Hezekiah. Sunshines Urban Novels. 2025. 388 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.]
What started as a check-in on his employee turned into a life-altering meeting for Hezekiah Strong. Almost immediately after meeting Willow, he’s convinced that his assistant’s daughter is the only woman who can match his energy as a life partner, whether she sees it or not.
What’s immediately apparent is that Hezekiah isn’t someone used to negotiating. He sets the agenda and others around him fall in line, including his younger brother Nazir. Willow is just as headstrong as Hezekiah, and is wary of his attempts to assert his will on her life and those close to her. The rest of the book is a battle of wills as the two navigate building a life where they can coexist.
I found the plot interesting enough in the beginning of the book. The background on Hezekiah and Nazir’s difficult upbringing coupled with his fiery introduction to Willow sets the book off on a tense, but engaging start. Unfortunately, the rest of the book vascillated between underdeveloped plot lines with too much detail and those that had too much focus with little depth. About 40 percent in, I found the book dragged a bit and could have actually been shorter with just as much of an impact.
Hezekiah and Willow each have considerable trauma from their childhoods that take center stage in their relationship. Despite the storyline following their efforts toward growth, I didn’t find the characters to be well-developed. Their traumas were stark — child abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, parental loss, etc. It’s heavy and it shows in how Hezekiah and Willow interact with everyone in their lives. And while they both acknowledged the need to “do the work” of getting better, that work still felt glossed over, supericial, or lacked detail to make the plot point more meaningful.
While the listed genre is urban fiction, it leans far enough into dark romance that I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t specifically seek out stories involving control, captivity, abuse, and other types of trauma. I think if I’d known that more clearly before reading I might have passed on this altogether.
Overall, Hezekiah is about 3 starts for me. It had the makings of an compelling story and interesting relationship. It’s not my cup of tea, but the story itself is interesting and kept me reading.
No Comments