Ayo Deforge’s romantic suspense novel Under the Rain arrives with a striking cover designed by Korede Alonge, inviting readers into a story about love that refuses to fade, even when the odds seem insurmountable.

The cover hints at the emotional depth of a narrative centered on Bolaji and Shola, two souls whose connection begins in youth and evolves through adolescence. As they navigate family challenges and illness together, their friendship transforms into something deeper during their university years. But when genetic reality sets in (both are sickle cell trait carriers) their dreams collide with an impossible choice.

While Bolaji would sacrifice parenthood to preserve their relationship, Shola cannot. She leaves for America, eventually marrying, while Bolaji channels his heartbreak into medicine, building a practice and starting a family of his own. Yet fate has other plans when he returns to his childhood neighborhood and discovers Shola’s family home is on the market.

What follows is a reunion that forces both characters to revisit the painful decision that once separated them. Under the Rain asks whether love can truly overcome time, regret, and the weight of choices made long ago.

Deforge, who resides in southern France, brings a deeply personal lens to themes of grief and emotional resilience. Born in Lagos in 1982, she turned to poetry at thirteen as a means of processing loss. After studying French at Lagos State University, she relocated to France in 2012, continuing to write fiction and nonfiction that examines how grief shapes lives.

Her debut novel TEARLESS (2023) received recognition as a shortlisted work for both the Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Fiction and the Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction in 2024. She honed her craft at Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s inaugural Creative Writing Workshop in Lagos in 2007. Her work has appeared in Litro Magazine, Brittle Paper, Kalahari Review, JAY Lit, Lucy Writers Platform, and beyond.

Under the Rain promises to deliver the emotional complexity and authentic storytelling that readers have come to expect from Deforge’s work.

The novel is available for purchase at Witsprouts.