Hey y’all! It’s another week and another episode of The Spotlight. How are you doing? I hope awesome 🙂

I finished a new book yesterday. It’s one that I’ve been curious about for a while and planned to read, but never really got around to. And when I started reading it about a month ago, my mind was just tired… It really wasn’t fair, cos I’d just finished editing and publishing A Small World Season Three, and I just wanted to take a break from reading or writing, lol!!! In the middle of reading this book, I binged on Lucifer, as per my review last week.

Anyway, so the book is called STILL, and it is the first part of a four part series about four Nigerian medical students in America. The second part was released this year and was part of my reason for finally getting this read. STILL is the debut of the author, Eniola Prentice, who was a medical student when she got the inspiration to write this series. She actually said the story is based on real stories from her interaction with her colleagues. How daring 🙂 Learn more about her and the series at www.eniolaprentice.com.

So, to the matter… STILL was an incredible read, as I said in my review on Okadabooks. From the beginning, I knew this book was different. The writing style was very unique, and what amazed me, as I read on, was that the storyline was also exceptional. With four major characters and a few others that got in the spotlight, the book shares the stories of real people going through deep issues, and gives real insight into human behaviour.

Looking at the cover of the book, I wouldn’t have thought it was Christian or even faith-based. As you read, you don’t get a sense that you are reading a ‘religious’ book. You just get roped into the lives, emotions and experiences of the characters and learn the lessons as they do. You may begin to wonder if you’re reading a Christian book, but you already love the story, the characters and the author, so you read on… Really impressive work, Eniola.

The story is suspenseful, because Sola has a secret, and so does Tayo, and you are left guessing how they are connected until the last chapters of the book, when everything comes to a climax. Although, hmmm, I guessed the secret by 25% into the book. But maybe because I’m a writer too, lol! Still, I was very impressed with how it was revealed and dealt with and felt all the emotions as they played out.

I liked how the book was broken into small chapters, and how each chapter was written from the perspective of one of the four main characters. All except two chapters – one from a narrator/eyewitness account and another from a fifth character, Ego. I liked the eye/witness account and Ego’s too, but I thought that it would have been better to be consistent. Ego’s account wasn’t all that enlightening, and I didn’t like her anyway.

The book deals with mental illness, crime, sexual abuse, alcoholism and gives a really good look into what it is like to be a medical student. So many different characters brought to one place for different reasons, all with their ambitions and burdens, making life long friendships and experiencing crushes and heartaches… It was definitely an interesting story. No boring moment.

My critique would be that I struggled to get Tayo’s character… There were just some things he did that were beyond dumb to me, which a guy might actually do, but was a little bit inconsistent with his character. But maybe I’ll know him better in Book Two. I also didn’t get Nikky’s stupidity over him, lol. And even though the book was well-written, there were some minor editorial issues, which another proofread would correct.

Altogether, the book was amazing and the ending, perfect! So excited about reading Book Two. I think more of the Christian lessons will ripen in the next book as they were just budding as Book One ended. Sola was finally able to consider that maybe God actually cared about her 🙂

I recommend this book to everyone! A really good read and a great work by Eniola Prentice. I am officially a fan.

Photo credit: http://www.pixabay.com

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