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(I read an advanced version of this and my review is 100% honest).

"You were simply play things..."

Set in contemporary Nigeria, this is the story of a family and how their lives came to be turned upside down in one week.

Wife and mother Toyosi is hesitant to accept the thirteen-year-old house girl that is brought to her door from a woman in the church, despite needing the help. Finally, she agrees to try Adanna (the house girl) for a period of time, to see if she fits into Toyosi's life well. One evening, Toyosi, her husband (pastor Eric), and their daughter are praying together when she smells gas coming from the kitchen. Confused, she sends Adanna to figure out the issue. And then there is an explosion.

Once things settle down and Toyosi enters, she is horrified to see that there is no trace of Adanna or her body. But she couldn't have survived such an accident?

As if Toyosi's life wasn't already stressful--despite how they present to the world, she and Eric are having serious problems in their marriage--she is now taken with trying to solve the mystery of what exactly happened to Adanna while keeping her death a secret. Could Eric have had something to do with it? Was the explosion truly an accident? And who is the creepy-looking driver that follows her on the road one day?

This book is a very fast-paced read. From the moment of the explosion, things take off and so much happens (I seriously can't believe how short the time period that everything took place was...imagine!) so that it's one thing after another. The writing puts you directly in the setting, even including some characters speaking Nigerian pidgin, and as a Nigerian myself, I really appreciated it (I do think it's accessible enough that non-Nigerians will be able to understand it as well). Also, Toyosi and Eric felt very real and so did their issues/the tension in their relationship.

As for the ending, it was really interesting to see how all these threads and little details were connected in the end and finally understand what was going on. I also liked that things were resolved without feeling like everything was wrapped up in a neat bow. There was hope but still some healing to be done.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. I didn't give the full five stars because a look at the final version showed me that it could've benefited from more thorough copyediting and proofreading.