Book Review: Who's Loving You, Sareeta Domingo

Who’s Loving You: Love Stories by Women of Colour, Ed. by Sareeta Domingo

Read: 22/07 - 23/08/23

My rating: 3 /5 stars

Book of 2023: 8

Who’s Loving You is a celebration of love in all its guises by women of colour, with ten original stories from bold new voices, literary prize-winners and national treasures. 

Two souls come together and are torn apart, lifetime after lifetime. A seed of hope begins to grow out of the ashes of grief, heartbreak and loss. Romance sparks in the most unexpected of places. And an unbreakable bond is formed that transcends countries, continents and even the boundaries of time…

In this extraordinary collection, ten writers explore the full spectrum of love in all its messy, joyful, agonising and exhilarating forms.  Celebrating and centering the romance, passion and desire of women of colour, these stories burn with an intensity and longing that lingers long after the final page. 

This is a super sweet adventure to read. It took me a while because it’s hard to feel the pull to read if you put the book down in between stories. Each tale was beautifully written, and carefully crafted to capture the story within. I felt satisfied with each one, not feeling ready to move on too early and not left wanting more once it was over. 

The stories are a cocktail of wholesome that I relished. I needed this book when I did. Missed connections, miscommunications, misunderstandings, all come together in a bottle of love and sweetness and a heavy helping of hope. It was beautiful. 

Each story has its own voice booming deeply from between the words, and they each feel different both in content and in context which is really special. 

I underlined many lines but I am currently sick recovering from an infection (a hospital trip and 3rd time’s the charm!) so I don’t have the energy to type them all out here. Instead, I leave you with a line from the introduction by Sareeta Domingo:

‘We understand love and desire, whether we’ve actually experienced it or not. The feeling of craving it, of being in it, of having lost it; these feelings are inherent to our humanity. 

Love is inside us - all of us.’ (3)