighing, she broke out of her trance, and found her mother glaring at her.

“Mother, don’t even start. I am not leaving. I know that my aunts have filled your head with nonsense. I will get married, eventually. Don’t worry so much about me,” she countered.

Her mother and grandma had been hinting that she ought to find a man and get on with having babies. According to them, a woman’s office is in the husband’s kitchen. No matter how learned or successful a woman became in life, it was useless if she wasn’t married.

However, she wanted both a career and a loving marriage. As her thirtieth birthday approached, Akinyi understood her mother’s worries. Most graduates stayed in cities with plenty of opportunities. They returned after a few years, driving big cars and building mansions. Most of Akinyi’s local agemates were already married, with two or more children.

Nyakisumo was worried that she wouldn’t get married since the town didn’t have eligible bachelors. The few good men doing meaningful work were school teachers. Furthermore, the natives of Rachuonyo couldn’t intermarry since they were believed to be related. Hence it was taboo.

Most of the young men in the area were elementary school dropouts. They spent all their time and meagre income on bhang, locally-brewed busaa and chang’aa. They wreaked havoc, stealing property and livestock, spending the better part of the days at the Agawo centre playing simbi and plotting the night raids. They’d even renamed the place Agawo si Kenya.

As if to buttress her mother’s fears, outside the window, Daddy, one of the Agawo si Kenya lot, staggered past, singing loudly, drunkenly. “Achienge, Achi Bella ooh you make… very sweet syrup and moisturising aka chwakramyacin.”

Akinyi caught a glimpse of despair in Nyakisumo’s gaze as she shook her head and walked out of the house.