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    What Tears Us Apart
    Unavailable
    What Tears Us Apart
    Unavailable
    What Tears Us Apart
    Ebook338 pages4 hours

    What Tears Us Apart

    By Deborah Cloyed

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook



    Love lives in the most dangerous places of the heart

    The real world. That's what Leda desperately seeks when she flees her life of privilege to travel to Kenya. She finds it at a boys'orphanage in the slums of Nairobi. What she doesn't expect is to fall for Ita, the charismatic and thoughtful man who gave up his dreams to offer children a haven in the midst of turmoil.

    Their love should be enough for one another-it embodies the soul-deep connection both have always craved. But it is threatened by Ita's troubled childhood friend, Chege, a gang leader with whom he shares a complex history. As political unrest reaches a boiling point and the slum erupts in violence, Leda is attacked and forced to put her trust in Chege, the one person who otherwise inspires anything but.

    In the aftermath of Leda's rescue, disturbing secrets are exposed, and Leda, Ita and Chege are each left grappling with their own regret and confusion. Their worlds upturned, they must now face the reality that sometimes the most treacherous threat is not the world outside, but the demons within.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarlequin MIRA
    Release dateApr 1, 2013
    ISBN9781460309742
    Unavailable
    What Tears Us Apart
    Author

    Deborah Cloyed

    Deborah Cloyed lives in Los Angeles, in Humphrey Bogart's old room with a view. As a photographer, travel writer, or curious nomad, she's previously resided in London, Barcelona, Thailand, Honduras, Kenya, and New York City. She's traveled to twenty other countries besides, several as a contestant with her childhood best friend on CBS' The Amazing Race. She runs a photography school for kids and is happily at work on her next book.

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    Reviews for What Tears Us Apart

    4.5/5

    8 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I won't even lie, it was the cover that caught my attention.
      Absolutely gorgeous.

      However, the book itself is hard to rate. I loved the story, but it was the writing that put me off.
      Not writing exactly, but the format it was written in.

      The past is written in past tense, the present in present tense and then suddenly - another past, from way back - in present tense. It really took some getting used to.

      This book is more of a 3.5 but I'm rounding it up because of the very complex relationship between Ita and Chege.
      Ita is basically a saint and a hero in this slum. He's a good person, incredibly smart, and capable of achieving so much with so little. And I could see why everyone idolized him - he runs the orphanage, he checks on people to see if everything is okay, he basically gave up his life and dreams to take care of the others, and he doesn't hold it against anybody.
      Personally, I'd be livid. I'd hate everything and everyone, not just mope around in self-pity. So I kind of thought his character was too good to be true. All people have little monsters - except - he had none. Just a lot of misplaced guilt. And you might think in the end that he is no saint, nor a hero. He was very judgmental and, I'd say, ungrateful.

      Chege, on the other hand, made sure that Ita would have the life he deserved, and he would have done anything (and he did) to give Ita that opportunity to make something out of himself.
      Kind of like a personal guardian angel. For me, he was the true hero of this story.

      But there is a lot of resentment from Ita toward Chege. I tried to understand, but even I could see that Chege was just looking out for him. Again I'm saying - very complex.

      What ruined the story for me was Leda's character. All I kept thinking in the end was that if she didn't come between them... which she did and I won't be convinced otherwise. I liked her, initially, but as the time went she was just another little rich girl trying to clean her guilty conscience.

      All these misunderstandings and assumptions. I was so angry when it all came out in the end. People talk.
      Maybe it would have been more believable if the characters were younger. If the characters are in their thirties, it just isn't believable that they wouldn't have talked things out. They should be mature enough to know better than making assumptions. Especially when you have people so close as Ita was with Chege. Why did Ita assume the worst of him? When it all comes out it won't make any sense to you. All he ever did was take care of Ita.

      Now, the relationship between Ita and Leda - yeah, they had good chemistry. They fell in love immediately, but I guess they were it for each other. I liked the romance, it felt like he was saving her even though she was the one that had all that money and could have provided for him and the kids.

      Like I said, I wasn't the fan of the format this was written in, but I did like the writing itself. Obviously, I've never been to Kenya so I don't know how accurate the descriptions are but the author brought it to life.
      It has a great cast of supporting characters and I loved Mary and the kids, and Kiani and of course, Chege. The villain in this story is the politics, not any particular person. I liked that.

      Another thing I didn't like was that you get two extra POVs somewhere throughout the story. The author probably wanted to show you these things so that's why you get them. But it just felt so random.

      There are a couple of mildly graphic sex scenes in this book. Just a heads up.

      A few friends told me this blurb reminds them of Fisher Amelie's VAIN. It's nothing like it, the only thing in common is the orphanage. Overall, I liked the story. You get the impression that the author is not just writing blindly, but that she has actually been to this place.
      I definitely recommend it.

      **Free copy of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
    • 5/5
      "What Tears Us Apart" does an excellent job of illustrating the cultural differences and disparity between the haves and the have-nots, that the luck of the draw in where we are born determines a lot of the fortune in our lives. This was a good reminder to myself that those of us who are more blessed to have been given an easier life, need to be cognizant of that blessing and make it a priority to do more for others.This is the story of the convergence of paths between an isolated and wealthy American woman (Leda ) who is trying to find her usefulness in the world and a brilliant, kind Kikuyu man (Ita) whose destiny is to run a small orphanage in the midst of one of the world's largest slums, called Kibera, outside of Nairobi, Kenya. This is the slum that he, himself, along with his dubious friend, Chege, a member of the Mungiki mafia, survived as orphaned children themselves. Although Ita's destiny has helped him take a better path in life, Chege was not as fortunate and has never left the life of doing what is needed to survive. He is broken. He is definitely a criminal. But Ita has not forgotten the years of their youth and the loyalty is still there.This jumble of people, from different parts of the world, different backgrounds and different life experiences, find a common thread. This is a love story. Love between Leda and Ita, love for the incredible and unique children in the orphanage, love for friends. Loving and trying to understand and forgive those who cause the most horrible cruelty and betrayal.Leda's arrival at "Triumph Orphanage" takes place just weeks before the disastrous election and resulting riots between Mwai Kibaki (from the Kikuyu tribe) and Raila Odinga (Luo tribe) in December 2007. Fraud was suspected in Kibaki's win and resulted in neighbor lashing out against neighbor, members of the Luo tribe setting homes and shops aflame, and the Mungiki (notorious Kikuyo mafia) retaliated. The end result was a crime spree of rape, murder and destruction.
    • 5/5
      An emotionally charged love story! Does love come upon by chance or is it destiny?This is one of the most in-depth and intriguing stories I have read in a long while. Upon the opening chapters of the book the main character Leda has just quit her job as a cook and is now looking for something more fulfilling in her life. Now in her late 20′s Leda is the only child of Estella who neglected her daughter as a child and is now a bitter, condescending and unsupportive mother. Leda is a lonely lady, she doesn’t have any friends or family and is living in the mountains of California in a beautiful home. The prospect of going back to school is not of interest to Leda and since she has the privilege of wealth she decides on a whim to do some volunteer work. Upon searching the internet her destiny pulls her to the Kibera slums of Nairobi where she applies for the position of assistant at the Triumph orphanage. This orphanage is run by Ita with funds from his guided safari tours. Ita is a man with a warm and gentle smile and Leda instantly feels an attraction toward him. So when offered the position it doesn’t take long for Leda to place all her conveniences aside and travel to Kibera.This time span of this story is 2.5 months from the time Leda leaves California until the end of the book. The style of writing flows back and forth in time and from the different views of the characters like a film. It doesn’t take long for the political repression of 2007 to uproot the town and little orphanage leaving Leda and Ita completely torn.What happens when Leda arrives in Kibera takes the reader on an emotional ride. I found myself taking on the role of Leda at first physically as I pull my suitcase, feeling the dirt and sewage underneath my feet, the smell of rot and decay of garbage. Emotionally as Leda reflects on the situations and lives of those in the slum. When she falls in love with the children at the orphanage, her relationship with Ita with other characters. The fear and terror every time she encounters Ita’s friend and rival Chege. Her emotionally repressive feelings and memories of the relationship with her mother.What Tears Us Apart of is a passionate and very thought-provoking story. I found myself comparing my life to the life of living in a slum with garbage and sewage lingering outside a shabby shack. A life so vulnerable, dehumanizing and frightening. A little part of me tries to compensate by thinking when one knows nothing else would one really feel this life was so wrong. There are many lessons and symbolism presented throughout this story. However in the end, this is a love story and the main aspect granted is that even through tragedy, war and strife, true love is not by chance, but by destiny.