Honey & Spice

Written By Linda Malek

Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola

Reviewed by Linda
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Thank you to @headlinebooks for this copy!

For all the fake dating/frenemies to lovers fans, this is for you! This is a carefully crafted web of politics, love and drama at Whitewell University of Southern England.

The big name on campus and dating expert, Kiki Banjo, runs a thriving radio show Brown Sugar for the African and Caribbean Blackwellians that attend the university. Above all the cliques and drama, Kiki is the queen 🐝 who is revered for her intellect, quick wit but measured wisdom until it comes to her own love life which needs some work. That is, until she meets the “Wasteman of Whitewell” and newbie Malakai Korede. In an effort to ward her listeners away from Malakai, a page turning rivalry with him ensues.

Both Kiki and Malakai are complex, flawed but equally likeable. The author gives us a backstory for each character (which I love). For Kiki in particular, the author explores the pressures of dealing with a sick parent as a young child and in Malakai’s case, going against his parent’s career aspirations for him. As the story progresses, the initial aloofness and naivety of youth develops into personal maturity.

The author does really well to portray life at uni as an early tween where everything is about you, your social calendar and whether you get on with your personal tutor or not (I definitely felt my age reading this book and at times wondered whether I’d outgrown this sort of story). It’s also great to read a book centred around the ACS, where the students are unapologetically in touch with their cultures and traditions - all of the supporting characters are well described and despite the story being a romantic one, friendships are prominent, important and fully fleshed out too - Kiki’s BFF, Aminah was a personal favourite of mine. I got a little lost in the dialogue at times but I could easily visualise this being adapted into a series, one which I think we’d all enjoy!

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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