Well, bookworms, it’s Monday. Luckily, I’m bringing you guys a book review to brighten up the beginning of a new week!
I’m thrilled to finally be brining you guys my thoughts on this one. It was a book I finished last week, but I needed time to savor the words. Yes, I love majority of my books, but I can count on one hand the books, authors, and series that have touched my soul to a point that I’m left feeling utterly enchanted and transported thanks to their story and their words. These are also the same tales and writers who make me want to get back to writing, as well. Fingers crossed I’ll get back to my own stories one of these days.
Anyway, tonight I’m talking about Mists of the Serengeti by the exceedingly talented Leylah Attar. I discovered this book during a scroll through Instagram one day and I added it to my TBR list. However, I didn’t read it right away, but I saw my friends posting about it more and more and just gushing over how magical this book was. Needless to say, I rearranged my reading schedule and bumped it right to the top of my list, and I have to say, it’s the best decision I made in awhile.
Mists was the first book of Leylah’s I’ve read, but after my experience and time in Africa with Jack and Rodel, I’ll be adding everything Leylah’s ever written to my TBR. I’m absolutely fan-girling but I won’t apologize. Ugh, I’m obsessed to the point of envious. This gal can write a damn book!
“Once in Africa, I kissed a king…”
Rodel and Jack make an unlikely pair when they partner up to go clear across the Serengeti on a special mission to help children with a price on their head. It sounds simple enough, but as I turned the pages, the layers make themselves known.
Jack Warden is a coffee farmer who is dealing with a bitter divorce and a tragic loss. He’s built his walls up so high, not even his beloved Goma can get through to his broken heart.
Rodel Emerson just signed the papers on her dream cottage in England and has the ideal job as a teacher. It’s when she receives urgent news regarding her nomad of a sister, that her world changes forever.
When Rodel encounters her sister’s world, she can’t help but be led by her heart. A creature of habit, she is completely out of her comfort zone in the wilds of Africa, rescuing albino children from the magic and powers that some villages believe they possess in their blood. When the guide she’s looking for mysteriously disappears, she finds herself in the care of one Jack Warden, and his cold, dead heart. He begrudgingly agrees to accompany her on her mission, and finds himself coming alive once again after so much heartbreak.
Jack and Rodel are very aware of their chemistry and how attracted they are to one another, but for the sake of saving their own hearts, they refuse to give into anything that so much as hints past a friendship. Together, they are able to make the journey through the land at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, while also allowing each other to open up and face their demons once and for all.
They’re risking their lives to save the children they’ve promised to save, but they wind up saving each other as well, and wind up giving into their hearts’ desires. Once they’ve spent a blissful night under the African stars, everything changes.
They’re bound by tragedy, and the fate of one unfortunate afternoon. Jack has his coffee farm in Tanzania while Rodel has her quaint cottage in the English countryside. They’re from two different worlds and neither of them can seem to promise one another more than the little bit of time they have left together with the kids they’re saving. Do they give up on the one happiness they’ve found in one another, or suffer yet another loss forever?
I know stories are meant to transport us, but Serengeti truly did. It stole me away to a place I’ve never been before, and I’m euphoric that I got to spend my adventure with Jack and Rodel. While it was melancholy at points, it was also a stunning trip. I got to experience off-roading in an old Rover, sleeping under the stars in the plains of Africa, witnessing majestic animals in their kingdom, and learning about the cultures of the remote villages that Jack and Rodel took me to on their rescue mission.
My heart broke for both of them over and over, but I wouldn’t change a single moment of my time with them because it was a once in a lifetime trip. I can’t help but swoon over stories like this one because while there is despair, danger, and death, there is also beauty that stems from such tragedy and becomes something other-worldly that we could only wish to experience with another soul.
I can’t even properly put into words what this story did to me and how much it moved me. It was absolutely gorgeous and I can’t recommend it enough. Stop what you’re doing right now and get your hands on this book. You won’t regret a moment of the wonders Africa holds for you!
As for me, This may be one of my top reads for 2017. It’s been a week since I left this pair, and I’m still over the moon (while also experiencing withdrawal) from the Mists of the Serengeti…
My Final Rating: five out of five stars
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