[BOOK REVIEW] Aristocrat Wives

There are two kinds of secrets.

There are secrets that bubble up joyfully within us. Good news secrets that you can’t wait to share with the world. Secrets like pregnancy news, the gender of your baby, an engagement ring sitting in your sock drawer, a new business project…the list of good news secrets are endless. These secrets hold joy.

And then there are those secrets that produce alien emotions that leave you paranoid.

These are the secrets you hold in but desperately want to release. Holding them in eats deep into your essence, but you can’t let them into the world, because they did wreak havoc like only a raging hurricane could. So you hold them in even as they destroy any kind of semblance to humanity that you have. These secrets hold pain.

Then one day, you let them loose whether by choice or an act of God, and what it means to exist changes. You start to see again and the world starts to truly see you!

Releasing these secrets provide new perspectives on comments made years ago, and facial expressions now long-buried behind wrinkles. They bring about an understanding of old family traditions that appeared strange but also seem normal.

You find both release and perspective.

This is the world of Aristocrat Wives where women hold the latter kind of secrets. The secret of pain!

Karen, born into old Nigerian money, and also married into one. Everything looks put together but perfection is definitely a myth.

Lola started out with love and had big dreams for the future. Then the money came and with it came the storm. The rain started out in trickles and drizzles then it came in gushes and droves. Just like her husband’s bank account.

And then there is Chika, a returnee to the Nigerian soil from London, with dreams of owning both the media world and her love life. Her faith is her anchor alongside a secret she hopes would go away.

These are the women of Aristocrat Wives!

Born into money. Grew into money. Hustled into money.

Blended into their secret lives are money, fame. power and the cultural traditions that enrich us, enslave us, and snatches a woman’s right to…