Kikiola Banjo is a young British-Nigerian woman in this New Adult tale. HONEY & SPICE is set in a British university, but blink and you’ll miss that part, and I felt it was much more like the American colleges and Nigerian-American fiction I’ve been reading. The exception is that we only see two cultures in the college, whereas an American tale would certainly have a few Latino or Latina students. But I digress.
Malakai Korede is a newly arrived student who is needlessly insulted on the air by Kiki’s campus radio show, Brown Sugar. This is particularly listened to by the African-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University. They have a nickname, Blackwellians. As this talk is not a good look for the show presenter, and she’s hoping to gain extra credit towards a media internship at another college in New York, Kiki has to apologise and be nice to the handsome, gentlemanly, new Blackwellian Malakai. She’s advised to make it look like they start a relationship, although she’s famed for not dating. Oh, she hangs out with boys sometimes, but nothing too deep.
The young lady runs away with her chat a lot, obsesses about trifles and admits that a good Nigerian daughter should be studying law. But she is loyal to her friends, and to her radio show. The campus has some tensions going on, but these are largely in the background as Kiki glares at Malakai and then decides she might like him after all, then finds him annoying, and so on. Another character, Adwoa Baker, is the actual heroine of the story, Kiki just gives her a platform.
This tale won’t suit everyone, but some will be giggling and applauding. The AfroWinter Ball and parties display some of the lively social activities at the college. Author Bolu Babalola might be recreating some of her student days for us. She might have wished to call the book Brown Sugar, but that’s probably a popular title for books already, so HONEY & SPICE gets the pick.
Introducing internationally bestselling author Bolu Babalola’s dazzling debut novel, full of passion, humor, and heart, that centers on a young Black British woman who has no interest in love and unexpectedly finds herself caught up in a fake relationship with the man she warned her girls about
Sweet like plantain, hot like pepper. They taste the best when together...
Sharp-tongued (and secretly soft-hearted) Kiki Banjo has just made a huge mistake. As an expert in relationship-evasion and the host of the popular student radio show Brown Sugar, she’s made it her mission to make sure the women of the African-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University do not fall into the mess of “situationships”, players, and heartbreak. But when the Queen of the Unbothered kisses Malakai Korede, the guy she just publicly denounced as “The Wastemen of Whitewell,” in front of every Blackwellian on campus, she finds her show on the brink.
They’re soon embroiled in a fake relationship to try and salvage their reputations and save their futures. Kiki has never surrendered her heart before, and a player like Malakai won’t be the one to change that, no matter how charming he is or how electric their connection feels. But surprisingly entertaining study sessions and intimate, late-night talks at old-fashioned diners force Kiki to look beyond her own presumptions. Is she ready to open herself up to something deeper?
A gloriously funny and sparkling debut novel, Honey and Spice is full of delicious tension and romantic intrigue that will make you weak at the knees.
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